Additive of the Week - Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil

A significant ingredient in the Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches at Sea Cliff School

The Center for Science in the Public Interest recommends that people avoid partially and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils.

The peanut butter in the PB&J sandwich offered daily at our school includes "hydrogenated vegetable oil and/or partially hydrogenated palm oil".

Partially hydrogenated oils are a source of trans fat which promotes heart disease. If the oil is fully hydrogenated, it does not have trans fat but also lacks any polyunsaturated fats. Palm oil itself is high in saturated fats (which, btw, are not good for you) and the farming of it is bad for the environment, too. And, yes, for those of you wondering, the peanut butter is a gift of the USDA and our government.

For more information on this and other unsafe additives, please visit http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

Sara

Welcome Jamie Oliver Fans!

If you've just found this blog through Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution email, welcome!

All through May and June, we've been blogging about what's actually IN our school's lunches based on the ingredient and nutrition labels, so scroll back and take a look.

And please post a comment here to say, "Hi" and let us know you've dropped by. We'd love to hear from everyone and particularly those of you working to change school lunch here on Long Island.

Thanks to Denise for emailing the good folks at Jamie Oliver's!

Sara

Opportunities for Activism

If you haven't called Congressman Peter King's office yet to ask for the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, please do. In addition to our requests listed on 6/14, you can also ask for more summer feeding programs.

But there's more!

This week, I received two emails from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Here's the first:

***The time to act is now! Contact your state legislators and urge them to include a sugar-sweetened-beverage tax in this year’s budget.

This Monday, Governor Patterson will send another budget proposal to the New York legislature that if passed, would close the remaining $2-billion to 3-billion deficit. This proposal includes the sugar-sweetened beverage tax. Send an email to your legislators NOW and let them know you support the proposal.***

Use this link to send an email to combat childhood obesity:
https://secure2.convio.net/cspi/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1005

Here's the second:

*** Today, CSPI urged McDonald’s to stop undermining parents and deceiving children with cheap toys that accompany unhealthy kids’ meals. We filed a notice of intent to sue the fast-food chain if they didn’t

"McDonald’s is the stranger in the playground handing out candy to children,” said CSPI litigation director Stephen Gardner.

McDonald’s is currently offering children’s toys related to Dreamworks’ latest Shrek movie. While Shrek may appear on packaging for low-fat milk and Apple Dippers, when children or parents order Happy Meals they are given French fries 93 percent of the time, and offered soda first 78% of the time.

Please urge McDonald’s to stop marketing junk food to children! Let them know that marketing unhealthy food to kids using toys is deceptive and undermines parents' efforts to raise healthy kids!***

Copy this link to send an email:
https://secure2.convio.net/cspi/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1001&JServSessionIdr004=i43ywo6ig2.app246b

To sign up for your email alerts or to read more about nutrition and the marketing of junk food to children, visit their site at www.cspinet.org

Finally, Denise sent in this link that's both fun AND will hopefully help improve school lunch. Apparently, for every piece of spam you forward to restaurant chain Chipotle, they will make a donation to The Lunch Box - an organization associated with Chef Ann Cooper of Berkeley-fame working to improve school lunch. A kind of send us your junk mail to get rid of junk food play. Get the details at: http://mashable.com/2010/06/25/chipotle-no-junk/

Sara

School (Lunch) Is Out --

Weekend Reading - School Lunch and Childhood Hunger

When school lets out for the summer, thousands of kids in this country lose the free lunch they depend on every day. The school lunch program feeds 31 million kids nationally - 62% of whom are eligible for free or reduced price meals.

There are some summer feeding programs to close this gap but not enough - just 34 summer feeding sites for every 100 school lunch programs. American Progress has a great article with all the details here:www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/06/summer_hunger.html

If you're not convinced of yet that childhood hunger exists in American, you can read the fact sheet at Feeding American at http://feedingamerica.org/faces-of-hunger/hunger-101/child-hunger-facts.aspx

Fortunately, our food bank on Long Island IS running a summer feeding program this summer and you can help. Just go to www.islandharvest.org/page.aspx?id=109&name=Summer%20Food%20Program

And if you're looking for more ways to help, Michelle Obama's Let's Move site has a list: www.letsmove.gov/blog/united_we_serve.html

Maybe We Could Use a Chef

So, last night the Top Chefs did get to cheat - they had about $2.60 per meal for food to make a healthy school lunch. There was a vague reference to the fact that schools did have overhead expenses but apparently a realistic school lunch that costs only a $1 in food (like ours) doesn't make for exciting TV. And they complained about the $2.60 even so.

But in other ways, they faced some of the same constraints real schools do. They had very little time to prepare the meal, very little space to do it in, and they had to feed normally picky kids (caught on tape calling a few items 'nasty'). One chef was criticized for the two pounds of sugar in her strawberry-banana dessert for 50 kids -- but really, we're close to that in the frozen strawberries we get from the government. Another was in trouble for cooking the chicken in sherry -- and frankly that did strike me as, well, odd. There was a strange squabble over considering a tomato a vegetable instead of a fruit. Our lunch would be happy to see the fresh tomato dish either way. So, maybe the money wasn't the biggest cheat. It might have been the fact that they were not required to cook with the canned commodity products we have to use to make ends meet which is kind of the same as the money problem.

It is hard to make a healthy lunch with very little money, time or equipment (although that foam gun they had went a long way to making some very appealing food.) I think a lot of the districts that have made notable strides in improving their lunches did so with the help of chefs - notably, Berkeley and a number of schools in the film Two Angry Moms. It makes some sense that knowing not only how to cook but how to improvise with the fresh foods available in an affordable way from week to week would be an advantage.

If you want to imagine what school lunch might look like one day given a lot of creativity, take a look at the meals shown here from last night's show:
www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-7/photos/rate-the-plate/outside-the-lunchbox

For the recipes, use this address - www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/search?q=foodies/recipes/search&st=%22top+chef+season+7%22&cost=&skl=&tot=&ftr=1&page=1 - and look for Season 7, Episode 2, Elimination Challenge recipes.

Then, call Congress and ask for at least a little more money for food, training and equipment when they reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act. (See 6/14 post for details.)

Sara

Top Chefs Cheat Their Way through School Lunch Tomorrow Night?

Ok, all you Jamie Oliver fans, 'reality' TV is taking another shot at school lunch.

Tomorrow night at 9pm on Bravo, Top Chefs - apparently in DC - will prepare a school lunch while working with Sam Kass, chef at the White House and presumably on board with Michelle Obama's efforts to reduce childhood obesity. Their challenge? Make lunch with just $2.68 per meal -- the amount of the federal reimbursement for a child receiving a free school lunch. And it is a challenge. First of all, at our school, most kids pay just $2.25 with only a $.25 federal reimbursement -- plus commodity foods. Second, the $2.68 has to pay the whole bill for running a school lunch room include all overhead - salaries, health care, equipment, food - everything. In most schools and ours is no exception, you have less than $1 to spend on food. Try making a hot, healthy meal with that.

Read this post at BetterDCSchoolFood for more details:
www.betterdcschoolfood.blogspot.com/2010/06/top-chef-flunks-school-food-math.html

Then, call Congress and tell them to provide more money for school lunch.

Enjoy the show,
Sara

What's in Tuesday's Lunch - 6/22

It's the last day of school lunch for this year. The menu lists "Cook's Surprise" so I called the food services office to ask what they would be serving at Sea Cliff. I have to say that every time I've called the office, they have been very responsive and helpful, regardless of the question or the issue. They are clearing out the freezers for the year so tomorrow (literally - that's what they said), you can choose from any of the following entrees:

Applegate Hot Dogs
Mozzarella Sticks
Chicken Nuggets
Sliders

They did not know which sides would be served.

Apart from the Applegate hot dogs, the list is a real who's who of processed commodity foods. So, just for old times sake, I'll recount the ingredients for you.

The national school lunch program lets us give our bulk USDA commodity mozzarella cheese to a processor (in this case, Farm Rich) who we then pay to turn it into mozzarella sticks. This is fried cheese with 280 mg of sodium and 9g of fat (3.5g saturated fat). The sauce provides an extra wallop of salt (870 mg in a 1/2 cup - I'm sure they eat less than that much but still.) Here are the ingredients: Low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized part skim milk, salt, enzymes), bleached white flour, enriched bleached wheat flour (flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), soybean oil, enriched yellow corn flour (corn flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), food starch-modified, contains % or less of the following: salt, onion powder, wheat starch, natural butter flavor, whey, sugar, egg, whey protein concentrate, calcium caseinate, sodium aluminum phosphate, soy lecithin, extractives of paprika, dextrose, nonfat dried milk, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate), sodium alginate, soy flour, oleoresin paprika, maltodextrin, artificial flavor, tocopherols, natural flavor, spices, methylcellulose, dehydrated parsley, garlic powder, monoglycerides, triglycerides, yeast, sodium ascorbate, EDTA (as a preservative), calcium propionate (as a preservative), caramel color.

The chicken nuggets do have some whole grain in the breading -- but they are fried Tyson nuggets with a lot of additives. Like the sticks, they arrive frozen and are reheated. The chicken is USDA commodity chicken. They have 490 mg of sodium and9g of fat of which 1/5g is saturated. Here are the ingredients: chicken, water, textured soy protein concentrate, isolated soy protein with less than 2% soy lecithin, seasoning (corn syrup solids, brown sugar, dextrose, salt, vinegar powder (maltodextrin, modified corn starch, dried vinegar), garlic powder, onion powder, chicken type flavor (hydrolyzed corn gluten, autolyzed yeast extract, sunflower oil, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate)), sodium acid pryophospate. Breaded with: whole wheat flour, enriched bleached wheat flour (enriched with niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, modified wheat starch, salt, soybean oil, spice, yellow corn flour, paprika, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), garlic powder, natural flavor, extractives of turmeric, fumaric acid. Breading set in vegetable oil.

These used to be described as "all beef" sliders - but they are not. Buns are not whole wheat - 279 mg of sodium, and they do contain high fructose corn syrup. The Beef Patties(13g of fat) are a processed food made from USDA commodity beef. Here are the ingredients: Beef, water, textured vegetable protein (soy, flour, zinc oxide, niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, copper gluconate, vitamin A palmitate, calcium pantothenate, thiamin mononitrate (B1), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), riboflavin (B2), cyanocobalamin (B12)). Arrives frozen.

The hot dogs are from Applegate Farms. The ingredients are just: beef, water, sea salt, less than 2% of the following: celery juice, sodium lactate (from beets), lactic acid starter culture (not from milk), onion powder, spices, garlic powder, paprika. They have 6g of fat(2.5g saturated) and 380 mg of sodium. They are dairy-, casein- and gluten-free.

And that's the last lunch of the year. We hope it's a final good-bye to highly processed USDA commodity foods and have a lot of reason to hope that it is. The administration has voiced a commitment to getting rid of the worst of these foods for next year and has hired a consultant to help put these and other changes in places thanks in part to the commitment of the parents on the nutrition committee. If you'd like to read a recap of all we've done this year, you can see our guest post at http://betterdcschoolfood.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-we-are-changing-food-at-our-school.html.

You may be wondering what will happen to the blog with no lunch to report on -- but don't despair, we'll be here for you all summer. We have several interesting guest blogs scheduled, lots of food news and ideas, camp lunch talk, and most importantly, the district will be working on revamping the menus for next fall with the involvement of the nutrition committee. We should also get an outside evaluation of our current lunch program.

Feel free to post a comment on any topics you'd be interested in.

Sara

What's in Monday's Lunch - 6/21

Mondays are Pizza Day . . .
. . . the last pizza day of the year!

Cheese Pizza Slice
Bagel with butter, American or cream cheese
Tuna Salad Plate/Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Cucumber slices
Peaches
Sliced Apples w/ cinnamon

We give some of our USDA commodity mozzarella cheese to Nardone Bros Baking in this instance and they turn it into a frozen pizza that we reheat at the school. The label indicates 540mg of sodium and 12g of fat. The list of ingredients is not that extensive -- if this is the same cheese pizza as earlier in the year - and can be seen at http://www.northshore.k12.ny.us/Foodserviceinfo/nutritionlabels.htm. No whole grain in the crust.

We haven't reviewed the PB&J in more than a week so here's a re-cap: The peanut butter is another free commodity - the ingredients are peanuts, dextrose, hydrogenated vegetable oil and/or partially hydrogenated palm oil, salt, and molasses. The jelly is "grape" with this ingredient listing: corn syrup (1st ingredient), grape juice (water and grape juice concentrate), fruit pectin, citric acid and sodium citrate.

Cucumber and apple slices sound good - fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. Or, you can have the peaches with 16g of sugar from the added sugar and corn syrup. The choice is yours.

So, keep your fingers crossed -- we're working with the administration to try to bring fresh, local, healthier pizza to school next Fall. We'll keep you posted. I wouldn't mind saying good-bye to those peaches, either.

Sara

Weekend Reading, Watching -- and Fun

Reading

There was a great article on how small changes in presentation can help kids make much healthier choices in the school cafeteria. Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/08/AR2010060800999.html

If you like the article, you might want to read Nudge by Cass Sunstein who's referenced.

The Child Nutrition Act re-authorization has been introduced in the House. They've increased their request for additional funding to $800 million (over the Senate's $500 million but less than the Obama Administration's request for $1 billion - still small change over 30 million students.) This article suggests we fund healthier meals by de-funding the agriculture subsidies that got us here in the first place: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/10/MNC51DT82N.DTL

Watching

Yes - that's right - there's movement on the reauthorization of the law that runs the school lunch program. Here's where the watching comes in. If you've never called Congress before, watch this video and you'll see just how simple it is - then check our 6/14 post for more details: www.takepart.com/news/2010/06/11/how-to-call-your-congress-member

Fun

Now, IF you've made your call to Congress, then you might be interested in visiting the New York Botancial Gardens this weekend for the start of their Edible Garden program - "Growing and Preparing Good Food." This weekend is the Get out and Grill Festival featuring chefs, speakers, tastings and family activities. Visit www.nybg.org for all the detials and tickets.

Sara

What's in Friday's Lunch - 6/18

The year is winding down, and we're clearing the chicken nuggets out of the freezer --

Chicken Nuggets
Bagel w/ Butter, American or Cream Cheese
Tuna Salad Plate / Sandwich (see 6/10 post for 6/11 lunch)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (see 6/13 post for 6/14 lunch)

Sides:
Celery, Pepper and Carrot Sticks
Whole Wheat Bread
Chilled Applesauce

The chicken nuggets do have some whole grain in the breading -- but they are fried Tyson nuggets with a lot of additives. The chicken is USDA commodity chicken.

Here are the ingredients: chicken, water, textured soy protein concentrate, isolated soy protein with less than 2% soy lecithin, seasoning (corn syrup solids, brown sugar, dextrose, salt, vinegar powder (maltodextrin, modified corn starch, dried vinegar), garlic powder, onion powder, chicken type flavor (hydrolyzed corn gluten, autolyzed yeast extract, sunflower oil, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate)), sodium acid pryophospate. Breaded with: whole wheat flour, enriched bleached wheat flour (enriched with niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, modified wheat starch, salt, soybean oil, spice, yellow corn flour, paprika, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), garlic powder, natural flavor, extractives of turmeric, fumaric acid. Breading set in vegetable oil.

The celery, pepper and carrot sticks are a great, fresh, raw choice. The USDA believes you need bread with breaded nuggets - it is whole wheat but contains high fructose corn syrup. The chilled applesauce probably contains corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and erythorbic acid - 18g of sugar. The district would like to get unsweetened but this is the last label we have.

This is one of those crazy meals where apart from the fresh vegetable sticks, everything has some kind of corn product in it. Go watch the movie King Corn this weekend for the whole story there.

Sara

Did you miss seeing Two Angry Moms?

Here's another chance - tonight at the Huntington Cinema Arts Theater -- plus, meet Author Janet Poppendieck who just published a terrific book on the school lunch program.

Lets Eat! Films on Food: Co-Presented by Slow Food Huntington
TWO ANGRY MOMS

Thursday, June 17 at 7:30pm
Guest Speaker: Author Jan Poppendieck
Free for All: Fixing School Meals in America
Members $9 • Public $13
Includes Book Signing & Reception
Active Membership Will Be Checked


Two Angry Moms is a documentary that asks the question: What happens when fed-up moms try to change school food? There are nearly seventy-three million school-aged children in America. The Centers for Disease Control predict that these children will be the first generation in history to live shorter lives than those of their parents. Two Angry Moms takes a look at the school food programs responsible for a large portion of each child’s daily meals and explores the roles the federal government, corporate interest, school administration and parents play in the feeding of our country’s school kids. The film offers successful and often inspirational examples of how to improve school food programs and make a difference in both the health of each child and the long-term health of the country.

USA, 2007, 86 min. • Director: Amy Kalafa

What's in Thursday's Lunch - 6/17

It's Oswald Family Chili Day!

Oswald Family Turkey Chili (below)
Bagel w/ Butter, American or Cream Cheese
Sliced Turkey Salad/Sandwich (below)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (see 6/13 post for 6/14 lunch)

Sides:
Steamed Brown Rice
Carrots
Fresh Orange Smiles

It's Back! The winner of or chili cook off event is back on Thursday. Don't miss the kid-tested and approved turkey chili. Here's the recipe:

The Oswald Chili
3lbs ground turkey
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 bell pepper (not green)
1 Diced Jalapeno pepper
1 small can paste
2 28oz puree tomato
1 28oz diced tomato
2 2lbs kidney beans
2 T cumin
2 T chili powder
Brown turkey and set aside
Saute onion and garlic and bell pepper until soft
Add Paste and cook for 5 min.
Add all canned tomato, Jalapeno pepper, spices and turkey
Cook together
Add beans cook till tender

The turkey sandwich is a cold entree option (assuming you like turkey). The sliced turkey is a commodity provided by the government that we pay a manufacturer to process. The label on our turkey breast lists the following ingredients: turkey breast meat, turkey broth, salt, modified food starch, sugar, sodium phosphates, flavoring.

Steamed brown rice is good for you! In fact a new study is out linking brown rice to a reduction in risk for type 2 diabetes - read more at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/eating-brown-rice-to-cut-diabetes-risk/.

The carrots are a USDA commodity. They are boiled in the can at a processor and contain salt and calcium chloride - 370 mg of salt.

Fresh oranges are good for you.

Sara

What's in Wednesday's Lunch - 6/16

Your choices are:

Macaroni and Cheese
Bagel w/ Butter, American or Cream Cheese
Ham and Cheese Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Salad
French Bread
Apricot Cups

The Mac n Cheese is made with whole grain noodles, USDA cheese and olive oil instead of butter -- the result of recent improvements. The garden salad does have fresh vegetables and the bread is whole grain (although with the noodles it's doubling the starch.)

If you're interested in the Ham and Cheese Sandwich which we haven't discussed in a couple of weeks, they use commodity ham and American cheese. The ham has 600 mg of salt, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrate.

For the apricots, we have a USDA fact sheet rather than a label. It says they are frozen and packed in syrup with 30g of carbohydrates.

Sara

District Nutrition Committee Meeting Update - New Consultant Hired

This morning, we attended the district's monthly nutrition committee meeting where Olivia Buatsi introduced us to Julia Van Loon, a consultant the district has hired. Julia previously worked on improving Port Washington's menus (see them at http://www.portnet.k12.ny.us/18591021816343220/FileLib/browse.asp?A=374&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=56449) and is currently conducting an evaluation of our school lunch program. We're looking forward to the possibility that Julia may also help re-vamp our school's menu for this fall with healthy foods that kids can truly enjoy. Stay tuned for more news.

Sara

Call Congress NOW - Help Make Lunch Healthier!

Here's the information you need from the Healthy Schools Campaign:

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Child Nutrition is moving: now is the time to speak up for healthy school food! The Child Nutrition Act, the legislation that determines school food policy and resources, will be introduced in the House of Representatives at any moment.

To call the capitol switchboard, dial 1-800-815-3740, ask for your representative in the US House***, and ask that the reauthorization include:

- Increased funding for the school meal program, at minimum the $1 billion per year for 10 years that President Obama has proposed.

- Increased quality of meals served in the school meal program; including less use of highly processed foods which are high in fat and sodium, increased fresh and high quality fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, and reduced overall sodium content.

- Strengthened nutrition standards for school meal programs and competitive foods.
At least $50 million mandatory funding for Farm to School programs.

As the Child Nutrition Act is reauthorized once every five years, this is a critical opportunity to shape the future of school food, particularly in light of First Lady Michelle Obama's call to end childhood obesity in a generation.

We need your help to ensure that a well-funded reauthorization is passed this year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

***Call our Congressman Peter King directly at 202-225-7896

You can also send an email through their website at http://hsc.e-actionmax.com/showalert.asp?aaid=507.

Use the comment section to let others know what response you get from Congressman King.

Sara

Guest Blogger Ed Bruske -- Activist from Better DC School Food

Ed Bruske is a journalist, chef and gardener turned activist on a mission to improve the school food in Washington, DC and elsewhere. You can read his terrific commentary at www.BetterDCSchoolFood.blogspot.com and www.theslowcook.com/.

A Tale of Two Lunches . . . and a Call to Action

by Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

One school serves chicken nuggets, frozen in a distant factory and re-heated for a few minutes in the oven. Another school prepares chicken on the bone, brined and roasted from its raw state in an eight-day process. One school feeds five-year-olds up to 15 teaspoons of sugar in the morning: Apple Jacks cereal, strawberry milk, orange juice, Pop-Tarts, Giant Goldfish Grahams. Another makes breakfast more like camping out: a simple packet of Nature’s Path Oaty Bites, an apple, a container of plain milk.

Believe it or not, these two public schools exist in the same country, even though their methods of feeding children seem worlds apart. The school that serves industrially-processed chicken nuggets and sugar for breakfast happens to be the elementary school my 10-year-old daughter attends here in the District of Columbia. The other school with the brined chicken and organic morning meal is located in Berkeley, CA, where I spent a week as a “lunch lady” to see how the other half lives.

Until a few months ago, I was just a former newspaper reporter who liked to compost and grow his family’s food in an urban kitchen garden about a mile from the White House. I started a blog—The Slow Cook--to record my gardening adventures, never suspecting I would get caught up in the war over school food as an investigative journalist.

One day I was sitting in a meeting with the principal and assistant principal at my daughter’s school, talking about building a garden there, when someone mentioned that the newly-renovated school building had a commercial-grade kitchen where meals were being “fresh cooked.”

To see food being cooked from scratch at school: That, I thought, would make a great story for my blog. I got permission to observe for a week. What I saw took my breath away, but not in a good way. “Fresh cooked,” it turned out, meant that instead of importing finished meals from a suburban factory, D.C. schools now were simply re-heating processed foods that arrived frozen from all over the country.

Would you believe “scrambled eggs” that have been pre-cooked with a list of additives in Minnesota, frozen, then re-heated in a steamer? The kitchen manager told me she liked to stir shredded cheddar cheese into the eggs to add flavor. Otherwise, there wasn’t much flavor to speak of.

I quickly learned that minimal skill or equipment is needed to feed 300 kids at school every day. The most important tool in school kitchens these days is a box cutter, to open all those cardboard containers the frozen meal components arrive in every week. That’s the “fresh cooked” regime according to the D.C. Public Schools’ contracted food provider, Chartwells.

Apparently, this was the first time a journalist had spent significant time in a modern school kitchen because the series of blog posts I wrote created something of a sensation. I was hooked as well. After my week in the kitchen, I started showing up in the cafeteria every day with my camera to document what the kids were eating. Sometimes my blood boiled, as when I saw kids exiting the food line with a lunch consisting of re-heated potato wedges, a bag of Sun Chips and strawberry milk.

Would you be surprised to learn that under the U.S. Department of Agriculture rules that govern the federally-subsidized school meals program this lunch is perfectly legal? Kids are only required to select three of five offered items to constitute a “meal.” The potato wedges qualify as a vegetable, the Sun Chips as a grain and the milk—well, milk is its own category. It’s always offered.

Readers were so scandalized by what I was writing about school meals in the nation’s capital—practically within view of the White House where Michelle Obama had launched her anti-obesity campaign--they begged me to find a school district that was serving kids real food. Ann Cooper, the famed “renegade lunch lady,” set me up with a week in the central school kitchen in Berkeley. That’s where Alice Waters had hired Cooper to switch Berkeley schools from the same kind of industrially-processed convenience foods my daughter’s friends are eating to meals cooked from scratch.

At the Berkeley central kitchen—a facility as big as a basketball court that makes meals for some 2,350 kids in the city’s 16 schools—I was handed an apron, a pair of Latex gloves and a hair net and put to work. I sorted chicken pieces for what I called the “epic,” eight-day chicken. I weighed cooked pasta to be trucked to outlying schools. I filled bins for those simple breakfasts, served in the classrooms. And every day around 11:25, I got ready to serve lunch to hordes of middle-schoolers.

I quickly learned that Cooper, more than a “renegade,” is something of an outlaw genius when it comes to making the most out of a school meals budget. While most lunch ladies think in terms of two ounces of this vegetable, or three ounces of that grain, Cooper devised ways to count her salad bar as a vegetable and a grain and a protein. I have seen the eyes of other food service directors grow wide as saucers when Cooper explains how this is done, and how she will tell off state inspectors who might try to stop her. “I’ll believe it when my lawyer tells me it’s so,” is how she responds to government agents who try to cite rules to her.

But I also learned that while the food in Berkeley is cooked fresh, it still looks very much like kids food. The Berkeley system still depends on those federal government subsidies, which are only forthcoming if the kids actually take the meals. Hence, you see pizza twice a week on the Berkeley menu, lots of pasta and chicken. Cooper tried to get rid of nachos and the students went on strike. The best she could do was re-design the nachos without all the goopy, Dayglo cheese.

One industry insider who’s been following my reports complained that what I had done so far was describe two polar-opposite systems, two “extremes” of the nation’s school lunch program. So my reporting is still a work in progress. I plan to visit other school districts to get a more complete sense of where we are in our efforts to feed some 31 million school children every day.

What have I learned so far? First, we don’t have to wait for more standards or more federal money to make school meals healthier. All we have to do is eliminate much of the sugar—what some call the “stealth” ingredient—from school meals. Candied cereals, Pop-Tarts, Goldfish Grahams, strawberry milk, fruit juices, syrupy canned fruit: these might make great business for food manufacturers, but they just fill kids with empty calories. Yet I was surprised to learn that in all the hundreds of pages of rules governing the federal school meals program, there is no standard for how much sugar can be served. And you thought we just needed to worry about sodas in vending machines?

Second, there’s entirely too much attention focused on writing more standards in Washington. Schools have already proved that you can have books filled with standards and they can just as easily translate those into lousy food. No, what really matters is the food kids see on their plate. Is it palatable? Is it fresh? Is it healthy? Does it teach kids lessons about food that you want them to absorb and carry with them into adulthood?

Finally, even the best-intentioned school food service personnel do not have a magic wand they can wave to turn the industrially-processed convenience foods they are serving into food cooked from scratch with fresh ingredients. It has taken decades for schools to sink to the sorry state they are in now, where each, on average, loses 35 cents on every meal they serve.

We now see a kind of circular firing squad around the school food issue, where everyone on the local level blames everyone else for how bad the food is, yet we aren’t supposed to complain because everyone is trying as hard as they can to make it better. Meanwhile, those most responsible—your elected representatives in Congress and in state capitals around the country—look blithely on, occasionally tossing pennies at the problem. In fact, the only people who seem to make out in this situation are food manufacturers, who are getting rich selling frozen pizzas and chicken nuggets, and giant food service providers like Chartwells, Aramark and Sodexo, who work hand-in-hand with their corporate brethren on the manufacturing side.

Yes, folks, it will take money to turn this around—much more money than is currently being proposed. And it will take millions of parents who care. That’s why I urge you not to delay: Make a point to visit your local school. Sit in on lunch and see what kids are actually eating. It might just convince you that school food is not a joke anymore. It has real consequences. You might just be moved to get involved yourself.

What's in Tuesday's Lunch - 6/15

On Tuesday, the school will be serving:

Mozzarella Sticks w/ Sauce
Bagel w/ Butter, American or Cream Cheese
Sliced Turkey Sandwich / Salad
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Green Beans
Mixed Fruit
Fresh Cantaloupe Chunks

The national school lunch program lets us give our bulk USDA commodity mozzarella cheese to a processor (in this case, Farm Rich) who we then pay to turn it into mozzarella sticks. This is fried cheese with 280 mg of sodium and 9g of fat (3.5g saturated fat). The sauce provides an extra wallop of salt.

Here are the ingredients: Low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized part skim milk, salt, enzymes), bleached white flour, enriched bleached wheat flour (flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), soybean oil, enriched yellow corn flour (corn flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), food starch-modified, contains % or less of the following: salt, onion powder, wheat starch, natural butter flavor, whey, sugar, egg, whey protein concentrate, calcium caseinate, sodium aluminum phosphate, soy lecithin, extractives of paprika, dextrose, nonfat dried milk, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate), sodium alginate, soy flour, oleoresin paprika, maltodextrin, artificial flavor, tocopherols, natural flavor, spices, methylcellulose, dehydrated parsley, garlic powder, monoglycerides, triglycerides, yeast, sodium ascorbate, EDTA (as a preservative), calcium propionate (as a preservative), caramel color.

So, I think this is enough entree ingredients for one day. We've discussed the alternate entrees in previous posts.

On to the green beans -- these are a canned USDA commodity food. They include green beans, water and salt (380 mg of sodium). Since how foods are cooked and preserved affects their nutritional content (canned being worse than frozen which is less desirable than fresh), we called Seneca Foods to ask how the beans were cooked. They said they boiled them already in the can in a machine called a "hadron" - which I have hopefully spelled correctly. Sounds very efficient. (Steaming preserves more nutrients than boiling.)

The sodium in a lunch with the mozzarella sticks, sauce and green beans can top 1000 mg.

The mixed fruit is another canned USDA commodity. The mix is peaches, pears, grapes, corn syrup and sugar -- 15 mg of sugar.

The cantaloupe chunks are fresh!

Do you think fried cheese should be a lunch entree? Would you prefer a homemade version? Do your kids like them? Let us know - click Comment below.

Sara

What's in Monday's Lunch - 6/14

Mondays are Pizza Day

Cheese Pizza Slice
Bagel with butter, American or cream cheese
Tuna Salad Plate/Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Tossed Vegetable Salad
Sliced Apples w/ Cinnamon
Raisins

We give some of our USDA commodity mozzarella cheese to Nardone Bros Baking in this instance and they turn it into a frozen pizza that we reheat at the school. The label indicates 540mg of sodium and 12g of fat. The list of ingredients is not that extensive -- if this is the same cheese pizza as earlier in the year - and can be seen at http://www.northshore.k12.ny.us/Foodserviceinfo/nutritionlabels.htm. No whole grain in the crust.

We haven't reviewed the PB&J in more than a week so here's a re-cap: The peanut butter is another free commodity - the ingredients are peanuts, dextrose, hydrogenated vegetable oil and/or partially hydrogenated palm oil, salt, and molasses. The jelly is "grape" with this ingredient listing: corn syrup (1st ingredient), grape juice (water and grape juice concentrate), fruit pectin, citric acid and sodium citrate.

I'll say it again - tossed vegetable salad is a source of raw, fresh vegetables which is good. Sliced apples with cinnamon gets you a fresh, raw fruit! Raisins are Sunmaid from California (I mention this because imported grapes are more likely to have higher levels of pesticides.)

Sara

PS - Let us know what your kids think of the pizza today!

Breakfast and Grocery Shopping

To wrap up our week on breakfast, we're going to talk about the most popular breakfast of all: Cereal. It's quick, it's easy, kids will eat it -- and they can make it themselves. When you head out to buy groceries this weekend, we thought you might like some tips on what to look for in a cereal. So, here's the advice of nutrition committee member and nutritionist, Kathy Ligure. -Sara

Breakfast cereals vary in terms of nutritional quality with those that are closest to their original whole form being the healthiest choice, e.g./oatmeal or plain shredded wheat. Since the nutritional quality varies from cereal to cereal, even within the same Brand, the best advice is to read labels with an eye towards the following:

Overall Ingredients
Here, typically, less is better. Oatmeal has only one ingredient. In general avoid added colors, flavors or preservative, except natural preservatives like tocopherols (vitamin E).

Whole Grains/Fiber
Check the ingredient list. Since ingredients are listed in order of prevalence by weight, you want to see a whole grain as the first ingredient. The best cereals are going to contain only whole grains. Further, if you’re not sure how much whole grain the cereal contains, check the fiber content. You are looking for at least 5 grams fiber per serving.

Sodium:
In their natural form, whole grains have negligible amounts of sodium. Too much is often added to cereals. In general, cereals with no added salt or cereals that keep the sodium below 150 mg per serving are your best choice—I would not buy any cereal with 200 mg or more per serving.

Consider this, a small 1 & ½ ounce bag of potato chips typically has around 180-200 mg. of sodium, do you really want your breakfast cereal to have as much, or in some cases, more, sodium than potato chips? So…why doesn’t your cereal taste salty? Because it has enough added sugar to cover up the salty taste—chips and other salty snack foods usually don’t have added sugar.

Sugar:
Here again, whole grains typically contain very little, if any, natural sugar. So the sugar you see listed under carbohydrates on the label is all added sugar—the kind we are advised by health experts to limit. If your cereal has added sugar—most of them do—then limit it to no more than 8 grams per serving, the equivalent of 2 tsp/serving. The one exception is cereals with added dried fruit, such as raisins or dates, not berry-flavored sugar covered balls. If there is added dried fruit, you can expect a higher sugar content from the natural sugar found in the dried fruit. Unfortunately, manufacturers do no have to distinguish between natural and added sugars.

Fats
Once more, whole grains contain minimal fat. Some cereals will list a small amount of fat from the whole grains (typically less than 2 grams/serving). Some cereals have slightly more, this may be from added nuts and/or seeds (e.g. flax seed). These are healthy additions. Cereals that list fats or partially hydrogenated fats (to be avoided in any food) in the ingredient list should be avoided.

Weekend Reading - and Fun

First, some Reading

Juice is not that good for you to start with......
The most disturbing article I have for you this week: The Environmental Law Foundation in California tested hundred of individual servings of juice and packaged fruits marketed for children and found many that exceeded the legal limits for lead. Some organic brands made the list, even. You can get all the details at: http://www.envirolaw.org/currentcases.html

If you'd like to read more about breakfast in schools, the www.BetterDCSchoolFood.blogspot.com blog is chronically what is happening in DC and in Berkeley. You could also read Janet Poppendieck's book Free for All: Fixing School Lunch in America.

Got the gardening bug?
I just read that at Princeton High School, you can now take gardening as physical education. See
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/high-school-gardening-for-credit/?scp=1&sq=princeton%20gardening&st=cse

In that same vein, your kids can take organic gardening at summer camp at USDAN -- see http://www.longislandexchange.com/press/2010/05/06/usdan-center-to-premiere-new-program/. USDAN's site is at www.usdan.com/.

Now, some Fun -- Strawberry Picking!

It's that season and it ends soon!

The Golden Earthworm has u-pick organic strawberries this weekend - but check for updates at http://www.goldenearthworm.com/upcoming-events/

Benner's Farm is having a Strawberry Festival this weekend - and they have baby animals. Strawberries are organic.
http://bennersfarm.com/index.html

Windy Acres Farm has some conventional u-pick -- call first for details - http://www.therestaurantsweb.com/windyacresfarm.html

Google 'u pick strawberries long island' if you need more suggestions.

What will you do with your strawberries? Post a comment with your ideas and recipes. Personally, I want to know how to make jam.

Sara

Why Breakfast at School?

Most public schools now serve breakfast at their schools and a growing number are serving universal breakfast in the classroom. Our school does not. The reason? They don't have to. Because our district does not have a large population of kids on free or reduced lunch, they can opt not to serve breakfast by surveying the parents to demonstrate that demand for breakfast is below the limit set by federal guidelines.

Given the research on the importance not just of breakfast but potentially breakfast at school (See Why Breakfast? post), I think we should reconsider. Moreover, given that we have any kids at all entitled to a free school breakfast (and we do), we ought to at least provide that. To qualify for free lunch and breakfast, a family of four would have to earn less than about $30,000 a year, if I remember correctly. The breakfast for these kids would be entirely federally reimbursed. It could be as simple as milk, cereal and a banana.

The schools in Washington, DC are moving to universal, free breakfast in the classrooms - you can read about how it's going AND a program that sounds more successful in Berkeley at www.betterdcschoolfood.blogspot.com. Chef Ed Bruske who writes most of their blog will be guest blogging here next week.

You can also read Free for All: Fixing School Food in America by Janet Poppendieck. It's terrific and addresses school lunch and breakfast in a comprehensive way ending with a strong argument for universal, free breakfast in the classroom. Plus - Prof. Poppendieck - a sociologist at Hunter College - will be speaking next Thurs (6/17) at the Huntington Cinema Arts theater after a showing of Two Angry Moms of which we're big fans.

If we can find a way to serve a nutritious breakfast without the added sugar of some programs, I think we should. Let me know if you agree or not and if you're willing to help me find a way.

Sara

What's in Friday's Lunch - 6/11

Come on, it's Friday- you need us to tell you what's for lunch?

Chicken Nuggets! (of course)
Bagel with butter, American or cream cheese
Tuna Salad Plate / Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Whole Wheat Bread
Cucumber Slices
Applesauce

The chicken nuggets do have some whole grain in the breading -- but they are fried Tyson nuggets with a lot of additives. The chicken is USDA commodity chicken.

Here are the ingredients: chicken, water, textured soy protein concentrate, isolated soy protein with less than 2% soy lecithin, seasoning (corn syrup solids, brown sugar, dextrose, salt, vinegar powder (maltodextrin, modified corn starch, dried vinegar), garlic powder, onion powder, chicken type flavor (hydrolyzed corn gluten, autolyzed yeast extract, sunflower oil, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate)), sodium acid pryophospate. Breaded with: whole wheat flour, enriched bleached wheat flour (enriched with niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, modified wheat starch, salt, soybean oil, spice, yellow corn flour, paprika, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), garlic powder, natural flavor, extractives of turmeric, fumaric acid. Breading set in vegetable oil.

We haven't go into detail on the tuna salad recently - but it's Bumble Bee Chunk Light Tuna in water - chunk light is your best bet for minimizing mercury levels (compared to say solid white). They make the tuna salad themselves with low fat mayonnaise.

The bread is whole wheat. The cucumber slices are a fresh, raw vegetable. The chilled applesauce probably contains corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and erythorbic acid - 18g of sugar. The district would like to get unsweetened but this is the last label we have.

Let us know what your kids think about lunch.

Sara

A Quite Quick Breakfast

This is really quick - and I still feel good about it! Plain Nonfat Organic Greek Yogurt (the greek yogurt is delicious and has more than twice the protein!) with fresh berries and either a little maple syrup or honey. On this day, we had locally made honey from a beekeeper in Oyster Bay -- he was at Bailey Arboretum's Family Fun Day a few weeks ago. Delicious. Sometimes I add wheatgerm to their yogurt - but if the 2 year old seems me do it, it's all over.....

Share your breakfasts with us!

Sara

What's in Thursday's Lunch - 6/10

On Thursday, you can choose:

Sliders or Veggie Burger
Bagel with butter, American or cream cheese
Sliced Turkey Sandwich / Salad
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Pickle Chips
Golden Corn Niblets
Chilled Peaches

These used to be described as "all beef" sliders - but they are not. Buns are not whole wheat - 279 mg of sodium and they do contain high fructose corn syrup. The Beef Patties are a processed food made from USDA commodity beef. Here are the ingredients: Beef, water, textured vegetable protein (soy, flour, zinc oxide, niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, copper gluconate, vitamin A palmitate, calcium pantothenate, thiamin mononitrate (B1), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), riboflavin (B2), cyanocobalamin (B12))

If your kid hasn't yet, today might be a good day to try a Veggie Burger. These are Dr. Praeger's and they contain: carrots, onions, string beans, zucchini, oat bran, peas, spinach, expeller pressed canola oil, broccoli, textured soy flour, corn, oat fiber, red pepper, arrowroot corn meal, corn starch, garlic, salt, black pepper, all natural vegetable gum.

Ok, so pickle chips aren't much of a side. Corn is quite starchy so we don't have a strong vegetable choice here and nothing raw or even fresh. The icing on the cake so to speak is that the corn does have both added salt and sugar. Plus then we have sugar peaches with 16g of sugar from the added sugar and corn syrup.

Sara

We Need Your Breakfast and Lunch Ideas!

We're all in a hurry. If you've managed to make a healthy, quick- enough-for-you lunch or breakfast, take a picture and email us with a short description. This late in the year, I think we could all use some new ideas.

Sara

What's in Wednesday's Lunch - 6/9

It's a relatively new item --

Cheesy Brown Rice and Broccoli
Bagel w/ cream cheese, American cheese or butter
Ham and Cheese Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Fresh Garden Salad
WW Garlic Bread Slice
Chilled Pears

The Cheesy Brown Rice and Broccoli was introduced fairly recently - it's made from brown rice, USDA commodity American cheese and frozen broccoli that originates in China. The garden salad has fresh, raw vegetables. The garlic bread is made with whole wheat bread - rice with bread is another quirk of the USDA system, I believe. The pears have 14g of sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Lunch reviews, please!

Sara

How Do You Make Pancakes?

How do you make pancakes? Karen Kessler sent in her recipe shown here -

Kamut ( the grandfather of grains-high energy discovered thousands of years ago by Egyptians) recipe on bag- purchased at rising tide. Mixed with multigrain mix from trader joes (recipe on bag) Then you can add fruit as desired to mix or make a compote for the topping of any very ripe fruit- just mix fruit together and with a little water can cook in saucepan until compote texture. Enjoy!

She kindly sent in pictures of the recipe in progress:



How do you make pancakes? Send it in!

Sara

Why Breakfast?

Why all the breakfast pictures?

Breakfast is important, and there's a lot of research now to support it, but you still have to find the time to make it and still have time for your kids to eat it.

According to the report The Learning Connection - by Action for Healthy Kids (www.actionforhealthykids.org/resources/files/learning-connection.pdf):

"Several studies, moreover, have shown a direct link between nutritional intake and academic performance. Transient hunger from missing meals and moderate under-nutrition can compromise cognitive development and school performance. Omitting breakfast can interfere with learning even in well-nourished children. Numerous studies have found that increased participation in School Breakfast Programs is associated with increases in academic test scores, daily attendance, and class participation, and it has also been linked to reductions in absences and tardiness. Both parents and teachers report that students participating in these breakfast programs are calmer in class and have more energy for studying." The footnotes cite the specific studies for those interested.

There's even some evidence (from the Dairy Council - the food lobby at school again) that eating breakfast at school maybe best of all. Read more at:
http://www.dairycouncilofca.org/Educators/ClassroomPrograms/ProgramsBHMBreakfast.aspx

Show us your breakfast ideas!

Sara

What's in Tuesday's Lunch - 6/8

On Tuesday, students can choose:

Meatball Hero
Bagel with butter, American or cream cheese
Veggie Cheese Plate/wrap
Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich

Sides:
Steamed Spinach
Chilled Strawberry Cups
Fresh Banana

Full disclosure: I am a vegetarian (although I do eat fish) but my kids are not. That said, I recommend the Veggie Cheese Wrap, spinach and banana. Here's why -- the BetterDCSchoolFoodBlog recently did a round up of school food news including new finding that much of the nation's beef supply - much less USDA commodity beef headed for schools - is tainted with antibiotics, pesticides and heavy metals. See the links at:
http://betterdcschoolfood.blogspot.com/2010/06/potpourri-school-food-news-roundup.html. But this is hardly the first finding of problems in our nation's beef supply.

Our heros have 10g of fat and 550mg of sodium in the meatballs. The sauce is the same government tomato sauce with a good deal of added salt and sugar. The 5" club (not whole wheat) also has over 500 mg of sodium. This is too much salt by any definition.

Here are the ingredients in the "beef" meatballs: beef, water, textured vegetable protein (soy flour, zine oxide, niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, copper gluconate, vitamin A palmitate, calcium pantothenate, thiamin mononitrate (B1) pyridoxine hydrochlorie (B6) riboflavin (B2), cyanocobalamin (B12), bread crumbs (enriched bleached wheat flour (niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid) vegetable oil shortening (soybean), distilled vinegar, contains 2 percent or less of: dextrose, leavening (sodium bicarbonate), salt, yeast, yeast nutrients (ammonium chloride, calcium sulfate) and spice extractives), salt, sugar, dried onion and garlic, torula yeast, pepper ...and the spell check goes wild!!!!

The Veggie Cheese wrap is a tortilla (not whole wheat either) with part-skim mozzarella, lettuce, carrots, peppers and cucumbers.

The spinach is frozen spinach- nothing added prior to arrival. The banana is fresh fruit! The strawberries are, um, full of sugar and arrive frozen. I'm not kidding - 30g of sugar (twice as much as say the pears which have added HFCS).

Comments and lunch reviews please!

Sara

Baked Oatmeal and a Shout Out to the Patel Brothers

Like many of the other contributors, we love oatmeal at our house. It can be really fun and energy saving to prepare baked oatmeal the night before so that in the morning all you need to do is turn on the oven and take a shower while breakfast bakes. You can't really mess this up as long as you have a lot of liquid (apple sauce, soy milk, bananas are all good options) . I grease my baking dish with either Earth Balance or coconut oil and mix (in our case) gluten free oats, flax meal (or hemp or chia seeds), cinnamon, a dash of sea salt, a bit of maple syrup, goji berries or raisins (or apricots, figs or dates) and a handful of whatever nuts we have. I have also added frozen berries to this.

I try to make sure we have something raw at every meal for the nutrition, enzymes and deliciousness. These days its papaya and mango. We have been buying delicious Indian Mangos (the opposite of local food, but so ripe with childhood memories for my husband) by the case at Patel Brothers in Hicksville.

*This market is worth visiting for the spices, nuts and grains. They have very little by way of organics but some interesting and very special products including unusual Asian produce like lotus root and strange squashes. Their prices are insanely low on nuts, grains and oils. If you do visit make sure you eat at the Dosa Hut across the street we are addicts.

What's in Monday's Lunch - 6/7

Monday = Pizza, specifically:

WW Pizza Bagel
Bagel w/ butter or cream cheese
Tuna salad plate/sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Tossed Vegetable Salad
Fresh Orange Smiles
Chilled Mixed Fruit

We assemble the pizza bagels here with a whole wheat bagel, USDA commodity part skim mozzarella (2 oz of it - I've heard it's somewhat overwhelming but the lunch law is specific about the amount of protein required), and government tomato sauce (corn syrup, lot of salt). Altogether though there are fewer additives than in the pizzas we buy frozen.

Tossed vegetable salad and fresh orange slices are nice choices - fresh raw fruits and vegetables. The chilled mixed fruit? Not so much - canned commodity product with peaches, pears, grapes, corn syrup and sugar - 15g of sugar in all. The origin of the fruit appears to be California.

Give us your lunch reviews!

Sara

A Fairly Quick Breakfast

If you don't have a lot of time, here's a breakfast I feel good about. I use instant organic oatmeal. (Cooking steel cut oats from scratch is healthier but this is faster.) The instant organic oatmeal does take longer to "set" - so you need to make it and let is sit for awhile. If I have fresh fruit, I add it after I've microwaved the oatmeal - any kind or berries, bananas, peaches, etc. I keep frozen organic berries in the freezer otherwise- add those before you cook it. You can also use fresh apple slices before cooking. Any fruit will do. I also add ground flaxseed sometimes - the kids don't even notice. I use skim milk (our 2% doesn't work as well) for the added protein. I also add nuts for the same reason - I keep those frozen, too.

Tell us about your favorite quick breakfasts!

Sara

More Breakfast Ideas

Denise Reiger sent in this breakfast idea - Organic brown rice flakes with blueberries and a smoothie. The smoothie has all organic plain yogurt, soymilk, OJ, blueberries and banana. Yum !

Breakfast!

We're going to talk this coming week about breakfast - why it's important, why schools should serve it - and most importantly, great ideas for healthy breakfasts for our own kids. Since, it's Saturday, we're kicking off breakfast week with this delicious and healthy french toast from Kathy Ligure. Here's her recipe:

Whole Grain French Toast with Strawberry-Maple Syrup

INGREDIENTS

French Toast
1 Slice Whole Grain Bread
1 Egg
1/4 cup skim milk (or substitute soy, rice, almond etc. milk)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (more or less to taste)
1/4 tsp vanilla (more or less to taste)

Strawberry/Maple Syrup
1-2 strawberries (crushed with fork); mix with real maple syrup

Directions*
In a small bowl beat egg with milk (or substitute); stir in vanilla and cinnamon. Place bread in bowl; turn once or twice to coat then let sit for about 5 minutes or until bread soaks up egg/milk mixture. Cook on low/medium heat (I use about a teaspoon of olive or canola oil to cook) about 3-5 minutes on each side or until toast is firm/egg is cooked. Top with strawberry/maple syrup and serve with fresh strawberries.

*This is an individual serving; the recipe can be doubled, tripled etc. as needed.

Please! Send in your favorite breakfasts with or without pictures. And yes - that's really a picture of Kathy's french toast.

Sara

Weekend Reading, Watching -- and Fun

First, Something to Read -

Salt with that Latte?
The New York Times had a stunning article about the salt industry's lobbying efforts (and their video that suggests everything - even coffee - is enhanced by salt) and the known risks of salt in our diets. I've read labels for lunches at our school where the sodium exceeds 1000 mg. According to the NYT article, children should not have more than 1500mg a day. Read for yourself at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/health/30salt.html?scp=2&sq=salt&st=cse

Need another reason not to drink bottled water?
While reading Mark Bittman's blog (you'll like it! http://markbittman.com/) I ran across a mention of bacteria in bottled water. Read more - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100525140954.htm

Something to Watch

Continuing in the lobbists vs kids vein, I ran across a link to this video called The Food Lobby Goes to School which describes how invested large food manufacturers are in making sure your kids grow up eating their "food" in our schools. Another example of what we're up against in making lunch healthier and getting the Child Nutrition Act reauthorized. Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVfAWbitBTs

And finally some Fun -

If you're not completely worn out from the St. Boniface Carnival, Sunday June 6 is the Bay Day Festival at The WaterFront Center in Oyster Bay from 11a - 5p. See their website at www.TheWaterFrontCenter.org. Besides sailing, kayaking, touch tanks with animals from the bay, food and music, they will also have exhibits from groups readers of this blog may be interested in - Bhavani Jaroff's iEat Green, Slow Food LI, NE Organic Farmers Assoc and lots (lots!) of environmental groups.

Sara

What's in Friday's Lunch - 6/4

It's Friday so it must be . . .

WG Chicken Nuggets
Bagel w/ butter or cream cheese
Veggie Cheese plate/wrap
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Whole Wheat Bread
Carrot Coins
Chilled Strawberry Cups

(Reprised from 5/28) It's time to talk about the chicken nuggets. The USDA gives us some commodity chicken which we send to a food processor. We then pay the food processor to turn it into frozen chicken nuggets. These are made by Tyson. The breading does contain whole grains. However, for most of the year, the menu indicated these were baked. In fact, while we do heat them in the oven before serving, Tyson does fry them. The nuggets contain 42 different ingredients. Please read them yourself at http://www.northshore.k12.ny.us/Foodserviceinfo/nutritionlabels.htm if you are considering buying them. They also have 490 mg of sodium.

The nutrition committee asked for an alternative and you can now also get the Veggie Cheese Wrap. It's a tortilla (not whole wheat but maybe next year) with part-skim mozzarella, lettuce, carrots, peppers and cucumbers.

The good news: next year the district is planning on making this dish in house. They will buy chicken and central prepare it in the high school kitchen, bread it and bake it to make a significantly healthier version than what we have now.

On to the sides -- the carrots are a commodity. They are boiled in the can at a processor and contain salt and calcium chloride - 370 mg of salt. With the nuggets, the salt is really adding up. You can have a slice of whole wheat bread but on the the USDA thinks you would need the starch. Then, there's the "chilled strawberry cups" which sounds great on a hot day. They are chilled in the sense that they are frozen and are melting and somewhat mushy. The real concern though is that they have 30g of sugar. This is a whole, whole lot. The USDA allows the strawberries to be "packed" in sugar and so they are.

This may be more added salt and sugar than you are comfortable with.

Sara

Food and art are my two favorite words!

If you didn't get a chance to meet Patricia of Red Bow Studios at the Sea Cliff Beach fundraiser last Friday, be sure to pop in her new spot on Sea Cliff Avenue.  She is an inspired woman, a talented artist and Sea Cliff mother of two girls.  She has generously agreed to work with our students to create a mural in the cafeteria.  Any ideas about the sort of project you think might work can be directed my way, or hers.  This summer Red Bow will host a multitude of art classes and soon the shelves will be full of of wondrous objects to take home.

-Luisa

What's in Thursday's Lunch - 6/3

And the menu says:

Open Faced Turkey Sandwich
Bagel w/ butter or cream cheese
Sliced Turkey Sandwich/Salad
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Hot Gravy
Chilled Applesauce

The Open Faced Turkey Sandwich is just that -- the turkey is a commodity provided by the government that we pay a manufacturer to process. The label on our turkey breast lists the following ingredients: turkey breast meat, turkey broth, salt, modified food starch, sugar, sodium phosphates, flavoring. The gravy comes from a can - Campbell's Brown Gravy. It is made from beef stock. Here's the ingredient list: beef stock, wheat flour, vegetable oil, modified food starch, contains less than 2% of: salt, yeast extract, tomato paste, high fructose corn syrup, caramel coloring, flavoring (lactic acid), monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed soy protein, flavoring, hydrolyzed wheat gluten. It's not usually served on the same day as the turkey sandwich alternate entree but that is made from the same turkey.

The peanut butter is another free commodity - the ingredients are peanuts, dextrose, hydrogenated vegetable oil and/or partially hydrogenated palm oil, salt, and molasses. The jelly is "grape" with this ingredient listing: corn syrup (1st ingredient), grape juice (water and grape juice concentrate), fruit pectin, citric acid and sodium citrate.

The mashed sweet potatoes come out of cans. We do not have the actual label on these but a USDA fact sheet that indicates they should be low-sodium. The applesauce is canned with both corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and erythorbic acid.

Did your kids like lunch today? Tell us.

Sara

What's in Wednesday's Lunch - 6/2

On Wednesday, the choices are --

WG Rotini w/ garlic and broccoli
Bagel w/ butter or cream cheese
Ham & Cheese Sandwich
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Sides:
Green Bean Salad
WW French bread slice
Watermelon slice

"WG" on our menu stands for whole grain - which is good! The district uses the Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend pasta in this dish. One terrific improvement this year in our district is the use of whole grain pastas instead of simple white pastas. The broccoli (which we buy frozen and is a product of China) is cooked with garlic and oil - maybe a little too much but they're working on it. In May, this entree was served with a side of part skim mozzarella fingers for protein but I don't see those on the menu this time. The rotini itself does have 7g of protein in 2 oz (which is more than twice as much as a bagel with cream cheese) but not nearly as much as the lunch usually has. We've covered the alternate entrees in previous posts.

The green bean salad is made from USDA commodity green beans (boiled in the can by a large processor, 380 mg of sodium - we do rinse the beans which can eliminate up to 40% of the salt) mixed with onion, celery, low fat Italian dressing, pepper, basil, oregano, and garlic. The "WW" (yes, whole wheat) french bread side is probably more starch than you need with pasta - but it is whole wheat.

And then, there's watermelon! It's a fresh fruit, kids like it and it does not tend to be high in pesticide residue. It's got a fair amount of sugar all of which is naturally occurring.

Sara

PS - Tell us what you think about lunch! Post a comment!