Canned Peaches - Banned!

More news from our food services consultant, Julia van Loon:

Last year, our kids regularly ate the following USDA commodity foods which the government thoughtfully (?) donates to schools:

Green beans - canned with 380 mg of sodium. Although previously described as 'steamed' when in fact they had been boiled in the can by the manufacturer and then heated in a steamer at our school. Keep in mind that cans like these are often lined in BPA which has been banned in Canada as toxic.

Mixed fruit - canned with added corn syrup AND sugar. These and the other canned fruits were decribed as "chilled" -- because they needed to be refrigerated after the can was opened.

Pears - canned with (my favorite) high fructose corn syrup.

Peaches - canned with corn syrup and sugar.

This year? Gone. Eliminated. And, in fact, the leftovers have been donated. A big thank you to North Shore Schools, Dr. Melnick, Ms. Buatsi, Ms. van Loon and the entire food services staff.

We are however still using USDA commodity corn which has apparently been improved over the previous iteration which included both added salt and sugar. Nonetheless, 40% of the corn in the US is genetically-modified.

More terrific news to come....

Enjoy the fresh fruit,
Sara