Weekend Reading

Reading


Shopping for back to school lunch totes? Great Round-up of safe kid food containers and lunch boxes on the Feed our Families blog.

Speaking of safe kid lunches, a study reported in US News and world Report among other outlets says home-packed lunches reach unsafe temperatures before they are eaten.  But you should also check out this rebuttal over at The Lunch Tray. Still, throw in another ice-pack while you're at it.

Read a great summary of Lunch Wars by Amy Kalafa (of Two Angry Moms) at PsychCentral.  It's a scary description of the state of school lunch - but it also tells us what we can do (hint: join the nutrition committee at our school.)

After that, you may wish to pack lunch for your kid. If so, check out these lunch ideas at Epicurious.

Things to Do

On Sunday afternoon, the Long Island Children's Museum will be celebrating watermelon with a tasting, games and educational activities.

This Saturday starts the New York Botanical Garden's series - Mario Batali's Edible Garden.

Action Alert - Tell Congress to To Support Healthy School Lunches

From the Healthy Schools Campaign:

Dear HSC Friend:

Your voice in support of healthy school food matters now as much as ever. As kids across the country head back to school, some members of Congress have begun efforts aimed at rolling back progress on improving school meals -- even after countless parents, teachers and advocates have demonstrated strong support for healthier choices.

We need your help to let Congress know just how important healthy school food is.


The USDA has proposed common-sense standards to improve school lunches and breakfasts by including more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; fat-free and low-fat milk; less salt; fewer unhealthy saturated and trans fats; moderate calories; and better accountability.

Now, some Senators are worried that the USDA’s proposed standards would limit servings of certain starchy vegetables, including white potatoes and corn, and have asked that funding of the new standards be prohibited. The proposed standards, which follow the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations for school meals, would put more fruits and vegetables on students’ plates every day and provide students with a greater variety of fruits and vegetables. This represents an important step toward addressing the childhood obesity epidemic and helping kids develop healthy eating habits for a lifetime. We believe that as the USDA is finalizing its proposal, the agency will strike a balance that most importantly ensures kids are getting well-balanced meals at school.

We need your voice to urge your Senators to support these standards so that all children have access to healthy school meals.

If the Senators who oppose USDA’s efforts are successful, their objections could jeopardize the important progress we’ve seen this year for healthy school food. Please take a moment to let your Senators know that there is still strong support for healthy school meals. Take action here.

Thank you for speaking up for kids' health.

Many thanks -
Rochelle Davis
President and CEO

Read Your Labels - Deceptive Food Marketing

I was traveling. I went into a Starbucks, and I was starving when I saw:

What luck! Simply nuts and fruit sounds great! Well, it turns out "simply" is one of those meaningless words.  Here are the ingredients - which I should have read before hand:

These were actually nuts, fruits, sugar, salt and oil.

Read your labels.

Get Ready for Slow Food USA's Take Back the Value Meal Campaign

On Sept. 17th, take the challenge to create a healthy meal for $5 - read more here from Slow Food USA's email about their new campaign - The $5 Challenge:

Get together for a slow food meal that costs less than $5/person & take back the value meal! I'm taking the $5 Challenge “I want to eat healthy, local food but I have no time, not much money and no clue how to pull it off. What can I do?” - pretty much everyone Dear Sara, Slow food shouldn’t have to cost more than fast food. It shouldn’t be harder to feed our children fruit than it is to feed them Froot Loops. But against the odds, every day there are people all over the country who manage to cook healthy food on a budget. We need to make cooking and eating this way a possibility for everyone. That’s why we’re launching the $5 Challenge. On September 17, take the challenge: share a healthy delicious meal that costs less than $5 per person. You can cook slow food for yourself and your family for less than $5 per person. You can host a potluck where nothing costs more than $5. You can cook for a crowd and charge $5 at the door. You get the idea – and so will thousands of others when we tell the stories we gather on this day. Click here to read more and take the challenge.>> Then check out our web site for tips, tricks and recipes. This day will give us a clearer sense of what needs to change about the way food works, in order to make this a reality for everyone. Bringing people together around the table is the best way to educate and advocate for good, clean, and fair food. Join us! Take the challenge. Together we can take back the value meal.  - Josh Viertel President, Slow Food USA P.S. Even if you can’t do an event on the 17th, you can still take the challenge and share a meal with family and friends. Click here to sign up – every action counts.

PCA Victory Garden Update

I hope you didn't miss out on last Spring's "Victory Garden" fundraiser from the PCA.  For $20, you got a cucumber plant, a tomato plant, one bsail and one thyme plant. We bought two.

I jammed them into various corners of our flower beds since we don't have a use-able backyard (it's a swamp - literally  and a protected one at that).  Here's one tomato/basil/thyme combo:

The cucumbers went in front of the azaleas. They have now taken over the azaleas.

And here's our first harvest! No, it's not much but the kids love picking and eating them.

The vegetable-averse son will even eat raw string beans off our one tiny bean plant (he planted the seed himself at the Planting field's annual Arbor day Festival - not to be missed!)

So, I'm looking forward to this Spring's Victory Garden sale.

PS - They should sell mint plants so y'all can all make your own mojitos.

Weekend Reading

Reading

Is Coconut water really a better option? Check out the studies cited here by the NYT.

You'll love this though: Chocolate is good for your workout.

And then there's the ongoing problem with serving sizes.

Plus, There's this interesting discussion of what "processed" food means over at the Lunch Tray.

And, the Freakanomics blog takes on "biofortification."

Things to Do

Try these smoothie recipes which skip the dairy.

Don't miss Thursday's Sunset Serenades through Sept. 1st - 7pm, Memorial aka Sunset aka Hippie park here in Sea Cliff.

Old Westbury House and Gardens has this listed for Saturday:

Kids and Family Programs: Storybook Stroll 12:00 pm A series of educator-led thematic tours and activities with The Giving Tree. Lend an ear to Shel Silverstein's classic story chronicling the selflessness of nature. Learn how trees are the ultimate gift to people and sample some of the tasty delights trees provide!

The New York Botanical Garden will have a Global Harvest Celebration for kids in their children's' garden both Saturday and Sunday.

The Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary will hold a "Nature at Night" workshop for families Sat. at 7:30pm.

Farmer's Market Round Up

If you haven't tried them yet, don't miss these local Farmer's Markets:

Glen Cove - Friday's 9-2 in the Village Square - small but could not be more convenient. Besides produce, they've got fresh breads, pickles and fresh local fish.

Christopher Morley Park runs a market every Wednesday from 7am- 1pm.

You can buy organic produce from the golden Earthworm's farm here on Long Island in Port Washington at the town dock on Saturday's from 8-12.
 
Oyster Bay has a good-sized market on Fridays from 10-4 on Audrey Ave., north of the Oyster Bay Bandstand.

The Queens County Farm Museum sells its produce at a farm stand on site Wed- Sundays from noon - 5pm.  Fresh eggs if you're lucky - they sell out quickly. Plus, they have their own wines for sale.

On Saturdays from noon - 2, the Old Bethpage Restoration Village sells organic produce grown on site through Sept.