What's for Lunch - Mon., 9/10

BURRITO BOWL
Brown Rice, Black Beans & Southwest-Style Chicken
in a Taco Tub!
Salsa & Romaine & Cheese
or
Monterey Jack & Black Bean Quesadilla
Baby Carrots
Fresh Fruit at the Salad Bar

The burrrito bowl is a new item. I do not have the ingredients yet for the "taco tub" but will get them because this is generally a fried white flour kind of item.  That being said the brown rice is a great whole grain. The black beans are canned. The southwest-style chicken is from Tyson and described as diced, cooked "chicken meat." Read more about farm animals raised by industrial giants like Tyson,  antibiotics and hormones.

UPDATE 9-13-12: The food service dept has let us know that the "taco tubs" come from Smokewood Foods. The ingredients are described just as "enriched masa flour" and they look like a big rectangular corn chip. They have 5g of fat and no sodium. 

The quesadilla has Monterrey Jack cheese and canned black beans served in a flour tortilla - no whole grains. The tortillas are from Tyson and contain:  Bleached Enriched Wheat Flour (Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Contains one or more of the following: Cottonseed Oil, Soybean Oil), Mono- and Diglycerides, Contains 2% or less of the following: Salt, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate), Fumaric Acid, Sodium Bicarbonate, Dough Conditioner (Wheat Flour, Calcium Sulfate, Sorbic Acid), Preservative (Sodium Propionate and Potassium Sorbate).  Sodium is 380mg. 5g of fat (1 of which is saturated).

Fresh carrots and fruit.

Weekend Reading and Local Fun

Reading


If you missed the big trend in Farm Camp for your kids this past summer, check out this article in the NYT.

NYC's schools are ending a program that used professional chefs to design meals - supposedly because of the new nutritional standards for the federal lunch program which go into effect this school year. Read more.

And getting more cooking-from-scratch into school lunches is a huge - and important - challenge everywhere. Read this terrific article from Childhood Obesity's back-to-school issue.

Take Part ran a great primer on why you don't want to eat GMOs - along with what they are and why they should be labeled.  (Corn and soy are the big culprit in most school lunches - which is one more reason we need to see the ingredients.)

Watching

Next Wednesday, the Food on Film series continues Huntington Cinema Arts. From Slow Food Huntington:

Slow Food Huntington Presents: Let's Eat! Food on Film:
Planeat
September 12th, 7:30 pm
Film, discussion and special reception at the Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington
A lively new documentary about the benefits of a vegetarian diet for our bodies and the planet. PLANEAT is the story of three men's life-long search for a diet, which is good for our health, good for the environment and good for the future of the planet. With an additional cast of pioneering chefs and some of the best cooking you have ever seen, the scientists and doctors in the film present a convincing case for the West to re-examine its love affair with meat and dairy.
Guest speakers are: Bob Dibenedetto of Healthy Planet, Chef Bhavani Jaroff of iEat Green, and Chef Okima Wilcox, from Live Island Cafe.
To view the trailer: http://www.cinemaartscentre.org/event/planeat/

Fun

Our school's Carnival is tonight at 5pm at the school.

Then, for more carnival fun,  the Grande Festa Italiana is at North Hempstead Beach Park through Sunday.

There is a North Fork Foodie Tour this Sunday. Read more.

The GVA's antiques show is Saturday at St. Boniface field starting at 9am.

The Garvies Point Museum is starting an interesting program this Saturday called Artworks 2012 that will extend through November and has a Native American focus. 

Saturday at 12pm, Old Westbury Gardens is hosting "Don't Throw It, Grow It" for kids. Borrow a pass from the Sea Cliff Library.

The Northeast Organic Farmers Association is  sponsoring the NY Locavore Challenge in September. Read more..

Action Alert: Hunger Action Friday / Hunger Awareness Month

From Feeding America:

Today is the first Hunger Action Friday in Hunger Action Month—will you help us Speak Out Against Hunger™?

For Hunger Action Month, we are excited to introduce Feeding America’s Postcard Campaign on Facebook. The goal of the Postcard Campaign is to make it easy for you to send a personal postcard to your Members of Congress and urge them to protect programs that help put food on the table for millions of hungry Americans.
 

Take action and send your postcard today!
 

With the Feeding America Postcard Campaign, you can choose one of four designs to reflect your commitment to ending hunger in America. You can also personalize your message to Congress so they know why you are speaking out against hunger. And don’t forget to share your action on Facebook!
 

With Hunger Action Month well underway, it’s time for us to come together and Speak Out Against Hunger™ so our elected officials know how important it is to invest in our nation’s hunger-relief programs.
 

Remember, Congress still hasn’t passed the next Farm Bill—so speaking out today can have a direct impact on what direction they choose to take the bill. Help us ensure Congress protects and strengthens programs like SNAP (food stamps) and TEFAP—which put food on the table for millions of children, seniors, and low-income families across America. Send a postcard now.

What's for Lunch - Fri., 9/7

Brunch for Lunch
ALL NEW!!
Scrambled Egg & Cheese Wrap

or (Please Choose When Ordering)

Whole Wheat French Toast
Herb Roasted Potatoes
Strawberry-Grape Cup

No Salad Bar

An interesting development! Thanks in part to the new nutritional requirements for school lunch involving whole grains our challah french toast is now whole wheat french toast - a terrific improvement and one the nutrition committee has been advocating for. The question this menu leaves unanswered is: Will the kids still be served a syrup whose first and main ingredient is high fructose corn syrup?  I know the food service consultant has been trying to find an affordable maple syrup instead.

The strawberries and grapes are fresh - and popular - so please encourage your kids to take them especially since we will not have the salad bar until next week.

I'm somewhat concerned about the potatoes. If they are the same as last year then the potatoes are from McCains. The ingredients are: Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: Canola Oil, Soybean Oil, Cottonseed Oil, Sunflower Oil, Corn Oil), Corn Starch - Modified, Dehydrated Garlic, Spices, Salt, Dehydrated Onion, Rosemary, Dehydrated Red Bell Pepper, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Paprika, Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate Added to Preserve Natural Color.   Note that the autolyzed yeast extract is potentially similar to MSG. They have 3.5g of fat and 160mg of sodium.

UPDATE 9-13-12: The Food Service Dept has given us updated information on the potatoes.  They are from McCains but the ingredients are:  Potatoes. Contains 2% or less of Black Pepper, Canola Oil, Corn Starch - Modified, Dextrose, Dried Onion, Dried Garlic, Dried Parsley, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Maltodextrin, Natural Flavor, Rosemary, Salt, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate Added To Maintain Natural Color, Sugar, Vinegar.  2g of fat and 180mg of sodium. A much better product.

UPDATE: Ingredients for the bread in the french toast: We use Nature's Own Whole Wheat Bread for the french toast . The ingredients are: STONE GROUND WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, WATER, BROWN SUGAR, YEAST, WHEAT GLUTEN, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING: SALT, VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN OIL OR CANOLA OIL), DOUGH, CONDITIONERS (SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, CALCIUM, STEAROYL-2-LACTYLATE, MONOGLYCERIDES, CALCIUM IODATE, ETHOXYLATED MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CALCIUM PEROXIDE, DATEM), CULTURED WHEAT FLOUR, VINEGAR, CALCIUM SULFATE, MONOCALCIUM, PHOSPHATE, YEAST FOOD (AMMONIUM SULFATE), SOY LECITHIN. Eggs and milk are used as well but they are not organic. 


I do not believe the wrap used for the egg and cheese is whole grain.

School Get-togethers Keep Getting Healthier

Watermelon is always popular

Over the Labor Day weekend, my son attended a play-date at a local park for the kids who are in his new kindergarten class. As usual, parents brought snacks -- and almost everyone brought something relatively healthy with fruit being the most popular option. The kids loved it and fruit is a great option when there are allergiesin the class. Over the past few years the number of munchkins and cookies seems to be dwindling.
 

These fruit kabobs were eaten instantly

What's for Lunch - Thurs., 9/6

Actual Caesar Salad from our School

Whole Wheat Bagel Pizza
Fresh Pizza Sauce with Fresh Mozzarella & Basil
Caesar Salad
Fresh Melon
--No Salad Bar--

We make this pizza ourselves with a whole wheat bagel.  The sauce is a Red Pack vitamin enhanced tomato sauce. The sodium at 140mg is much lower than we previously used.  Here are the ingredients: Tomato Concentrate (Water, Tomato Paste), Sugar, Soybean Oil, Potassium Chloride, Onion Powder, Salt, Citric Acid, Spice, Garlic Powder, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Black Pepper, Vitamin E (DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate), Natural Flavor, Vitamin A (Retinol Palmitate).  Pizzas are topped with fresh mozzarella and basil.

We have great fresh fruits and vegetables today -  Caesar salad as shown above and fresh melon.


This is a good example of all the whole grains on our lunch menu this year thanks to the new nutritional requirements in the school lunch law and the efforts of our food service department.

Our salad bar will be back in swing next week.

Keep in mind that the ingredients posted are to the best of our knowledge. They can vary and should be used for general nutritional information. If you have a specific concern or allergy, please call the food services office.

Last year's Pizza Bagel - This week they will have fresh mozzarella and basil.

Lunch Menu Has Been Posted!

Welcome Back to School Everyone!

Lunch starts on Thursday - our first full day - and you can see the menu posted on the district website.

The salad bar will not open until Monday.

Check back for more details on what's in the lunch every day.