No More Chocolate Milk in LA Schools!

According to the LA Times, the LAUSD has decided to stop providing flavored milk in schools. We are very excited to see this change in such a large public school district. We don't provide any flavored milk to the schools we serve, and the myths about kids not drinking milk or eating lunch are just not true. There's no reason to continue serving our children milk that has as much sugar as a soda in it on a daily basis.

According to the paper:

"The L.A. Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday voted to stop providing chocolate or strawberry-flavored milk in school cafeterias as of July 1.

The move makes L.A. the largest school system in the nation to pull flavored milks out of schools and is part of a larger push to make the food served at school more nutritious. L.A. Unified earlier banned sodas sales at schools.

The district's new superintendent, John Deasy, said plain milk is a healthier option. Parents and some activists have long wanted the district to stop serving flavored milk, which has more sugar than plain milk.

About 60% of the cartons of milk that kids consume each day are flavored, and some people are worried that without it kids won't eat school lunch at all. The district gets federal funding through reimbursements for meals served.

Eliminating flavored milk "is a big deal," said Megan Bomba, a project coordinator at Occidental College's Urban and Environmental Policy Institute and a school food reform advocate.

"If they succeed, no other district will have an excuse," she said Tuesday morning."

To read the full story, visit the Los Angeles Times website.

Fed Up With Lunch!

We're big fans of Mrs. Q's blog "Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project." Mrs. Q is a public school teacher. In 2010, she decided to eat school lunch every day, just like her students do.

You can read all about her experience, her reviews of school lunch, and her thoughts on how to improve it on her blog. We encourage you to take a look if you're interested in school lunch, how you can help to improve it, and what some better options are when packing a lunch for you or your kids.

Is There Too Much Regulation Around School Lunch?

We appreciated this article from the Huffington Post about new school lunch regulation, and why it's a good thing.

Our children face a devastating obesity crisis -- and yet some Washington lawmakers are calling even the most commonsense moves to ensure them a healthier diet a "classic nanny-state overreach."

Really? Let's look at what these simple, straightforward federal efforts actually do.

For instance, the first meaningful overhaul of school nutrition guidelines in 15 years would cut sodium in subsidized lunches by more than half, encourage more whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to a single cup of starchy vegetables (read: French fries) per week. Is that terrible?

But that's not the only part of the Michelle Obama-backed healthy food movement that offends these regulation foes.

The very same politicians who have made a career of calling for a free and open marketplace of ideas want to limit the amount of information kids (and parents) can get about their food. Calorie counts on menus have been a proven boon for families who want to cut out hidden fat, sugar and salt from their diet -- but Republican lawmakers say that providing even this basic information on menus and at food stores is "back-door regulation."

This argument isn't just fodder for political shouting matches in Washington, though. These efforts have real consequences for the millions of children facing obesity and obesity-related diseases.

Today, one in six American kids is obese, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity. And the problem is getting worse.

In the past three decades, the obesity rate among teenagers (aged 12-19) has more than tripled (from 4.9% to 18.1%). The rise is even visible among the very young. During that same time period, obesity rates have doubled among kids aged 2 to 5 (from 5% to 10.4%).

The long-term health consequences of this crisis are real, too. Researchers estimate that one out of every three boys and two out of every five girls born in the United States in the year 2000 will be diagnosed with diabetes. More than 100,000 children suffer from asthma every year because of their weight. And if current adolescent obesity rates continue, by 2035 there will be more than 100,000 additional cases of coronary heart disease attributable to obesity.

The crisis is real -- and we need to get serious about dealing with it.

-Angela Glover Blackwell, HuffingtonPost.com.

Organic Fresh Fingers is Hiring a Delivery Driver

Organic Fresh Fingers, Inc. is HIRING a Delivery Driver!

We are hiring a delivery driver ASAP. You will need to be available to begin work on June 20. This is a part-time position during the summer, with a possibility to turn into full-time when school starts again in the fall. Driver needs to be available Mondays & Thursdays.

Please contact us if you are interested. Email resume to alexis@organicfreshfingers.com and/or call 503-371-1108.

USDA Introduces MyPlate

The UDSA recently replaced the Food Pyramid with MyPlate. And it looks like they got it right this time.

We were pleased to see how well this illustration reflects what our Fresh n' Local lunches look like. Half of your meal should be fruits & vegetables, and the protein should be the smallest serving on your plate.

You can visit ChooseMyPlate.gov to learn more about the new dietary guidelines, or download a .pdf of the guidelines.





According to the USDA, MyPlate is designed to highlight the following points:

	Balancing Calories
	●	Enjoy your food, but eat less.
	●	Avoid oversized portions.
	Foods to Increase
	●	Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
	●	Make at least half your grains whole grains.
	●	Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
	Foods to Reduce
	●	Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers.
	●	Drink water instead of sugary drinks.