New Documentary Critical of School Lunches

A new documentary called "Lunch" premiered at film festivals this year. The documentary criticizes the "fast food" style of food served at most schools.

"The documentary, made by Avid Richards, paints a frightening picture of childhood obesity and diseases related to food, before it offers some hope in the work being done to bring more produce and less processed food into cafeterias.

" 'Even the best private schools' fail to serve healthy lunches, Richards said in an interview. 'Everybody needs education on this issue.' " - Los Angeles Times Blog, "Documentary Decries the Food on School Lunch Trays," by Mary MacVean.

Organic Fresh Fingers agrees that the food served in most schools is pretty bad. That's why we work with schools to serve healthy, organic and locally-sourced meals that children love. All of our meals meet the requirement for the National School Lunch Program.

Contact us today to talk about how to get our program started at your school!

National School Lunch Week

This week is National School Lunch Week. The purpose of National School Lunch Week is to promote the benefits of participating in the National School Lunch Program, and to help raise awareness of the importance of fresh and healthy school lunches.

"Each year campaign organizers choose a theme that encouarges children to enter the dialogue about nutrition in school in a way that is easy, fun, and interactive. This year's theme is "School Lunch - What's on Your Tray?" to demonstrate that what children and adults put on their "trays" every day provides insight into their personality.

To engage both parents and children, the campaign provides a variety of resources including a parent/student brochure outlining how the school nutrition program works and the benefits of eating a healthy school lunch, puzzles and school lunch related brainteasers for students, 5 school lunch menus complete with recipes and nutritional information provided by SNA's Nutrition Committee, an online personality quiz that will help students, parents, and teachers discover their school lunch profile, and 5 cartoon characters, aptly named Chilled, Creative, Balanced, Strong, and Radiant, each representing a different result from the "What's on Your Tray?" personality quiz." - Food Safety News, "National School Lunch Week: What's on Your Tray?" by Claire Mitchell.

All of the lunches that Organic Fresh Fingers provides to schools are not only healthy, organic and fresh, but they also qualify for the National School Lunch Program. We work closely with schools to make sure they can participate in the National School Lunch Program. Give us a call today to see how we can help your school lunch program!

Children growing their own food leads to healthier eating choices

Organic Fresh Fingers has long made the argument that given the opportunity, children will eat and enjoy healthy school lunches.

Alice Waters and a new study at University of California, Berkeley agrees, but they take it one step further - children that actually participate in growing their own food make healthier eating choices also.

At Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, students have been growing their own fruits and veggies in the school's garden, what they call an "Edible Schoolyard," for the past five years. From 2006 to 2009, scientists at UC-Berkeley conducted study on the effects growing their own food had on the students.

"Among the key findings of the research, which was commissioned by the Chez Panisse Foundation and is one of the first such studies to evaluate an integrated approach to food education:

• Increased nutritional knowledge among 4th and 7th graders who were fed a steady stream of gardening and cooking curriculum.

• Higher fruit and vegetable consumption among elementary-age students in schools ... including a preference for leafy greens like kale, spinach, and chard.

• Vegetable intake was almost one serving per day greater in the schools with a beefed-up food curriculum, and combined fruit and vegetable consumption increased by 1.5 servings. About 80 percent of this increase came from in-season produce. In comparison, researchers found a nearly quarter-serving drop in produce intake among other students.

• Small increases in produce consumption occurred among middle-schoolers with higher exposure to nutrition education as opposed to a drop in fruit and vegetable intake by about one serving a day among students in the other group. - The Atlantic, "Berkeley's New School Food Study: A Victory for Alice Waters," by Sarah Henry."

Chef Ann Coopers, who is over school lunch at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, says, "With this study, we can finally prove that what we feed kids and what we teach them about food really does make a difference."

We at Organic Fresh Fingers couldn't agree more.

School Lunch and its Challenges

Since starting our fresh, organic school lunch program at Organic Fresh Fingers, we've had to be aware of all the federal regulations on school lunches. As The Seattle Times found out when it did an in-depth report on Seattle school lunch programs, there are quite a few obstacles to overcome when trying to make school lunches fresher and healthier.

"Should schools increase their lunch budget — which could force cuts to other programs? How about jacking up the prices, so well-off families subsidize the low-income kids? You wouldn't want to suggest the less-affluent kids should get less, would you?

Now, before you vote, remember you have to play by a lot of rules. (And in case you think that's easy, please know that I've deciphered everything from Supreme Court rulings to state foster-care regulations, and this stuff was just as complicated.)

While districts set their own menus, they've got to meet minimums set by the USDA for protein, iron, calcium and Vitamins A and C. They've also got to keep the fat calories under 30 percent.

They've got to make food that kids want to put on their trays, or risk losing funding. (Remember, the feds only give meal subsidies for kids who actually take the meals. Commodity allotments are based on the number of lunch-eaters, too.)

And they've got to create meals that can easily be consumed, by little hands, in less than 20 minutes. Often with a spork." - The Seattle Times, "School lunch has so many issues to chew on, it's tough to change," by Maureen O'Hagan

Organic Fresh Fingers works with school to provide them nutritious, organic and affordable meals that meet all the federal requirements. And kids love the food. Please visit www.organicfreshfingers.com to learn more about how Organic Fresh Fingers is changing school lunch programs in the Salem and Portland metro areas.

A victory for Chickens In The Yard.

Living Culture Online: A victory for Chickens In The Yard.: "Fresh eggs, coming soon to a neighborhood near you! Salem is so close to having chickens, I can almost taste it! Last night Salem City C..."

Check out this great article by Nate Rafn regarding the recent, and almost final, hearing on the backyard chicken issue!

Project Lunch: Teens Work Together to Serve Healthier School Lunches

In Northern California, a group of teens have joined together to launch Project Lunch, an initiative to promote and provide healthier school lunches. Just like Organic Fresh Fingers, they are working to give students healthy, organic, locally sourced and sustainable school lunches.

Click here to read the Huffington Post article about the iniative, and click here to visit the Project Lunch website.

Image obtained from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-spiegelman/post_829_b_712281.html

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