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school lunch

UK School Kids Ditch Junk Food for Vegetables They Grow

by Jennifer Lance on December 22, 2009 · 6 comments

Photo by Monica R.Practical food education begins at an early age.

Practical food education begins at an early age.

I’ve long advocated for gardening with kids, not only to connect children closer with nature but to improve their diet. Food for Life Partnership, “a network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture,” agrees. The Telegraph reports:

Emma Noble, director of the Food for Life Partnership, said: “It is possible to transform school food culture and to increase school meal take-up at the same time when young people’s views are listened to and school meal changes are supported by practical food education like learning to cook, growing food and visiting farms to learn where food actually comes from.”

Every school should have a garden; every child should be involved in growing food. Food for Life Partnership works with 1500 schools across England to “change their school dinners with freshly prepared local, seasonal and organic ingredients.” The group is getting amazing results, with participation in school meals growing from 30 to 400 children at one of the partner schools “bucking” the national trend of “surprisingly low” involvement in healthy school meals.

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Fast Food Hamburgers Safer Than School Lunches

by Jennifer Lance on December 15, 2009 · 4 comments

Photo by ZeroOneFast food meat is safer than school lunches.

Fast food meat is safer than school lunches.

Fast food is notorious for its high calories and fat content; however, a new study has found the meat served by restaurant chains, such as McDonald’s, is actually safer than the hamburgers served in school lunches.  It is not that fast food, largely responsible for the obesity epidemic in America, is healthier than school lunches, but fast food restaurants have stricter safety standards. Considering children are “most susceptible to food-borne illnesses”, it is morally reprehensible the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) does not take food safety seriously.

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Contaminated Peanut Butter Sent to Schools

by Jennifer Lance on February 6, 2009 · 2 comments

contaminated peanut butter sent to schoolsThe salmonella contaminated peanut butter recall has been in the news for weeks, yet recently it has been discovered that the federal government sent potentially tainted peanut butter and roasted peanuts to schools in California, Minnesota and Idaho in 2007.  It is unclear how much of this product remains in schools.

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Yesterday, the Department of Agriculture suspended all business with Peanut Corp. of America, and schools are checking cafeterias and vending machines for old stock. David Shipman, acting administrator of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service stated Peanut Corp. “lacks business integrity and business honesty, which seriously and directly hinders its ability to do business with the federal government.” [read the full article...]

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