In the News...

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(4/29/03) Olympia Schools Continue to Focus on Nutritious Food At Pioneer Elementary School, where the menu is varied, second-grader Bryce Inglin (left) chews a bite of organic salad. Pioneer offers a range of food selections that include a salad bar with some organic fruits and vegetables as well as more traditional school lunch menu items.

(4/29/03) Hall Talk: There's Junk Food On The School Menu Pizza, jo-jos, nachos or corn dogs - come and get 'em while they're hot. Get your soda, Popsicles or cookies. You'd think that you were at a baseball game, but actually this is what is served at Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School during lunchtime.

(4/29/03) School Lunch Eligibility Scrutinized: School lunch providers in Evanston and elsewhere are wary that proposed federal rules to require income verification of all families applying for lunch subsidies could become a paperwork nightmare and scare off some applicants entitled to the free meals.

(4/29/03) Costs of School Lunch Programs At Odds With Healthy Choices

(4/29/03) What Are They Really Serving For Lunch? Check out this menu randomly selected by the CHOICE staff.

(4/29/03) School Lunch Cost Could Climb 30% Some schools are substantially raising school lunch prices in hopes of increasing revenue. Will this plan work, or will it backfire?

(4/28/03) Study Suggests Western Diet Tied to Prostate Cancer: Prostate cancer (news - web sites) is 10 times more common in the United States than Japan and preliminary research suggests that differences in diet may be a reason why.

(4/23/03) Fallout Over Irradiated Food in School Lunches Irradiation zaps meat with electrons, X-rays or gamma rays to kill pathogens such as E. coli 0157:H7 and salmonella. Proponents of the process say it has been found safe by the Food and Drug Administration and is an important food-safety tool. Those who oppose it say irradiation is an unproven technology that should not be tested on children.

(4/23/03) Childhood Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes At An All Time High An estimated 20% of all cases of new onset type 2 diabetes are in individuals between the ages of 9-19. Twenty years ago only 2% of newly diagnosed cases of type 2 diabetes occurred in young people. It appears that the exploding rates of physical inactivity and obesity among our young people are largely responsible for the emerging epidemic of type 2 diabetes among children and teens.

(4/23/03) National PTA Certification Helps Parents, Schools and Communities Make the Grade; Six Key Watchpoints Credited According to a National PTA survey, parent and family involvement is seen as one of the most effective means of education reform. This is why National PTA developed six watchpoints-based on their National Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs-to help parents become more active in their children's schools.

(4/23/03) California Assembly Approves Resolution Asking for Vegetarian School Lunches A resolution encouraging schools to offer a vegetarian option on school lunch menus was approved by the California State Assembly on Monday. The resolution, sponsored by Assemblyman Joe Nation (D-San Rafael), was approved 65-11.

It calls on state education and health officials to develop a school lunch menu plan that includes vegetarian meals prepared without meat products, and vegan options that exclude meat, eggs and dairy.

The menu plans would be voluntarily phased in over four years.

(4/23/03) Meatless Monday Campaign The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health agreed to work with "The Meatless Monday Campaign" in a nationwide effort to reduce the consumption of saturated fat and calories in the American diet. The campaign calls for eliminating meat from meals one day per week to encourage people to explore healthy dietary alternatives and increase awareness of the toll meat consumption takes on our health and the environment.

(4/23/03) The Milk Controversy What Are the Concerns Surrounding Milk?

(4/22/03) U.N. Sticks to Advice to Limit Sugar Intake GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (news - web sites) says it stands by scientific findings advising consumers to limit sugar intake, shrugging off pressure from sugar and soft drinks industry lobbyists to ease off.

(4/22/03) Serve Healthier Lunches You can lead a student to the school cafeteria, but you can't make him or her eat a nutritious lunch. However, if nutritious food is all that's available, students might be more inclined to eat a healthier midday meal.

(4/21/03) Irradiated Meat On School Lunch Menu: CBS News Reports

(4/21/03) Sugar Industry Threatens to Scupper WHO The sugar industry in the US is threatening to bring the World Health Organisation to its knees by demanding that Congress end its funding unless the WHO scraps guidelines on healthy eating, due to be published on Wednesday.

(4/20/03) NFPA to Share Food Safety Expertise with Consumers, Media, Allied Organizations

(4/20/03) As Irradiated Meat Heads to Schools, Parents Remain Fearful of the Technology

(4/18/03) Doctor's Office Counseling Boosts Veggie Intake LONDON (Reuters Health) - People who attend two short counseling sessions at the doctor's office are likely to boost their intake of fruit and vegetables, British researchers reported Thursday.

(4/17/03)Ominous Rise of Adult Diabetes in Kids Once a true medical oddity, children with adult diabetes are becoming commonplace. Doctors blame the twin evils of too much food and too little exercise and fear a tragic upswing in disastrous diabetic complications as this overweight generation reaches adulthood.

(4/17/03) With Children's Nutrition, All That Glitters Is Not Gold For parents trying to get their children to eat right, it's an uphill struggle against marketing campaigns that use vibrant colors and seductive packaging to lure children into an unhealthy world...

(4/15/03) The Lean Plate Club: Testing One's Fiber

(4/15/03) Nutrient data now available on home computers via the internet

(4/15/03) Fun and gains after school After School Programs are a hit in Philadelphia.

(4/14/03 Christian Science Monitor) Potato Chips, Cola, and Sweets, Oh My! As the US Congress prepares to do its first review of school-lunch legislation in five years, critics are charging that school lunch in the US is a mess - and in some cases it is only getting worse.

"The past 10 years have been really bad," says Antonia Demas, director of the Food Studies Institute, a nonprofit children's-health advocacy group in Trumansburg, N.Y. The only good news, she says, is that the way kids eat in school "is getting so bad that people are finally paying attention."

(4/14/03) Lunch Cheats Better Beware A well written article regarding stricter approvals for free and reduced lunch qualification.

(4/14/03) HEALTH REPORT: Kids in Kitchen Make a Good Mix If you want to turn your kids on to food and nutrition, try involving them in the kitchen.

(4/12/03) Food Tasting Schools provide means for taste-testing, but are they tasting the best foods?

(4/11/03) House Adopts Budget Resolution, No Cuts to Child Nutrition The U.S. House of Representatives voted 216-211 to pass a budget resolution early Friday morning, April 11, 2003. The Senate is expected to pass the same resolution late today. The final budget resolution is the result of a conference committee between members of the Senate and House that concluded late yesterday. The final budget that passed does not include a potential $9.4 billion cut to the essential child nutrition programs, which was part of $265 billion in spending cuts to mandatory programs.

(No date) UNHAPPY MEALS: School lunches are loaded with fat -- and the beef and dairy industries are making sure it stays that way. Learn more...

(4/07/03) MCDONALD'S TO REDUCE SPENDING, TARGET TEENS Learn more...

(4/03/03) SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING RE: CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS: CHOICE representatives attend. Testimony was heard from the following individuals:

Mr. Eric Bost, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, USDA
Mr. James Weill, President, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)
Douglas Besharov, American Enterprise Institute and the University of Maryland
Jill Leppert, President, National WIC Association
Ann Curry, Vice President for Legislative and Political Affairs, Food Marketing Institute
Karen Caplan, representing the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association
Rod Hofstedt, representing the National Child and Adult Care Food Program
Don Wambles, President, WIC Farmers Market Association

Testimony from each witness can be read
in full on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition
and Forestry Committee’s Web site.

(4/03/03) RISING OBESITY AMONG KIDS HAS OREGON THINKING TO RESTRICT SALES: Citing an alarming rate of obesity and other health problems among children, public-health advocates and parents urged the Legislature on Wednesday to restrict student access to high-fat chips and sugar-loaded candy and drinks. Learn more...

(4/02/03) PARENTS AND CHILDREN MEET THEIR VEGGIES: Tips from the front line for parent's who want to see their kids eat more veggies. Learn more...

(4/01/03) SCHOOL LUNCHES: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION? Learn more...

(4/01/03) POPULARITY OF ORGANIC FOODS GROW: According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, organic farming is one of the fastest-growing segments of agriculture in America. The most recent estimate puts retail sales of organic foods at more than $7.8 billion, with nearly half purchased at conventional grocery stores. The reasons for the high demand in organic food vary directly with the people consuming them. Learn more...

(4/01/03) TASTY MORSEL: How one food service director makes a difference. Learn more...

(4/01/03) CATERING TO CHANGE: The demands for plant-based foods increase within the black community. Learn more...

(4/01/03) STIRRING UP ACTIVISM FOR KIDS: If you're reticent to 'get involved' because you think schools are opposed to parent's participation, check out this US Department of Education website. Learn more...

3/31/03 CHALLENGE FOR HEALTHIER SCHOOLS offers $125,000 for schools who submit innovative ideas to address student wellness. Learn more...

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