New Year, New Choices

Well, August is upon us and my mind is turning from packing camp lunches to packing school lunches in just a few weeks. My son just got into PS10 pre-k so I will have two children at the school starting in September. Oh...it can be so tiring to pack nutritious lunches daily, but when I think of the alternative I shutter! As a title1 school, PS10 offers free lunch all week, but is this food healthy for our children to consume? Last year I allowed my daughter to have school lunch once a week. She was so excited the days she could stand in line with the other kids and get her tray of food and chocolate milk. I feel like my challenge ahead this year is to make my packed lunches more appealing (packing a nutritional punch). I also want to see what change I can help instill regarding school nutrition including lunches, snacks, ice cream day, snapple machines etc. I think I will begin by handing out that great healthy snack list to the other classroom parents!

Nutritious Snacks from the Office of School Foods

I was just browsing on the Office of School Foods' website, and was intrigued by an innocuously titled tab called "Nutritious Snacks".
Check out what the OSF has to say about Nutritious Snacks:

SchoolFood’s goal is to help students practice healthy eating by reducing or eliminating the total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium content of our snack items. Many popular snack items have been reformulated to meet enhanced nutritional standards. Maximum levels of fat may not exceed 38% of total calories and sodium content may not exceed 350 mg per portion. Artificial coloring, flavoring and sweeteners and MSG are not permitted. Nutritious snacks that meet our requirements are listed below. As new products and new formulations become available the list will be updated.

Sounds good, right? But look what they have to offer. Caramel Coated Corn Puffs? J&J Snacks Shape-Ups Lemon?

Updated November 2006
MANUFACTURER PRODUCT
Benzel's Oat Bran Pretzels
California Classics Caramel Coated Corn Puffs
ConAgra Fruit & Grain Bar-Strawberry, Apple Cinnamon
Frito Lay Baked Potato Chips-Original, BBQ, Sour Cream & Onion
Original Sun Chips
Rold Gold Heartzels
Smart Food Reduced Fat White Cheddar Popcorn
Handi Foods Pita Puffs-BBQ, Cinnamon
J & J Snacks Shape-Ups-Lemon, Orange, Cherry Apple
Frozen Baked Pretzel

Kraft Foodservice Cinnamon Teddy Grahams
Crispy Wheats
Honey Graham Sticks
100 Calorie Pack-Cinnamon Thin Crisps, Wheat Thins Chips, Multi Grain

Linden's Cookies Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Peanut Butter Chip, Lemon, Fudge Chip, Apple
Soft Dough-Apple, Chocolate Chip, Butter Crunch
Minis-Chocolate Chip, Butter Crunch

Perry's Ice Cream Ice Cream Sandwich-Vanilla, Chocolate
Chocolate/Vanilla Ice Cream Cup
Strawberry Yogurt Bar
Chocolate Fudge Pop

Robert's American Gourmet Plain Potato Crisps
White Cheddar Cheese Rice & Corn Puffs
Soy Crisps-BBQ, White Cheddar
Original Veggie Chips

Stacy's Pita Chips-Original, Pesto, Cinnamon, Parmesan & Herb
SuperSnax Cool Ranch Pretzel Poppers
Blazin' Hot Poppers
Cinnamon Toast Bites

Tabatchnick Fruit Smoothie-Strawberry, Berry
Uncle George's Assorted Pita Chips

JUST FOOD Summit

Just Food (the people who organize CSA's in NYC) is sponsoring a workshop on December 1:

GOOD FOOD NOW!
Just Food’s Regional Summit on Food, Farms and Community Health at the New School

One of the workshops is on School Food.
This sounds like a great day.

Suggested Snack Lists

I posted a suggested snacks lists as a permanent side bar -- in Spanish and English -- to the right and down below.

These are great lists to pass out to parents at the beginning of the school year, or anytime.

There are so many food moments in school that are within our control, and it's a great idea to focus on these.

Another thing to do with a snack list is to list a few nearby stores where parents can get these items -- make it as easy as possible!

I met a teacher from the Bronx once whose school had outright banned junk food in lunches and at snacks. After several notices and a transition period (in which junk food was confiscated but returned at the end of the day), the teachers finally started throwing away all junk food they found. To make it easier for parents and kids, they wanted to have the bodega near the school have a shelf of approved snacks, so kids could just go in and know which snacks were okay. What a great idea! Unfortunately, the bodega was under contract with its suppliers to display certain food together in a particular way.

And, unfortunately, parents complained about their kids' food being thrown away, and the rule was repealed. Not sure why they couldn't just go back to returning food at the end of the day. I still think it's a great idea. It maybe just shouldn't have involved throwing away the food.

Considering what we now know about additives and preservatives found in junk food affecting kids' behavior, it seems especially important to try to limit the junk food in school.

-Larissa

PS 124 Pre-K: Culture Shock

My daughter Carmen started pre-k at PS 124 this year. Parents take turns bringing snacks for the whole class. During the first couple of weeks alone, those snacks included gummy worms, Oreos and vanilla sandwich cookies... in addition to cupcakes and goody bags of candy for birthdays. It was pretty shocking.

The school food routinely includes pizza and fries as well as the daily chocolate milk. I'm not a food nazi, but I do want to have control over when Carmen eats junk food, and it's kind of heartbreaking when you pick up a kid who goes all to pieces at the end of the day, and you KNOW it's the food.

As a step towards improving the snack issue, I put together a list of healthy snack suggestions that's pretty moderate (and bilingual). I handed it over to the teacher and it seems to be going through the channels now. Next week there's a PTA meeting, perhaps I'll bring it up there... will keep you posted.

- Mirem/PS 124

CSAs for PTAs

One of the things we've been working on at PS 146 is setting up a weekly CSA at the school.

But traditional CSA's -- in which you subscribe at the beginning of the season, and then get weekly "dividends", in the form of fruits and vegetables, as the harvest comes in -- don't work so well with the school year. You'd have to keep the school open in the summer, and a lot of families go away during the prime months of the harvest.

So working with Jay Dines from Dines Farm, my friend Meg set up a a CSA/Farmers Market at the school. Every Sunday night parents can email the farm with their order. On Wednesday afternoons, their is a farm truck outside the school, and people pick up their orders. I've gotten incredible sausage and ribs, gorgeous turnips and radishes, homemade bread and even brownies. It's been incredible. (The picture above is from an order Meg took home.)

How is it connected to the PTA? When our orders reach $500, the farm gives 3% back to the school.

So far we have not ironed out all the kinks, but when everything works, it's amazing to pick up your kid at school and then go get your grocery order!

We started out last year doing an egg delivery through Dines Farms. We got that idea from PS 29, where a parent was doing the same thing.

Even when we can't get school food to change, there are many things we can do to bring healthier food to the school families.

-Larissa/PS 149/Brooklyn

Get Those Snapple Machines Out of the Schools!

This from CSPI:

Urge your Senators to Vote YES on the School Nutrition Amendment to the Farm Bill

Please encourage your Senators to vote “Yes” on the School Nutrition Amendment to the Farm Bill. This historic amendment would limit the sale of sugary drinks and junk food in schools by updating the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nutrition standards for food and beverages sold out of vending machines, a la carte snacks, and school stores and applying them to the whole campus for the extended school day. The updated national nutrition standards address package sizes, calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugars, sodium, and nutrient content.

Your Senators need to hear directly from you, their constituent, that you want them to vote “yes” on the amendment to update school nutrition standards. Also, please pass this alert along to interested friends and family. Thank you in advance for your help!

To sign, click here.

Thanks!