I’m back from summer vacation and slowly (s-l-o-w-l-y!) getting back into the blogging groove. As I catch up on my email and social media feeds, here are some items worth sharing:
Senate Committee Approves School Food “Waiver” Amendment
Mirroring recent action in the House, the Senate appropriations committee has approved an amendment which would weaken school food sodium and grain requirements in the coming fiscal year. More to come on this and related Congressional school food developments in an upcoming Lunch Tray post.
Chartwells Settles With D.C. Schools for $19.4 Million
Another school food story: Chartwells, a major food service management company, has entered into a multi-million dollar settlement over a whistle blower’s allegation that it systematically overcharged the D.C. school district — and this isn’t the first time Chartwells has been accused of wrongdoing. More here from Food Politics.
Must-Read Piece on Food Safety
Politico‘s Helena Bottemiller Evich has written an important piece on the Obama administration’s failure of leadership in supporting and adequately funding the Food Safety Modernization Act. Sound dry and boring? Maybe this alarming statistic from the piece will get your attention: “The United States imports 80 percent of its seafood and roughly half of its fruits and vegetables but inspects less than 2 percent of that and tests even less.”
Civil Eats C0-Founder Profiled
I feel privileged to write regularly for Civil Eats, an award-winning outlet for food policy news, and earlier this year I had the chance to meet the site’s dynamic and lovely co-founder, Naomi Starkman. She has a fascinating background — lawyer, farmer, world traveler, New Yorker media consultant, journalist — which you can read about in a new profile here. And, by the way, if you’re not already a Civil Eats subscriber, I promise the $25 a year fee is well worth it for the in-depth coverage you’ll receive. (Non-subscribers have access to five free articles a month.)
Feeding Young Athletes
Do you have a budding Tom Brady or Mia Hamm living in your house? Coming up this week, I’ll be sharing a guest blog post from Jill Castle, a registered dietitian and child nutrition expert, on “What Young Athletes Need to Know about School Lunch.” I’ll also be giving away a free copy of Jill’s new book, Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete, to one lucky TLT reader. Stay tuned!
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