The Lunch Tray

Marion Nestle (Food Politics) Shares ‘Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory’!

Bettina Elias Siegel — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:24:16 +0000

I’m so excited to share with you today’s post on Marion Nestle’s influential Food Politics blog: a write-up of my rhyming kids’ video about processed food, “Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory“! Wow!

I also want to thank the many TLT friends – readers and fellow bloggers – who’ve continued to give the video a little push now and then on Facebook and Twitter. I haven’t felt so passionate about any project since I started The Lunch Tray three years ago and it’s gratifying to watch the video’s slow but steady spread on the Internet. Even more gratifying is hearing from parents and teachers who’ve told me how much their kids liked watching it — and that they clearly understood the message about healthful eating.

Thanks again, and have a great holiday weekend!

Do You Love The Lunch Tray? ♥♥♥ Then “like” The Lunch Tray! Join over 6,000 TLT fans by liking TLT’s Facebook page (and then adding it to your news feed or interest lists) to get your Lunch delivered fresh daily, along with bonus commentary, interesting kid-and-food links, and stimulating discussion with other readers. You can also follow TLT on Twitter, check out my virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest and find selected TLT posts on The Huffington Post.

A Neglectful Blogger’s Link Round-Up

Bettina Elias Siegel — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:58:08 +0000

I know I’m not supposed to be blogging daily anymore (to preserve my health and sanity), but it just doesn’t feel right not to share with you some of the many interesting articles and links that come across my screen at a rapid clip each day. Lately, though, I’ve been playing catch-up on life – and laundry – after spending almost three weeks doing nothing but producing “Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory.” So please forgive this down and dirty “link dump” of articles and posts worth reading:

Dirt and Kimchee: Your New Best Friends

Run, don’t walk, to read Michael Pollan’s cover story in last Sunday’s New York Times about the role of microbes in fostering human health. While this topic might sound far afield of TLT’s focus on “kids and food,” you’ll soon learn that our “microbiomes” may play a role in some issues frequently discussed here, including childhood obesity and childhood food allergies. Fascinating stuff.

Pay People To Cook?

Here’s a thought-provoking opinion piece by Kristin Wartman arguing that the government should foster home cooking through financial incentives and the tax code.

Is Anything OK to Eat?

I love this post on today’s Real Mom Nutrition blog in which Sally Kuzemchak is fed up with the culture of fear that surrounds food discussions on Facebook. Just a few hours after reading Sally’s piece, I read on Facebook about the “dark side” of Greek yogurt (the production of which creates environmental toxins), reminding me of another recent piece I saw on Facebook about the “dark side” of quinoa (now so expensive it can’t be eaten by the native populations that grow it). All of these concerns are valid, of course, but it’s hard to know what to do about them while still feeding yourself and your family well. Sigh.

School Food Is Better in Japan (and France, and Italy, and Lots of Other Places)

I tire sometimes of sharing glowing reports of how great school food is in other countries, mostly because those countries’ governments give their schools far more funding than our Congress provides, and because those cultures often think about food in a very different way than Americans do, so their schools aren’t forced to fight the same uphill battles. Nonetheless, to the extent we can learn anything from other countries, here’s the latest report about superior school food – this time in Japan.

Does Teaching Kids About Healthful Eating Cause Eating Disorders?

Christina Le Beau of Spoonfed answers with an emphatic “no” in this recent post.

Marion Nestle Tells It Like It Is

This is now a few weeks old but I wanted to share this Politico op-ed from Marion Nestle (Food Politics) and Rob Waters explaining – in response to another op-ed by a Republican Congressman - why it’s actually OK for the Center for Disease Control to tell Americans that some foods are, you know, not very good for us.

Happy reading!

Do You Love The Lunch Tray? ♥♥♥ Then “like” The Lunch Tray! Join almost 6,000 TLT fans by liking TLT’s Facebook page (and then adding it to your news feed or interest lists) to get your Lunch delivered fresh daily, along with bonus commentary, interesting kid-and-food links, and stimulating discussion with other readers. You can also follow TLT on Twitter, check out my virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest and find selected TLT posts on The Huffington Post.

An Update on Mr. Zee!

Bettina Elias Siegel — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:41:38 +0000

Last week I released on YouTube a rhyming children’s video, “Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory,” which I wrote and illustrated to help teach young kids to think more critically about processed food and Big Food’s advertising. (More on what motivated me to do so here.)

Mr. Zee is ready for his close-up.

When you’re one person going up against Big Food’s almost $2 billion in annual children’s advertising expenditures, it’s always going to be an uphill battle to get your message heard. But thanks to you, my amazing Lunch Tray readership, Mr. Zee is off to an excellent start! The video has received an average of about 900 new views a day – or 6,000 total views in just one week. (OK, so it’s not “Gangnam Style,” but still pretty great!)

The video was tweeted by many of my food heroes, including Michael Moss (Salt Sugar Fat), Melanie Warner (Pandora’s Lunchbox), Laurie David, Chef Ann Cooper, Nancy Huehnergarth, 100 Days of Real Food and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. It’s also starting to get coverage from respected bloggers and writers and, gratifyingly, each of these posts have added to the larger conversation about kids, food and media.

For example, yesterday Dana Woldow published in Beyond Chron an interview with me about the making of the video. But the real thrust of the piece is how the food industry is increasing its use of nontraditional — and entirely free — forms of advertising such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach our kids in hopes of turning them into unwitting marketers for unhealthful products. The good news, as Dana points out, is that concerned parents and advocates can also harness these same free social media channels to share their own counter-messages, just as I’ve tried to do with Mr. Zee.

Tireless food advocate Robyn O’Brien shared the video on her Prevention blog, Inspired Bites, and said it evoked for her the 1970s classic “Free to Be You and Me.” The video is definitely not worthy of that comparison but I loved how Robyn urges us all to leverage our collective talents to make the changes we want to see in our food system.

Today Casey Hinds of KY Healthy Kids features the video in a post entitled “Teaching Kids to Love the Foods that Love them Back,” in which she recounts the last six years of educating her daughter on the principles of healthful eating — and the uphill battle she’s faced in today’s food environment.

Gina Rau writes the wonderful Feed our Families blog and though she and I “met” way back in 2010 when our blogs were chosen as Blogs of the Month by Jamie Oliver, we only just learned that we both have experience working in the processed food industry — proof that you can cross over from the Dark Side. :-) She was kind enough to give the video a lovely write-up here.

I also want to thank: Laurie David’s The Family Dinner Book, Bri of Red, Round or Green (my jingle singer!), Dr. Dina Rose of It’s Not About Nutrition, Veggieevangilist, Robin Shreeves of the Mother Nature Network, and Cooking Sprouts for spreading the word; Christina Le Beau for adding Mr. Zee to her blog Spoonfed‘s list of resources; and the many TLT friends, including Grains & More, Time at the Table, Eat Dinner, Real Mom Nutrition, Eating Rules and School Bites, for sharing and tweeting the video.

I’ll keep you updated now and then on the video’s progress and thank you again for sharing it via Facebook and Twitter. By the way, the video now has its own Twitter hashtag: #MrZee. What else? :-)

You Say You Want a Revolution . . .

Bettina Elias Siegel — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:07:56 +0000

You guys, I feel like I’m walking on air today . . .

On a personal level, today marks my 15th year of wedded bliss with Mr. TLT – now also known to the world as the evil “Mr. Zee!”

It also happens to be the birthday of one of my food heroes, Janet Poppendieck, whose seminal book Free For All: Fixing School Food in America led directly to my starting this blog back in 2010. Happy birthday, JanPop!

But the big news is that today is also Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day, a day on which communities across the world come together to celebrate real food. And on this particular Food Revolution Day, something especially exciting is going on. The folks at Food Day just announced that they’re launching a new partnership with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution team to ensure that every child in every school in America will have access to food education. Bravo!

And that development leads me back to the rhyming children’s video I released earlier this week, “Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory.”

On Wednesday I explained to you the “why” behind the video: like the folks at Food Day and the Food Revolution, I think one of the most important things we can do to reverse current unhealthful trends is to teach our children about real food and to get them thinking more critically about Big Food’s media messages.

But what has me especially excited today is not the “why” but the “how” of the video’s creation.

Ten years ago, if I’d gotten it into my head to write a children’s story, I’d have to pray that some publisher would agree the story was worthwhile, and then that a reader would be able to find my story on a crowded shelf at a local bookstore. Trying to effectuate meaningful change through the medium of a children’s story would have been virtually impossible for a random person like me.

But now, with the power of the Internet, in just two days over 3,000 people have watched my video. And many readers have told me that teachers have already started sharing the video in school classrooms. That’s just astonishing to me — and tremendously gratifying.

There are times when I, like many people, feel dismayed by the stronghold that the processed food and beverage industries seem to have over our elected leaders. But with the equalizing power of the Internet, we’ve seen that we don’t always need our elected leaders to bring about change.

My online “pink slime” petition led to an improvement in USDA policy in a mere nine days. Armed only with a hashtag (#FRD2103), Jamie Oliver today will bring thousands of people together from around the world to make common cause in support of real food and cooking literacy. Scandalous food practices that in the past might have been buried in obscurity are today quickly brought to light and shared worldwide with the click of a mouse. Sometimes companies listen to our concerns and sometimes they don’t, but even a “loss” is a win when individuals like 100 Days of Real Food and the Food Babe can get the national media to shine a spotlight on important food issues many consumers know nothing about. And, closer to home, you and I can have daily conversations here on The Lunch Tray about the kid-and-food issues we care about, supporting each other, sharing resources — and sometimes even influencing the national conversation about food and food policy.

I’ve never felt more excited about the future of food. Maybe the best way to wind up this rather giddy post (and no, my husband and I haven’t broken out the anniversary bubbly yet) is with this recent quote from Marion Nestle, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the publication of her groundbreaking book, Food Politics.

Despite . . . formidable [food industry] opposition, now is a thrilling time to be advocating for better food and nutrition, for the health of children, and for greater corporate accountability. As more people recognize how food companies influence government policies about agricultural support, food safety, dietary advice, school foods, marketing to children, and food labeling, they are inspired to become involved in food movement action.

Let’s stay inspired, people! Happy Food Revolution Day!

To ‘Inoculate’ Kids Against Big Food’s Advertising . . . A Lunch Tray Movie!!!

Bettina Elias Siegel — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:56:05 +0000

In March, 2011 I was honored to be chosen as one of the winners of a Slate magazine anti-childhood-obesity crowd-sourcing contest. My submission, entitled “Legislate, Educate and Inoculate to Create Food-Savvy Kids,” argued that we need to fight the problem on three fronts: legislation to curb the food industry’s rampant advertising to children; widespread nutrition and cooking education; and what I called “inoculation.” On this latter point, I wrote that we need to:

. . . inoculate kids against the forces that lead to unhealthful eating, akin to that used to discourage teen smoking. Kids generally don’t like having someone try to pull the wool over their eyes, so just as we’ve made them savvy about the tobacco industry’s insidious techniques to get them to use cigarettes, we need to show kids that the food industry is, in a very direct way, making money at the expense of their own health.

Over two years have passed since I wrote that essay for Slate, but I continue to believe that one of our most promising strategies is showing kids how they’re quite deliberately manipulated by the food industry — to the tune of almost $2 billion in children’s advertising dollars spent each year — into choosing highly processed food and fast food over more healthful options.

I looked around for an illustrated story book with this message intended to reach younger children (say, pre-K to early elementary). But other than great nonfiction books for older readers, like The Omnivore’s Dilemma for Kids, I couldn’t seem to find what I was looking for. And so . . .

Starting with a bouncy, rhyming story which started popping into my head while I was sitting in my kids’ piano lesson one day, I created illustrations on my iPad and then enlisted friends and family, both here in Houston and around the country, to do the voice-overs. My narrator is the super-gifted Rachel Buchman, a professional singer, teacher and voiceover artist (and Grammy semi-finalist!) and you’ll even hear fellow blogger Bri, of Red Round and Green, singing a radio jingle!

I had so much fun creating this video and if you like the story and its message, I only ask one thing in return:

Please consider sharing on Twitter and Facebook – thank you!

And now settle in (for about 12 minutes) and enjoy. And if you do show the video to your kids, as I very much hope you’ll do, please let me know in a comment what they think of it. I’d love the feedback.

More on Children’s Menus: An Interview with Anita Jones-Mueller of Healthy Dining

Bettina Elias Siegel — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:01:30 +0000

Back in July, 2011 I told you about Kids Live Well, a program created by the National Restaurant Association to improve the often-dismal offerings on most chain restaurant children’s menus.

But in late March of this year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest issued a damning report which found that 97% of the restaurant children’s menus surveyed still failed to meet CSPI’s nutritional criteria,with items like chicken nuggets, soda, burgers and fries continuing to dominate most chain restaurant kids’ meals.

I thought it might be interesting to hear from the restaurant industry about CSPI’s findings, so I contacted Healthy Dining, the organization whose registered dietitians worked with the National Restaurant Association to develop the Kids Live Well program and who validate qualifying menu choices. Anita Jones-Mueller, President of Healthy Dining, agreed to speak with me and here is our interview:

TLT: Children reportedly consume 25% of their daily calories at restaurants, so clearly the offerings on children’s menus can have a real impact on the health of our kids. That said, on a philosophical level, do you feel it’s the responsibility of the restaurant industry to provide healthful offerings, or do you feel it’s the parent’s responsibility to make sure a child eats well while dining out?

AJM: I think it takes both: Restaurants generally can’t keep healthful items on the menu if they don’t sell, and if healthful choices aren’t offered on menus, it makes it really hard for parents to reinforce the healthy eating habits they are teaching at home. I think we are in a very exciting time of change right now. More than ever before, our company, Healthy Dining, is seeing the number of restaurants dedicated to offering healthful menu choices growing. And as important, the demand by parents and children for healthier choices is growing, too. So we are thrilled to see such positive change on both sides … which can make a big difference for our nation’s kids and future generations. So that is exciting change!

TLT: Almost two years after the National Restaurant Association announced its Kids Live Well initiative to improve children’s menus, CSPI’s has issued a new report indicating that nearly all of the kids’ meals at America’s top 50 chain restaurants are of poor nutritional quality, with 97% of meals failing to meet CSPI’s own nutritional criteria and 91% failing to meet the Kids Live Well nutritional criteria. What do you make of this finding?

AJM: It is not accurate to say that nearly all the kids meals are of poor nutritional quality based on the fact that they didn’t meet CSPI’s criteria. That is very strict criteria which is not appropriate for many children because every child has varying needs for the amounts of calories and other nutrients, based on age, size, physical activity levels, etc. For instance, any meal that has more than 430 calories was included in the “97%.” I know that after a gymnastics practice, my daughter, who is in a continual growth spurt, needs more than 430 calories for dinner. So having more than 430 calories doesn’t mean her meal is of poor nutritional quality, and in fact, the calories could be packed with nutrients that she needs to grow and learn and thrive. So I think the way the results of the study were messaged was very misleading. Also, the sodium criterion of no more than 770 mg. further restricts a lot of otherwise healthful menu choices. For example, a turkey sandwich with provolone cheese on whole grain bread can add up to 850 mg. of sodium because the bread, turkey, mustard, cheese and pickle slices all contain sodium. So even though I consider the turkey sandwich a very nutritious meal for my kids, it would be included in the “97%.” Other healthful kids items such as teriyaki salmon or BBQ chicken generally don’t fit the sodium criterion. Personally, I don’t focus as much on the nutrition numbers for my kids, but more so I teach them about always including healthful ingredients in every meal and snack. So I want them to look for lean protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and unsaturated fats on the menus. My philosophy is that if the plate has primarily healthful ingredients, then the nutrition numbers will all average out over the course of the day or week. And that also leaves room for occasional desserts, pizza parties, birthday parties and other fun parts of life. I really like the MyPlate icon because it is easy to apply to every meal.

I respect CSPI for their efforts in trying to improve public health, and I think the major take-away from the CSPI study is that there is room for improvement in kids’ meals served at restaurants. Our nation’s kids should be treated to the wonderful flavors of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein as often as possible. And I see that such improvement is happening! I am so impressed with how quickly the Kids LiveWell Program is growing. Healthy Dining’s team worked together with the National Restaurant Association to launch the Kids LiveWell program in July, 2011. Since then, it has grown from 19 participating restaurant companies to more than 130 companies, spanning more than 40, 000 locations all over the nation … and growing every week! Healthy Dining’s dietitians consult with each restaurant that signs up for the Kids LiveWell Program and they tell me all the time how rewarding it is to hear the chefs’ excitement and dedication to creating and offering the Kids LiveWell choices.

TLT: It’s important to note that only 11 of the 50 chains studied by CSPI are participants in the Kids Live Well program (only 10 of which were studied because one didn’t offer nutritional data). But that said, only 11% of the children’s meals from those ten chains meet the Kids LiveWell standards. Do you feel that’s a sufficient level of compliance?

AJM: I think there are a few things to consider: 1) New restaurants are joining the Kids LiveWell Program all the time. So rather than focusing on whether that is enough, I think it is best to reinforce the efforts of those restaurants that are leading this effort. If the participating restaurants find that the Kids LiveWell choices are popular with kids, that will spur them to create and offer more Kids LiveWell choices. And that will also spur more restaurants to join the program. 2) Restaurants are telling us that they are working to revamp their kids meals and add healthier choices. And the reality is that this can take time. They tell us that they don’t want to serve choices that kids don’t like, so they are investing time and money into developing new items. So again, I think that reinforcing the efforts of restaurants that are offering healthier kids choices now is the first step. You can find all the participating restaurants on HealthyDiningFinder.com. Also, telling your favorite restaurants that healthful choices are important to your family is a great way to get more restaurants involved. 3) The CSPI study only looked at the large chains, and many of the restaurants that have joined the Kids LiveWell Program are smaller chains and neighborhood eateries which weren’t counted in the CSPI report. That is an important advantage of the Kids LiveWell program: restaurants of any size can join the program, and Healthy Dining’s dietitians will work with them to identify ways they can offer healthful choices.

TLT: Are there plans in the works to encourage participating Kids Live Well chains to make more of their kids’ menu offerings healthier or otherwise improve compliance?

AJM: I think that is where parents have power. The more restaurants hear from their guests that healthier options are important, the more they will want to meet those requests. So as a parent, let your favorite restaurants know that healthier choices are important to you, and show restaurants by ordering the healthier choices that are featured on HealthyDiningFinder.com. That also helps us to inspire more restaurants to join the Healthy Dining Program. Some of the hottest trends in the restaurant industry right now in large part focus on health and nutrition, which means that restaurants are leading those trends, and others will surely be following soon. The National Restaurant Association’s 2013 studies show the top culinary nutrition-related trends include healthful children’s choices, local sourcing, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lower-sodium, lower calorie and smaller portions. So this is all good news for those of us who to eat out and want to enjoy high quality, healthful meals!

TLT: How do you feel about mandatory nutrition disclosures on children’s menus to help parents make smarter choices?

AJM: Right now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is finalizing the federal menu labeling provision. That provision will require all restaurant companies with 20 or more locations nationwide to post calories on menus and menu boards and have additional nutrition information (fat, saturated fat, sodium, sugar, etc.) available within the restaurant setting. Some regions, like the states of California and Oregon, and cities, like Seattle, Philadelphia and New York City, have already implemented some type of menu labeling legislation. I live in California, so we are used to seeing calories on the menu. Again, I think it is really important to teach kids to look for the healthful components of a meal and not just rely on the calories. For instance, my daughter was looking at a menu board at a Mexican quick service restaurant. She said she wanted the taquitos (fried rolled tacos). I kind of winced and said “that’s fried and it just comes with rice.” And she said, “It’s the one lowest in calories.” I was happy that she was looking at the calories and wanted to make the best choice, so that opened the conversation to talking about how some of the other items, which were higher in calories, were also higher in nutrition value and ultimately wiser choices. So she ended up ordering the soft chicken tacos with corn tortillas, black beans and side salad: more calories but much higher in nutrients.

TLT: Is there anything else you’d like to tell Lunch Tray readers about CSPI’s report and/or the Kids Live Well program?

AJM: Yes, we all know it is important to be a good role model as a parent. So of course we can’t order the fries and expect our kids to have the broccoli. HealthyDiningFinder.com features dietitian-approved menu choices for the whole family, so that everyone can dine out as a delicious part of a healthy lifestyle. The site also offers lots of education and inspiration about nutrition through blogs, article and recipes . I have dedicated my career to helping restaurants offer healthier choices. I have always believed that if we can get restaurants excited about applying their culinary creativity and artistry to creating healthful choices, that will bring an exciting dimension to healthy eating. And in the last few years, I feel like we are really seeing that starting to evolve. Restaurants are an important part of life, and I look forward to continuing to inspire healthy change.

Thanks for including me in your blog, Bettina!

* * *

And thanks to Anita Jones-Mueller for allowing me to interview her on TLT today.

So, TLT readers, what do you think about the current offerings on most children’s menus? Do you feel you’ve seen any meaningful improvement over the last two years? Do you rely on kids’ menus when you dine out with your own children?

And for some good strategies for healthful restaurant dining with kids, here’s a nice piece from Real Simple on that topic. Thanks to Sally of Real Mom Nutrition for posting this on Facebook a while back!

Fourth Grader Goes Undercover in the Cafeteria, Plus More School Food News

Bettina Elias Siegel — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:54:40 +0000

It’s one of those weeks when the school food news is coming in so fast, I can’t keep up! Here’s a quick round-up of articles of interest:

A Fourth-Grader Goes Undercover in the Cafeteria – Are His Findings Accurate?

Many of you have already seen on TLT’s Facebook page today’s New York Times blog account of a New York City fourth-grader named Zachary who secretly filmed the lunches at his public school cafeteria, often revealing a startling disparity between the school menu’s glowing description of the meal and the dismal food actually served.

While the article could lead readers to believe that Zachary’s investigations are current, his family released last year a documentary about his efforts — “Yuck: A Fourth Grader’s Short Documentary About School Lunch.” That timing means Zachary was likely filming his lunches before the reforms of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act were instituted, and that means he was allowed to refuse certain items on the lunch line, including the menu’s promised fruits and vegetables. (A spokeswoman for New York City’s Education Department makes this same observation in the Times blog post.) I haven’t seen Yuck, so I don’t know whether Zachary was using any discretion in refusing certain items — or if those grim, almost-bare styrofoam trays are an accurate portrayal of the lunches offered.

Apart from that possible quibble, the food Zachary filmed still looked pretty awful. As I’ve written about before on The Lunch Tray (see “Many a Slip Twixt Kitchen and School“), districts face real challenges in ensuring that their school lunch rooms present meals in the manner in which they were intended to be served. For example, when Los Angeles USD rolled out an ambitious new menu in 2011, the early, negative student response seemed, in my view, to have more to do with poor preparation than the changed offerings. Similarly, here in Houston ISD, where one central kitchen serves almost 300 schools, I know our Food Services department struggles with ensuring that the workers in each cafeteria understand how to finish off and present the food in a palatable, properly heated state.

At any rate, it seems Zachary’s efforts have gotten the attention of the Education Department’s Office of School Food, which has reportedly asked him for feedback on the new menus in the district.

Open Campuses Hurt School Nutrition Programs

Here’s an article worth reading about how closed-campus policies do much to improve school meal participation — and overall student nutrition — at the high school level.

In-Class Breakfast Continues to Stir Controversy, Plus a Breakfast Development in Texas

Even though I recognize the problems posed by in-class breakfast (loss of instructional time, sanitation issues and, in some districts, the highly processed nature of some of the items served), I still support such programs as an important anti-hunger measure for economically disadvantaged students. That’s why I was pleased to learn yesterday that the Texas state legislature passed a bill to expand the breakfast program in my state.

But in-class programs continue to stir up controversy among some parents and teachers. In Los Angeles, there have been pro-and anti-breakfast protests and the school board will revisit the issue on May 14.

All-Vegetarian School Lunch

Finally, as I also shared on TLT’s Facebook page earlier in the week, a progressive public school in Queens has adopted a 100% vegetarian school meal menu. You can read about that development here.

Does Childhood Hunger Justify Food in the Classroom?

Bettina Elias Siegel — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:17:05 +0000

A reader named Sheri left a thought-provoking comment on yesterday’s post in which I asked TLT’ers to chime in on a parent’s question about eliminating food in the classroom. Sheri pointed out that many kids come from food insecure households and therefore my desire to eliminate all food from the classroom (articulated most succinctly in my “Food in the Classroom Manifesto“) might be misguided.

Here’s what Sheri wrote:

I understand that some may be frustrated with food in the classroom, however we need to consider that for many, that food may be the only food they receive in a day. I am a mom and don’t agree with the junk food in the classroom either – my child has multiple food allergies, so I have spoken with our teachers about making the party sign-up sheets start off with a list of healthy options. I also educate about label reading and the dangers of processed ingredients.

But there is often other things to consider before you begin a campaign to stop ALL food in the classroom.

Before you begin a crowdsourcing campaign, I would dig deeper in your communities and find some answers (this may be difficult, but worth the trouble).

Did you know?:
Food Insecurity Facts (http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/child-hunger-facts.aspx)

– 16.7 million children lived in food insecure households in 2011.[i]
– 20% or more of the child population in 36 states and D.C. lived in food insecure households in 2010. The District of Columbia (30.7%) and Oregon (29.0%) had the highest rates of children in households without consistent access to food.[ii]
– In 2010, the top five states with the highest rate of food insecure children under 18 are the District of Columbia, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, & Florida.[iii]
– In 2010, the top five states with the lowest rate of food insecure children under 18 are North Dakota, New Hampshire, Virginia, Minnesota, & Massachusetts. [iv]

There was a recent article that addresses the frustrations and push back that breakfast in the classroom is receiving (http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/05/06/teachers-battle-against-kids-free-breakfast-classroom?cmpid=apatt-fb).

If you would like to better understand the full scope of the issue, perhaps a family movie (https://www.facebook.com/aPlaceAtTheTableMovie/app_190322544333196)

And here is my reply to Sheri. After you read it, please feel free to jump in with a comment of your own on this important question.

Sheri:

Thanks for all of this valuable information

You may be a new Lunch Tray reader, but childhood hunger is a cause close to my heart, and one about which I write often here on TLT (see the many links below). Indeed, just recently I was a “Food Blogger for Hunger” in association with A Place at the Table, the excellent documentary film you cite above.

Here in Houston, over 80% of our students rely on free or reduced price federal school meals and it was precisely that issue of economic dependency which led to my interest in school food reform in the first place — and to the inception of this blog back in 2010. It was also the issue that motivated my successful campaign against “pink slime” in school food ground beef last year. And childhood hunger is the reason why I’ve always been a supporter of breakfast-in-the-classroom programs even though they can be, as you note, quite controversial — as such a program was here in Houston ISD when it was first instituted.

But I think it’s very important to make a distinction between “food in the cafeteria” and “food in the classroom.” The former is federally regulated and, thanks to the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in late 2010, great strides have been made in the nutritional profile of school meals. While we still have a lot of work to do in terms of reducing schools’ reliance on highly processed foods, children dependent on the federal lunch and breakfast programs (as well as after-school snack and even school supper programs) can and do have access to nutritionally balanced meals each and every school day (and throughout the summer where summer meals are offered.) That access is critical in an age in which so many kids, as you note, live in food-insecure households.

Food in the classroom, however, is another story. This food tends to fall into three categories: food brought in for classroom celebrations; the use of food by teachers as a teaching tool or manipulative; and food handed out by teachers or principals as a reward for good behavior or academic performance.

In the case of classroom parties, an excellent 2012 study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, co-authored by Marion Nestle, found that the majority of items offered for class celebrations were “low-nutrient, energy-dense foods” such as cake, fruit punch, ice cream, Doritos, cheese puffs, and potato chips. And while I know of no academic studies looking at the latter two categories of classroom food, in my experience (and in the reported experience of my readers), food used as a teaching tool and as a reward also almost always falls into the “junk food” category.

For example, I’ll never forget the day my daughter told me about an elementary school science lesson which replicated the circulatory system by using corn syrup for plasma, red hots for platelets and another candy — I think white Tic Tacs — for white blood cells. After mixing up this concoction for demonstration purposes, all the children were given a cup of it to eat. Lovely.

Similarly, in prior TLT posts you can read all about how my daughter, now in middle school, was last year regularly handed 12 oz cans of Coke and full-sized packages of gummi bears for good performance in a language class, and how my son was given a jumbo sized Hershey bar for winning a school lottery. Those are just two instances of the many, many times in which my kids have been handed out junk food by a teacher as a reward.

Here’s my point: I think we can all agree that even children beset by childhood hunger should not be consuming empty calories. In fact, to the extent children are being fed junk food in the classroom, it’s likely they will then consume less of the nutritionally balanced, taxpayer-subsidized meal offered in the lunch room. That’s not so critical for kids like mine, who can make up any nutritional gaps at home, but it’s quite detrimental for kids who don’t come from homes well-stocked with healthful food.

So given the almost uniformly poor nutritional quality of food in the classroom, I reject the notion that childhood hunger justifies its use.

That said, there certainly are instances of teachers in impoverished areas bringing nutritious food into their classrooms to feed hungry students, often paying for this food out of their own pocket. That’s entirely different, of course, though it still raises other concerns about classroom food, such as allergy issues. Similarly, those offerings aren’t subject to any kind of oversight, so we’re relying on a particular teacher’s definition of “healthful food” – one with which we might not all agree. I also believe that if hungry children have access to school breakfast, school lunch, and after-school snack (if not also supper, as we have here in Houston at some particularly impoverished schools), then even that sort of food in the classroom might not be necessary.

Let me know what you think about all this, and I hope other TLT readers will chime in as well on this important question.

Can We Crowd-Source A Reader Question re Food in the Classroom?

Bettina Elias Siegel — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:49:53 +0000

Between my recent laptop crash and this mysterious “Lunch-Tray-third-anniversary-project” I keep alluding to on Facebook, I’m falling woefully behind on various promised posts. One such post is the answer to a question left on TLT’s Facebook page by a reader named Allison who is concerned with junk food in her child’s classroom. Since I’m pressed for time, I’m going to share my bare bones advice for Allison, but I’d love it if my readers could chime in, too, with their own thoughts and experiences.

Here’s Allison’s post:

I have read some of your articles re: food in the classroom – and want to try to encourage our school to consider food-free classrooms (or at the very least – junk free classrooms). Can you give me advice on the best way to plant this idea w/the admin? I was thinking of compiling a notebook with articles/resources (some of yours if that is ok) to share with the principal – stuff to back me up rather than just telling him why we should go this direction. Food/junk in the classroom has always been a concern of mine – but even more so since my youngest has a severe food allergy – and will begin K in the fall. My oldest does not have food allergies – but is constantly coming home reporting to me the crap she has been given throughout the day – as rewards – as incentives – as manipulatives in learning a subject. The worst offenders tend to be the teachers who do not have children themselves (and interesting to note also have weight issues themselves). Any advice you can give me to help me try to make a difference for the health of all students I would greatly appreciate. I know there are other parents who agree with me at this school – but are not willing to step forward b/c of the backlash that most likely will occur from those parents who see nothing wrong with kids grazing all day on sugar. Thanks!

My answer:

Allison:

I totally feel your pain. When it comes to food in the classroom, what you’re taking on is not just a classroom problem, but a much larger societal mindset which doesn’t see any problem with these practices, or which doesn’t view junk food as particularly harmful, and changing those attitudes is a very tall order for any one parent to address. Even in my own kids’ schools, I’m glad to report that the incidence of food-as-a-reward has gone down over the years, but the practice certainly hasn’t stopped entirely.

Before turning your question over to TLT readers, here’s my quick answer:

1. Forming a coalition of parents is always easier than going it alone. There likely will be a backlash from other parents, and it’s good to have other people standing with you so you can’t be portrayed as some nutty outlier. I’ve found that health-conscious parents often suffer in silence, and you might be surprised at how many parents feel as you do once you broach the subject with them. This can be done informally, through casual conversations, or you could raise the issue at a PTA or other school meeting to garner support that way.

2. Try to locate your district’s wellness policy and see if it has any language regarding the use of food in the classroom. The policy should be somewhere on your district’s website, often housed wherever there is information about your SHAC (that stands for School (or Student) Health Advisory Council (or Committee)). It’s likely the topic is not addressed, but if it is, then it may be persuasive to show your principal that his/her school is not in compliance with stated district policy.

3. It is always much better if you can marshal facts in support of your position. So rather than making vague complaints about “unhealthy” food, a standard which is open to broad interpretation, it’s much more persuasive to be able to say, “On such-and-such day, the children were given such-and-such sugary foods as a classroom manipulative, with each child likely consuming X teaspoons of sugar during the lesson. However, the American Heart Association recommends no more than about 3-4 tsps of sugar (130-170 calories) in a young child’s day, which is far less than the amount consumed in the classroom that day. And the candy eaten at school was likely not the only source of sugar in most students’ diets that day.” That sort of thing.

4. There are lots of resources on the Internet to help you make your case to a principal, teacher or other parents. Here’s a list from a recent TLT post:

KY Healthy Kids has a useful list of medical organizations which discourage the use of food rewards, a list which may carry weight with your child’s principal or teacher. My own Food in the Classroom Manifesto lists ten important reasons why classrooms should be food-free. (A clean, easily copied Word version — no fancy “parchment” background to gobble up your printer ink— can be downloaded here.) The awesome Rudd ‘Roots Parents website, run by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, has loads of additional information and guidance for parents to draw upon, as does the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the many other sites in my list of parent resources to the right of this post.

To that list, I’d also add this PDF handout from the Spoonfed blog.

OK, TLT’ers, anything to add?

Two New Books Worth Checking Out: Bite This! and The Pantry Principle

Bettina Elias Siegel — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:41:58 +0000

One of the nicest perks of writing this blog is being contacted by authors to read and review their books. I can’t always get to everyone’s book — my nightstand stack is about to fall over! — but I do love sharing what I’ve read with you here.

Today I want to tell you about two new books to help you navigate today’s tricky food environment, both for yourself and your kids.

The first is Bite This! Your Family Can Escape the Junk Food Jungle and Obesity Epidemic. This eBook was written by three New York City parents, one of whom, Katherine Weber, I had the pleasure of meeting at last month’s Family Dinner Conference.

The authors’ description of the book — “If Vicki Iovine’s Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy had a one night stand with Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, this would be their love child.” – is spot on. It’s a funny, irreverent and entirely practical guide to feeding kids well even when the world seems intent on thwarting this goal. You’ll find solid advice on navigating the supermarket, easy ideas for meals and snacks, and strategies for dealing with all those well meaning people (grandparents, teachers, sports coaches and more) who offer our kids junk food.

I was particularly taken with the section entitled “Our House Sucks,” which addresses kids’ embarrassment when other kids come over and are looking for junk food. This is a real problem I and other health-conscious parents have experienced, but not one I’ve seen addressed in other advice books. A typically humorous excerpt:

“WE’RE FREAKED OUT NO ONE WANTS TO COME TO OUR HOUSE FOR PLAY DATES ‘CAUSE THE FOOD SUCKS.”

It was nothing any of our children ever came out and said. Worse, it was the looks in their eyes as their hearts dropped to their toes every time a friend was over and they had to open the pantry or fridge only to display whole-wheat crackers, raisins, and spelt pretzels. How they squirmed when they saw their guests’ eyes as they searched endlessly and uselessly for a bag of Doritos or a box of Oreos. No. Our children remained silent. But we saw those looks exchanged, and each of us, in our own way, knew we had to deal with it. Each of us looked down the dark abyss of the future we saw for our kids: no sleepovers at our house, no being invited to birthday parties because what if our gifts were as lame as our snacks … it was a small leap from there to dateless prom nights.

Bite This! assumes you’re a bit of a novice when it comes to feeding kids well, so some of the advice (e.g., scrutinizing product labels) may be familiar to TLT readers. But for a mere $2.99, I think every parent will find many useful tidbits to make their lives a little easier. You can find the eBook for the Kindle here and for the Nook here.

The second book I wanted to tell you about is The Pantry Principle from Mira Dessy, the Certified Nutrition Educator and real food advocate behind the blog Grains and More. Mira has written a very comprehensive guide to understanding food labels and the often-mysterious ingredients one finds on them.

I actually regard this book as a perfect companion piece to Melanie Warner’s Pandora’s Lunchbox (my recent interview with Melanie Warner here.) Whereas Warner gives readers an in-depth understanding of why and how food additives are used, Mira Dessy tells readers whether one should eat particular additives and/or why they should be avoided. You’ll learn about fats, sweeteners, food dyes, GMOs, preservatives and more. But Dessy doesn’t just tell you what not to eat; she also provides tips on stocking a healthful pantry and many recipes for additive-free versions of your favorite foods.

You can buy The Pantry Principle on Amazon here.