The Too-Short School Lunch Period: What Can Parents Do?

May 1, 2013

One of The Lunch Tray’s most popular guest posts ever, entitled “The Incredible Shrinking Lunch Period,” was written back in 2011 by Chris Liebig, a law professor who also blogs about Iowa City schools.  In that post, Chris described the ridiculously short period of time allotted for lunch in his district and unfortunately he couldn’t end the piece [...]

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I’m Profiled Today in Beyond Chron!

April 29, 2013

As you may know from the many times I link to her writing on TLT’s Facebook page, Dana Woldow of PEACHSF (Parents, Educators & Advocates Connect ion for Healthy School Food) writes a regular and informative column in Beyond Chron, an online daily in San Francisco, in which she tackles all manner of food-related topics, [...]

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Readers Respond: What Are Our Societal Obligations to Food-Allergic Kids?

April 26, 2013

I was a little scared to post yesterday’s piece about novelist Curtis Sittenfeld’s request that parents of non-allergic kids take certain precautions to protect kids with food allergies at the playground.  The degree to which society needs to collectively accommodate such kids can be a hot button issue, and I had no idea what to expect [...]

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Ten Things I Learned at the Family Dinner Conference

April 25, 2013

I’ve already live tweeted last week’s Family Dinner Conference at NYU and I hope some of you enjoyed following along in real time.  Now that I’m free from Twitter’s 140 character constraint, I thought I’d recap ten random things I learned from the conference, from the serious to the silly: 1.  Seeing one’s favorite bloggers [...]

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What Is Our Collective Obligation to Protect Food Allergic Children?

April 24, 2013

Last night I read a thought-provoking piece in Slate by novelist Curtis Sittenfeld in which she asks parents to take precautions at the playground to protect her food-allergic daughter and others like her.  After explaining how chance encounters with various foods on the playground could potentially cause her child to suffer fatal anaphylaxis, Sittenfeld makes these requests: If your [...]

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Me on HISD TV!

April 23, 2013

I recently had the chance to appear on a local television show hosted by our school board president, Anna Eastman, in which I and my colleague Delia Thibodeaux were interviewed about serving on our School Health Advisory Council (SHAC). Thanks to Anna for giving us the opportunity to spread the word about all the great [...]

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Live Tweeting the Family Dinner Conference!

April 17, 2013

I’m excited to report that tomorrow I’ll be attending Time at the Table‘s Family Dinner conference at New York University. The speakers include many bloggers who’ve been my “virtual friends” for years but whom I’ve never met in person:  Brianne de Rosa of Red, Round or Green, Grace Freedman of Eat Dinner.org, Aviva Goldfarb of [...]

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An Open Letter to FDA From 29 Organizations and Experts re: Dairy Products and Non-Nutritive Sweeteners

April 15, 2013

In late February, I alerted you to an FDA citizen petition which would allow the dairy industry to add non-nutritive sweeteners (such as aspartame) to milk and 17 other dairy products without the prominent front-label “nutrient content claims” currently required by FDA regulations — phrases like “reduced sugar” or “reduced calorie.”  I explained to you in detail [...]

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STUDY: 65-70% of American Classrooms Allow Candy For Teaching and Rewards (And What to Do About It)

April 12, 2013

With the closing of USDA’s period for public comment on the new proposed competitive food rules, we’ve had a lot of discussion here about the food and beverages offered to school kids via vending machines, school stores, and cafeteria snack bar or “a la carte” lines. But what about the many other ways in which [...]

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Author Interview and Book Giveaway: Melanie Warner’s “Pandora’s Lunchbox”

April 11, 2013

As someone who writes so much about food, and who worked as an advertising/regulatory lawyer for one of the world’s largest food conglomerates, I didn’t think there was a lot that could surprise me about the processed food industry.  Then I picked up Melanie Warner’s new book, Pandora’s Lunchbox, and was agog. Did you know [...]

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