Childhood Hunger

Latest News on October 2009

October 27 McAlister's Deli Raises $125,000 To Help Fight Childhood Hunger

McAlister’s Deli raised $125,000 to help in the fight against childhood hunger in America by participating in Share Our Strength’s Great American Dine Out.

PR Web
October 27, 2009

Ridgeland, MS. (Vocus) October 27, 2009 — McAlister’s Deli (www.mcalistersdeli.com) raised $125,000 to help in the fight against childhood hunger in America by participating in Share Our Strength’s Great American Dine Out. The restaurants offered special coupons in exchange for a five dollar donation. On the card, guests received five free cookie coupons as well as a five dollar gift to be used towards their next order at McAlister’s.

In addition to this effort, McAlister’s also sold “Tea Freak” t-shirts in conjunction with their Free Tea Day promotion. As guests showed off their love for McAlister’s signature item, they also contributed to Share Our Strength with all profits going to the organization.

“McAlister’s is honored to be a part of this year’s event and excited to have exceeded our contribution from last year by 400 percent, ” said Annica Kreider, Vice President of Marketing at McAlister’s Corporation. “This program offers us a unique opportunity to not only raise funds for a great cause, but to also reward our guests for joining us in the fight to end childhood hunger. For a five dollar donation to Share Our Strength, guests can receive over 10 dollars in savings. It’s a great way to bring our community together and to give back to our loyal customers.”

Each year, more than 12 million children in America (one of every six) worry about when their next meal will come. Share Our Strength is the leading organization working to end childhood hunger in America.

“This year, we’re extremely grateful for the overwhelming support we received for the Great American Dine Out—especially during these difficult economic times when companies, restaurants and individuals have had to make significant cutbacks to make ends meet,” said Debbie Shore, Co-Founder of Share Our Strength.

About McAlister’s Deli

McAlister’s Corporation, headquartered in Ridgeland, Miss., is a quick-casual restaurant featuring efficient counter ordering, attentive table service, over 100 different high-quality, deli-style foods and great value. Currently, McAlister’s Deli has over 290 restaurants operating in 23 states. Recently, McAlister’s Deli was listed by Parents Magazine as a Top 10 Best Family Restaurant and also received the Cornerstone Humanitarian Award for the state of Mississippi by the National Restaurant Association.

As soon as you enter McAlister’s Deli, you’ll be greeted by our massive menu filled with over 100 different items; sandwiches, spuds, salads, soups and sweets. You can feel free to be as choosy as you want -everything at McAlister’s is made exactly the way you like it. Just don’t forget to add a tall glass of McAlister’s Famous Sweet Tea™ to your order. And if you don’t have time to come in and eat, McAlister’s makes it easy to call in orders to go. We also cater every type of occasion from office meetings to family reunions and more.

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October 21 Report: Students need more veggies, fewer calories

The Institute of Medicine, which advises Congress, has announced recommendations to make lunches and breakfasts provided by schools more nutritious. Sixty percent of U.S. schoolchildren participate in the school lunch program. The proposed guidelines include limits on salt, fat and calories.

National Public Radio
Patti Neighmond
October 20, 2009
Audio

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: School meals have never won any awards for being healthy. Now the Institute of Medicine, which advises Congress, is announces recommendations that include limits on salt, fat and calories. NPR’s Patty Neighmond reports.

PATTY NEIGHMOND: Many school districts are trying to improve their breakfast and lunch menus with nutritious foods like oatmeal, turkey sandwiches, yogurt parfaits and salad bars. But many menus still include things like fish sticks, nachos, pasta and french fries. Now the Institute of Medicine says school menus should take another step forward and reflect more of what’s been learned over the past decades about health and nutrition.

Pediatrician Virginia Stallings headed the committee.

Dr. VIRGINIA STALLINGS (Pediatrician): Using whole grains means the foods are less refined and they retain some of the natural vitamins and minerals and dietary fiber, which is a particularly hard thing to get in children’s diets. So by going to whole grain-rich products, we’ll improve some of the nutritional intake and also the fiber intake.

NEIGHMOND: So the recommendations say half of all grains served - that includes breads, muffins and hamburger buns - should be whole grains. They also want to gradually decrease the amount of salt.

Dr. STALLINGS: If you look at the sodium intake in the high school school lunch, currently it’s about 1,6000 milligrams. Over this period, we’d like to get that down to 740 milligrams per meal. So you can see that’s more than a half reduction.

NEIGHMOND: Schools that adopt the guidelines would limit trans-fats and use low or non-fat milk products. Juice would no longer be counted as a fruit - only whole fruits would count. And for the first time there’d be a limit on calories per meal. It used to be that the goal of school nutrition was adequate nourishment; now there’s worry about obesity.

Dr. STALLINGS: One of the choices will not always be french fries, or always be corn, because those are only going to appear on the menu cycle every now and again.

NEIGHMOND: It’s all good, says Barry Sackin, a health consultant who’s worked in the school food service field for over 30 years. The problem he sees is paying for it. Fresh items can be more expensive, says Sackin, especially in colder regions.

Mr. BARRY SACKIN: I live in Southern California. Access to fruits and vegetables, particularly fresh, almost year-round is much easier. Trying to find locally-sourced fresh produce in the upper Midwest in the middle of January is virtually impossible.

NEIGHMOND: The Institute of Medicine committee estimates changes to make school menus more nutritious could cost four percent more for lunch and 18 percent more for breakfast. There are federal subsidies for lower-income children, but those subsidies are the same nationwide. And except for Hawaii and Alaska, they don’t take into account regional differences in the cost of food. The recommendations will now be considered by the USDA, which oversees the nation’s school lunch program, and Congress will ultimately decide whether to increase funding and adopt these changes.

Patty Neighmond, NPR News.

Audio & Source

October 21 FDA seeks better nutrition labeling

The federal government is wading into the supermarket aisle, making its first effort to provide better nutritional information on food products since it developed the black-and-white Nutrition Facts label 15 years ago.

Washington Post
Lyndsey Layton
October 21, 2009

Margaret A. Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday that shoppers are bombarded by slogans (“Heart Healthy,” “Good for You,” “A Better Choice”) on products and that the government needs to set standards and knock down spurious claims.

“As a mother of two who frequently finds herself racing down the grocery aisle hoping to grab foods that are healthy for my family, I would welcome the day that I can look on the front of packages and see nutrition information I can trust and use,” she said. “As the commissioner of FDA, I see it as my responsibility, and the responsibility of this administration, to help make that happen.”

Hamburg said consumers often do not have time to scan the Nutrition Facts label, which is required on the back of products. And in recent years, foodmakers have increasingly been putting their own symbols and labels on the front of packages, providing nutrition cheat sheets that are not always accurate, she said.

The FDA grew particularly concerned in late August, when a consortium of major foodmakers, including ConAgra Foods, Kellogg’s and Unilever, rolled out their Smart Choices Program. The system, “designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices,” raised eyebrows when the green check-mark label appeared on Cocoa Krispies, Froot Loops and other foods that are not typically noted for their nutritional value.

“There are products that have gotten the check marks that are almost 50 percent sugar,” said Hamburg, who sent a letter to industry Tuesday outlining the FDA’s intentions. “Products with symbols stating they provide a high percentage of daily vegetable requirements and other nutrients but neglect to mention they represent 80 percent of your daily fat allowance. There are those with zero percent trans fats on the front [label] but don’t indicate that they contain very high percentages of saturated fats.”

Some retailers have created their own ranking systems.

The result is a “completely chaotic system” in which “food companies have set up their own nutritional criteria for evaluating products and then apply it and then — guess what? — lots of their products qualify,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University.

Industry labels can mislead shoppers, she said. “Consumers think ‘I like the way this product tastes’ and ‘Oh, good, it’s got Vitamin D in it. It’s got antioxidants in it. It must be terrific for me. I don’t need to give another thought to all the sugar it has.’ It gives them an excuse to buy the product. And marketers know this.”

Hamburg said one of the reasons the FDA wants to improve nutrition labeling is because the nation is fighting an obesity epidemic. “Two out of every three adults is overweight or obese,” she said. “We know people want information that will help them quickly and easily make healthy choices.”

She said that the FDA intends to crack down on food companies that are making assertions on the front of their products that suggest they are healthier than they really are and that the agency will create a uniform labeling system by the end of next year. Within three months, the FDA will propose new standards that manufacturers must meet to make a nutritional claim on the front of a product, agency officials said.

Mike Hughes, chairman of the Smart Choices Program, said in a statement that the labeling system was based on federal dietary guidelines and sound nutrition.

“We believe in the science behind the Smart Choices Program,” he wrote. “We also look forward to the opportunity to participate in FDA’s initiatives on front-of-package labeling. And we note that the Smart Choices Program complies with all U.S. laws and regulations.”

Source

October 14 Dallas Schools Finding a Fresh Approach to School Lunches

The Bryan Adams High School cafeteria looks a lot like it’s looked for 40 years, plus some new paint and bright banners. And the lunch line food looks familiar, too - hot dogs, chips, onion rings, peach cobbler.

Students at Bryan Adams High School in Dallas have a variety of food to choose from for their lunches - but none of it is fried.

The Dallas Morning News
Karel Holloway
October 6, 2009

Students at Bryan Adams High School in Dallas have a variety of food to choose from for their lunches - but none of it is fried.

But there are some new items - fajitas, yogurt parfait, salad, apples, oranges and grapes. The traditional entrees are a little different as well. As of this year, all the breaded foods, including the chips, are baked, not fried. The milk is low-fat, and there are a lot more whole grains in crusts and breading.

At a recent lunch, the kids were cleaning their plates, but they still groused.

“I don’t like it, but it’s the only thing there is to eat,” Osvaldo Cruz, a junior, said.

At Bryan Adams, and schools statewide, deep-fried foods and sugar-filled sodas are out, under state law.

This then is the challenge for school lunch planners: How do you make food that’s healthful and something students will eat? It’s a question that experts locally and nationally are trying to answer in increasingly creative ways, and not just during National School Lunch Week, which began Monday.

Often, they have to compromise: Offer pizza made with low-fat cheese and whole-grain crust. Give low-fat chocolate milk and lower-fat hot dogs. Add some salads and fresh fruits to the lunch line and hope kids eat them.

Osvaldo’s tray was a good example. He had breaded cheese sticks, onion rings, toast and baked hot Cheetos. The milk and juice were unopened.

Given a choice, he said he’d go home. There he might have meat and rice. They have that at school sometimes, but “the rice tastes different. It tastes like it’s canned,” he said.

Christian Ramirez, also a junior, was sitting across from Osvaldo, his tray laden with foods to make a mother, and lunchroom lady, glad. He had the yogurt parfait, grapes and a carton of fruit juice blend.

“I like it. I’ve been waking up every morning feeling good about eating like this,” Christian said.

Ann Cooper, who has been leading a school lunch revolution first from California, and now in Colorado, believes we can persuade more students to eat the way Christian does.

Cooper, nutrition director at the Boulder Valley School District, said she regularly asks students what they want for lunch and has been surprised at some of the things they’ve chosen.

“They really wanted sushi. A lot of kids really wanted junk food. A lot of kids really wanted comfort food,” she said.

Tofu and brown rice salad and hummus were surprise winners in her cafeterias.

This year, Cooper is working with Whole Foods and others on a Web site, thelunchbox.org, providing menus and other assistance to school food-service workers and parents in adding more fresh, locally grown foods to school menus.

The opening menu in her schools: roast chicken, roast potatoes, roasted or steamed vegetables and organic milk.

“We’ve seen lunch period as somebody else’s responsibility,” Cooper said. “I think many more teachers and advocates understand the benefits. Every moment the child is in school is a teachable moment.”

Dora Rivas, the Dallas school district’s executive director of food services and school nutrition, also has been working on improving lunches. But in addition to balancing what kids want and what is good for them, she said schools also must look at costs.

School districts receive $2.70 from the federal government for each lunch for a low-income student and work to keep lunch prices for all below that. In Dallas, lunch costs $1.50; few districts charge more than $3.

“You try to go out and buy ingredients for a good meal and pay to prepare it for a dollar-fifty,” she said.

School food budgets depend on selling the lunches, and she has seen a steady rise in the number of students buying lunches.

Cafeterias nationwide all face the same problems, said Rivas, also president of the School Nutrition Association.

Dallas, like most districts, has added more fresh fruits and salads. There is a daily vegetarian option. Rivas said such foods sell well, but there were few salads on the plates at Bryan Adams.

The number of students eating in Dallas school cafeterias has been growing, up 16 percent over the last few years. More than 130,000 are served daily.

“I attribute that to the staff who has been working hard to provide food they like,” Rivas said.

October 14 More Money is Needed for Nutritious School Meals Washington Times

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” the old saying goes.

The problem — of course — is Americans in general are just not that into fresh fruit and vegetables. Kids are no different.

It doesn’t help that school lunches often lack in fresh produce offerings, critics of the USDA nutrition standards for school lunches say.

Washington Times
Gabriella Boston
October 11, 2009

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” the old saying goes.

The problem — of course — is Americans in general are just not that into fresh fruit and vegetables. Kids are no different.

It doesn’t help that school lunches often lack in fresh produce offerings, critics of the USDA nutrition standards for school lunches say.

“Part of the problem with the USDA regulations is that they are nutrient based [as opposed to food based],” says Marion Nestle, a professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

In other words, the USDA regulations stipulate that a middle-schooler should get, for example, about 400 milligrams of calcium in his or her lunch over the course of a week. It doesn’t say how those 400 milligrams should be delivered.

With school budget cuts and the average daily lunch priced at around $1.80 per child, schools are more likely to deliver the calcium in the form of fortified dairy, such as in high-sugar chocolate milk, instead of high-calcium — and pricier — greens such as spinach or collards.

“You can fortify white flour and call it nutritious,” says Dr. Alan Greene, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and the author of “Feeding Baby Green.”

“But it takes complex nutrients from vegetables and whole grains to help prevent diseases,” he says, diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

When he started as a pediatrician in the early 1990s, Dr. Greene says it was rare to see a child with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a 40-inch waist.

“Now, two-thirds of high-school students have one of these conditions,” he says, adding that poor nutrition plays a key role in all of these diseases.

(According to the CDC about 17 percent of children ages 6 through 11 are obese.)

And this is where schools come in.

“Schools are where children learn,” he says. “If they are offered poor lunch choices for 12 years, they will learn that those choices are OK.”

But we know that school-lunch faves pizza, chicken tenders and cookies are not part of the ABCs of good nutrition.

What to do?

First off, more money must be spent on school lunches, says Ann Cooper, a professional chef who is also known as the “Renegade Lunch Lady,” for her nationwide efforts to transform school lunches.

Most recently Ms. Cooper partnered with Whole Foods to create www.thelunchbox.org, a Web site that features practical tips on how to improve the state of school lunches. “We will either pay now or later,” Ms. Cooper says. “I say we pay another $1 a day now to prevent diseases rather than pay to treat them later on.”

She also recommends creating a culinary corps of unemployed, newly graduated chefs to teach school-lunch personnel about everything from nutrition to food preparation. She also wants parents to get involved and make their voices heard: Start off by actually trying the school lunch — “Ninety-five percent of it you would never feed your kids at home,” Ms. Cooper says — then voice your concerns at a school board meeting and write Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about desired changes.

Dr. Greene says he would like to see children involved in food production and preparation — from growing vegetables in a school garden to preparing lunch in the cafeteria.

“Children are much more likely to eat food they have helped prepare,” Dr. Greene says.

Ms. Nestle, who is also the author of “Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health,” says the USDA regulations should mandate minimum and maximum nutrition requirements per day rather than per week to avoid a school serving high-fat lunches on certain days and lean, healthier ones on others.

Sound daunting and expensive?

October 14 Child Nutrition Program Advances

The agricultural appropriations bill now pending in the Senate would provide nearly $150 million in child nutrition initiatives aimed at fighting hunger and promoting health among children in Arkansas and around the country, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said.

Delta Farm Press
October 13, 2009

“These investments are a down payment on a robust reauthorization of the Child Nutrition and WIC programs that serve tens of millions of children in Arkansas and across the country with healthy, nutritious meals,” said Lincoln, the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

“I am proud that my first legislative effort as chairman of the Agriculture Committee would help to improve the health of our children and prevent needy children from going hungry. The committee will work with USDA and the administration on a reauthorization that improves access to healthy meals, reduces hunger, and improves school meals and the health of infants, school children, and pregnant and nursing mothers.”

Lincoln said the package of child nutrition investments was crafted jointly with Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Specifically, the fiscal 2010 Agriculture Appropriations Conference Report includes temporary extensions of expiring provisions of the Child Nutrition Act, resulting in a cost savings of $150 million. These savings would be reinvested to meet critical nutrition needs across the country to ensure more children have year-round access to healthy and nutritious meals at school, in child care, and during the summer.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the final agriculture appropriations bill Oct. 7 by a bipartisan vote of 263-162. The Senate is expected to take up the legislation later.

“This is exactly the type of support communities and states need to continue addressing hunger but also start to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity,” said Joe Thompson, Arkansas Surgeon General. “Sen. Lincoln is uniquely positioned to help lead the nation in making the food we eat more healthy and nutritious.”

The investments made in this legislation would fill in the gaps during the summer months when children do not have access to school meals, assist Arkansas and other states in their efforts to certify school children for meal programs, support breastfeeding, and help schools upgrade their facilities to better support healthy school meals.

The specific provisions include:

$85 million to improve children’s access to meals during the summer.

$25 million to help schools purchase cafeteria equipment to provide healthy school meals.

$25 million to help states to automatically enroll children in the School Lunch Program.

$8 million in grants to states to improve health and nutrition in child care settings.

$5 million in performance bonuses to state WIC agencies that increase rates of breastfeeding.

“When so many families in Arkansas and around the country are struggling with job losses and a poor economy, ending childhood hunger and promoting nutrition take on even more importance,” Lincoln said. “In my role as chairman, I will continue to work toward my goal of a country where no child goes hungry and where nutritious food is available to all children.”

October 8 Are You a Silent Hero?

Or do you know one? The got breakfast? Foundation wants parents, school board members, school administrators, and school food service directors to advocate for breakfast programs at their schools.

PRNewswire (Press Release)
October 6, 2009

The got breakfast?® Foundation this week launched its Silent Hero Grant Program to award up to $100,000 in grants to public schools, non-profit private schools and non-profit organizations participating in the national School Breakfast Program. The program recognizes, encourages and rewards those silent heroes who help children start their day off right by serving breakfast. The grant monies can be used for such needs as serving equipment, staffing, food, and nutrition education materials.

The Silent Hero Grant Program was created to encourage schools and non-profit organizations to expand the reach of underutilized child nutrition programs, most notably the School Breakfast Program. While 18 million low income children participate in the National School Lunch Program each day, only 8 million participate in the School Breakfast Program.

“It’s a fact that millions of children go to school hungry each day, even though the resources are there to feed them,” explains Sonya Kaster, R.D., L.D.N., S.N.S., Grant Administrator for the Silent Hero Program. “In addition to the grant money, millions of dollars in federal funding for the School Breakfast Program go unused each year - money that would feed millions of hungry children at little or no cost to schools.”

Whether the reasons for not eating breakfast are financial issues or lifestyle issues - such as simply not having the time in the morning - research has shown that hungry children don’t learn. Children who eat breakfast do better in school: they have higher test scores, less rates of absenteeism, less visit to the school nurse, less behavior problems, and overall better health. A typical school breakfast provides 25 percent of the recommended amounts of protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C for the day.

Are you a Silent Hero?

Or do you know one? The got breakfast? Foundation wants parents, school board members, school administrators, and school food service directors to advocate for breakfast programs at their schools.

“One of our goals is to help educate communities across the country on the lifelong benefits of eating nutritious meals,” says Kaster. “We hope the Silent Hero Grant Program will act as a catalyst for schools to give the breakfast program a try.”

Any public, non-profit private school or non-profit organization that participates in the national School Breakfast Program and provides alternate breakfast service options can apply for a grant. The Alternate Service Breakfast Grant helps those who serve breakfast in the classroom, grab-n-go, or any other alternate site meal service outside the standard cafeteria lunch line. Priority selection will be given to programs creating a breakfast program where one did not exist before.

Grants will range between $2,500 to $10,000. The deadline for submitting the application is December 1, 2009. Finalists will be notified by January 15, 2010.

For information about the got breakfast? Silent Hero Grant Program or to obtain a Request for Application (RFA), contact info@gotbreakfast.org or visit the www.gotbreakfast.org website.

October 8 Breakfast at School Now is on the Principal

In a locally unprecedented move, the School District of Philadelphia will hold principals accountable for the number of students eating breakfast in their schools.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
Alfred Lubrano
October 8, 2009

Breakfast participation will be part of the report card that rates principals each year, along with categories such as attendance and math and reading performance.

All 165,000 students in Philadelphia public schools, regardless of income, are eligible for free breakfasts. But just 54,000 ate breakfast last year, district figures show.

The new system, which begins this year, is expected to increase the number of students eating breakfast, said Jonathan Stein, a lawyer with Community Legal Services, whose efforts - along with those of Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) - helped bring about the move.

Many studies have shown that breakfast boosts student performance and health.

“This is the first accountability system for school meals in the history of the school system,” Stein said. “It’s very exciting.”

Wayne Grasela, senior vice president of food services for the district, said he was equally pleased.

“One of our main goals is to help improve a child’s ability to learn,” he said. “We’re working with the principals to make this happen. They’re already reaching out to us.”

Not everyone is happy, however.

“You’re doing a disservice to principals by holding them accountable without controlling for other variables,” said Michael Lerner, president of Teamsters Local 502, Commonwealth Association of School Administrators.

Should a principal be blamed for a student who ate breakfast at home and therefore doesn’t eat in school, asked Lerner, who was a principal for 22 years.

“Are we going to get to forced feedings?” he continued. “I think it’s wrong to assume no parent in Philadelphia is providing breakfast each day.”

And, Lerner added, many children wind up not eating, thereby wasting food.

“If you know kids,” he said, “they’ll eat what they want and when they want.” High-poverty areas Advocates point out that many Philadelphia children live in high-poverty areas, and thus are more likely to be without the kind of nutritious foods that mandatory breakfasts provide.

And Grasela added that “it doesn’t count against principals if kids already ate, because we already assumed that in our target numbers, which are reasonable and attainable.”

Not every principal will be held to the same numbers, he added, saying the targets are on a graduated scale, taking into account established lower rates of breakfast participation at certain schools.

The goal is to increase breakfast participation by 35 percent over the next two years, so that participation would be 70,000 students by 2011, Stein said.

There is a huge disparity among schools in serving breakfast, according to a School District Division of Food Services analysis.

In some schools, participation is as low as 18 percent, while in others it’s around 98 percent. Some schools showed as much as a 50 percent increase in breakfast participation from 2007 to 2008, while others showed a decrease of as much as 20 percent.

“Some schools need the push of accountability,” said Kathy Fisher, PCCY family economic security associate. “We’re really pleased the district is taking this important step to support kids’ learning.”

Testing periods

Fisher learned through a PCCY survey she conducted last winter that many Philadelphia principals appear to work harder to have their students eat breakfast in school during testing periods - when principals’ performance is being judged - than they do during the rest of the year.

Principals and teachers face intense pressure from the school district’s central administration for students to perform well on the tests, which measure academic progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

At the time of the survey, Michael Masch, the district’s chief business officer, acknowledged that “there is evidence that principals make breakfast a priority during testing.”

He added, “If we can do it during testing, we ought to be able to do it all the time.”

Masch’s assertion will now be put into practice.

“Making principals accountable for breakfast is critical,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington nonprofit that works to eradicate hunger. “School breakfast is so important that it makes sense to hold people in the system responsible.”

Weill said there were no reliable statistics on how many other U.S. school districts grade principals on breakfast.

Just how food will be served in Philadelphia schools is up to principals. Studies show, however, that more children eat when breakfast is served in the first class of the day.

Last year, the vast majority of the district’s 267 schools served food in their cafeterias before the school day began, Grasela said. Just 47 served them in classrooms, he said.

Typically, principals have resisted such service, saying it detracted from instructional time.

But in the spring, the Pennsylvania Department of Education ruled that if students throughout the state eat breakfast in their first class with a teacher present, it will be counted as instructional time.

Fresh from his triumph tying principal performance to breakfast, Stein added, “First-class service should be required throughout the school system.”

This summer, principals received their schools’ first-ever report cards, based on goals from the 2008-09 school year. Those first report cards - which did not include the breakfast goal - will be made public this month, officials said.

The breakfast initiative represents a “fine-tuning” of the report cards, which were imposed by Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, a district spokesman said.

October 8 Islands Lead Nation with Junk Food Ban

Secondary schools in Hawai’i were cited in a new national report as leaders in cutting back on sales of junk foods and beverages, such as candy and soda.

Honolulu Advisor
Advertiser Staff
October 6, 2009

The report, “Availability of Less Nutritious Snack Foods and Beverages in Secondary Schools,” was published today in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Data were collected from 40 states from 2002 to 2008.

Last year, the report says, 88.2 percent of students in Hawai’i secondary schools could not buy candy or salty snacks from vending machines or at a school store or snack bar. Maine had the second-highest percentage (82.0) and Connecticut the third (80.4). By comparison, only 18.2 percent of secondary school students in Utah could not buy candy or salty snacks at school.

In Hawai’i, Dave Randall, education specialist for health and physical education for the state Department of Education, attributed the high percentage of schools not offering junk food to the state’s stringent wellness policy, which was developed according to nutrition guidelines from the Institute of Medicine. A 2004 federal law required school districts to implement a wellness policy, but gave wide latitude in how strict the guidelines should be, Randall said.

“As a department, we wanted to aim high,” Randall said. “The group that was brought together to put together the wellness guidelines wanted to do what was best for kids.” Schools are in a four-year process of implementing the guidelines, which also include requirements for physical education and school lunches. The guidelines are expected to be fully implemented by 2011.

The report shows that among the 34 states that collected data in 2006 and 2008, the median percentage of secondary schools that did not sell soda or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice increased from 38 percent to 63 percent.

The percentage among Hawai’i schools was 82.4. Hawai’i bans caffeinated beverages, sodas and other sugary drinks. Secondary campuses can sell sports drinks, but only after school to student athletes participating in sport programs involving vigorous activity of more than one hour.

October 7 NYC Wine & Food Festival: Four days of culinary bliss

Tomorrow through Sunday will be devoted to food, food and more food. Not to mention wines being poured at venues throughout the city, and spirited entertainment on offer all around town.

But it isn’t just about partying. In fact, the festival is about serious business — raising money for the Food Bank for New York City, which supplies assistance to some 1.3 million hungry New Yorkers, and for Share Our Strength, which helps feed 6 million children nationwide each year.

AM New York (AMNY.com)
October 6, 2009

What started two years ago as a one-night party called SWEET has grown into a four-day gourmet bash: the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival.

Tomorrow through Sunday will be devoted to food, food and more food. Not to mention wines being poured at venues throughout the city, and spirited entertainment on offer all around town.

Last year’s festival raised more than $1 million for the charities, and this year organizers expect to do every bit as well.

“Lee Schrager puts together great food festivals,” said Marc Murphy, chef/owner of the downtown restaurant Landmarc, who will be one of three chefs participating in Midnight Amore, at Scarpetta on Saturday night. “And the money they’re able to raise helps feed people around the city.”

The festival also showcases the diversity of New York’s restaurant scene.

Events range from the most casual to the most elegant. They include Rachael Ray’s Burger Bash, which will take place in Brooklyn, dinner with Alain Ducasse at the James Beard House and the Grand Tasting, on Pier 54 in Hudson River Park. The Grand Tasting alone brings together food from many of the city’s top chefs and restaurants.

“The Grand Tasting is a unique opportunity to taste in excess of 400 different wine and spirit items from our portfolio,” said Brett Dunne, vice president and general sales manager for Wines, Southern Wine & Spirits of New York.

“The festival brings an awareness of just how great the food is in New York City,” Murphy said.

“As far as I’m concerned, the city’s food is the best in the world.” For more information, go to nycwineandfoodfestival.com.

October 7 Streamline access to school meals: USDA's Vilsack

Vilsack told a conference on children’s health it should be simpler to qualify for child nutrition programs and he mentioned “direct certification,” which would add children automatically to school meals if their families are approved for other social programs.

Reuters (Reuters.com)
September 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Congress updates the U.S. school lunch program, it should remove paperwork barriers to enrollment to free or reduced-price meals, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Wednesday.

“We think it’s one way to improve on the current system,” said Vilsack, who said one goal for reauthorization of child nutrition programs would be to improve access.

One-third of eligible children do not take part in school meal programs, said a Vilsack aide.

Child nutrition programs, which cost about $21 billion a year, are due for reauthorization this year but Congress is not expected to approve an overhaul for some time. President Barack Obama proposed a $1 billion a year boost in funding but a funding source has not been identified.

Besides improved access, Vilsack said a framework for reauthorization should include more nutritious meals. He said schools also should tell students about healthy diets and encourage exercise.

Vilsack did not say how broadly the Obama administration might apply direct certification. One antihunger advocate said hundreds of thousands of children could be added to the meals programs.

As a way to improve nutrition, Vilsack suggested more emphasis on putting water or fruit drinks into school vending machines, rather than sugary and high-calorie drinks.

He suggested pilot projects to provide food when children are out of school, perhaps an electronic benefits transfer card for use in the summer.

October 1 Household Insecurity Contributes to Overweight in Children

Both household food insecurity and childhood overweight are significant problems in the United States. Paradoxically, being food-insecure may be an underlying contributor to being overweight.

The Medical News (News-Medical.net)
October 1, 2009

A study of almost 8,500 low-income children ages 1 month to 5 years, published in the October 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, suggests an association between household food insecurity and overweight prevalence in this low-income population. However, sex and age appear to modify both the magnitude and direction of the association.

Food insecurity is defined as the lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life, which results from limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods in socially acceptable ways. In 2004, 11% of households in the United States reported household food insecurity, and households with children younger than 6 years old and black and Hispanic households experienced higher rates of household food insecurity and hunger. Prevalence of household food insecurity and overweight has increased over time and are more prevalent in low-income families.

This cross-sectional study is based on demographic, anthropometric, food security and other health-related data collected from November 1998 through December 1999, on a sample of children and mothers from low income families participating in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for the Women, Infants, and Children) Program. Data on the children’s age, sex, parental/caretaker report of child race/ethnicity and maternal education were also collected.

Of the 8,493 children with complete data, 31% of the children were from food-insecure households (8.3% with hunger), and 18.4% of the sample was overweight. Prevalence of HFInsec did not differ significantly by age, sex or maternal education.

Because significant interactions were found between HFInsec and age-group and sex, the researchers separated the subjects into four groups, boys < 2 years old, girls < 2 years old, boys 2-5 years old and girls 2-5 years old. In girls < 2 years old, HFInsec was associated with a lower likelihood of being overweight. No correlation was found for boys < 2 years. In contrast, 2- to 5-year- old girls from households reporting HFInsec with hunger had a 47% higher odds of overweight than those from food secure households. No association was found for HFInsec without hunger among 2-5 year old girls, and again, no association was found among 2-5 year old boys.

Writing in the article, Elizabeth Metallinos-Katsaras, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, School for Health Sciences, Simmons College, Boston, states, “The findings of this study suggest that HFInsec is associated with overweight prevalence in low income ethnically and racially diverse girls. Age and sex, however, appear to modify both the magnitude and the directionality of the association. Future research should examine these associations using a longitudinal research design. Moreover, qualitative research is needed to establish the underlying behaviors that may affect the development of childhood overweight among families with uncertain and limited food availability and how these behaviors may vary by sex.”

October 1 Child Poverty in Baltimore Declines

Despite a decrease in poverty among city children, nearly one in five Baltimore residents were living below federal poverty levels in 2008, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday.

Baltimore Sun
Brent Jones
September 30, 2009

Census Bureau data showed that 19 percent of Baltimore’s population lived in poverty last year, putting Maryland’s most populous city well above the national rate of 13 percent.

The city data are in line with figures from 2007, but a 3 percent decrease in the number of city children living in poverty last year left local analysts searching for answers to what they call a statistical anomaly amid a sagging economy and the rise of unemployment in the area. One in four Baltimore children below the age of 18 were living in poverty, the Census Bureau data show, down from 28 percent in 2007. The figures have a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

“You would have thought, given the increase in joblessness in ‘08, that poverty among children would have increased,” said Anirban Basu, chief executive of the Baltimore economic consulting firm Sage Policy Group Inc. “Obviously this is good news, but it is unclear why poverty would have fallen during the worst recession in the post- World War II era.”

Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties saw a slight increase in the number of poor children, suggesting a possible migration from the city to outlying areas, analysts said. The 2008 figures come from the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey, which gathers information from 3 million households.

About 2,000 children left the city last year, according to Matthew Joseph, executive director of Advocates for Children and Youth. But Joseph added that the city childhood poverty numbers could be nothing more than a statistical quirk, since overall poverty remained the same.

“In this instance, if the story is that the economy didn’t hurt Baltimore City, then I don’t think so,” Joseph said. “There is a phenomenon at work here. I don’t think poverty went down in ‘08. And in ‘09, it is expected to get much worse.”

National analysts say poverty has been offset somewhat by an increase in government food stamps and other programs. Federal poverty levels vary based on factors such as household income, the number of those living in an individual unit and their ages. For example, a single-parent household with two children under age 18 and an annual income less than $17,346 would be considered to be living in poverty.

About 14 percent of city residents received food stamps in 2008, up 2 percent from the previous year. Nationally, 8.6 percent of Americans received food stamps in 2008, a 1 percent increase.

Statewide, 8.1 percent of Maryland’s residents qualified as poor last year, virtually the same as in 2007, with Howard County posting the lowest rate at 3.6 percent.

Poverty rates in other local jurisdictions include: 8 percent in Baltimore County; 4 percent in Anne Arundel County; 5.6 percent in Harford County; and 7.1 percent in Carroll County.

Overall, Maryland has the second-lowest poverty level in the nation, trailing only New Hampshire (7.6 percent).

Figures released last week showed that Maryland’s median household income of $70,545 was the highest in the nation. The state also led in that category in 2007 and has been among the national leaders for much of the decade, with Howard, Calvert and Montgomery counties all regularly ranking among the top 10 wealthiest counties in the nation.

But the state ranked 25th in the nation in overall child well-being, according to the 2009 Kids Count Databook, an annual report released by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.

“The state itself hasn’t changed its economic position,” Joseph said. “But you still have this general question about why children are doing so poorly and why a state with such few poor children is not doing well in child well-being.”

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