Healthy Schools Campaign

Happy, Healthy Fourth of July! And a Festive Picnic Recipe

by Jean Saunders, HSC School Wellness Director

Happy Independence Day! As we prepare for picnics, barbecues and fun celebrations this weekend, the question arises: what to eat?

This simple treat is easy to put together and hits a fun, festive note with bright-colored bounty from the farmer’s market. It’s easy for kids to assemble and for picnic-goers of all ages to enjoy!

Festive Fourth of July Berry Parfait

• 1 cup yogurt (You can use plain and sweeten with 1 tsp honey)
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• ½ cup blueberries
• ½ tsp sugar

Divide strawberries in half. Sprinkle half with sugar and crush. Spoon ¼ cup yogurt into a parfait glass or other cup. Add ¼ cup of the crushed strawberries to each. Cover the crushed strawberries with the remaining yogurt. Top with blueberries and sliced strawberries.

Enjoy!

Saving the Energy Grid – One School at a Time

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

What if I told you how to promote efficient energy use, become a responsible environmental steward and reduce your risk of school facility damage - while earning extra money? It seems too good to be true. But this year we decided to pilot a program with our energy curtailment partner, ClearChoice Energy, that does exactly this for schools in northern Illinois.

The program we're piloting, known as Demand Response, is designed to encourage large consumers (in this case, schools) to reduce energy use during days of peak energy demand. (For example, a school may be asked to cut back on their energy use on a particularly hot summer day when the energy grid is strained by lots of consumers running their air conditioners.) By doing so, the school will help reduce the need to build additional energy transmission lines and power plants, increase energy reliability in their community and develop plans to reduce risk from periods of sudden energy loss. And did I mention that schools get paid to do this?

The first test of the 2009 program was last week: one of the schools involved in our Demand Response program was asked to cut back on energy use. So I decided to head out to Nippersink School District #2 to speak to Dr. Paul Hain, the district's business manager, to get a feel for what it’s like to shut down a school's power on a day when it’s 100 degrees outside.

Check out a video of the school and Paul's comments on the experience:

 

 

A couple of things stood out to me: First, it wasn’t hard at all. This school is an older building that didn’t have automated controls, so they turned off the AC and the lights manually – not a big deal. They just needed someone to be in charge. That was Paul. As he told me, it just required a little coordination and communication. And if you have a new building with automatic controls, it’s even easier.

Second, the element of coordination was key, particularly with the IT staff. It became clear that the IT manager had to be in the loop because they shut down all their computers – even their servers. But the IT manager thought it was great to be part of the team that was saving money and helping the community. And he’d rather be part of the planning process for this type of program than be taken by surprise by an energy brownout or blackout.

Third, the combination of incentives does make this a compelling program. While no single incentive drives this program alone, the combination of receiving cash rebates, reducing energy use, being a responsible community partner, promoting environmental stewardship and reducing risk to property damage all make it an interesting and compelling program. I’m sure any school that participates will list the benefits in a different order of priority but, taken as a whole, the program can appeal to a broad range of school stakeholders.

I was glad to be part of Paul’s successful test of the program and hope that next year we’ll be able to expand this program to more schools. In the meantime, if you think your school may be interested in this, take a moment to learn more about Demand Response. It’s not for everyone, but it may play a complementary role to other green programs or money-saving efforts at your school.  

Happy Healthy Third Birthday!

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Last week, Henry turned three! My wife and I struggled with how to have a birthday party that wouldn't be filled with junk food -- but a party that also didn't feel forced.

First of all, last December we went to Mexico and Henry fell in love with piñatas. It was all he wanted for his birthday. If you watch the video, you'll see him gush over all the candy that pours out at the end. It's really cute, but it makes the foodie side of me cringe a bit.

Well, you can't say no to a piñata. But you can say no to all the candy. We simply substituted raisin boxes, granola bars, organic lollipops (yes, I know it's still a sugary lollipop - but we're not trying to completely eliminate all sugar, just to make better choices) real fruit leather, and some toys like drawing pads and foam dice.

I'd say that putting healthier options inside was not a drawback at all. It was great fun.

However, please don't think the entire party was about healthy food. We could say no to a candy filled piñata, but we couldn't say no to a piece of birthday cake...

With Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization, Schools Need More Money for Better Food

by Jean Saunders, HSC School Wellness Director

Whew: school is out for summer! And for many of us, one of the (many) great things about summer is that we don’t have to think about what to send for school lunch. Well, maybe not all of us. Just as school ended for most students around the country, members of Congress are starting to work on the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.

This law provides the funding and guidance for the Federal child nutrition programs, to ensure that low-income children have access to healthy and nutritious foods. Every day, more than 30 million children participate in these programs, eating lunch and breakfast at school. Every five years, Congress reviews the child nutrition programs through the reauthorization process, which provides an important opportunity to improve and strengthen these programs. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 is set to expire on September 30, 2009.

 

Earlier this month, Chicago Tribune reporter Monica Eng wrote about her impressions of school lunch in Chicago. Eng wrote a lot about nachos; she also shared some important information about the challenges that school districts face in running their school meal programs. Schools have a dwindling number of working kitchens, minimally trained labor and -- most significantly -- the current level of funding for the national school lunch program is insufficient to cover the full costs of serving a school meal that meets the USDA nutrition standards that school must follow.

Eng writes, “Districts are still given only $2.57 to pay for each meal. After covering labor, overhead, and equipment, that leaves only about $1 for food.”

 

With this situation in mind, HSC is urging members of Congress to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act with more money for better food. Increased funding will allow school food service operations to allocate more of their meal budgets to the food ingredients, so that they can include more fresh fruit and vegetables, more whole grains and fewer high fat, high sodium, highly processed foods. HSC is also calling on the USDA to improve the quality and variety of the food available to schools through the USDA Foods (commodities) program so that more fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables are available for schools to choose from.

Get involved now by supporting a strong and well-funded Child Nutrition Act!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's... DfE!

By Lindsay Muscato, HSC Writer/Communications Specialist

 The whole premise of countless superhero movies and comic books rests on the idea that somewhere, unbeknownst to us, someone is making the world a safer place. Maybe this is overstating things (I get excited about green cleaning!), but that's exactly what the Design for the Environment (DfE) program, run by the EPA, is doing for green cleaning products. I spoke on the phone with Clive Davies, chief of the DfE program, to learn more about the science behind DfE's label.

In a nutshell, what does DfE do for consumers, industries and the environment?

DfE does two basic things. First, we allow the use of our logo. That provides an incentive for manufacturers to work with us to improve the environmental and human health profile, see if a chemical might cause cancer or be a skin sensitizer. Allowing the use of our logo on products is kind of an incentive. The other thing that we do is work with industries that use chemicals which are problematic in some way. If there are chemicals that are showing up in people’s blood or the environment, we pull together a multi-stakeholder group and find a mutually acceptable path forward. Usually what we do is compare a bunch of chemicals that are possible alternatives and then we help people choose or make the information available, which helps them avoid the potential for unintended consequences. We make sure people aren’t going to run into trouble down the line.

When and how did the DfE program begin?

About 15 years ago we started to ask, how do you help foster the adoption of green chemistry in the real world? Folks have come up with these safer chemicals, but if people don’t use them or if people don’t make them, so what?

When we started in 1997, we began working on lots of things: undercoating for airplanes, better deicers, and cleaning products. About five years ago there was a huge surge of demand for partnership with our program, in the area of cleaning products. Before that we were kind of going from area to area to find a safer way of doing something. We’ve labeled almost 1,100 safer products.

In your opinion, how does DfE compare to other major ecolabels in the marketplace? How would you describe as the level of health and environmental protection that DfE offers to the end user of recognized products?

We make sure that people use green chemistry in every ingredient in the formulation. We don’t think of the formulation as one big jug of stuff that you have to test. You think of what goes in there. And all of those things have different types of environmental health and human profiles. We want to make sure every ingredient is the safest in its class, whether it’s solvents, chelators, surfactants, etc.

We get the safest stuff in the bottle. While some other labelers make sure they don’t use the very worst stuff, we’re getting people to use the best stuff. Banned ingredients are just a starting point for us. The other folks in general have an aquatic toxicity test that they do and they look at the bottom line but could end up with a diluting effect that masks chronic toxicity.

What do you hope the DfE label represents to the consumer, when they see it on a product package?

What I believe the label conveys is credible science. We rely on partners to promote our program. We think that the best use of that money is to make sure that the science is right. My feeling is that as it's used more and more, people will begin to recognize DfE-labeled products as representing credible science standing behind people and the environment.

Friday Recipe for Hot Summer Days: Watermelon Gazpacho

This post is part of our Friday-morning series on fun, healthy recipes. Check out other recipe posts here.

With the official first day of summer last weekend, the weather has started to really heat up – and we’re all looking for a quick, refreshing recipe that doesn’t heat up the kitchen any more!

This watermelon gazpacho fits the bill – it’s a cool, easy dish packed with fruits and veggies.

Watermelon Gazpacho

• 6 cups seedless watermelon cubes
• ½ peeled and chopped seedless cucumber
• ½ organic yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 cup cold raspberry-cranberry juice
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

In a large food processor, combine 3 cups of the watermelon, the cucumber, bell pepper, scallions, garlic, lime or lemon juice, oil and pepper sauce. Process with short pulses until the mixture is just finely chopped. (Be sure not to puree the ingredients or you’ll end up with a smoothie instead!) Add the remaining watermelon, raspberry-cranberry juice, and mint. Process with pulses until just finely chopped. 

Makes 8 servings.

From Fresh Choices: Easy Recipes for  Pure Food When You Can’t Buy 100% Organic by HSC founding executive director Rochelle Davis

Illinois School's IAQ Program Praised by EPA

Healthy indoor air quality (IAQ) is no accident in the Belleville Township High School District in Belleville, Illinois. In fact, it's a priority. Using the EPA's IAQ Tools for Schools as a guide, the district partnered with a firm that specializes in environmental management in order to design and manage an IAQ program. Then Belleville administrators created a plan to ensure that the program was working -- and that it would continue to work in a sustainable way. Superintendent Greg Moats and the Belleville IAQ team also earned broad support from across the school community in order to make this program a success. 

Superintendent Moats says: “We believe it is imperative for our schools to provide the best climate possible for our 5,000 students and 400 employees. The IAQ Tools for Schools Program is helping us do that very thing.”

This month, the Belleville Township High School District was singled out in a national EPA newsletter [PDF] for its leadership and dedication to IAQ.

Congratulations to Belleville and to all the schools making good IAQ a priority!

-

In Health Care Reform, School Food and Fitness Are Smart Investments

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

As the health care debate continues to heat up, we're glad to see that for the first time prevention is taking center stage. Michelle Obama said this week that promoting nutrition, wellness and prevention "is to me one of the true keys of changing the health paradigm in this country."

And Ezra Klien brings up an important distinction in this debate: the difference between health care and health. He explains:

...we didn't build a health care system in the hopes that we'd eventually overcome the economic challenges it posed. We built it because we want to be healthy. And spending a bit more money helping people eat well when they're young is, in terms of being healthy, probably a lot more effective than spending a lot of money to keep people from dying from diabetes when they're older.

This is a simple but important point -- providing better food to children is a strategy for improving long-term health. Better school food does require an investment: an investment of money, an investment of time to train staff, an investment of effort to change habits and change systems. Serving healthy food at school, teaching wellness, and helping kids develop healthy lifestyles will pay dividends for years to come in the form of significantly healthier lives for those children.

At the heart of the discussion of health care reform is the question of how to best allocate resources so that the most people will have the opportunity to live healthier lives. We say, investing in health-promoting programs at schools is a very effective way to do this -- a smart investment. As Klein puts it:

Spending trillions to increase health care coverage while refusing to make the small investments that would help people eat better is like installing an incredibly expensive heating system in your house but never bothering to purchase a sweater.

The upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act offers the opportunity for the federal government to invest increased funding in better school food. You can learn more and take action on HSC's website.

NonProfit Times Spotlights HSC's Corporate Partnerships

We were excited to see HSC featured in the most recent edition of the The NonProfit Times!

The article describes HSC's commitment to building coalitions with for-profit companies in order to advance advocacy goals, and spotlights HSC's work engaging corporate partners in successful advocacy for Illinois' Green Clean Schools Act in 2007. As HSC deputy director Mark Bishop explains in the article:

"If I can bring my corporate partners down there [to the state Capitol] and make sure their voices are heard, where we have this intersection of interest, it became a really powerful message to have corporations, health advocates, environmental advocates, education advocates all walking arm in arm.”

In particular, the article praised HSC's strategy of enlisting corporate support for legislative efforts; at a time when fewer dollars exist for traditional types of corporate sponsorship, these collaborations offer other ways for corporations to help non-profits.

As Mark Bishop explains in the story:

“It becomes really important to keep open dialogue and not demonize your opposition because your opposition today is going to be your supporter tomorrow. . . . And we have to realize that the issues that we work on are extraordinarily complex and realize that there are a lot of paths toward success.”

Thanks to The NonProfit Times for highlighting this work!

Apply Now: The 2009 Green Cleaning Awards Celebrate School Success

 

On your marks, get set, go! The 2009 Green Cleaning Award for Schools & Universities is now accepting applications. The award is presented by HSC in collaboration with American School & University magazine and the Green Cleaning Network.  Winners will be profiled in a special supplement of the magazine, which is a nationwide publication that highlights successful schools around the country. 

Criteria for the award are based on the Five Simple Steps to Green Cleaning outlined in HSC's Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools.

In the past, schools have shown off winning strategies that included: vanquishing traditional vacuums in favor of backpack models; using team cleaning for greater efficiency; noticeably improving indoor air quality for students, faculty and staff; and saving both time and money in the process. All schools with green cleaning programs are encouraged to apply for this prestigious award and celebrate their success in going green. Don't miss out! Applications must be received by September 11, 2009.

More details and an application.