Healthy Schools Campaign

Quick, Easy and Healthy Dessert Option: Apples & Honey

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Henry and I were eating dinner alone the other evening, and afterward he asked me for dessert. I didn't want to disappoint, so I decided that fruit was the way to go -- but with a twist. I quickly sliced up an apple, spread it out on a plate, drizzled it with honey, and there was a easy and really tasty dessert. I would have sprinkled cinnamon on it, but he stopped me for some unexplained reason. And of course, fruit alone is a great dessert option, but sometimes you want to offer a special treat!

Nothing magical here, but fruit is great, and adding a little extra sweetness and cutting it up into a different shape can make it even more extra special.

Green Cleaning for Workers' Health

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

We give four primary reasons for green cleaning in schools. (And we could probably come up with 20 more. . .) Here they are:

1. Green Cleaning Helps Students Stay Healthy and Learn
2. Green Cleaning Protects the Health of Custodial Staff
3. Green Cleaning Increases the Lifespan of Facilities
4. Green Cleaning Preserves the Environment

We tend to focus on the students, but we shouldn't lose perspective on the broader set of issues around providing a healthy environment for everyone in a building, including the employees. Green cleaning is an important aspect of a healthy work environment. According to this recent article:

When supermarket janitors in Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) rallied last month at Safeway and Lucky stores in San Jose, Calif., they weren't only demanding improved wages and health benefits. They were calling for the adoption of green cleaning standards to make their jobs safer.

Take a read of the full story. It's interesting, and it provides real insight into how janitors work and how the chemicals they use affect their health. 

When we work to support green cleaning or other healthy indoor air quality programs, we are speaking up for the health of teachers, custodians, administrators and everyone who works in a school building -- in addition to the schoolchildren who often come to mind first.  Remember, more than 50 million students and 5 millions adults are in school buildings on any given work day. A healthy environment protects us all.

Last Garden Meal of the Year

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Now that fall is upon us and winter is coming up fast, I thought my garden harvest was in the past. But last weekend I found a few more gems and realized I could pull together one more final hurrah of a garden meal.

I was pulling up my tomato plants and found two small green bell peppers, two nice-sized cucumbers, and the score of the day: a big bunch of leeks that I forgot we even planted. So here was my plan:

Cucumber salad. Simple. Clean. Actually, I was thinking about Cooking up Change because one of the student teams had a nice cucumber salad that was really good -- and Henry chowed it that evening. So I seeded and sliced a cuke and tossed it with a splash of rice wine vinegar, a half teaspoon of sugar, and a dash of sea salt. I don't remember my cucumbers being so crunchy. Henry ate nearly the entire thing. Delicious.

Bell peppers. I only had two small ones and when I cut them, they were so firm and crisp that I decided I couldn't do anything other than slice them and toss them with salt, oil and balsamic vinegar. Simple. Super fresh.

Leeks. I love leeks. And for me, this was the star of the evening. I caramelized a bunch of leeks in a pan with olive oil, added a dash of sea salt, then added 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and let the vinegar reduce until the leeks were covered with a syrupy coating. I took out the leeks, then cubed and cooked two small zucchini the same way and combined them with the leeks. It was so delicious with the sweetness from the vinegar and the nuttiness from the browned leeks. So good. I could have eaten that all day.

Spinach. I had a bag of spinach that I needed to use so I wilted a bunch with feta cheese. Tasty. And Henry took a good liking to it. See the video below for proof. This was not from my garden.

Protein. I had a leftover frozen salmon fillet that I defrosted and pan fried with some garlic and herbed breadcrumbs. Simple. And again, Henry went nuts eating the salmon. Really. Again, see the video.

Sometimes cooking is simple. Try not to use too many ingredients and keep fresh food tasting fresh. This was a (mostly) garden meal fit for a king. And sadly, it seems to have been my last one for a couple of months.

Science of Green: New Research Documents Benefits of Green Cleaning

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

When Healthy Schools Campaign began working on green cleaning issues in 2003 we had a simple premise: clean for health, reduce the use of nasty chemicals, and we'll have a healthier learning environment as a result. I must admit that we took what I consider a very logical and acceptable leap of faith. (I mean, it doesn't take much to think that if you choose to not put contaminants in a room, you'll have a room with fewer contaminants in it.)

Fortunately, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has put some science to our premise. The group just came out with a fantastic report that gives us some concrete research documenting the benefits of green cleaning. When you clean a classroom with a "green cleaner," do you end up with fewer toxic chemicals in the room? The answer is a resounding YES.

In short, EWG tested several "green cleaners" as defined by Green Seal or EcoLogo; their testing showed that these products cleaned effectively while polluting the indoor environment significantly less. Actually five times less:

• Green cleaners released a lower overall number of measurable air contaminants. The conventional cleaners analyzed produced three to five times more air contaminants than green general purpose cleaners.
• Green cleaners produced lower levels of one important class of air pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Total VOC levels measured from conventional general purpose cleaners were six times higher than their green counterparts.

http://www.ewg.org/files/2009/10/school-cleaners/general-purpose.png

Of course, what you also see in the graph above is that green cleaning isn't perfect, so there's still room for improvement. From my perspective, there are two take-aways here:

First, green cleaning isn't just about switching out traditional chemicals for "green" chemicals. It's also about processes, procedures, and training. Yet this study only looked at swapping out traditional products with green products. The greenest chemical in the world isn't very green if it's over-used. Even better than using green chemicals alone is also finding ways to reduce overall chemical use, such as:

• Stopping dirt before it gets into the building (by putting proper mats at doorways, for example)
• Adapting processes to reduce the need for chemicals (microfiber cloths can do wonders if used properly) 
• Using innovative technologies that reduce or eliminate chemicals all together (have you heard of the Active Ion or the Tennant Ec-H20?) 

This means that the report may actually over-estimate the amount of contaminants one would be exposed to when a classroom is cleaned in a green cleaning program. (Put another way: the report may under-estimate the benefits of a green cleaning program as it would be used in real life.) Those properly implementing a green cleaning program not only use healthier chemicals, but also identify ways to use fewer chemicals.

Second, "green" chemicals can still get greener. Will there be a point when we can create cleaning chemicals that produce zero contaminants? It may be possible, but we're not there yet. We still need to work with manufacturers, regulatory agencies, elected officials and school leaders to strive for continual improvement. We all have unintentional and very intimate day-to-day interactions with cleaning products and their residues. Because of this, we need to make sure they are as healthy as possible -- and continue to get healthier.

But most significantly, this research shows how important green cleaning programs are. Green cleaning is very effective, it doesn't have to cost more, and this report documents that green cleaning clearly creates healthier environments.

Rarely in this world can we say we have a win-win-win situation. This is one of them.

To learn more about green cleaning in schools, check out HSC's free Quick and Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools.

And thanks to the EWG for such a great and health-promoting report!

Nutrition Labels Don't Tell the Whole Story. . . and Cereal Doesn't Protect You from H1N1

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Is there anything nutrition labels can't do? They brag about the fiber in cereal, urge us to see the health benefits of mayo, and now they even alert us to the ways that breakfast cereal can keep us safe from swine flu!

But wait. That last one has gotten some attention from critics pointing out that Cocoa Krispies, though quite fortified with vitamins, are not a good food for keeping healthy during flu season. The resulting media storm comes as the FDA moves to clarify the rules for "front of food" labels, the colorful ones (like the ubiquitous "Smart Choices" check mark) that go on the front of packages.

It got me thinking about the more traditional and less-controversial Nutrition Facts labels, the ones that have been required on food packages since 1990.

First, a quick quiz:

Below are the nutrition facts from two breakfast cereals. Which one do you think is a healthier option?

Before I tell you which products these labels belong to, I'll share a little story.

Last week, my Sunday paper was delivered along with a free, individual-sized sample of a sugary breakfast cereal. I don't think I've ever actually purchased this cereal before (though I later learned that my wife grew up on it. . . which explains why I later found the empty carton in the garbage), so I was intrigued to read the label.

What stood out to me was how healthy the nutrition label seemed. It was quite similar -- based on the nutrition label -- to the cereal I eat myself, and even to the cereal we feed our son. In fact, at first glance, the nutrition label for the sugar cereal may even look a little better than the label for the cereal I feed my kid. I mean, it lists more fiber, more vitamins. . . not bad. And the packaging even highlights the additional fiber in each serving. Maybe this is health food at its best?

So to the average label-reading consumer, cereal #1 seems great. (Of course, the average label-reading-consumer is already confused by what these labels mean, but that's a story for a different day.)

Labels aside, it didn't make sense to me that a highly processed sugary cereal would be more healthy than a less-processed one. The next step, then, is to check out what's actually in the cereal.

Let's look past the big bold letters of the Nutrition Facts and read the smaller print of the ingredient lists. Check out the lists below and ask again: which one is a healthier option? The labels are in the same order. And remember: ingredients are listed by weight, so the first ingredient is the one that's used most in the product.

To me, this experience illustrated  how unhelpful a nutrition label can be without context and information about ingredients. (And I'll take cereal #2, please.)

In the context of school food, this experience parallels the changes that the Institute of Medicine is recommending that schools move away from nutrition-based menu planning and moving toward food-based menu planning. This would mean that meals would be designed to focus on green and orange vegetables, for example, rather than on certain milligrams of vitamin B6 and Riboflavin. It puts the concept of real food into the way we think about our meal planning -- both at home and for kids at school. It's a simple, common-sense system that can help us avoid the trap of purchasing foods just because the numbers read well on a label.

And for those inquiring minds... Cereal #1 and Cereal #2.

Crowd-Pleasing Peanut Cedar Salmon

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

I rarely write down a recipe (other than when I'm writing our healthy recipe blogs) but this one was such a success that I wanted to try to replicate it. And it was a huge kid-pleaser. The first time I didn't have a camera with me, so rather than post without a photo, I decided to see if I could replicate the magic -- and bring a few photos along as well.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to a friend's house and both Henry and his friend Cooper chowed down on this grilled salmon that I made. The adults raved about it too. It was my first time using a cedar plank to grill on, and it won't be my last.  

Serves approx. 6 people

2 pounds salmon
Olive oil
Sea salt
1 lime
1/2 cup of crushed peanuts
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tablespoons of sugar
1 small onion
1 teaspoon brown mustard
1 cedar plank

Soak the cedar plank according to directions. Usually for 20 minutes to 4 hours.

Mince garlic, sugar, 1 teaspoon salt and mustard together. Add finely minced onion and peanuts.

Cut salmon into 1-inch wide pieces and coat with olive oil and juice from one lime and sea salt. Place salmon onto cedar plank.

Coat top of salmon with the peanut mixture.

Grill cedar plank/salmon over indirect heat for 30 minutes.

I love the smokiness of the cedar. The combination of the sweetness of the sugar with the crunch of the peanuts makes for a great contrast. It got the big thumbs up from two kids and four adults the first time I made it. The second time around it was equally an adult-pleaser, but the kids this time... well, Henry decided he wasn't hungry and didn't eat anything. Oh well. As they say, the best-laid plans...

Improving School Food with the Institute of Medicine's New Recommendations: It Still Comes Down To Money

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Just the other day the Institute of Medicine published their new recommendations for school food. It's a comprehensive report and full of excellent practical policy recommendations. And as School Lunch Talk says, "The current nutrition standards for school meals are in sore need of an overhaul." In short:

...the committee recommends that the USDA adopt standards for menu planning, including:

• Increasing the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
• Setting a minimum and maximum level of calories
• Focusing more on reducing saturated fat and sodium

Healthy Schools Campaign fully supports these recommendations. From what we're hearing, it will take years to get these recommendations through a rule-making process, but we want to help see it through to implementation.I found three issues in the recommendations particularly interesting:

1. Maximum vs. minimum calories
2. Food-based vs. nutrient-standard-based menu planning
3. Cost

1. Maximum vs. minimum calories

I find this to be a really interesting issue. When the National School Lunch Program was established, the greatest health concern facing the country was undernourishment rather than obesity. So in the 1940s, setting a minimum calorie content made sense. Today the opposite is true. The ideas is simple but from a practical perspective, this represents a challenging change.

In 2005 HSC participated in a taskforce to review dietary guidelines for Illinois schools. One of the hot discussion items was maximum caloric counts for individual portions of food items. The point that repeatedly came up in these meetings was the idea that decreasing portion sizes to get caloric counts down just leads to students taking more items. To me this illustrates the challenges behind what seems like a logical change. In the end, our taskforce agreed that we should limit the portion sizes to reduce calorie counts, but it was not without much deliberation about the actual implementation challenges. Making this decision and addressing the implementation challenges are an important move forward.

2. Food-based vs. nutrient-standard based menu planning

The committee recommended that schools change their menu planning from an approach that focuses on nutrient standards to an approach based on foods. (Again, something that seems simple and intuitive: planning menus based on food rather than nutrients.)

Essentially they are saying that rather than telling schools to design menus that have X mg of vitamin A, X mg of Calcium and so on, schools should create menus that have at least two servings of dark green vegetables and one serving of whole grains.

The intent of this change is to simplify meal creation and focus on the preparation of healthy meals rather than focus on nutrients. It also shifts the focus to cooking with whole or minimally processed foods rather than reheating highly processed foods that have been fortified with specific nutrients. The benefit here is that it can prevent junk food that's been fortified with vitamins from being included in a menu.

It's a great and logical move that can also make things easier for schools. And it's a move that allows menus to be created in the same way that we think about food. I mean, I think about getting foods into my diet ("I should have spinach and some lean chicken tonight") rather than getting specific vitamins ("I need to make a dinner with lots of vitamin A"). 

3. Cost

The report mentions many times that it needs to look to a cost effective implementation.  And NPR reported:

Better nutrition would cost more, the report acknowledges, because fresh fruit and vegetables can be pricey. A shift to the new standards would probably add 4 percent to lunch costs and about 20 percent to breakfasts. If kids really take to the healthier options, the costs could rise even more.

I don't know if 4 percent is accurate or not. I actually called the press office to ask how they got this number, and was told that they are not trying use any specific dollar amounts. But they did say that there needs to be greater investment both in reimbursements as well as in capital investment. Put another way: we need more money for better food on a daily basis as well as funding for things like school kitchen equipment that can be used for scratch cooking rather than just reheating. As La Vida Localvore writes, "to adopt the IOM's recommendations... they WILL need Congress to raise the reimbursement rate."

I also asked if this additional cost was over and above the 35 cents per meal that most school districts are already losing. There was no clear answer. The reality is too complex - some schools are already doing a great job, large urban schools are loosing closer to 70 cents per meal, and many school food programs are losing money and not serving meals that would measure up to the IOM recommendations. But all in all, implementing improvements in school food will cost more.

In the end, the conclusion is something we've all heard before. To implement the IOM's recommendations in full, we need more money. Yes, we also need structural changes to food distribution, we need changes in the commodity programs at the USDA, we need to connect schools to locally sourced produce, we need improvements in school facilities -- but without more money for better food and better kitchens, it will always be an uphill battle.

And since the Child Nutrition Act's reauthorization has been extended through September 2010, we have until next fall to make sure we can make this type of change a reality.

Green Training, "Nutrition Labels" for Cleaning Products and More: New Developments for the Future of Green Cleaning at ISSA 2009

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Earlier this month HSC attended the ISSA 2009 conference for three days. For those not in the know, ISSA is the international association for cleaning service providers and manufacturers. And their convention is huge.

We started attending the ISSA conference five years ago, after we decided to launch our Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning, and this conference has changed a ton since then. It went from having just a few boutique green products available to having green as the entire theme of the conference. Of course, you have to watch for greenwashing, but that's what third-party eco-labels are for.

This year was really interesting for us. We had a booth, gave two presentations, and got to meet with our sponsors and allies in the green cleaning world. But one of the most exciting things about ISSA is the opportunity to hear about what's new, what's in development and what we can look out for in the year ahead for green cleaning.

And it looks promising: not only is the industry continuing to shift toward healthier and more environmentally preferable products, but we're seeing changes in the eco-labeling world. From my perspective, the two most exciting opportunities are the CIMS-GB program, and the IBEL eco-labeling development.

CIMS-GB

We know that green cleaning is more than just better chemicals. It's about equipment, recycled paper and plastic, and proper training. And of that list, training is the hardest to quantify. Now ISSA is developing CIMS-GB, a cleaning management standard for green cleaning that will offer a level of assurance that a cleaning provider is trained and can provide services for a green cleaning program. What Green Seal, Ecologo and the EPA's Design for the Environment are for products, CIMS-GB may become for cleaning programs.

IBEL

IBEL stands for Information-Based Environmental Label. This is an effort to give chemical manufacturers a tool to communicate a broad set of health and environmental attributes for their products, and to give consumers a set of practical facts to help inform purchasing decisions.

Up until this point, manufacturers were limited to "green dot" programs; while these programs take into account many attributes, they are one dimensional because the entire product analysis comes down to an all or nothing decision -- you get the "dot" or you don't. Of course these programs are a great help and have moved the industry forward tremendously. But there is little opportunity for verifiable claims of exceeding the criteria of existing green dots in their current form. The IBEL will address this and many other issues.

The idea is essentially a "nutritional label" for environmental attributes. Of course a great deal of consumer education will be important to making these labels meaningful to a broad audience, but this type of labeling can provide consumers with enough information to make fact-based decisions for their purchases. 

Here's a visual representation of the IBEL concept:

For the sake of full disclosure, I should add that HSC is on the core committee for the development team of IBEL.

I'm looking forward to seeing these program develop further in the year ahead.

The Intersection of Hunger, Obesity and School Food

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Discussions about the importance of school food frequently focus on two major issues: hunger (or food insecurity) and obesity. Usually, these two issues are considered to be opposing forces --  the argument goes that in a world of limited resources, you either support better access to food to address hunger, or you support better quality of food to address childhood obesity.

At HSC, we have always felt that this is division is simply not accurate; now another new study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association supports our slightly different perception of the issues.

So what's the connection? According to Elizabeth Metallinos-Katsaras, associate professor in the School for Health Sciences at Simmons College in Boston, “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."

In other (and more simple) words: for the most part, children in food deserts have higher rates of obesity. Kids who are at risk of hunger are often also at risk of obesity.

As Rochelle said so well last January,

We know that healthy food is more expensive and unavailable in many low-income communities. Since low-income students are participating in the federal school food programs, this only underscores the need for higher nutritional standards and adequate funding for these programs. It is essential that all children have access to healthy food that will help meet their nutritional needs and give them the energy to learn and succeed in school.

Interestingly, a recent guest editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Nutritional Science Program at the University of Washington, underscores this point about what he calls the “dual burden of undernutrition and overweight.” He focuses on the fact that health food is more expensive and that the “the key predictor of weight gain may not turn out to be sugar or fat, but simply low diet cost.”

These points are still very true. The new research only adds further support to the point.

So what can we do? It goes back to providing increased funding for better school food while working to decrease barriers to participation. The Child Nutrition Act, which was up for reauthorization this fall and has now been extended until fall of 2010, Congress has the opportunity to provide the more money that schools need for better food. You can learn more and take action here.

Pasta and Turkey Burgers

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

The other night I got home later than I had hoped, and Jill already had turkey burgers and sweet potatoes on the grill. But Henry also asked for some pasta, so I whipped up a quick pasta dish. And a late summer garden always makes it a bit more fun with fresh veggies and herbs from the yard. In these types of dishes you can add lots of veggies to them to add extra nutrition. 

(Note on the photo: I sacrificed myself and took the burnt burger; I'm a good guy in that way.)

Mark's Quickie Pasta

The pasta I used was this. It was the first time I tried it, and it was really tasty. But I didn't have time to make a sauce (and I didn't have any jarred tomato sauce), so I did what I usually do -- make something up quick. I sent Henry out into the backyard to pick some fresh herbs and a tomato. Then I went to work. Remember, this isn't a recipe as much as a guide. Add more, less, change around... but most of all, just give it a try. . .

4 servings of pasta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 finely diced tomato
1 handful of diced fresh herbs (we used basil and tarragon)
1 big big handful of diced fresh spinach
1 finely sliced red pepper (for a bit of extra color)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil

I just mix all the ingredients, then toss them with the hot pasta. The heat from the pasta melts the cheese and wilts the spinach. It makes for a really simple meal. And what's nice about this is the simplicity. You can make it quick and truly taste the ingredients. And Henry was excited that he picked the herbs. It makes my heart smile when he lists the herbs that he so proudly picks.

Jill's Delicious Turkey Burgers

One pound of lean ground turkey
1/2 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
1 diced onion
1 diced bell pepper
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
bread crumbs for consistency

Mix ingredients and form into patties. Grill until done. It was a major kid pleaser that night.