Healthy Schools Campaign

Sandoval School Assistant Principal Shares the Benefits of Breakfast in the Classroom

We recently sat down with assistant principal Caridid Garcia of Socorro Sandoval School, one of the early adopters of the Breakfast in the Classroom program, to gain insight on how the program works at the southwest Chicago school.

Socorro Sandoval School provides breakfast for nearly 1,200 students each day. The multi-track school  adopted the program in 2009 and rolled out the program after a few months of planning. 

Garcia credits the program's success and smooth transition to staff communication and collaboration. “Now it just flows smoothly," she said. "Our kids know. Kids, after a week of doing something, they just catch on." Check out the video below for assistant principal Garcia's reflections on the benefits that Breakfast in the Classroom has brought to Sandoval School.

 

Many thanks to assistant principal Caridid Garcia for sharing her story!

Plus! Visit www.BreakfastMatters.org to learn about the Breakfast in the Classroom initiative in Chicago.

A Look Inside: School Wellness Team Making a Difference

By Brittany Wright, HSC media + outreach specialist

Last week, we wrote about how the Nathanael Greene Elementary parent wellness team organized a community health fair. I was fortunate to tag along with Jovita Flores, manager of HSC’s Parents United for Healthy Schools coalition, to sit in on a wellness team meeting at Greene school focused on the results of the fair. The parent-driven wellness team created the event to spotlight health resources and demonstrate community support for healthy school food and fitness. The event also created opportunities for more parents to learn about and get involved with the school’s wellness efforts. 

Greene Elementary wellness team meeting with parents and principal Michael Heidkamp

Parents at the meeting beamed when sharing the high points of the event: student physical activity demonstrations, health testing and screening, and smoothie workshops! Parent leaders said they were happy to have so many families participate and that they are looking forward to replicating the evening’s success as they get started on the next event!

Wellness teams can connect parents and school administrators through the shared goal of promoting student health. Principal Michael Heidkamp regularly participates in wellness team meetings. He explained that parent leadership has been key in prioritizing school wellness at Greene.  

“I think it’s nice to have a strong group of parents that are constantly reminding you that their child’s experience is so much more than [testing],” he said. “They’ve been integral in expanding all that we do.”

Greene Elementary wellness team meeting

The principal encourages parent wellness leaders to share resources with others in the school to garner support for their efforts. Heidkamp recommends sending surveys and communication in newsletters to share ideas and initiatives. He suggested that the team “build your group and your committee based on the roll-out of those different resources to get your name and mission out there. That is a very powerful way to attract other parents.” At the meeting, parents discussed communication tools and updates they developed to include in the school newsletter that goes home with all students. 

The wellness team also discussed classroom celebrations. “If we’re going to make changes in regards to what parents can bring to celebrate kids’ birthdays, it’s not going to be cupcakes anymore, it’s going to be healthy alternatives,” said Heidkamp. “It’s important that parents are speaking to other parents about that, not just administrators. It’s a decision by the community for the community, that’s the most powerful way I’ve found to frame those decisions. Then it’s much more about this is why and this is the change that I’m making with my child and that you can make with your child.”

Kudos to the Greene wellness team! Keep up the great work promoting health and wellness.

School Food Blogger Bettina Siegel on the "Pink Slime" Petition that Helped Change Public Policy

We recently spoke with our friend Bettina Siegel of The Lunch Tray about her experience creating national dialogue around lean finely textured beef (LFTB or "pink slime") in school food. She blogged about a recent USDA purchase of LFTB for school food and created a petition that garnered more than 250,000 signatures in a week. Her efforts elevated the issue in the media, in the marketplace and in public policy, ultimately prompting a significant change in labeling and increased availability of LFTB-free beef for school food. 

Can you tell me a little about yourself? How did you begin blogging? Why school food?

I’m a former lawyer but I stopped working when I had my first child. About five years later, I joined a writing workshop for stay-at-home moms and wound up getting my first piece published in Parents magazine.  I realized how much I loved writing and continued to publish in magazines over the years, but I had no interest whatsoever in starting a blog – the blogosphere already seemed too crowded and I couldn’t imagine having enough to say every day or every week on a blog!

But then in February 2010 I joined our district’s Food Services Parent Advisory Committee and started to inform myself about the National School Lunch Program and school food reform. And since I’d always been interested in food, cooking and nutrition, as well as the feeding of children, I realized suddenly that I had more than enough to say on a blog. And that’s when I started The Lunch Tray.  

Why did you decide to take action on pink slime? Why does this matter for school food?

I’d known about lean, finely textured beef (LFTB, also referred to as “pink slime”) since 2009 but when I read on March 5 in The Daily that it was still used in USDA ground beef for schools (I had mistakenly thought it was no longer used in schools), I was upset about it.  At first, I was just going to share the information in a post for my readers on March 6, but at the last moment – really quite spontaneously – I decided to attach a Change.org petition to the post as well. 

You’ve written about many aspects of school food on The Lunch Tray. Where does this effort fit in the overall picture?

I think use of LFTB in school meat gets at a larger question of quality and cost. School districts are in a real bind, doing their best to serve nutritious meals on an extremely tight budget. That’s why, even back when Beef Products Inc. had documented safety issues with beef containing LFTB that was headed for the school lunch program (this is according to a Pulitzer Prize winning 2009 New York Times article), schools continued to use it because it shaves, reportedly, 3 cents off each pound of ground beef that contains it.  

What was it like to have such prominent personalities as Jamie Oliver, Senator Robert Menendez and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree sign on to this?

For the first few days after the petition took off and went viral, I was just tied to my laptop, handling a million issues and dealing with beef industry push-back, and I felt very alone.  Then suddenly I had assistance from these prominent people, publicly lending their voices to my cause, and it was very gratifying. 

What has been the result of the petition? What happens now?  
Almost exactly one month to the day, there has been so much change on this issue – it’s incredible.  I certainly don’t tie these results directly to my petition, which focused only on school food and the USDA, but this is what has happened: 

• On the ninth day of my petition, USDA made a change to its school food policy, offering school districts for the first time the option of buying ground beef with or without LFTB.  
• From national media coverage, many consumers learned about LFTB for the first time and were unhappy to hear that LFTB is in, reportedly, 70 percent of all ground beef sold in the U.S., up to 15 percent of the total product, without any labeling to reflect that fact.   
• A consumer outcry ensued, causing almost every major grocery chain to agree to cease selling beef with LFTB, or at least to offer customers a choice.  
• Federal legislation requiring labeling for ground beef containing LFTB (the REAL Beef Act) was introduced in Congress by Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine.
• Even as that bill is pending, several processors have already received permission from USDA to voluntarily disclose LFTB on labels.

How does it feel to have such momentum in support of your effort?

Incredible. The whole experience has been just surreal.

What advice do you have for parents who want to create change?

I’ve always said there’s power in numbers, and this experience proves it in a dramatic way. So if you’re trying to change national policy, a petition like mine might be worth a try.  And if you’re working on a smaller scale, like trying to get junk food out of your school cafeteria, you’ll have a much higher chance of success if you can band together with other parents before you try to take action. We all have a voice but that voice is so much more powerful when it’s joined with others – and that can mean ten parents or a quarter million petition signers!

Kudos to Bettina on all of her efforts!

A Look Inside: Parent Wellness Team Creates Health Fair

Last month, Nathanael Greene Elementary School on Chicago’s southwest side hosted a health and wellness resource fair with many moving parts that worked together for a successful event. The event featured education, celebration and community resource components, all focused on what principal Michael Heidkamp describes as the school’s goal of “supporting students in really developing a lifestyle that makes living healthy normal and just what you do.”

The health and wellness committee, Greene Elementary’s parent-driven wellness team, organized the event. Students provided the entertainment for the evening, with program presentations to highlight the karate, soccer, yoga, and folkloric dance afterschool physical activity programs. The parent group combined the afterschool program celebration to highlight their commitment to school wellness and educate other parents about measures they could take to help improve their family’s health.

Student demonstrate their soccer skills to celebrate Greene Elementary's afterschool programs

Community agencies came in and provided glucose, blood pressure, and vision testing with additional resources to help participants seek follow-up healthcare services. 

The fair also incorporated nutrition education, demonstrating small steps parents could take to start improving the diet and health of their families. School dining manager Christina Hernandez and a wellness team leader who happens to have the same name taught parents how to make smoothies with fruit and vegetables in them. The Principal Heidkamp exclaimed, “nobody knew the vegetables were there and they were amazed it. Kids were coming back for more!” 

Fruit and veggie smoothies

The fair was a tremendous success with more than 300 people in attendance. Heidkamp cites “continued pride in the kids” as the greatest outcome. “Seeing kids breaking boards, you can’t underestimate the power of students demonstrating their high level of competency,” he said. “That was powerful and provided children with a platform to showcase their talents.”

The event also underscores the power of the parent. The fair highlights the wellness team as a resource for the whole school community. Parents, teachers and other school leaders can look to the committee for information and encouragement in making healthy decisions for the school and for their families. The evening also served as a means to get more parents involved in the school community’s health and wellness efforts.

Parent volunteers help serve healthful snacks during Greene Elememntary's health fair

Greene Elementary’s wellness fair demonstrates how school wellness teams can have an impact on both students and families. While supporting healthy changes to the school environment, the wellness team also provided resources to support families in making healthy choices at home.

Heidkamp added, “I’m always amazed. It’s really impressive to see the vision from the adults and their desire to make it real and do whatever it takes day in and day out.“

The Go for the Gold-supported school has also earned Gold-level recognition in the HealthierUS School Challenge with the support of its parent wellness team! 

Stay tuned learn more about school wellness teams and parent engagement by visiting our Parents United for Healthy Schools blog updates.

Cooking up Change with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel!

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel with the Cooking up Change team from Chicago Vocational Career Academy

Today, the winning team of student chefs from Cooking up Change Chicago shared the school lunch they designed with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel!

The mayor enjoyed seconds of the award-winning meal of oven-fried chicken, sautéed cabbage and collard greens and sweet potato salad created by students from Chicago Vocational Career Academy.

"It felt good to see him enjoy our lunch," said team member Sheanice Dishmon. "It was a new experience because I had the opportunity to sit with him and enjoy the meal our team created together."

As part of Cooking up Change, the students created their meal to meet strong nutrition standards on a tight budget, comparable to that of school food service. Limited to ingredients that school dining managers in Chicago Public Schools can order for school lunch, the students took advantage of an ingredient that is new this year: drumsticks from chicken raised without antibiotics on Amish farms in nearby Indiana. In May, the team will prepare this lunch when they compete in the Cooking up Change national finals in Washington, DC. Chef Instructor Lorraine Harris said Mayor Emanuel told the students "we’re going to win and bring that victory to Chicago!”

Congratulations to the student chefs and thanks to Mayor Emanuel for spotlighting their great work!

P.S. Check out the Mayor's Facebook page and his congratulatory words to the team.

Make sure you like the Healthy Schools Campaign's Facebook page as well!

Healthy Children, Healthy Planet: Why We Care About School Food

HSC recently hosted the second event in our School Food Webinar and Event Series. For our two-part panel discussion, Healthy Children, Healthy Planet, we partnered with PEW Charitable Trusts and Whole Foods Market to present a dynamic dialogue around innovation for school food in Chicago.

The event brought together experts and leaders in the movement to ensure that school food is good for our children and good for our planet.  So many moving parts work together to provide healthy school meals. The panel provided a look behind the scenes at the many systems -- from farming to transportation and small business markets -- shaping the food that we ultimately serve to children at school. 

Dr. Angela Odoms-Young of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Applied Health Sciences discussed school nutrition recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, the science behind these recommendations and what they will mean for school food. 

Comfort Cakes entrepreneur Amy Hilliard shared her perspective as the entrepreneur of a small business that sells whole-grain pizza crust to Chicago Public Schools. The minority-owned company created CPS’ first whole-grain pizza crust, refining the recipe to make sure it appeals to students.

Amy Hilliard shares her experience creating a whole-grain pizza crust for school meals

Since getting involved in the school food market, she’s now expanded her business to provide healthy products to hospitals. She credited the school district with creating demand in the marketplace for healthier products and offerings.

Dr. Lance Price of TGen North Center for Metagenomics explained how antibiotic use in food production is a serious threat to public health that encourages the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. He discussed the public health impact of the recent Chicago Public Schools decision to procure chicken from a regional Amish farm where poultry is raised without the use of antibiotics. 

Dr. Lance Price addresses the audience 

Rich Wolff, regional meat coordinator for Whole Foods Market, discussed Whole Foods’ commitment to playing a role in changing how food is raised and discussed Whole Foods’ role in connecting the school district with regional Amish farmers who provide chicken raised without antibiotics.

Chicago Public Schools’ health and wellness promotions manager Annie Lionberger was on hand to discuss school health and wellness innovation, including the district’s recycling program to reduce waste around breakfast in the classroom.

 Annie Lionberger answers questions during the panel discussion

Many thanks to these insightful panelists and all the engaged audience members who took part in each discussion! 

If you’d like to learn more about school innovation, please join us for our upcoming webinars:

Quiet Innovation for Healthy School Food
April 16, 2012 · 1-2 PM central · Webinar
Learn more and register here»

The Small Business Side of Improving School Food
May 1, 2012 · 1-2 PM central · Webinar
Learn more and register here»

Did you miss our first webinar on school breakfast? Check out the archived session here.

Is It Really Mystery Meat? What Can You Do? Pink Slime in School Meals

By Mark Bishop, vice president of policy and communications

School food advocates, parents and media have been abuzz the last week with the news that the USDA has purchased 7 million pounds of “pink slime” for inclusion in school meals. Also sold under the name “boneless lean beef trimmings,” this beef filler is composed of connective tissue and other beef parts that are processed and treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria and prevent food-borne contamination. 

While fast food giants McDonald’s and Taco Bell stopped using pink slime after public outcry earlier this year, the USDA has approved the product as safe for consumption. Ammonium hydroxide is considered a processing agent and is not required to be listed on food labels. Generally, the “pink slime” is mixed with other ground beef and processed into foods such as hamburgers. 

How bad is it? It might technically be safe but it’s certainly not something we want to see served in the cafeteria. We need to move school meals in the direction of real, less-processed food, not the type of highly processed products that need to be treated with ammonia. I hope the public outcry around this issue brings us one step closer to a food system that supports schools in serving healthy, less-processed meals with ingredients we understand. 

Dr. John Torres, quoted in USA Today, explains it like this: "The big concern is that this is a chemically processed food, it doesn't have nearly the nutrients of normal beef. . . It's one of those things, 'Do I want my child to have this?' On a short-term, moderate basis: maybe. On a long-term basis: no."

As a parent, I was relieved to learn that Chicago Public Schools (CPS), where my son attends kindergarten, does not include “pink slime” in the food it serves. CPS procures its beef from J.T.M. Food Group. Brian Hofmeier, senior director of school sales for J.T.M. Food Group confirmed that the food processor, “does not use ammonium hydroxide in [their] process and [they] do not purchase material from any suppliers that use ammonium hydroxide in their process.”

It’s good to know that some districts are avoiding the “slime” but many are not, as evidenced by the 7 million pound USDA purchase. 

What can you do about the issue? We urge everyone who cares about healthy school to:

Talk with your school food service director. Learn what the school food leaders in your district are doing to meet nutritional guidelines and make food healthy and appealing to students.

Raise your voice. HSC friend Bettina Siegel of The Lunch Tray has created a petition calling for an end to pink slime in school food. You can learn more and add your name here.

Learn about school food innovation efforts. Learn more about efforts to transform school food through HSC’s upcoming webinars and events on school food innovation. These exciting discussions provide a national policy perspective and highlight the efforts of on-the-ground players who are making changes with important and far-reaching results. For more information about school food, check out our latest webinar and event series. 

The effort to create a new future for school food is about more than one ingredient. But in this case, one ingredient with a particularly appalling nickname is creating an uproar that can help us all think about how important it is to serve healthy, real food for lunch. 

Healthy Children, Healthy Planet: Why We Care About School Food

We’ve teamed up with PEW Charitable Trusts and Whole Foods Market to present a dynamic discussion on school food entitled, “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet: Why We Care About School Food.” The free panel discussion will take place next Wednesday, March 14 at 7 p.m. and again on Thursday, March 15 at 10 a.m. at Whole Foods Market Lincoln Park located at 1550 North Kingsbury Street.

“Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” will examine the factors that work alongside each other in the lunchroom and provide a behind-the-scenes look at efforts to ensure school food is good for students and the planet in one of the largest school districts in the country.

“Healthy school food nourishes students’ well-being and potential, but it should also sustain the livelihood of local farmers and the environment,” said Healthy Schools Campaign president and CEO Rochelle Davis. “We are honored to bring together respected voices to showcase efforts to move nutritious meals and healthy school communities forward.”

Chicago is quickly emerging as a center for school food innovation. Earlier this year, Chicago Public Schools began serving scratch-cooked chicken, using unprocessed chicken from the USDA and unprocessed chicken raised without antibiotics on an Amish farm in Indiana. This effort builds upon a history of ground-breaking initiatives to improve school meals.

“Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” panels include Rochelle Davis, president and CEO and Mark Bishop, vice president of policy and communications for Healthy Schools Campaign; Angela Odoms-Young, PhD, assistant professor for UIC College of Applied Health Sciences; Rich Wolf, regional meat coordinator for Whole Foods Market; Dr. Lance Price, director at TGen North Center for Metagenomics; and Annie Lionberger, Manager of Health and Wellness Promotion for Chicago Public Schools.

We encourage parents, supporters, and advocates to register for the March 14 panel here and for the March 15 panel here.

We look forward to you joining the discussion!

Join Us! Webinars and Events on School Food Innovation

 

We're thrilled to announce HSC's new webinar and event series focused on innovations for healthy school food. We have five exciting discussions scheduled, each providing a national policy perspective and highlighting the voices of on-the-ground leaders who are making changes with important and far-reaching results.

We invite you to join us for these dynamic discussions:

Breakfast Matters: Successful Strategies for School Breakfast
March 5, 2012 · 1-2 PM central · Webinar
Learn more and register here »

Healthy Children, Healthy Planet: Why We Care About School Food
Presented with PEW Charitable Trusts and Whole Foods Market
March 14, 2012 at 7 PM · March 15, 2012 at 10 AM
at Whole Foods Market Lincoln Park, 1550 N. Kingsbury St. in Chicago
Learn more and register for March 14 event here »
Learn more and register for March 15 event here »

Farm to Cafeteria: Supporting Student Health and Local Farm Systems
March 22, 2012 · 1-2 PM central · Webinar
Learn more and register here »

Quiet Innovation for Healthy School Food
April 16, 2012 · 1-2 PM central · Webinar
Learn more and register here »

The Small Business Side of Improving School Food
May 1, 2012 · 1-2 PM central · Webinar
Learn more and register here »

Please join us. . . and invite your friends!

You can also find information and registration details online at www.healthyschoolscampaign.org/event/schoolfood.

Why Is Parents United for Healthy Schools Important?

Recently, Parents United for Healthy Schools/Padres Unidos para Escuela Saludables hosted its sixth Principals’ Breakfast to celebrate the collaborative achievements of parents and principals working together to create healthy schools through wellness. Healthy Schools Campaign created the parent-led group to bring together parents and community advocates with the shared goal of promoting school wellness.

At the breakfast, several advocates discussed Parents United’s efforts to connect parents and school leaders. Check out this video:

 
Parents play an integral role in creating healthy school environments. Last year, more than half of the Chicago schools that were recognized for meeting the health and wellness standards of the HealthierUS School Challenge achieved this milestone with the support of parent-driven wellness teams.

Thanks to all of the parents who shared their voices.

What does parent leadership mean to you?

For more information about Parents United, check out our Parents United blog updates.

Fresh Bread and a Fresh Take on School Food

By Mark Bishop, HSC vice president of policy and communications

One morning recently, I walked into my son’s school expecting it to smell like baking chicken -- it was a fresh chicken day after all. But to my surprise, it actually smelled like freshly baked bread. What was going on?

The school kitchen manager straightened me out. It turns out that the new nutrition standards in Chicago Public Schools allow for dessert one time per week. This year, they’ve started offering freshly baked sweet breads as part of this dessert option. These breads meet the nutrition requirements of the HealthierUS School Challenge. But what stood out to me the most was the simple fact that they are baked fresh in the school.

The kitchen manager told me that they were baking banana bread that morning. She said: “It’s delicious! I tasted a piece earlier and the kids are going to love it!” Other breads they are baking throughout the year include apple, blueberry, sweet potato, banana nut and carrot breads.

Transforming the school food environment involves so many challenges. As we think about sensible nutrition requirements, fresher vegetables and clean proteins, we can’t forget about the overall experience and the messages it sends. We want to get back to real food -- food that is less processed, food that incorporates more cooking. Baking a treat once a week, filling the air with the aroma of fresh bread, creates an environment of food that we care about. It sends a subtle but important message and can make a real different in how we approach our meals.

Chicken in Chicago Cafeterias and in the News!

Chicago Public Schools recently began serving scratch-cooked chicken, purchased unprocessed from the USDA and an Amish farm in nearby Indiana where the poultry is raised without antibiotics. Earlier this month, HSC took part in a teleconference with the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, School Food FOCUS, Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality and Whole Foods to announce the purchase of unprocessed chicken raised without antibiotics.

This effort marks a significant milestone for school lunch and adds to a track record of innovative initiatives for improving school food in one the nation’s third-largest school district. 

Shoesmith students enjoy a healthy school meal! 

We were happy to see local and national press bring attention to this milestone! 

WIRED writer Mary McKenna said, “the Chicago schools’ announcement of their willingness to buy antibiotic-free meat isn’t just newsworthy; it’s a major step in protecting their students, students’ families, and the rest of society as well.”

The Hill commended the announcement as “a major win for public health advocates who have been warning about the rising threat of antibiotic resistance.”

Chicago Tribune’s Monica Eng said the effort “represents an important step toward meeting upcoming government guidelines calling for a reduction of processed foods and sodium in school meals.” 

Medill News observes that “the new menu offering marks a major step in the campaign to improve lunchtime options for students throughout the country.”

Check out ABC 7’s coverage of the announcement below.

Pizza Counts as a Vegetable? How the Spending Bill in Congress Could Unravel Progress on School Nutrition

by Mark Bishop, vice president of policy and communications

This week Congress is supposed to vote on a spending bill to keep the government running, a bill that because of last-minute additions now contains language that allows pizza to be counted as a vegetable in a school lunch.

In this good AP article about the bill, the reality reads a bit like a bad joke: a frozen pizza maker, a salt producer and a french fry walk into a school cafeteria. . . but this is not funny:

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now.  . . .

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.

I’m stunned, and I honestly don’t know where to start. So how about a quick reminder of the good old days,  back two years ago when the Institute of Medicine announced -- without a great deal of controversy -- science-based recommendations for improving school food and improving the health of our nation’s children. The recommendations included things like serving students a greater variety of vegetables and more whole grains while cutting back on sodium. The consensus was that this was a thoughtful report and that changes in line with these recommendations would support parents’ efforts to feed their kids well-balanced meals. We all knew that getting to the implementation stage would not be without challenges, but it was good to see that school nutrition standards would be updated with what amounted to science-backed common sense. Ah, the good old days.

Back to today. We’re now facing a policy decision that has replaced science-backed common sense with the assertion that pizza ought to count as a vegetable when it’s served to schoolchildren.

(Side note: we’re not even talking about whole-grain pizza loaded with veggie toppings! We’re talking about frozen cheese pizza with tomato paste.)

If you want to take a look at the bill’s language, go for it, but the main takeaway is this: our Congressional leaders are on a fast track to overrule nutrition science in favor of political expediency. This is a dangerous precedent to set and not good public policy.

We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The USDA is planning on releasing their nutrition standards for competitive school foods (food sold outside the school lunch program, such as in vending machines or school stores) this winter, and we need to let Congress know that these standards must prioritize kid’s health and nutrition science.

Chicago Public Schools Serves Freshly-Baked Chicken Raised Without Antibiotics: Big News for Food Systems and Kids' Health

by Mark Bishop, vice president of policy + communications

Today, Chicago Public Schools is serving a new type of chicken. While you may recall that CPS just recently began serving fresh chicken from the USDA, this is a new and different story. CPS is now serving chicken raised without antibiotics, from an Amish family farm in nearby Indiana. The press release explains:

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today began serving local chicken raised without antibiotics to students in 473 schools. This development comes on the heels of a fresh chicken purchase direct from the USDA earlier this fall. The district's new scratch-cooked chicken program includes about 1.2 million pounds from Amish farms that do not use antibiotics, for a total of about two million pounds of fresh chicken in the 2011-12 school year. Students will be offered bone-in chicken two to three times each month.

 

CPS' enormous purchase of chicken grown without antibiotics, made through food service provider Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality, is the first of its kind. No other district in the nation is serving this kind of poultry regularly at such a scale.

For those with an interest in food systems, the story behind this chicken is a fascinating one.

With the help of partners including HSC, the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, School Food FOCUS, Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality and Whole Foods, CPS identified a market opportunity and is taking advantage of it. In short, Miller Poultry, a small Amish farm in Indiana, sells much of its chicken breast meat to Whole Foods and much of its thigh meat to Chipotle restaurants. It turns out that there isn’t much of a market for the drumsticks, especially because the drumsticks are on the smaller size (about 2 ounces each). But small chicken drumsticks are a perfect fit for kids. CPS was able to use the Whole Foods distribution network and purchase these drumsticks at a price that they could afford.  And now we have, at least once a month, fresh baked chicken drumsticks for most of CPS.

While the systems behind raising and delivering this chicken is a big part of the story, another big part is what CPS is doing with the chicken once it reaches schools. A baked chicken meal a few weeks ago marked the first time in recent memory that meat prepared from scratch had been served in CPS. In a Chicago Tribune story today, Monica Eng explains:

School caterers have long avoided raw meat for food safety reasons, but upcoming USDA guidelines encourage a return to less processed foods with lower sodium in school lunches.

"Two years ago I would have said that there is no way I'm ever bringing in raw chicken into our schools," said Bob Bloomer, of Chartwells-Thompson, which caters the 473 CPS schools that will be serving the chicken. (A second company, Preferred Meal Systems, caters about a third of CPS schools but is not part of the program.)

 

"But we trained all the (CPS) cooks and managers before school started this past August to bring them up to speed on how to safely handle chicken from the time it comes into the back door to the time it's served to students on the plate," Bloomer said. "And we actually created a training DVD for ongoing education."

 

That training paid off when the district served its first bone-in chicken quarters to students last month in a recipe created by celebrity cook Rachael Ray called Yum-O! Windy City Chicken. Future preparations will include lemon chicken, barbecued chicken and preparation using Asian spices.

The story goes on to quote Laura Stanley of School Food FOCUS. "The amazing thing is how the school smells like real food, like delicious roasting chicken," she said.

I had the same reaction. While CPS made the announcement today, they actually served the chicken for the first time last week at a few schools. Luckily for me, I was able to join my son at his CPS elementary school and give the new chicken a try.

When I walked into the cafeteria that morning, it smelled like my home kitchen when we’re making dinner. To me, that’s the best part of this story: a big, diverse group of partners working together to make the school cafeteria a place where kids get nourishing food they love, a place that smells like a delicious and freshly-baked lunch.

Of course schools’ main mission is to help kids learn, so I’ll share this quote from CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard: "I want to ensure that CPS children have the best nutritional options possible because it impacts their ability to be more successful in the classroom," he said. "Offering fresh chicken on school menus is another step we've taken to improve the quality of food served to our children and we will continue to bring more fresh, high-quality food options moving forward.”

Kudos to CPS, Chartwells-Thompson and the many partners -- from the farmers to the advisors to the school dining managers who prepared the chicken -- who have made this big step possible. We'll continue to share updates in the weeks ahead!

Plus: Check out coverage of this milestone in Wired, Education Week and The Hill. 

Farm to School in the Nation’s Capital: "Each meal is an educational experience in itself”

The HSC team recently spoke with Andrea Northup, manager of the D.C. Farm to School Network. The network recently celebrated their third annual Farm to School Week, a celebration in conjunction with National Farm to School Month.

The week included more than 80 events in schools in the nation’s capital including chef demonstrations, field trips, and farmer visits. Veggie cheerleaders could be seen in cafeterias across the city motivating students to eat vegetables!

The goal of D.C.’s week-long celebration is to spotlight local foods in school food and engage students in a meaningful connection to the food system.

“Each time a child participates in the school meal program, they’re sort of voting with their forks. The types of growers and the types of producers that the school meal system supports are the types of foods that the students are exposed to," said Northup. "So each meal is an educational experience in itself.”

Farm to School brings together agriculture and education, Northup said: “in the cafeteria, in the classroom and in the community are all ways that schools can connect with food education.”

She encourages parents, teachers and school leaders to start small and try a Farm to School experience, noting that small efforts make a big impact. 

“Even having a chef come into your classroom one time for a thirty-minute chef demonstration could really get something rolling at your school,” she said. 

She also recommends utilizing community resources and partners to bring the Farm to School experience to students. Field trips and chef demos are great special occasions that provide exciting educational opportunities for kids. 

Students meet a chicken as part of Farm to School week in Washington D.C.

"A lot of the students involved have never been on a farm, seen food from the source," she said. "We are fortunate to have quite a few urban farm resources here. That is a really good thing. Getting the kids out to a real farm is a whole different ball game." Northup's organization has a farm that students visit on field trips. "When you see the kids getting off the bus, they’re like ‘wow, we’re in nature!’" she said. "Identifying foods that they’ve heard of with the plant that they come from is all the more exciting when the child comes from an urban environment or a food desert.”

Celebrations such as this one highlight the benefits that Farm to School can bring year-round.

“We really want Farm to School Week to be every week, not only here but around the nation," Northup said. “Farm to School puts together access and education that is necessary for what we all want, which is for kids to get excited about and eat healthier, local foods. That is essentially what we’re working toward, that every child has farm fresh seasonal options in their school meals and food and farm education to excite them about those foods.”

Kudos to Northup and her staff for their amazing work! They’ve captured compelling stories from students, educators, and community members. Check out 50 Voices to see stunning images and quotes from their work.

(Photos courtesy of D.C. Farm to School Blog)

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To learn more about D.C. Farm to School Week, check out www.dcfarmtoschoolweek.org. You can head over to the DC Farm to School blog and get a recap of their events.

For more information on Farm to School month, visit farmtoschoolmonth.org.

Plus: How are you celebrating Farm to School month in your community? 

Chicken Takes Center Tray in Chicago Public School Cafeterias

by Mark Bishop, Vice President of Policy and Communcations

The headline reads “Celebrity TV Chef Creates Meal For CPS Students” and while Rachael Ray deserves a huge kudos for her work around school food, the real story here is the chicken!

The chicken? Yes, the chicken. 

Last week Chicago Public Schools served, for the first time in recent memory, fresh baked chicken in schools throughout the district. The chicken was prepared with a recipe created by celebrity chef Rachael Ray, and reports are that students loved the flavor. 

According to NBC, the student feedback was great: “I really like it.” “It tastes like heaven.” “I am ecstatic... I absolutely love it!” “It has more flavor than the average school lunch.”

While the celebrity chef brings star power to this story, I think the real star is the chicken. The district recently began ordering fresh chicken through the USDA’s commodity foods program. This is a big step in the world of school food, where most chicken is pre-cooked and heated rather than freshly baked. Fresh chicken will of course taste better, but it’s also better for you. With an ingredient label that reads just “chicken,” it has no sodium, no preservatives, no artificial additives -- just like the chicken you’d make at home.

CPS recently set in place an order for more than one million pounds of fresh chicken leg quarters for use this school year. That’s enough chicken for CPS to serve twice a month for the rest of the year. It’s an important step for what it is: hundreds of thousands of healthy fresh whole meals. It’s also important for what it represents: a major step in overcoming barriers to fresh cooking for the school cafeteria. 

And in the school my son attends, the school dining manager told me that the kids loved it. While she said it requires more work than the pre-cooked chicken, she assured me that “the kids like it more, so it’s worth it.” 

Check out this story from NBC to see the kids’ reactions for yourself. 

 

HSC's Perspective: Mrs. Q and School Food in Chicago and Beyond

by Rochelle Davis, President and CEO

The school food world was abuzz last week with the news that Mrs. Q, the previously anonymous teacher who ate school lunch every day for one year and blogged about it at Fed Up with Lunch, has revealed herself as Sarah Wu, a speech pathologist in Chicago Public Schools. She has released a book about her experience and is conducting media interviews to discuss her work and her new book.

Because HSC worked closely with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) on making changes to their school meal program, I’d like to share our perspective on Mrs. Q’s work. We’ve followed Mrs. Q’s efforts from the beginning, re-posting some of her early reflections on school funding and her reaction to breakfast in the classroom.

First of all, I’ve been impressed by Mrs. Q’s efforts to raise awareness of why and how much healthy school food matters. She discusses the importance of school food and physical activity to student health and shares her observations as a teacher about how food and fitness have an impact on learning.

Her observations and personal reflections also speak poignantly to school food as a social justice issue: she points out how healthy school food is especially important to the students she serves, who come to school at increased risk of both hunger and obesity.

Since beginning her blog in January 2010, Mrs. Q posted a photo of her lunch with a brief description almost every day. Though she discusses her personal preferences (including a love of "comfort food" casseroles), much of her commentary focuses on how processed the food is and how this is a result of systems beyond her specific school. She praises the food service staff at her school and their effort to provide the best food possible with extremely limited resources.

The time period she covers in her blog and book -- January through December 2010 -- includes the launch of the new school food program in CPS. In the fall of 2010, Mrs. Q reported that she began noticing changes to the food at her school. She comments on her pleasant surprise at receiving fresh broccoli, for example, and whole fruit. In recent interviews, she mentioned that she has noticed continued improvements since she stopped eating daily school lunch last year.

HSC supported the district in developing the new nutrition standards for this program and has closely followed its implementation. With this new program, the school food at CPS meets the nutrition guidelines of the gold standard of the HealthierUS School Challenge.

Specifically, the meals now have more (and more variety of) fruits and vegetables; more whole grains; lower sodium; and even a preference for locally-grown produce. (CPS actually has one of the largest farm-to-school program I’m aware of, bringing more than $2 million worth of regionally-grown fruit and vegetables to school cafeterias in the last year.)

I’m particularly encouraged, though, by the changes to school food in CPS that aren’t as easily described in quick bullet points. One of the main concerns Mrs. Q emphasizes is that the food served in schools today seems removed from the type of food many of us would prepare at home. As she explains, this is a result of many factors -- including inadequate funding and lack of kitchen facilities for cooking -- that result in more processed food being served in schools. I believe the changes we see in the works at CPS will move the district even further in the right direction with regard to this issue. 

Mrs. Q also speaks highly of breakfast in the classroom, a program that CPS brought to all elementary schools this year. HSC has championed this program as a way to support student health and learning. (To learn more, check out HSC’s site BreakfastMatters.org.)  Mrs. Q describes it as an easy and effective way to get healthy food to kids who need it and notes that it starts the day on a positive note for students and teachers.

That said, Mrs. Q also highlights many problems in the school food she eats; much of the recent media coverage has focused on the meals that she described with shock or dismay.

The reality is that CPS school food -- even the new program with so many healthy changes -- exists within the broader context of a national system that presents many challenges to serving fresh, healthy meals at school. Mrs. Q discusses many of the challenges that HSC recognizes in our advocacy work for better school food. These include the need for more money for better school food, schools’ lack of infrastructure for cooking and lack of funding to improve kitchen facilities,the fact that many students do not have enough time for lunch, and the need to bring back recess.

No matter how much progress the leaders at any one school or district make to improve school food, these factors pose very real challenges to the types of broad changes we’d all like to see for lunch at school.

We commend Mrs. Q for drawing attention to these system-level challenges and hope that her work will engage more teachers, parents and advocates across the nation in the effort to create a new future for school food.

Back to School with Go for the Gold!

As students get ready to head back to school this year, we are excited for another year of Go for the Gold!

Go for the Gold is a partnership of Chicago Public Schools and Healthy Schools Campaign with the USDA and Illinois State Board of Education. Go for the Gold provides leadership training, programs and resources to Chicago schools as they strive to meet the USDA's HealthierUS School Challenge, a cornerstone of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign.

In June, we celebrated as 19 schools received national recognition for making health and wellness a priority! Now, dozens more schools are on their way to making changes. We invite you to learn more and check out our latest Go for the Gold video!

 

Plus: To learn more about Go for the Gold, check out our Gold for the Gold blog updates. Stay posted for more stories and updates as the school year gets underway!

Student Perspective: Changes to Middle School Food Support Healthy Choices in High School Cafeteria

Today we have a blog by HSC intern Christine Andersen. Christine recently completed her sophomore year of high school. Thanks to Christine for sharing her story!

After another school year, I was thrilled to intern again this summer at Healthy Schools Campaign. Last year, I wrote about the changes my father helped make to my middle school’s lunch program and their immediate effects.

My high school’s lunch program is very different, primarily because my school has its own kitchen. Therefore, all of the food is prepared at the school, not just dropped off, heated up, and served to students as it is at many schools (including my old school). Not only does this allow for better tasting food to be prepared, but it gives the students more choices. This can be either a good thing or bad thing.

The benefit of the middle school program was that while students’ choices may have been limited, we only had healthy options to choose from. In high school, students still have the choice of hamburgers and pizza, but there is also a salad bar and a sandwich bar. Along with these daily options, students may still choose from the varying hot lunch selections.

So which is better? Ultimately, a turkey sandwich or a salad from my high school is probably still a better daily choice than the real meat hamburgers on wheat buns from my middle school. But now that students are given the choice, which will they choose? The answer is, the healthier option.

Based on my observations, the sandwich and salad bar lines are always much longer than the lines for the hamburgers and the pizza. Furthermore, those who choose from the hot lunch selections usually end up choosing from the wide selection of healthy sides which include fruit, vegetables, and yogurt, over fries.

These are the exact same students who five years ago were upset when they heard that their junk food was being taken away and replaced by healthy food. Now, however, those same students are choosing the most healthy options!

In thinking about the factors that could have led to this change, obviously the fact that the students are older and more mature is significant. However, being exposed to healthy food when they were younger, although maybe not by choice, must have made a real impact. Not all students develop healthy eating habits at home. (I have always been surprised when I go to a friend’s house and see a pantry stuffed with chips and cookies.) But when it comes to lunch, most students I see still make healthy choices at school. This leads me to think that our healthy changes to school lunch in middle school and the nutrition education we receive must play a big role. 

While last year I talked about the short term effects, I'm now seeing the longer-term effects of school lunch reform. From my perspective, it seems that a change to our food in middle school played a real role in helping many junk-food-loving pre-teens grow into health-conscious young adults.

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Plus: To read more about students making a difference for healthy school food, check out our upcoming Cooking up Change contest! You can read blog updates and profiles of previous participants here.

Danny Seymour of School Nutrition Association on Breakfast in the Classroom: "It Gets Them Ready to Learn"

HSC caught up with Danny Seymour, dean of education for School Nutrition Association (SNA) to discuss breakfast in the classroom. He oversees education programs in SNA across the country. Prior to this role, Seymour served 36 years in the food service management industry where he saw nearly every aspect of school nutrition programming, operations, and policy advocacy.

Seymour has made several observations after visiting school sites where breakfast in the classroom is available. He notes that some of the teachers’ initial concerns were that kids would be noisy and difficult to control, but they have not seen those issues.

“The message is the same: it’s been a great program. The kids come in, it helps calm them down, and it gets them ready to learn when instructional time begins,”  he said.

One of the benefits of the program, he said, is that children have the opportunity to start the day off with a nutritious well-balanced meal. 

“It is important for them to have good nutrition to begin the school day because we’re looking for academic achievement. Breakfast in the classroom support that,” he said.  Seymour adds that the program “gets kids ready to learn when instruction begins and that has helped teachers tremendously. It has increased their learning time, which has been a big plus.”

Often, breakfast is provided to students in their classes prior to big exams or important state-wide tests. Seymour poses the question, “if breakfast is important for one of those days in the school year, why isn’t it important for every day in the entire school year?” 

“Again, it goes back to getting kids ready to learn,” he said. “We know nutrition supports everything we do, whether we’re children or adults. We need to afford that to our children so they have a good start academically so they’re ready to achieve and be successful in every area that they can.”

Danny also discussed surprises that come with any new initiative. Luckily, all the surprises he’s encountered have proved positive. “The surprises have been the benefits,” he said.  

In particularly, one of the biggest surprises has been the cooperation at all levels. The most interesting of these is “that children come into the classroom, they seem to bond together, they do constructive projects, and they may be working on a craft item. Many of them read. Teachers have said this is wonderful. It gives them the opportunity to calm down. [Teachers say,] I don’t have to spend the first ten or fifteen minutes of my instructional day trying to get them in order and get them ready to be attentive and learn in class.”

Seymour thinks of breakfast in the classroom in the larger context of children’s health and education efforts across the nation. “We need to make better efforts to have healthier children in this country and better educated children because that’s where our future lies,” he said. “If we don’t recognize this, then shame on us."

Many thanks to Danny Seymour for taking the  time to talk with us about breakfast in the classroom. To learn more about the School Nutrition Association, please visit www.schoolnutrition.org. 

Plus! Visit www.BreakfastMatters.org to learn about the Breakfast in the Classroom initiative in Chicago and hear the stories of principals who have seen the program in action in their schools.