"school cafeterias" news and stories

• The most anticipated opening at Lincoln Center: Jonathan's Benno's new restaurant.
  
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• At Gramercy Park's Novita, "the pastas are just ridiculous" -- in a good way.
• Cantonese, Sichuanese, Hunanese... been there, eaten that. Now try Dongbei Cai.
• President Obama is taking out the trash -- out of school cafeterias, that is.

We've already seen action at the individual school level to ban unhealthy foods from school campuses. However, a bi-partisan group is now taking it to a nation-wide level by introducing legislation that would prohibit the sale of fatty, sugary foods like French fries and sodas in schools, not just in the cafeterias, but anywhere on the school grounds, which includes, vending machines, school stores, and even fund raising events.

Currently, the schools set a minimum nutrition standard on foods - that they must have at least 5% of the US RDA of certain proteins, vitamins, and minerals - which allows things like cookies, chips, French fries and doughnuts to be sold. The new bill, instead, would have much a much stricter list of "banned foods" based on whether they promote obesity and chronic illnesses. 

I wonder if Girl Scout cookies would be banned.

[photo: New York Times]