"school lunch" news and stories

Aw shucks. Jamie Oliver's much awaited Food Revolution LA-style sure got off to a rough start. Especially for a guy armed with a simple question: Why can't we do better when it comes to school lunches for our kids?

Before the show even gets underway, Jamie lets us in on a big problem -- the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has refused to give him access to schools. He's been denied.

"They will not let me into any school," says Oliver. "That means war."

So starts the famous chef's familiar drumbeat. He takes to the airways on co-producer Ryan Seacrest's radio program and eventually welcomes a crowd of parents and kids to Jamie's LA Kitchen where they unload gobs of unappetizing, highly processed, plastic wrapped meals culled from their own schools.

"It's worse than anything I had seen before. This is not reality TV. It's a campaign. Will you help me?" he says.

How do you raise a generation of libertarians? Take away their Lunchables.

In what's sure to become fodder for those who decry the overweening excesses of the nanny state, a number of Chicago-area schools have banned (yes, banned) parents from packing their kids' own lunches, according to the Chicago Tribune. Educators say that they're trying to protect children from all the salty, sugary, fatty foods that have been blamed for America's burgeoning crisis of childhood obesity.

"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," the principal of one west-side Chicago school told the Tribune. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve [in the lunchroom]."

Congressional approval of the Child Nutrition Bill isn't the only good news for school lunch reform advocates. Word is, there's even more substantial help on the way.

FoodCorps, a new national AmeriCorps school-garden and farm-to-school service program, recently announced partnerships with 10 organizations to effectively springboard their mission: healthier, tastier, more nutritious lunches for our nation's most vulnerable children. Think of it like a domestic Peace Corp, but with a focus on getting healthy food to those who need it most. The numbers are grim. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in three children born in 2000 are on track to develop Type II diabetes. For minorities, the rate is one in two.

To address the problem, FoodCorps has committed to place 82 service members on the ground, dedicating nearly 140,000 hours of service. Some of their work will include building and tending school gardens, conducting nutrition and education seminars, and improving the quality of the food served. The program will operate on the academic calendar, so service members will be shovel-ready by August 2011.

"We're doing the recruiting work now, and are on the look out for 82 highly qualified, enthusiastic leaders," Curt Ellis, FoodCorps founder and co-creator of the documentary film, King Corn told Slashfood in an interview.

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Following in the footsteps of her famous father, talk show host Montel Williams, 14-year-old Wyntergrace Williams has taken to the airwaves to solve other people's problems. But instead of counseling couples or advising addicts like Montel has done, the younger Williams is advocating for vegetarian meal options in public schools.

Williams' promo spot debuted last night during ABC Family's show "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." The 30-second PSA is part of a campaign to urge Congress to amend the Child Nutrition Act to include more vegetarian and vegan options in public school lunches. The CNA is up for reauthorization this year.

According to healthyschoollunches.org (the site that Williams is working with), though some schools are able to offer innovative school lunches that include numerous vegan and vegetarian options, some of which are even environmentally sustainable, many schools only meet the bare minimum nutrition requirements set forth by the CNA.