About RSU 20 Healthy Kids: Under the guidance of Linda Hartkopf, RSU 20 School Health Coordinator, a group of parents, health professionals called RSU#20 Healthy Kids has been meeting for approximately one year. The mission of the group is to research and set goals on how a healthier lunch program could be implemented in the RSU #20 school district. Read more...
The blog below is intended to provide you with the latest news related to the National School Lunch Program. We highlight district initiatives and broader trends in school nutrition aimed at fighting children obesity.
Sources: Washington Post | Read full article here | By Lynh Bui, Published: April 14, 2013
Across the country, school lunch directors, nutritionists and parents like Devitt are asking the same question as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crafts new federal nutrition standards limiting sugar, fat and sodium for school snacks and drinks. The rules would be the first update to school snack guidelines in more than 30 years and would come as first lady Michelle Obama continues to take aim at childhood obesity. About one-third of children in the United States are either overweight or obese.
The mandates will be controversial. School districts worry that changes to snack guidelines will reduce food sales that help keep cafeteria budgets balanced. They also say the rules could limit some children from eating enough calories because recent federal rules shrank the size of school meals.
Others say the proposed guidelines don’t go far enough. High-fat potato chips, candy bars and sugary sodas will be out, but flavored milks or low-fat yogurts with nearly the same sugar content as certain chocolate bars could be in.
(WASHINGTON D.C.) -- Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio introduced the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act on Tuesday, a comprehensive package of reforms that would expand opportunities for local and regional farmers and make it easier for consumers to have access to healthy foods. The bill also helps put more local food into schools, rebuild the farm infrastructure in rural communities and help farmers break down barriers to new markets.
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Some of the proposals in the bill include:
Provide funding to help farmers build the infrastructure—like community kitchens—to process and sell their food locally.
Require USDA to keep doing traditional seed research, not just on genetically modified seeds.
Create a new crop insurance program tailored to the needs of diversified and organic farmers who grow a wide variety of crops and can’t easily access traditional crop insurance.
Break down barriers for schools to purchase local food more easily. Provide schools with a local school credit to purchase local foods.
Make it easier for food stamp recipients to spend their money at farmers markets by giving the farmers access to technology necessary to accept electronic benefits—that money goes right back into the local economy. The bill includes a pilot program to test smart phone technology to accept food stamp benefits at farmers market.
Meat consumption in the U.S. has been on the decline for nearly a decade. Several factors account for this change, but two in particular stand out. The first is consumer health concerns, based on a public perception that a high level of red meat consumption is unhealthy. The other main factor is the economy, specifically the recession that began in 2008 and which is still having a negative impact on the economy in 2013. As a result, consumers have been eliminating meat from one or more meals per week and/or reducing the size of portions served.
The health concerns also drove a switch by many consumers from red meat to poultry as a healthier source of animal protein or to switch to plant-based meat substitutes as their protein source.
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But even as consumption per capita has decreased, overall dollar sales have increased thanks to more value-added products entering the marketing mix. These are often convenience products targeted to an overworked population as well as to younger consumers who lack cooking skills. Also helping to keep the dollar sales up are in increase in high-end fresh meat cuts that appeal to that part of the population that has survived the recession or recovered economically more quickly than the population as a whole and want to enjoy upscale products.
As a result, Packaged Facts estimates that retail sales of meat and poultry products topped $85 billion in 2012, up from nearly $73 billion in 2008. Looking ahead, sales are projected to grow to $98.3 billion by 2017. Supporting that growth will be an economic recovery that, while it has been very slow, is underway and likely to pick up steam with each passing year.
Full article posted on the USDA Blog on April 4th, 2013
Crisscrossing the country, from Maine to California, and from Florida to Washington, farm to school programs exist from coast to coast in small, rural towns and large, urban metropolitan areas alike. We know school cafeterias are brimming with local and regionally sourced foods, giving kids more opportunity than ever to understand where their food comes from.
What we don’t know is exactly how many schools are working with regional producers, building school gardens, or heading out on field trips to the farm. This spring, USDA is conducting a first of its kind nationwide Farm to School Census, surveying over 13,000 school districts to determine how many schools currently purchase local foods.
We’ll be asking about which types of local foods schools purchase, what percent of their budget is directed locally, how often they offer local options on the menu, and whether they plan to increase, decrease or maintain local purchasing at current levels. With this kind of market forecasting data in hand, local and regional producers will be better equipped to enter the school food market.
Today the vision Kristy described of strong working relationships with local producers and engaged students is a reality for schools in Portland, Oregon and across the country. With the passage of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, federal standards are also now in place to further support all schools in their efforts to serve healthy meals. Medals of Honor are deserved by innumerable school food service professionals who have enthusiastically embraced changes in the school cafeteria — Kristy and her team in Portland and the Ohioans who packed the recent conference among them.
At USDA, we’re pleased to support efforts to bring more local and regional food into the school cafeteria and very focused on providing schools with tools and resources to inspire their students to make healthy eating choices. In fact, our Farm to School Grant Program helps ensure more and more schools across the country can imagine a future where cafeterias are overflowing with local products and where children, with a keen understanding of where their food comes from, fill their plates with healthy, local fare.
Source: Portland Press Herald. By Avery Yale Kamila akamila@mainetoday.com | Published on January 13th, 2013
Eating local gets a lot of lip service, but according to research done by Mark Lapping, only about 10 percent to 14 percent of the food eaten by the average Mainer comes from Maine.
"Right now Maine imports the vast, vast majority of its food and most of it comes in on trucks," said Lapping, who is a distinguished professor at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Policy. "But many of us believe Maine has the capacity to produce more food."
Lapping serves as one of the principal investigators for the Maine Food Strategy initiative, part of a broad-reaching effort to significantly boost these numbers while improving the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen.
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"One would certainly like to see more local food produced in Maine, processed in Maine and distributed in Maine," Lapping said. "We'd like to see more Maine food dollars purchase Maine foods. We'd like to see the incomes of fishers and farmers grow. We'd like to see a more robust food processing sector."
Until she read a newspaper article about pesticide use on school grounds, Marla Zando of Scarborough was unaware that chemicals used on playgrounds or ballfields could hurt children.
"I really, really never had thought about it," she said. "And I sort of think of myself as being environmentally aware," but "wow, it was really eye-opening. I really was clueless, very, very clueless.
"Kids love to play in the dirt," said Zando, the mother of a 4-year-old son. "You don't know when (pesticides) are there; you can't see them. I find it very scary."
Zando began asking questions of physicians, members of the town council, even bird watchers -- people she knew would be knowledgeable about the subject -- to find out about synthetic pesticides and their potential health effects.
Numerous studies have linked pesticide use at certain levels to a variety of learning disabilities, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, cancers and developmental problems, especially in younger children.
"Children are still developing," said Zando. Chemicals "can affect growth and development," and people need to be educated about the health risks of these substances, she said.
About the Serie: Bringing together the nation’s leading research institutions, THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION is a presentation of HBO and the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and in partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente. The centerpiece of THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION campaign is the four-part documentary series, each featuring case studies, interviews with our nation’s leading experts, and individuals and their families struggling with obesity.
> The first film, CONSEQUENCES (Watch Video), examines the scope of the obesity epidemic and explores the serious health consequences of being overweight or obese.
> The second, CHOICES (Watch Video), offers viewers the skinny on fat, revealing what science has shown about how to lose weight, maintain weight loss and prevent weight gain.
> The third, CHILDREN IN CRISIS (Watch Video), documents the damage obesity is doing to our nation’s children. Through individual stories, this film describes how the strong forces at work in our society are causing children to consume too many calories and expend too little energy; tackling subjects from school lunches to the decline of physical education, the demise of school recess and the marketing of unhealthy food to children.
> The fourth film, CHALLENGES (Watch Video), examines the major driving forces causing the obesity epidemic, including agriculture, economics, evolutionary biology, food marketing, racial and socioeconomic disparities, physical inactivity, American food culture, and the strong influence of the food and beverage industry.
Fact: 40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home. Foods consumed away from home tend to be higher in calories and lower in nutritional quality than foods prepared at home.
Fact: Most high calorie foods, such as processed snacks high in added fat and sodium, cost less per calorie than fruits and vegetables, making it easy to buy too many unhealthy calories.
School lunch choices are changing. Healthy food choices are appearing in school cafeterias. What are the new school nutrition guidelines and standards, and what do they mean for our children?
Ellen Demmons, food services director for RSU 21 and Jonathan Cartwright, executive chef at the White Barn Inn, compete in an Iron Chef-type competition at Sea Road School in Kennebunk on Friday, September 28, 2012. The secret ingredient announced at the start of the competition was sweet potatoes and the school's fourth graders from the school were the judges of the chefs' final creations.
Master chef Jonathan Cartwright, who usually cooks in the high-end, tricked-out kitchen at the White Barn Inn, one of only three five-diamond restaurants in New England, found himself in that situation Friday when he squared off against Ellen Demmons, the food services director for Regional School Unit 21, in an "Iron Chef"-style competition.
It was star chef versus the lunch lady, and judging by the way they wielded their knives, neither one was taking any prisoners...
With the kids heading back to school in a few days, RSU 20 Healthy Kids will be resuming its activities and regular meetings. We are tentatively planning our first meeting of the 2012-2013 school year on Wednesday September 12th at 5:00 p.m. The meeting will take place 31 Congress Street in Belfast (Thierry Bonneville's house - 433-0212). Please e-mail Thierry (info@rsu20healthykids.com) if you are interested in participating.
Proposed Agenda:
> Review of the June 26th school board meeting and the significance of the two goals approved (see article below). We will discuss what this means and how we plan on making sure that specific plans and efforts are well underway to meet these goals (increased the purchase of local food by 20% and a ban on hyper-processed food and an increase on more nutrient-dense food ). We have requested and are awaiting for an update from Perley Martin, Food Service Director.
> Discuss a meeting to welcome and introduce our group to new superintendant. It is crucial for the new superintendant to get the perspective from our group, and to highlight the work accomplished by our group in the last two years. We will decide who should participate, discuss tentative dates and the setup the agenda and data needed for this meeting.
> 2013-2014 Objectives: In addition to ensuring that the two goals approved by the board are being met (imperative), our group will discuss potential strategy and items for the 2013-2014 calendar.
> Kitchen audits: Discuss latest status, team, and 2013-2014 schedule
> Marketing awareness: This year there will be a stronger efforts from members to grow our reach. We will be looking to appoint a dedicated volunteer media coordinator. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to info@rsu20healthykids.com.
WE WELCOME ANY NEW COMMUNITY MEMBERS, PARENTS, TEACHERS, HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, FOOD SERVICE PERSONNEL, etc.
Source: USDA Blog Post. Posted by 
Source: Portland Press Herald. By Avery Yale Kamila 
Source: Portland Press Herald. Read article in full at 
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