Eating-In on Labor Day

Are you attending the National Day of Action to Get REAL FOOD in School Lunch?

You should!!

And chances are, there is a local Eat-In happening in your community.

The Time for Lunch Campaign is a national project sponsored by Slow Food USA, to encourage support for dramatic change to the Child Nutrition Act, which is up for re-authorization by Congress this fall. Rather than feeding kids USDA commodities (tator-tots and canned corn), Time for Lunch is built on this comprehensive platform:

1. Invest in children's health.

2. Protect against food that puts children at risk.

3. Teach children healthy habits that will last through life.

While encouraging President Obama and Congress to

1. Give schools the incentive to buy local.

2. Create green jobs with a School Lunch Corps.

You can read the complete platform here.

Show your support for changing the way American school children eat lunch, by sharing good food with new friends at an Eat In this Labor Day. A map of national locations is available here.

At the very least, sign the petition to get REAL FOOD in school lunch. They are searching for 6,000 more signatures before September 7.

A VERY Hungry Caterpillar

Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar is turning 40...
and he is VERY hungry indeed!

Come celebrate this special anniversary with us at Storyopolis!

Enjoy story time, decorate chef hats, and cook up fun!
We'll be making tasty butterfly treats and crunchy caterpillar snacks.

Join Us!

Saturday, March 14
11:30 am
Storyopolis
14945 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks

"Inevitable" Change for School Lunch

After much ado about converting the White House lawn to an organic garden; a sustainable foodie outcry for a new breed of White House chef, led by Alice Waters; and a call among devoted fans for Michael Pollan to lead our nation as Secretary of Agriculture, it is safe to say that one week into the President's new term, little talk of our food supply has graced the lips of Washington's movers and shakers.

Or has it?

Though Mr. Obama may be spending much of his time working out bailouts, sending George Mitchell to the Middle East, and questioning Sidwell-Friends' response to the snow, he did have some time to give the green light to bringing Sam Kass, the 28 year-old chef who cooked for the Obamas in Chicago and founded Inevitable Table, into the White House kitchen.

A spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama indicated that Kass is passionate about local, sustainable, healthy food. A good sign for anyone dining at the White House -- and for our nation as a whole. It's a little too early to predict what effect Kass' cooking and philosophy may have on American school children. But there is promise. As reported on several New York Times blogs today, including The Caucus and Tara Parker-Pope's Well , Mr. Kass is committed to re-thinking what the National School Lunch Program serves up. (Few veggies, a lot of fat, and a hefty dose of HFCS.) The full text of a recent talk Kass lead about school lunch reform is available here.

Mr. Kass, you and I have got a lot in common -- with the same first names, the same age, a similar passion for eating and cooking, and an equal devotion to changing the way we feed America's children. The new presidency is all about hope. And boy have I got high hopes for you.

DeeDee, Meet Nintendo DS

My great-grandmother DeeDee was born over a century ago. In the 90+ years of her life, she witnessed everything from the Great Depression (that'd be 1.0), and the golden years of Ford (not 2008), to the proliferation of telecommunications and the personal computer. She nearly saw Al Gore invent the Internet.

But if there was one thing in the 21st century that would have really surprised her -- I mean blown her out of the water -- it'd be the Nintendo DS Personal Trainer: Cooking.

You see, before Nintendo, DeeDee was the original "personal trainer of cooking". DeeDee was an unbelievable cook. Her apple pie was the kind of dessert that could bring a dueling family together. She spent decades coaching my mom on the secrets of perfect pie dough, buttery ruggelah, moist roast chicken -- and there was nothing she cherished more. Some of my earliest kitchen memories are of DeeDee, my mom, and my cousins, gathered in her yellow kitchen tasting and laughing away. She embraced the true spirit of the kitchen, sharing the love and adventure that went into each recipe, and it showed in her food and in the memories that were created. It's been over 15 years since DeeDee passed away, and the smell of a perfect apple pie can still bring my mom to tears.

The problem of course, is that Nintendo-generated cooking "lessons" (and in fact there are others -- over 30 cooking apps on the iPhone alone!) are actually setting out to eliminate the priceless moments I shared with DeeDee in her kitchen -- the very human experience that is cooking! The conversations, the friendships, the tasting, the sharing, the mistakes -- the highly cherished passing down of family recipes from generation to generation!!! Can a computer take this away?

I can almost hear it now:

"So, Chef, where did you learn to cook?"
"Well, my first "real experience" was playing Cooking Mama, the absurdly popular cartoon game that pre-dated Personal Trainer, when I first used a chefs' knife. Next, I learned to use a can-opener in that very same game! Before I knew it, I was working with real knives, and I stir-fried some chicken with my GameBoy guiding me every step of the way. I scored a thumbs-up, moved onto quiche 101, and I've been the executive chef at Le Cirque ever since."

Sigh.

It's as if the makers of Nintendo have already heard my complaints and have their defense ready. A page on the website for Personal Trainer: Cooking, features 3 different videos showing 2 friends, a family, and a couple, all cooking together with their Nintendo DS coaching their every step. (And I mean literally, Every. Single. Step.) The videos are painful to watch. The young couple acts like they've never been to a grocery store or made a grocery list, never held a knife, never boiled rice. (Which, by the way, they do with a rice cooker, so we're not exactly talking brain surgery here.) It takes them 6 long and slow steps just to cut a cucumber.

While I realize not everyone has a DeeDee to help coach them through the basics of cooking, I just can't accept that learning from Nintendo is a substitute. There are neighbors and grandmas, uncles and aunts, who are eager to share their love for homemade goodness. Families who cook together share experiences that can't always be had outside of the kitchen. DeeDee passed on her passion and enthusiasm for cooking to my mom. And my mom gave me that very same gift. Would I really be excited about cooking dinner 7 nights a week if I had learned to cook from an electronic machine?

My favorite line of the video is when the young man remarks, "Wow, I can't believe Nintendo is going to tell us what to eat for dinner!"

Me neither.

Video Insight: Edible Schoolyard

If you've ever wondered how Alice Waters' Schoolyard really works, watch these kids transform seeds into dinner.



Read the full story that appeared in edutopia, or visit the Edible Schoolyard's website, here.

My Dog Eats Better Than Your Kids

Hopefully this isn't true. (Though I did just poach some chicken thighs for our dog...)

But it is the title of Australian scientist Dr. Peter Dingle's new book. Dingle believes that the over-processed, chemical-packed foods that go into the average child's diet are far worse than what we feed most animals. I wondered about this. The brands at my pet store include: Nature's Logic, DogsWell, Halo For Pets, Party Animal Organic, BG (Before Grain) and Wellness. And the ingredients on Auggie's food are all easily pronounceable, all natural or properly fortified, and include familiar items like "duck, lamb, sweet potatoes, corn, and zucchini". I wanted to compare the dog food label to those darned spicy cheetos... but you won't be surprised when I tell you there just weren't any in our cupboard.

Nonetheless, Dingle might be on to something. Dogs are eating better than kids. Except when they're not:

Last year Americans were outraged to learn dogs and cats were becoming sick from contaminated dog food manufactured in China. The FDA scurried to create new federal positions to inspect imported goods, pet food recall lists swarmed the Internet and pet store shelves, and veterinarians treated many an ill dog.

It's a well known fact that four of the top six leading causes of death in the United States can be attributed to our Western Diet. Chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are literally killing us as we continue to eat, well, "contaminated food". But unlike the contaminated dog food scare, there's not enough outrage. The FDA, happily in cahoots with big agribusiness, scurries to do nothing. And there's certainly no "recall list" posted on supermarket shelves reminding us to skip the trans-fat fries, Olestra-laden bbq chips, and Splenda-ridden "sugar" cookies. Unfortunately, the only similarity between the dog food crisis and our nation's current food crisis, is the increased number of visits to medical professionals.

Cookbook author and New York Times columnist Mark Bittman is outraged. Listen to him call for a dramatic change in the way Americans eat, in his talk:

What's Wrong with What We Eat:



Having trouble viewing it? Click here to go to see the video on ted.com.

What Happened to Home-Ec?

Our dog goes nuts for kids. Babies in strollers, toddlers with mom, awkward teenagers -- they're all Auggie's best friend. For a real treat, some mornings I take him on the "school tour" in our neighborhood. We pass 1 middle school, 3 pre-schools, 1 elementary school, and a community college. We also encounter numerous treat-bearing crossing guards. Auggie gets more pets and attention in that 45 minute walk than your average mutt does in a week.

This morning we passed several groups of middle-schoolers ambling towards class. And most of them were still working on 'breakfast'. (You know, the most important meal of the day.) Hot cheetos. Caramel popcorn. Jolt, Vault, Monster. (Engery drinks, in case you weren't sure.) Chicken nuggets. I was so appalled I think I would have been relieved to see some breakfast junk food of yesteryear. Think Pop tarts, Egg McMuffins, and breakfast sausage Hot-Pockets.

In reality, I guess I wasn't too shocked. In fact, it was watching too much consumption of hot-cheetos before 9am that propelled me into the kids' cooking and nutrition business anyhow. As a middle school teacher, I was all too accustomed to the sugar highs and lows these junks foods caused, especially during first and second period. The implications for students who start their day with a healthy breakfast is astounding, from test scores to type 2 diabetes to behavioral and attention disorders. And by now, it seems teachers, nutritionists, doctors**, and (some) parents all know this.... so who's telling the kids???

The lack of health-education (it's not just sex-ed) and life-skills classes in our schools is devastating, and is no doubt one of the many factors contributing to our nation's growing obesity rate. When I was a kid, I was taught the difference between Fruit Loops and fruit salad. Sure, I loved my annual birthday box of Fruit Loops. But I understood why I ate fruit salad the rest of the year. Kids today are simply not receiving the requisite nutrition and culinary education to make good choices about what they eat. Not only are schools not teaching it, they're not serving it either. Nearly 80% of US school cafeterias do not meet the USDA nutritional guidelines for school lunch (how can they when they get just $1.00/child?), and many offer items from Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Kids aren't dumb; they probably know that a Double Whopper isn't the best thing for them. But I don't think they realize the lifelong ramifications of the food choices they make.

With a quick search on google for "home economics in schools today", I could hardly find an article or website that discussed cooking and health education in American schools. (The most relevant was from 2001.) Of course, there are some exemplar school district programs, like Alice Water's-influenced Edible Schoolyard in Berkley. And there is excellent curricula for interested teachers, such as Dr. Antonia Demas' Food Is Elementary. But we've yet to come close to anything as radical as UK's recent mandate which requires secondary schools to teach health education and cookery to all the country's children.

In previous political campaigns, I've gotten pretty fired-up when the candidates debate education reform. During Wednesday's final debate, it got barely a sound bite as the last topic posed by Bob Schieffer. And you can be sure that building kitchen classrooms, planting school gardens, improving the nutritional quality of cafeteria food, and home-economics classes weren't in either of the candidates' responses.

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**In fact, only 40% of medical schools require doctors to take a nutrition course, and 6 of the top 16 US hospitals have fast food in the cafeteria.