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 Day for a Dog

I have a confession to make. Today I ate a hot dog. I haven’t done that in like, oh, maybe forever. That’s because I don’t like hot dogs. Of course, I love the idea of eating Fenway Franks and Dodger Dogs as much as I love baseball itself, so it’s not without great shame that I forgo the American icon and order a pretzel at the ballpark. My aversion to the hot dog was a particular disadvantage as a child (back then, I didn’t like peanut butter either). So when lunchtime came at a friend’s house, I prayed for grilled cheese! But today, I ordered a slender, gently steamed hot dog wrapped in a delightfully airy bun. The Wonder Bread kind that is stark white and packed with more bad carbs than you can count. And I drenched it with yellow mustard and watery green relish squeezed from tiny plastic pouches. I liked it. In fact, I may have liked it a lot.

But wait. That’s not all. I have another confession to make.

I also ate a bag of Cheetos. This may not seem like such a big deal either, but if you know me, and you know my philosophy towards food, you know I’ve been railing against Cheetos now for a long, long time. Even before I began my cooking school, Kitchen Kid, I made Chester the Cheetah the scapegoat for all things bad in our nation’s children’s diet. But the hot dog “deal” (it was $6.99) came with a bag of chips, and when that dashing cheetah winked at me from behind his seductive black shades, I figured what the heck. I’d already crossed over to the dark side with the hot dog, there’d be no going back. In minutes my fingers were stained neon orange – the telltale mark of a Cheeto fanatic -- and I was in some kind of junk food euphoria. They were so good I had a hard timing sharing just one. It wasn’t until my family threatened to take a photo of me gorging on those crunchy bits – blackmail for the next time I blogged about the sins of the Frito-Lay company – that I realized just what I was doing. I had suspended my idealism about what food should look like, how it should taste, where it should come from, and what it should be made of. I was eating like the average American kid.

Let me back up.

My in-laws are visiting from New Hampshire, and we decided to spend the day at Universal Studios after my mother-in-law got wind that Terri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman would be filming on Wisteria Lane. And like everyone else who goes on death-defying 4-D rides and moves through lines at a sloth’s pace, we got hungry. As anyone who has ever been to a theme park, or a ball park, or a mall, or an airport, or a road-side rest-stop knows all too well, our options were far from healthy. Pepperoni pizza. Romaine lettuce swimming in dressing. Cinnabon. Chicken fingers. Hot dogs. Cheeseburgers. Churros. Cotton candy. But I anticipated this! I had been toting around a granola bar, some peanuts, and a bottle of water in my purse, waiting for this very moment to strike. But what was I going to do, nibble my organic snacks while my family ripped into a heart attack of saturated fat? It was while I surveyed my predicament -- my devotion to kids’ healthy cooking, the growing movement to bring an organic garden to the White House lawn, and a genuine concern for the future of our national food supply – that my craving for a hot dog overcame me. That’s when I ordered up 6 inches of “all-natural” beef and some MSG laced “cheese” puffs. They didn’t tell me the $6.99 combo deal came with a side of guilt.

But, um, I wasn’t that guilty. Really. It’s probably been, I don’t know, 5? 10? years since I last ate a Cheeto. Maybe a lifetime since I finished a hot dog. And while I wouldn’t choose to eat this way every day, (like many school children in cafeterias across America -- schools may ban soda, but bags of chips have been for sale at lunch in every school at which I’ve worked) today I learned it didn’t kill me.

Even as Wal-Mart markets its new line of organic produce, sustainable eating is still considered an expensive luxury fit only for the Prius-driving culinary elite. It shouldn’t be. (And considering the prices of theme park food, I honestly believe healthy food is accessible to all.) But those of us who live and preach the world of healthy, sustainable, deliberate eating sometimes forget that it’s okay to have a little transgression here and there. We spend a lot of time at Farmers’ Markets, turn our noses up at ingredient lists cluttered with preservatives, and have been known to walk down grocery store aisles like a great-grandmother listening to rap music -- totally aghast at the products for sale. Just last week my mom, recently diagnosed with osteoporosis and determined not to let the disease get me, handed me a chocolate calcium “chew” and ordered I eat one each day. “But mom,” I cried reading the label, “These are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and dyes. Why would I EVER get my calcium that way?!”

Today I ate a little outside my comfort zone, and not only did I learn something from it, I found I liked it a tiny bit, too. The culinary elite could take a page from this. Rather than pine for local bok choy, dreaming of watching kids run around school gardens instead of the Simpsons ride, and judging the families wearing “All You Can Eat!” passes around their necks, once in a while it’s okay to embrace the experience and culture of being an American kid and lick orange Cheeto crumbs from your fingers.

School Food That's Worlds Away

Oh to be a kid in Paris. To play along the banks of the Sienne and wander in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. To ride the carousel at the Jardin du Luxembourg and play peek-a-boo in the narrow streets of the Marais.

And to eat cauliflower gratin, braised lamb with rosemary, and stinky soft cheese. For lunch. At preschool. As reported Monday on NPR, this is precisely the kind of menu served at the 270 public day-care centers throughout the city. Along with homemade applesauce, local and organic produce, and even tomato garnishes in the shape of a rose.

Sign me up. These kiddos even get an afternoon nap. It would be erroneous to pretend our country's culinary heritage is even remotely in line with the French. And yet I can't help wish our national conversation was about feeding school children asparagus instead of the newly developed peanut butter recall widget:

FDA Product Recall List

Was it by coincidence that just days after NPR's story about school-foodie paradise, the New York Times today featured an op-ed by Alice Waters? She implores Washington to do away with the National School Lunch Program, the inefficient and unhealthy emphasis on government commodities, and the school food that hardly constitutes food at all. Calling our current lunch program a "junk food distribution system", Ms. Waters suggests a complete overhaul that would cost about $5/child for wholesome, nutritious, and freshly-cooked school food. (A bit more than the $2-$3 per child cost as noted by NPR in this story, and one that appeared in July, where the French chef serves 800 high-schoolers ingredients from within just 30 miles of the school in Salon de Provence.)

A tasty proposal that sounds tres bien to me.
Meanwhile, gourmet food isn't the only thing the French are serving up. Cookbook author Deborah Madison spent some time in France's lunchrooms, observing not only what was on the menu, but how it was dished up: in a relaxed, convivial atmosphere, with a 2 hour lunch and exercise period, on real plates with real silverware, and in a comfortable, nurturing, colorful "cafeteria". Her report is available here, at culinate.com.

Since I work in schools teaching cooking to children, and see the enthusiasm and curiosity parents, kids, and educators have displayed for our exploratory culinary curriculum, I think there is a possibility that our school cafeterias may begin to look more like France's. But without the kind of sweeping change Ms. Water's demands, with cooperation, funding, and support from bureaucratic entities like the Departments of Agriculture and Education, as well as a commitment by local school districts, I worry it won't happen any time soon. And in California, where public schools are again taking a multi-billion dollar budget cut, I worry even the most well intentioned schools will struggle to serve up something good.

Mr. Kass, head to the kitchen. It's time to get to work.

"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.

If You Build It...

If the youth vote for President-elect Obama, and the enthusiasm his powerful election generated among young people, is any indication of how kids will be motivated and influenced by the 44th president, I feel good about the future.

If President-elect Obama accepts the call to lead by example (see video below), plants the nation's most important organic vegetable garden on the White House Lawn, and the children of America clamor to till the soil, water seedlings, and pick tomatoes from their own school and backyard gardens, I feel REALLY good about the future. (And the future of our citizens' health and the country's food supply.)

Back in October, in response to Michael Pollan's now famous article, Farmer In Chief, I wrote about the brilliant idea to turn the White House Front Lawn into a sustainable fruit and vegetable garden, and give school children on their annual field trip to the Capitol the chance to till the Presidential soil.

It looks like this idea really has, (sorry) germinated.

As described on http://www.change.org/ -- the website soliciting the top ten ideas for change to submit to the president:

Thousands of Americans and people from the around the world are asking the Obamas to lead by example on climate change, health policy, economic self-reliance, food security, and energy independence by replanting an organic food garden at the White House with the produce going to the First Kitchen and to local food pantries.

The many successes(1) of the first Victory Garden movement were the result of effective public policy, bold leadership(2) at a time of national crisis, and the commitment of millions of citizens who were ready to roll up their sleeves for the greater good. There' s no better, more symbolic place for launching a new National Victory Garden Program than at the White House, "America’s House". There's no better, more urgent time(3) than now. And there's NOTHING that can beat the fresh taste of locally-grown, home-cooked foods.

(1) Victory Gardens (behind homes, schools, in vacant urban lots, etc.) produced 40% of the nation’s produce at their peak, helped conserve food and natural resources at a time of crisis, resulted in the highest consumption rates of fruits and vegetables our nation has seen, and helped keep millions of Americans physically fit and active.

(2) First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the White House lawn in 1943 over the objections of the USDA, inspiring millions by her example.

(3) The UN estimates that 1 billion people will go hungry in 2009 while climate scientists predict this year will be one the five warmest years on record.

So please cast your vote for Victory Garden 2.0 today here: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/green_the_white_house
Learn more about the movement here: http://www.eattheview.org/
And certainly don't miss the video which might turn you, and Mr. Obama, into a green thumb.


This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

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.

Other Things I'd Like to Vote For

I've managed to live in two of the few states that put propositions on the November ballot. With confusing wording and lengthy legalese, it can leave even the most informed citizen baffled. Let alone your average Joe. (Plumber or not.) Californians today cast their vote for a wide range of topics, from constitutional amendments about same-sex marriage, the rights of a chicken, renewable energy, and parole rehabilitation. In Santa Monica, we also weighed in on traffic congestion, rent control leadership, building development, and a cell-phone tax.

I don't mean to disparage our great civic duty, or dismiss the truly electric energy that buzzed through my polling place today. But after waiting in line for 20 minutes, and spending many more inking my voice in nearly 35 different bubbles, I realized that there were actually a few more things for which I'd like to cast my vote in favor. Here's my list. Feel free to dream yours.

Prop EAT: A Provision for a Healthier, Happier America:

School Lunch Reform
Stricter Cafeteria Standards
Nutrition and Culinary Education
Junk Food Consumption Limits
Massive Reduction in Global Warming and Fatal Diseases Currently Attributed to Agriculture and Livestock Production
Teaching Kids the Value of a Good Meal Enjoyed with Friends and Family Teaching Those Same Kids How to Cook It
Elimination of "Ingredients" like Hydrogenated Oil and Red No. 40 in the Food We Feed Our Children
An Opportunity for Kids to See How Food Grows and Where It Comes From with the Likes of a School Garden
Access to Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for All, Regardless of Economic or Geographic Restrictions
Dramatic Increase in Fruit, Vegetable, and Whole Grain Consumption
Limits on the Distance a Tomato Should Travel
A nation that Eats Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants

I'll keep dream voting... but that first poll is closing and it's time to see the real changes that will be made today.

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.

School Lunch Reform and Victory Gardens

"Changing the food culture must begin with our children", writes Michael Pollan, in his article "Farmer In Chief", which appeared in Sunday's New York Times' Magazine.

Using his typical compelling and poignant prose, Pollan implores our future president-elect to direct his energies towards our nation's rapidly deteriorating food system. If the man sworn in next January heeds Pollan's advice, even the most pessimistic political and cultural cynics at the table will find hopeful promise in America's new food system - one that is based on sunshine.

In case you haven't got the time to read Pollan's latest manifesto (though I really suggest you do), here are two significant changes which would make it easy to be Growing Up Gourmet with Michael Pollan as Secretary of Agriculture.

Lunch will become a mandatory part of the school curriculum, from planting a seed and watching it grow, to creating, following, and preparing a recipe, and to enjoying a meal shared with friends and teachers. Coupled with endless teachable moments, countless math, science, reading, and social lessons, and a healthy portion of Superfoods, lunch will become the "Super-Class":

"On the premise that eating well is a critically important life skill, we need to teach all primary-school students the basics of growing and cooking food and then enjoying it at shared meals."

Children will visit the White House not only for the chance to see the Oval Office, but the opportunity to till the Presidential soil. After devoting five acres of White House lawn to an organic fruit and vegetable garden, Pollan hopes to redefine the way Americans view farming, quite literally from top-down. With reminders of Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden of 1943 that inspired 20 million home gardens and supplied 40% of the nation's produce (!!!):

"The president should throw his support behind a new Victory Garden movement, this one seeking “victory” over three critical challenges we face today: high food prices, poor diets and a sedentary population... ...Making this particular plot of American land productive, especially if the First Family gets out there and pulls weeds now and again, will provide an image even more stirring than that of a pretty lawn: the image of stewardship of the land, of self-reliance and of making the most of local sunlight to feed one’s family and community."

As the most basic aspect of human existence, and historically one which has created cultures and defined nations, food and it's supply is an issue every world leader must be discussing. Thank you, Mr. Pollan, for reminding us that our nation's security, health care, economy, and future depend on it.