Slow Food St. Louis’ Awesome Airtime

by Julia Landau

Slow Food Saint Louis has been making news! In the past few months, this chapter was invited to appear on a local lifestyles morning show three times, getting the word out about seasonal produce and fresh and healthy cooking.

The chapter advised on topics ranging from kitchen to field on Great Day St. Louis.  Kelly Childs, SF St. Louis leader, spoke about the benefits of buying seasonal, perks of eating local, tips for picking out choice produce: Kelly shared it all.

Soon, SF St. Louis was back on camera, this time with a mini-tutorial on cooking with herbs – and growing them, too. 

The appearance was a seriously exciting opportunity to get the chapter’s name, website, and most importantly great work and knowledge out to a wide and interested audience - Congrats, St. Louis!

Top Chef takes on school lunch

by intern Christine Binder

When I heard that Sam Kass, White House assistant chef and Food Initiative Coordinator, was going to be the guest judge on Bravo TV’s Top Chef this week, I knew this would be a must-see episode. For those of you who didn’t tune in last night, let me give you a quick recap. No spoilers, I promise!

After creating some seriously tasty-looking “bipartisandwiches” for the Quickfire Challenge, the 16 contestants broke into four teams. For the Elimination Challenge, each team was charged with the task of cooking a delicious, nutritionally balanced lunch for 50 D.C. middle school students, a seemingly simple assignment, except for one major twist. Each team was only allotted a budget of $134, which comes to $2.68 per child, the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches. Chef Kass explained that because this money is used for labor and supplies in addition to ingredients, he would be subtracting $4 from their total budgets, leaving them with $130, which he described as a “major gift,” since schools usually only have roughly $1 to spend on ingredients.

As I expected, the chefs had a very difficult time adhering to this restrictive budget. At the Judge’s Table, one chef confessed, “We found ourselves at the cash register sacrificing creativity to keep substance in our meal.” The struggling teams also sacrificed nutrition, failing to include enough fruits and vegetables and “loading up with a lot of starch and sugar…the easy thing to do,” according to Kass.

Overall, I thought this was a great episode because it drove home two major points. First, cooking a healthy and delicious school lunch with a budget of $2.60 is a difficult challenge. Doing the same with only $1 for ingredients is much, much harder, which is why it’s so important for us to tell Congress to fully fund child nutrition programs.

More after the jump

Eating Alaska

by intern Maia Piccagli

“Eating Alaska” is a quirky documentary that follows the journey that Ellen Frankenstein, a former vegetarian, takes in search of a local, sustainable diet in Alaska.

After 15 omnivorous years married to a commercial fisherman and deer hunter, she sets out from her town of Sitka to explore the ways that sustainable eating in Alaska necessarily looks different from eating sustainably in the lower 48.

In her journey, she raises a number of questions and finds answers to a few:

 
• Can non-natives live off the land respectfully? According to whom? What does that mean?
 
• What happens when the environment where the food comes from is not healthy?
 
• What is the impact of eating foods shipped thousands of miles?
 
• How does the energy/fuel used to harvest some of these sustainable products affect the debate?

More after the jump

Grown & Cooked in Detroit

Greetings from Detroit, where I’m attending the 5th Annual Farm to Cafeteria conference.

COOKING
On Monday, as a lead-up to the conference, I acted as one of the judges for the Healthy Schools Campaign Cooking Up Change contest, in which 3 high school finalist teams, and two college finalist teams competed to create the best (tastiest, most innovative, and in line with school purchasing and IOM nutrition standards) healthy school lunch.  Any of you who have been following our Time for Lunch campaign and the battle in Congress right now for more money for school lunch know that making a healthy and delicious school lunch for only $1—what’s left after overhead & payroll—is incredibly hard. The kids were articulate and adorable and cooked up some tasty treats! The highlights for me were a chicken breast crusted with pesto and, yep, corn flakes; a cornbread casserole with beans, cheese, and tomatoes; and the winner, a meal that included a tepary bean quesadilla!  You can read an interview with the kids here, and please note that their supremely delicious beans are a Slow Food Ark of Taste product.

GROWING
I kept hearing about this beautiful movie, “Grown in Detroit,” and the amazing and inspiring school that lies at the heart of the film.  Tonight I got to see the movie, as part of a conference-run movie night complete with Applegate Farms hotdogs (delish), popcorn and root beer.  I left the theatre with a DVD clutched in my grasp, to show to all of my friends and colleagues, and anyone else who wants to borrow it. Catherine Ferguson Academy, run by Asenath Andrews, the principal we all wish we had, is a public school in Detroit for pregnant teens and their babies.  The school has a farm ( a “big garden with animals” says Andrews), one that teaches lessons in life cycles, business, biology and hard work; that provides revenue for the school and its students; and that brings fresh, delicious food into a community that finds these foods in short supply.  Food is the palette here for myriad learning opportunities—including, as one girl mentioned at the talk-back after the showing, that by taking care of these farm animals she learned about taking care of her own daughter. I can’t say enough wonderful things about Ms. Andrews, the beautiful and thoughtful girls both in the movie and on the panel tonight, and about this movie, which you can see by going to this web site and paying what you can (how cool is that?), or by organizing a screening in your community.

Thoughts on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

by intern Christine Binder

Have you been watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution? For the past four Fridays, several million viewers, myself included, have been tuning in to watch the passionate Brit in a pea suit work to improve school lunches and teach people to cook in Huntington, West Virginia.

(The last two episodes of the 6-episode series will be airing on ABC on April 16th and 23rd at 10pm EST. If you’ve missed any of the previous episodes, you can watch them online here.)

While I can’t wait to see what Jamie accomplishes in Huntington, I’m actually more fascinated by the strong responses he’s evoking nation-wide. Jamie certainly has both supporters and skeptics. At the moment, over 272,000 people have signed his petition in support of saving cooking skills and improving school food, but opinions seem to vary widely in the blogosphere. (Here are two interesting takes from nutrition professor Marion Nestle and school lunch expert Kate Adamick.)

For those making bets on how the Food Revolution will unfold, here are two studies of Jamie’s work that may help you make a guess. The first comes from the Royal Economic Society and looks at middle schools in the London borough of Greenwich, where Oliver implemented a healthy school lunch program in 2004. According to researchers, excused absences dropped 15%, scores on standardized tests increased by several percentage points (a significant difference), and participation in the lunch program also increased.

The other study from researchers at West Virginia University evaluates the short-term effects of Oliver’s program in Huntington using surveys from 4th and 5th grade students, teachers, cooks, and the food service director. In this case, students preferred the standard school food to Jamie’s entrees, and participation in the lunch program decreased. Children were, however, more likely to try new foods as a result of Jamie’s program.

In my opinion, the best things about Jamie’s show are that it brings awareness to the important issues of school lunch and childhood obesity and that it has helped to ignite a serious conversation that America desperately needs to have.

This blog post is an open thread: please use the comments below to share your thoughts. What do you think about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution?

Let’s Move Milwaukee

by intern Jackie Fortin

On March 3-4, Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast member Martha Davis Kipcak accompanied a small delegation to Washington DC to speak to Wisconsin legislators about securing healthy food for the city’s 60,000 school-age children.

A Community Food Systems Advocate and the trip coordinator, Kipcak headed to Washington with Will Allen, CEO and founder of Growing Power, Kymm Mutch, Director of School Nutrition Services for Milwaukee Public Schools, and Emmanuel Pratt, a doctoral candidate in urban planning from Columbia University.

“Our goal was to put legs on Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign,” she said. “We called ourselves ‘Let’s Move Milwaukee.Ҕ

Over the two days, the group met with Sen. Herb Kohl, Sen. Russ Feingold, Rep. Gwen Moore, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Janey Thornton, and two of her colleagues, The NEA Foundation and a Department of Energy representative.

At first, Kipcak didn’t think she was fit for the task, but she said the process ended up being simple and empowering.

“The chance to talk to staffers, elected officials, and government leaders, for me, reinforced the notion that the real insight on the subject of a sustainable food system is with the people,” she said. “That’s you and me: folks on the ground every day producing, shopping, preparing and eating.”

Kipcak said she would encourage other Slow Food chapters to engage in “face-to-face conversations” with their legislators, especially if they do so as a coalition with other community partners.

“The message is stronger if it comes from a team, and it’s a better use of everyone’s time,” she said. “It’s all about building authentic relationships with those that are on the ground doing the work.”

According to Kipcak, “Activism in some ways kind of scares people because they have this idea that they have to beat their chests, wave their hands and be on the nightly news.”
“Instead,” she said, “it is about speaking up, and being informed, mindful and inquisitive. I think more of us are activists than we think.”

Jamie Oliver: The Revolution Will Be Televised

by intern Julia Landau

Jamie Oliver, the famed Naked Chef, launches his new reality TV program Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution this Friday, March 26 at 8pm EST on ABC. For folks like me who can’t wait until Friday (who said patience was a virtue?), a sneak peak of the first episode is available.

The show accompanies Oliver through his quest to change the way America eats. He’s chosen Huntington, WV, the statistically “unhealthiest” city in the U.S., as his jumping-off point.

Jamie’s efforts are two-pronged, focusing both on school food and on family cooking in the home. On both fronts he’s up against resistance and skepticism. In the first moments of the show, we watch Oliver meet Central City Elementary’s crew of chefs, who have to operate within a broken system and aren’t necessarily happy with ambitious outsiders telling them what to do. Following his tense introduction to the cafeteria, Oliver brings the revolution home to a local family, where his challenge is to transform the diet of a family living off of fried food and frozen pizzas. He’s up against fifty years of ingrained values and misinformation.

TV hoopla aside, I believe this show is actually a big deal. It has the potential to speak to a mostly mainstream audience, and to help Americans take a hard look at school food and what we’re eating. To be sure, he may piss off more than a few people, but I’m glad to see he isn’t shying away from hitting the ground and talking to people face-to-face. Let’s also consider the network on which the show is airing – ABC. This isn’t the Food Network. He’s outside the bubble.

What’s more, Jamie’s show comes at exactly the right time, as Congress is just beginning to discuss its bill to update school meal programs. The timeliest way to join the food revolution is to ask your legislators to support a strong Child Nutrition Act that helps schools serve healthier food. Check out Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch Campaign to get involved – and check out Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution for some laughs, some tears, and hopefully a happy ending.

Opportunities for Students: Two Contests and a Conference about Healthy School Food

by intern Julia Landau

Right now, the National Farm to School Network is running two contests for grade school and college students, and has its fifth National Farm to Cafeteria Conference on its way. These are all great opportunities for Slow Food members who work with local schools, and for anyone and everyone interested in getting healthier food into schools and creating jobs in local farm economies.

The first contest asks K-12 and college students to record a video that shows what the phrase “real food” means to them. Farm to School poses three questions:

1 – What does real food mean to you?
2 - How does what we eat affect our culture, health, economy, or environment?
3 – Why should your cafeteria start or continue buying local food?

In answering these questions, the film can be anywhere from thirty seconds to three minutes, and directed in any style (documentary, fiction, live action – even animated). The grand prize? Appropriately, $1,000 toward the winners’ school lunch project. To check out last year’s stars, click here.

More after the jump

Secretary Vilsack speaks to the people

by intern Julia Landau

Yesterday afternoon, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack hosted a conference call for ordinary citizens where he explained the Administration’s priorities for the Child Nutrition Act. There were 1,000 people on the call, which is incredible – and which demonstrates the momentum behind making real improvements to child nutrition programs.

What was the number one thing Vilsack recommended we do to improve the food in our country’s schools? SPEAK UP. While Vilsack noted the immense interest in this issue and clear public support for getting healthier food into schools, he also stressed that this issue isn’t appearing in the national media and the only way to get the message through to Congress is grassroots advocacy. What does this mean? Our Secretary of Agriculture is calling on us to contact our Senators and Representatives as they move on this bill – and to get media coverage as we do it. You can find a great jumping-off point right here at Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch Campaign.

Vilsack also stressed community involvement in small-scale agriculture through the USDA’s program Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food. Check it out for resources and grants to support local food in your community.

The people on the call today were 1,000 small farmers, food service providers, PTA members, teachers, doctors, and dieticians. In answering their questions, Vilsack outlined some key focus areas for the Administration: increasing the nutritional value of school food; strengthening farm-to-school programs; providing training and equipment in school kitchens; providing healthy food during non-school days; expanding enrollment in reduced and free lunch programs; and supporting the new 60 minutes of play a day initiative. In general, he voiced his support for the First Lady’s new childhood obesity effort, Let’s Move.

So you heard it, folks. We know how important Child Nutrition Reauthorization is - now, it’s time to make Congress and the media understand as well.

Livestock Odds and Ends

1. Biopic about Temple Grandin, humane slaughterhouse designer and generally fascinating person, stars Claire Danes and airs this weekend on HBO.

2. NAIS no longer a problem! Niiiiiiiice. “Faced with stiff resistance for ranchers and farmers,” the USDA has dropped its National Animal Identification System proposed program; this comes as good news to small-mid scale producers and their supporters, who felt it would have placed on undue burden on them.

3. Weird unpronouncable things allowed in your meat: via Bob Perry at University of Kentucky, here is the latest list of what weird stuff is allowable in commodity meat & poultry from the USDA.  As he says: “and people wonder why I only buy from local farmers…...”

[photo courtesy of Paul Stevenson, flickr creative commons]