I wrote a letter to my congressional representatives. Actually, I didn't exactly write it, SlowFood USA's Time for Lunch campaign helped me do it right here. You can too. Mine went to three representatives and from only one, Kay Hagan, an (albeit) automated response.
This week, the Senate unveiled a draft of the Child Nutrition Act, and work will begin on it next week. "If your Senator serves on the Agriculture Committee, you have a short window of time to make an impact. (SlowFood blog).
Some food for thought (haha):
- National School Lunch Program serves 31 million children
- Right now, Congress gives schools $2.68 per lunch, about $1.00 of which goes towards buying ingredients.
- President Obama’s budget adds $1 billion per year to child nutrition programs. That’s an important step forward, but it’s not enough to give America’s kids a healthy future. Not when Congress spends over $13 billion per year subsidizing processed foods, and when obesity costs our nation $147 billion per year.
- Farm to School
- National School Lunch Program
- Yahoo Shine! Article and related teacher's blog about the horrors of eating in the cafeteria
- KERF blog posts on real life school cafeteria experiences (I don't know ANY school lunches that looked like this when I ate in one! Ugh pizza and fries....)
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