Little by Little - El Monte is on the right track

Here's a great piece about El Monte School District - their school food program is shifting focus from prepackaged and processed to scratch made in the district. 

"We're saving costs from cooking from scratch the old-fashioned way," Lewis said. "Every other day, there's something we're cooking from scratch."


Last month the USDA adopted new school food regulations that will require school districts to serve fruit AND vegetables every day as well as begin to limit sodium and calorie levels by grade level. Here's a quick comparison chart and a link to the full regulations.


What you may not realize is how lax the current regulations are and how often Culver City Unified School District does no more than meet those minimum standards.


Here is a fully reimbursable meal served just a couple of weeks ago at the elementary schools.

Yes, that's pizza, tater tots and chocolate milk. This child stopped by the salad bar and chose some cut up lunch meat (visible just above the milk). Thank goodness for the  hardworking parents of the PTA who provided that wedge of tangerine as part of the Growing Great Harvest of the Month program.


El Marino participates in both the Nutritional and Garden Education program launched with the support of the Culver City Education Foundation so that same day this beige beige and brown meal was served in the cafeteria, my son's class harvested fresh lettuces and snap peas from the school garden.

They dressed the salad with a simple homemade dressing and were BEGGING for more peas, more lettuce until every last leaf was eaten. Our students WILL eat healthy food but we've got to make it easier and tastier.


Culver City parents, contact Healthy Schools Culver City to get involved with the efforts to improve our school meals and contact the district to voice your support for freshly made healthful meals.

They're getting the message

Look at the awesome posters the El Marino Student Council made to promote the salad bar. They also gave a presentation at Monday Assembly encouraging all students to take fruit and veggies from the salad bar and to EAT what they take!
You kids are awesome and setting a great example.
Thanks!

LAUSD is eliminating flavored milk!

LAUSD has finally conceded to common sense and good health and will no longer be offering flavored milk to students. Huzzah! Anyone interested in seeing the same progress in Culver City? Here's the story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110427/ap_en_ot/us_la_schools_food_fight

Drafting a Resolution

You will be happy to hear that there are many passionate and informed people concerned about this issue. Only one of the challenges we face in bringing healthier, freshly prepared food to our kids' lunchrooms will be coming to a consensus as to how to prioritize requests and formulate proposals. By keeping in mind where we are starting from in terms of staff, facilities and suppliers we can keep working toward the very highest standards and start with achievable positive results.

At the last HSCC Steering Committee meeting we developed an outline for a resolution to be presented to the board. This resolution will be an initial request in quantifiable terms I hope all involved can agree are a good first step. 

Stay tuned!

Maggie

Lunch Tour

Last week I observed the lunch service at El Marino with CCUSD Food Service Director Julie Garcia and Principal Tracy Pumilia with about 10 other parents. I encountered two very pleasant surprises.

1. Many many kids stopped by a beautiful salad bar and added what Food Service Director Julie Garcia referred to as "natural color" to their trays.

2. Most of those same trays are separated from trash and are recycled. Both kids and the supervising staff were conscientious about making sure these trays made it into the correct bin.

The flip side to these observations is that many many kids bypassed the beautiful salad bar and left the line with no natural color on their plate - none was offered on the line which began w/ an option for chocolate milk and ended with an option for chocolate chip cookies AND that hundreds of styrofoam trays are used once and then sent for recycling every day because it's a cheaper, sturdier and easier option compared with a paper based tray or a reusable tray. Sigh.

Tours are being led at the other 4 elementary schools this week and next and of the central kitchen the week following. Then parents will be able to sit down with district staff to discuss their concerns in a much more informed manner.

We're on Patch

 Today's piece in Culver City Patch was great coverage of our cause.  Comments posted on the site and on our Healthy Schools Culver City Facebook Page brought out new supporters for our efforts. Never fear friends, the food revolution WILL happen - it just may not be televised!

Bring a Food Revolution to Culver City

Anybody else thing Jaime Oliver should come to Culver City? If LAUSD doesn't want him can't we take him here?

Please Jaime! Come help Healthy Schools Culver City improve school food in our district!

Thanks!

Maggie