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Printed From Acorn-Online.com Redding Pilot by JANIS GIBSON
“People are often stunned when I tell them that our children are the first generation that is on track for having a shorter life expectancy than their parents,” said Lisa Bunce, MS, RD, during the question and answer period following the presentation of “Two Angry Moms” at the Redding Community Center on Jan. 27. The presentation was sponsored by the Redding Education Foundation as the “finishing touches” of its refQUEST wellness initiative that was launched last year with the “You Are What You Eat” series at the Mark Twain Library. Tyhe Board of Education oversees the local Wellness Committee that addresses school lunches. The documentary, created by Amy Kalafa of Weston and featuring Dr. Susan Rubin of Chappaqua, N.Y., nutritionist and founder of Better School Foods, focuses on why children are being served the food they are in school cafeterias. It also addresses who determines what is served, the obstacles better school food advocates are up against, and communities that have made significant changes in their school lunches, and how those changes were accomplished. Both women were at the screening and answered questions from the audience afterward. Two Angry Moms strives to heighten “food IQ” for parents, students and the community. Among the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics included in the documentary are: • There is a childhood obesity epidemic; 35% of American children are overweight or at risk; • One in three children born in the year 2000 will become diabetic; • One in four American children take prescription medication daily for chronic illness. • There are soaring rates of asthma, ADHD, anxiety, autism, learning disabilities and depression among children. In discussing the content of the film and her organization’s purpose, Dr. Rubin stressed, “We want to be clear, we are not angry at anyone, we are angry at the situation. We are all on the same team —parents, administrators, teachers, food service providers — we want to do what is best for our children. “To get better school lunches we need support for people who want to make changes; we need parents to get involved and advocate. We need to give students messages that there are better ways of dealing with sleepiness than coffee or Red Bull.” Ms. Kalafa noted, “We need to look at what food is actually being served and what food is available. It is a total food environment; how much time is granted for lunch? Look at the contract for food service providers. Schools do a RFP — request for proposals — every five years. Use the Freedom of Information Act to see what the proposal is asking of vendors. Many efforts to improve the foods served in school is being undermined by provisions of the contracts. She learned from Dr. Rubin that “...we need to look at contracts to get what we want.” The efforts to improve the nutritional value of school lunches got a big push when the federal government issued a mandate, through the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, that provides the opportunity to establish standards for diet and health in the nation’s public schools. The requirement calls for each federally-funded school district to form a Wellness Committee and to draft a district wellness policy that addresses the quality of meals served at school, the regularity of physical education, and instruction connected to diet and health. The local initiative began in 2005 when Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a bill that would have imposed state standards on local school districts. The governor said school nutrition, initiatives should be taken on the local level by locally elected school boards, in cooperation with parents and students. Several of the speakers and audience members emphasized the fact that children’s nutrition issues go far beyond school lunches, and that the entire food environment needs to be challenged, but that engaging schools to promote wellness is a good place to start. “Food is a life skill,” said Ms. Bunce, a nutritionist and dietitian who runs Back to Basics Nutrition Consulting. “And children are very susceptible to marketing messages and what goes on around them. It is important to provide ways of eating well; if we’re proactive, we won’t need classes in obesity reduction when they are older. We really need more of a push from parents, the community at large, to keep it moving... It is a slow process, but needs people to write letters, comment at Board of Education meetings, etc.” “This is a movement and we recognize that busy moms are really busy; we encourage you to use the Internet, use the virtual marketing; pass information on to five people who are not yet involved. We need to get to moms of kids with allergies and other food issues,” said Dr. Rubin. “There are a lot of pieces to the food environment. For example, food is often used in fundraisers or given as rewards; you can Google ‘alternative school fundraisers’ for a number of Web sites that offer different ideas.” Nutritionist Karen Siclare said, “It is extraordinarily important to get to high level people behind you; the last thing on most of their lists is food service. You need to work to make it higher; it doesn’t do any good if a plan sits on someone’s desk. You also have to be willing to work to get people out to vote for, support school budgets. “Put it in terms of economics,” she suggested. “Better test scores equals higher real estate values — and better food gets better grades.” She added that school gardens are another important part of the piece, as well as a part of the environmental piece. “Connecticut is still considered an agricultural state, and the state Department of Agriculture has a Food to Schools program that works to put food from local farmers into the schools. This is another angle to look into.” The connection between food and the environment was also discussed at length. Ms. Kalafa called it “the triple bottom line: Cost, health of kids and health of planet.” A show of hands by audience members suggested a survey be undertaken by the town/school system, asking more in-depth questions about what and how Redding is doing in terms of reaching that higher level “food IQ.” The question and answer segment was filmed for local TV access at a later time. For information on the Redding Wellness committee, contact Alice Smith, alicesmith@earthlink.net. © Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers |
