Study Finds: Family Time Can Help Waist Lines!

Derived from 17 previous studies, researchers found that, "youngsters who joined family members regularly for meals were 24% more likely to eat healthy foods than kids who rarely ate with their families. They were also less likely to suffer from eating disorders," reports US News Health.

Amber Hammons, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as the study lead author for the findings that were recently published in May 2 issue of Pediatrics wanted to find if there was a relationship between family and nutrition.

Verdict: Yes and here are some of the findings:

3 or more meals with the family
- 12% less likely to be overweight
- 20% less likely to eat sweets, fried foods, pop, and other junk foods

5 or more meals with the family
- 25% less likely to practice poor nutritionn habits

The study suggests that eating with the family serves as protective benefits for children, but the reasons are unclear.

Families play important roles in children's lives. Most kids actually see their parents as their role models the article says, which could be a reason why there is a positive link between families and nutrition. Think of the potential the positive link has. If a child's parents helped him be more involved by growing and picking produce from the family organic garden, cooking, and sitting down to enjoy the work all of them put in, can you imagine the benefits? Not only would the child be more involved, he could also learn about good nutrition during the process.

I think the benefits can be two fold too. Parents can pack a lunch for the next school day made from leftovers, (because who doesn't want leftovers of a meal made from love? I don't think those people even exist...), which could continue the suggestions made by the study and lessen the chances of childhood obesity.

Win-win.

Read the original article yourself here.

Making Changes to Stay on School Menus?

Courtesy of BNET

Because of the new USDA nutrition standards for school lunches, food companies such as Schwan, Tyson, and Simplot, (big names that produce pizza, chicken nuggets, and french fries for schools), are feeling the squeeze.

They needed to regroup and reformulate their offerings in order to meet guidelines and be able to stay on school lunch menus. Below are some changes:

Schwan’s new improved pizzas contain about 230 less mg of sodium, 8 less grams of fat, 100 less calories, and 51% more whole grain.

Tyson is adding whole grain to their breading and cutting sodium levels. They are also promoting chicken options that are not nugget-esque and also meet USDA guidelines like their dark meat strips with spicy orange sauce, which has 490 mg of sodium, 6 grams of fat, and about 220 calories per serving.

Simplot is having a little more trouble though. The USDA suggests kids should only consume one cup of starchy vegetables a week because on average, kids consume about two, mostly in the form of fries. They’re arguing that most fries served now are oven baked, and calorie count is around 80 to 100 per serving. The USDA is limiting how much of the starchy stuff can be offered for lunch.

The only drawback to less sodium, fat and calories is that there is a loophole-sugar. Though the other categories have been slashed, sugar levels go up a little bit.

OK, so the changes aren’t ground breaking, but they are changes. Looking at the bigger picture, less sodium, fat, and calories is still an improvement. But I still think kids are better off bringing their own lunches; that way, parents can have a say in what kids eat. Maybe if junior could pick carrots or grape tomatoes from the home garden themselves, they’ll be more prone to eagerly eating them when lunch time finally arrives.

Read the original article from bnet here.

Close Your Eyes, Imagine…Food!

How many times have you said OK, this time I’m going to eat more fruits and vegetables, but by the second week that memo slowly disappears?
Well now, researchers are suggesting if we develop a concrete plan and actually envision ourselves carrying out that plan, for example imagining ourselves going to the store, buying, and eating fruits, then it may help us follow through.

Barbel Knauper, an associate professor of psychology as McGill University in Montreal did a study on 177 students. She asked them to set their goals at eating more fruit a week. So some developed concrete plans, wrote them down, and envisioned themselves carrying out their plans. Of course, all the students ate more fruit during that time period, but the ones that visualized themselves carrying out their plans consumed twice as much fruit.

This is interesting because we all want to include more fruits and vegetables in our diets, but with massive workloads and hectic schedules, we first pick up some other alternatives than fruit, especially on the go. To combat this, maybe right before you get out of bed, or while you’re waiting for the train, or whenever you have a spare minute, imagine yourself getting to those fruits and veggies and eating them. Telling kids to do this might be just as useful too.

It’s all in your head.

Read the article from US News here.

March: National Nutrition Month

Sponsored by the American Dietetic Association, this year’s theme is: Eat Right with Color because children tend to eat a bland, beige colored diet, which includes chicken nuggets, fries, and white bread. Not much excitement there…

Fruits and vegetables come in an array of colors and adding them to their diets not only makes the food visually more appealing, but also children can learn how the colors can be indications of nutritional density, says Chicago Sun Time.
Here is a breakdown of the colors:

Blue/purple

-Good sources of anthocyanins, the purplish phytonutrient that put blueberries on the map as a superfood. Other blue and purple foods offer similar benefits.

Choices: Purple grapes, plums, raisins, dried plums, purple asparagus, purple cabbage, purple carrots, eggplant, purple potatoes

Yellow/orange

-Ample amounts of antioxidants, such as vitamin C and beta carotene (vitamin A) in yellow and orange fruits and vegetables.

Choices: Apricots, cantaloupe, mangoes, oranges, tangerines, butternut squash, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potatoes

Red

-Flag for health-promoting compounds like lycopene and anthocyanins.

Choices: Cherries, cranberries, red grapes, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon, beets, red peppers, tomatoes

Green

-Signal for chlorophyll, and green vegetables are potent in folate and such phytonutrients as carotenoids, lutein and indoles.

Choices: Asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, leafy greens such as spinach and kale, peas, snow peas, spinach, zucchini

So remember taste the rainbow!

Read the original article here.

Skip the Fast Lane

“Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment. It was founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world,” says the website.

Courtesy of Slow Food

Slow Food’s biggest advocates are young people and their Boston division is one of the most active, and fastest growing chapters because of the high level of participation.

The organization’s supporters are called “slow foodies” and they go out on trips to learn more about local food producers, partake in potlucks, and find chefs to go to colleges to show students how they can make their own slow food.

They have a division called Slow Food on Campus. “Slow Food on Campus is a network of Slow Food USA chapters at colleges and universities across the country. Run by students, these chapters engage their communities and the next generation of Slow Food leaders by working towards a good, clean, and fair food system.”

Personally, being a college student, I know how exhausting it is to juggle academics and activities. Sometimes after the trek back home the last thing I want to do is cook and getting fast food seems so easy since it’s around every corner. But I know if I cook my own food, it’ll be more fulfilling all around; that’s why I do it. I think Slow Food is great because we’ve changed into a society where all we want to do is get things done fast. We need to slow down and reconnect.

Read the original article here from change.org.

And to explore Slow Food, go here!

The Youth Farm and Market Project

Courtesy of Youth Farm

A non-profit organization in Minnesota is working with youth from ages 9 to 18 to connect them to their food.

“It’s about a new way of bringing quality healthy food to urban neighborhoods and exploring culinary traditions from around the world – cooking and distributing over 11,000 pounds of fresh, local produce. It’s about community involvement – engaging over 400 volunteers in over 4,000 hours of service to their community,” says the website.

They focus on three main areas: urban agriculture, project LEAD, and cultural nutrition.

Urban Agriculture

Work with kids on 2+ acres of land spreading across plots on vacant lots, public housing high-rises, private lands, and churches to grow vegetables and sell the crops at different neighborhood markets.

Project LEAD

Offer paid internships and summer employment for 25 teenagers ages 14-18 where they can develop power and public leadership skills in their neighborhoods. They then can apply the skills through their work on producing and distributing local produce. They also supervise, mentor and create strong relationships with younger kids.

Cultural Nutrition

Using food as a means to educate the kids about different cultures, Youth Farm works with young leaders to learn how to grow, cook, and distribute traditional foods found in South and Central America, Asia, Africa, Europe and other countries.

The video shows several perspectives from kids and leaders where they talk about the benefits. Great program to keep kids engaged and encourage growth outside of school.

Giving Back Locally, Globally

TED recently posted a video of a man named John Hardy and how he came about creating a school that employed sustainable practices and educated students so they would become sustainable leaders.

In Bali, the Green School’s classrooms have no walls so air can pass through and natural light can come in, teachers write on bamboo blackboards and the desk are not square.

John said they aren’t happy about being on the grid. Then an alternative energy company from Paris wanted to help take them off the grid with solar power. They built a vortex, the second one to be built in the world. And when the turbine drops in, the vortex will produce 8000 watts of energy.

That was only part of the first half of the video. The second half addresses food, what the kids learn in school, scholarship funds, volunteers, and more.

Check it out because it really is interesting.

And check out the Green School here.

Cool for School

Check this out!

“Wellness in the Schools (WITS) is a non-profit, community based organization founded in 2005 in order to improve the environment, nutrition, and fitness in NYC public schools.”

The organization wants to fight obesity ad improve school environments. They have three programs: Cook for Kids, Green for Kids, and Coach for Kids.

Cook for Kids

WITS sends culinary school graduates to NYC public schools to educate students and families about the importance of eating whole, unprocessed food. They go into the school kitchens, make meals from scratch and serve them to 6,500 students.

Green for Kids

Works with other NYC environmental efforts. Their signature program was launched to help make sure schools used effective bio-based cleaning products that are not harmful to children and the planet.

Coach for Kids

During recess, trained coaches encourage the least active children to participate in exciting fun activities. They also help to ward off bullying.

This is a win-win situation. Culinary graduates can cook for a cause and kids can enjoy and learn about real food!

Passion about Food Science in Harvard University

A recent Boston Globe article from last week reported that the number one course at Harvard University this fall was a food science course entitled, Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science. The course was applied for by about 700 students, of which only 300 were chosen through a lottery. Some students wrote essays and appeals in attempts to increase their chance of admittance to the course.

The interest in the course came as an unexpected surprise to University directors, though the beefing up the otherwise home-economics style course with a long list of food superstars surely added to the buzz and interest. The class is being taught in a collaborative effort between Harvard professors and some of the world’s most celebrated chefs: Ferran Adria, whose restaurant outside of Barcelona, Spain, has been recognized as the best in the world; New York chefs Wylie Dufresne and Dan Barber; White House chef Bill Yosses; Chicago’s own Grant Achatz; and food writer, Harold McGee.

It is very interesting to see such a peak in student interest in food at what many consider the most prestigious University in the world.

Fit to Learn

A new program “focused on innovative, practical approaches to making health and wellness a regular part of the classroom experience,” was announced by the Healthy School Campaign recently.

Through the program, teachers will become “wellness mentors,” where they will develop and share ways to integrate nutrition and fitness into the classroom that meet Illinois standards in math, science, reading, social studies, art and music!

The program is recruiting CPS K-5 teachers to participate in the new professional development program.

This is a great because all subjects are included in the integration, meaning kids with different interests can all be incorporated.

Visit http://www.fittolearn.org to learn more!

OSP in the News

Photo source: The Baltimore Sun Weblogs

In a recent Chicago Tribune article dated October 19, 2010, OSP Founder and Executive Director, Greg Christian, addressed policies that prohibit the use of produce from school gardens in CPS cafeterias.

“It was good enough to use for cooking demonstrations and good enough to send home with the kids but not good enough to feed kids in their lunch,” Christian stated. This quote highlights Christian’s question as to why kids had permission to eat the garden produce at home and during demonstrations, but not in the cafeteria at lunch—a question that he voiced to opposition of serving school-grown produce at Alcott Elementary School in 2007.

As writer Monica Eng correctly points out, it is harvest time and the student grown vegetables are plentiful, providing a great opportunity to inspire children to eat healthy food. As studies suggest, kids are much more likely to try and eat more vegetables and whole foods when they, or a friend, has had a hand in growing them. However, rules set by the district and its meal provider, Chartwells-Thompson, prevent the relationship between children and the food that they’ve grown at school from fully developing.
Currently, Chartwells-Thompson requires specific, certified growing practices for food grown in school gardens, if it is to be served in school cafeterias.

Amid increasing concern about the food students are consuming while at school, CPS is missing out on comprehensive, all-inclusive approach to get healthy food and nutrition education into the mouths and minds of its students.

Read the full article from the Tribune here.

Get the Scoop on Stuff

Have you heard about or watched the “Story of Stuff?”

If not, you’re about to.

The Story of Stuff project was created by Annie Leonard, an author that supports sustainability and is against excessive consumerism because of the effects. “Annie is fiercely dedicated to reclaiming and transforming our industrial and economic systems so they serve, rather than undermine, ecological sustainability and social equity,” says her bio.

The “Story of Stuff” video addresses and explains the life cycle of the materials we acquire in our lives. It’s eye opening because we don’t see how things are made or what happens to those things after we throw them in the trash; we just see them in the store, in our homes, and then out the door. There is way more to know about our things!

In a collaboration with Leonard and WGBH, the Boston division of PBS, they have created similar videos, Loop Scoops, for kids! Now kids can learn about the things they have and the impacts on the environment.

National School Lunches Week

As some of you may have been aware, the week before last was national school lunches week! While there were many great events promoting healthy food in schools all last week, there are tons of great resources available to learn about, promote, and support healthy lunches in schools, every week of the year!

A great website by the School Nutrition Association where kids can learn healthy eating tips, and ways to ensure they’re eating a balanced meal: http://www.whatsonyourtray.org/

Check out Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign website, as it is a great source for news and updates on the campaign’s progress: http://www.letsmove.gov/

Read up on the USDA’s program to promote physical activities in schools, healthy foods, and overall wellness in children: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthierus/index.html

Healthy Schools Campaign has a program of their own where they do the same promotion of healthy activities, food, and wellness for children in the Chicago Public School system: http://www.goforthegoldcps.org/

Again, we thank HSC for putting together this great list of resources, and we love being reminded of what great company we’re in to combat childhood obesity!

Real World Marketing In the Cafeteria

The USDA is giving $2 million to food behavior scientists to find ways to use psychology in hopes of battling obesity and improve kids’ use of the school lunch program, says CBS News.

Small changes borrowed from the food and restaurant marketing world will be used. Some tweaks will be: hiding the chocolate milk behind the plain milk, moving fruits into pretty baskets, keeping ice cream desserts in freezers without glass displays, and putting the salad bars next to the checkout registers.

This new initiative by the USDA will also include the formation of a child nutrition center at Cornell University. Their focus will be in developing “smart lunchrooms” that would guide kids to choose better options even when bad options are around.

This initiative isn’t to take away options and to put healthier counterparts in their places. It’s not forcing them take the better option. It’s to help the kids choose better options on their own.

I think the incorporation of real world marketing in the cafeterias is so clever. One thing I know is I am definitely one of those customers whose eyes happen to investigate the items scattered around the checkout counter and make unneeded impulsive buys. Imagine if kids’ eyes fell upon veggies such as baby carrots or grape tomatoes…

Read more about the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service and Economic Research Service.

HSC’s Chef in the Classroom Day

Photo Source: Healthy Schools Campaign

We at The Organic School project love the idea of bringing food—real, healthy food—into the hands and mouths of today’s school children. And that’s exactly what Healthy Schools Campaign’s Chef in the Classroom Day is doing!

October 4, 2010 was HSC’s official Chef in the Classroom Day, bringing over 60 chefs into the classrooms of elementary schools all over Chicago. HSC gave a breakdown of what the day consisted of:

• 67 chefs
• 67 schools
• 4000+ students
• 300+ pounds of fresh vegetables (my rough estimate)
• 1 coordinated nutrition education curriculum
• Dozens of supportive partners

The day was put on in partnership with the Go for the Gold campaign, a campaign dedicated to supporting Chicago schools in their efforts to bring healthy food, physical and nutrition education to students. This effort goes hand in hand with the Healthier US School Challenge set by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Check out HSC’s more comprehensive report on the day, including a video, photos, and a map of the participating Chicago schools. What a cool event!

DC School Implements a School Garden

Photo source: http://wjfarm.wordpress.com/

Check out this video from CNN’s Eatocracy that profiles a Washington D.C. Elementary school embracing the benefits of school gardens! Taking the classroom outside to learn about growing, eating, and composting food, these kids are getting a real-world math, science, and health lesson all at once.

As this case shows us, when kids grow, learn, and eat in the garden, their interest in all kinds of foods peaks, showing them that there’s more to eating than taking it out of the freezer and popping it in the microwave.

And after you check out the video, be sure to take a look at the school’s blog at: http://wjfarm.wordpress.com/.

A Big Step

The U.S. isn’t the only one trying to fight obesity; Mexico is too. Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s president, said, "Unfortunately, we are the country with the biggest problem of childhood obesity in the entire world,” with about 26% of all Mexican children being overweight, reports Fox News.

Experts say soft drinks and prepackaged snacks play a big role in the obesity rate.

Mexico wants to ban the sale of junk food in schools, including traditional treats. The Health department wants the ban to go into effect next school year, but first experts will have to approve of the change. The ban can help about 25 million kids!

There are a few things to consider though. One potential problem is that junk food vendors can set up right outside of school gates. Another is only a few schools offer their students hot meals and the students could be ravenous by the end of the day. Imagine very hungry children pouring out of the schools only to be swarmed with junk food.

I am not sure how the ban will play out, but at least Mexico is trying to tackle this.

Read the original news here.

UC Berkeley Presents Proof that Edible Schoolyards Works

Photo Source: Katie Standke, http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/

When food enthusiast Alice Waters broke ground and began the Edible Schoolyards (ESY) program in 1997, she embarked on a journey to “create and sustain an organic garden and landscape that is wholly integrated into the school’s curriculum, culture, and food program.”

While the idea of a school garden is right on point with what we hear about today in the push toward making children’s school lunches healthier, this program was one of even fewer of its kind thirteen years ago.

So in the fall of 2005, the University of California at Berkeley began a 3-year study to take a closer look at the program’s results, and its effects on students and their communities. As the study finished in spring of 2009, the results of the UC Berkeley study funded by the Chez Panisse Foundation are now available, and have revealed some very positive results!

The study followed 238 students in the program, and found that after a combination of eating healthy foods at school, learning about gardening and nutrition at school, that their nutrition knowledge, taste for and consumption of fruits and vegetables increased.

The schools of the ESY program offer from-scratch meals in their cafeterias, include gardens in 11 of the 13 district’s participating schools, and give teachers curriculum and lesson plans that incorporate food, culture, health and the environment.

After a good deal of scrutiny, the program has proved that the resulting benefits are real, and can have a great impact on student’s attitudes toward food as they grow into adulthood.

Stories like these are exactly what we at the Organic School Project love to hear!

Check out the program’s website at http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/, and continue to work with us in bringing more programs like this to districts all over the country!

Portland Elementary School Teaches Great Lesson on Implementing a Comprehensive School Food Program

Photo source: Alicia Dickerson, http://gardenofwonders.org

We at the Organic School Project believe in reconnecting children with their food and encouraging healthy lifestyles through our Grow. Teach. Feed. model. By getting kids involved in their school’s organic gardens, we hope to combat the growing rate of childhood obesity in this country by teaching kids the value of nutrition and the quality of the foods they consume. As we learn more and more each day, we are nowhere near alone!

In 2005, Ecotrust, a sustainability and conservation non-profit out of Portland, Oregon launched their “Farm to School” project in collaboration with Portland’s Abernethy Elementary School. The project was designed to see whether school children would eat fresh foods when given the option instead of the processed, institutionalized food usually offered in their school cafeterias.

Together, Ecotrust and Abernethy designed a comprehensive and innovative school food program, including a “from scratch” kitchen, school garden, and monthly class lesson plans about cooking, nutrition, and the cycle of how food travels from farm to kitchen.

While the plan was undoubtedly noble in its efforts to teach children the importance of the food they put into their bodies and its impact on the world we live in, it all comes down to numbers and the bottom line: could this plan be economically sustainable?

Financial analysis of the project after its initial implementation found that the average “Farm to School” lunch cost $0.05 cents less than the average frozen meal usually offered. And to offset the increased labor cost of hiring 2 chefs instead of 1, the program received a grant from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund. With the grant, the program locked in a $0.07 cent subsidy to each lunch price, aiding them in bridging the price gap between local and nationally distributed produce suppliers. This increased employment of Oregon farmers and growers created a positive economic ripple effect, as each dollar spent toward the lunches created an additional $0.84 in the state’s economy.

The “Food to School” project moved mountains in the fight for local, quality, healthy foods being put into our nation’s schools. From local news outlets like OregonLive and the Portland Tribune, to the national stage of NPR, the project has received a great amount of press since its inception. And more recently, Abernethy’s chef Nicole Hoffmann was invited to the White House’s South Lawn to help launch Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools program this past June.

This story is inspiring to us here at OSP, and motivates us to continue our work in bringing the same type of success to school districts here locally in the Midwest. One garden, one school, and one tasty (and healthy, too!) lunchtime meal at a time, we come closer and closer!

Check out the program’s website as well as the other projects that Ecotrust has been working on.

Volunteer Opportunity!

OSP is looking for volunteers to help in the development of our “Grow. Teach. Feed Handbook: An Institutions Guide to Sustainable Food Service!”

As you know, OSP is now in Phase II of our effort to foster healthier, environmentally and nutrition conscious kids and combat childhood obesity. We seek to provide information on food, health, the environment and the relationship between all three, so that children, in addition to having healthier meals, can make more informed and wiser choices in the future.

Our initial step is the development of our “Grow. Teach. Feed Handbook: An Institutions Guide to Sustainable Food Service.” The culmination of five years of work by organic visionary and author Greg Christian, the book seeks to provide school and kitchen staff, as well as teachers and parents, with the resources to Grow, Teach and Feed every child.

The first section, FEED, is a comprehensive training manual for schools to develop a healthful and natural–based, sustainable school foodservice that provides kids with healthier meals. The second section, TEACH, supplements these meals with lessons on nutrition and environmental stewardship to help kids make healthier choices. Finally, the GROW section teaches school staff how to connect kids to the earth and their food source by converting a portion of their school ground into an organic garden that serves as an interactive classroom.

Volunteer your time and gain kitchen and food photography experience with our talented Chef Jerry!

Throughout the month of October, Chef Jerry will be in the kitchen testing and perfecting our “kid proven” recipes that will be included in the "Feed" section of our handbook. During this time, OSP will also be photographing finished products to be used as visual inspiration in our book.

Working closely with our talented Chef , food photographer and founder, Greg Christian, OSP is looking for volunteers who would be willing assist in the preparation and testing of the recipes and the concurrent photo shoots.

By volunteering your time, you will get valuable experience while assisting a socially conscious organization help improve the quality of food served to our nation’s school children.

For more information, or to volunteer, send us an email at info@organicschoolproject.org