This is Chicken?

Jamie Oliver's Food Revoultion

Also visit Jamie Oliver's website for in-depth information on school meals, his food revoltuon and individual perspectives on the quality of school meals.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution

Do new anti-child obesity ads go too far?

This advertisement (http://www.stopchildhoodobesity.com/), part of a "Stop Child Obesity" campaign in Georgia, won some enthusiastic praise for their attention-grabbing tactics. But such ads also have outraged parents, activists and academics who feel the result is more stigma for an already beleaguered group of children.

This new public service campaign against childhood obesity has drawn fire from critics who say it stigmatizes overweight children instead of helping them. Do you agree?

VOTE: http://today.newsvine.com/_news/2011/05/06/6596325-do-new-anti-child-obesity-ads-go-too-far

(Today Show: www.msnbc.com, Fri May 6, 2011 9:09 AM EDT)

Ending Childhood Hunger by 2015

Strategies for Achieving the President’s Goal

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama announced a goal of of ending childhood hunger in America by the year 2015. Since taking office, President Obama, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and other members of the Administration have reiterated that commitment.

FRAC has set out seven essential strategies in Ending Childhood Hunger by 2015: The Essential Strategies for Achieving the President’s Goal (pdf). They focus both on improving and expanding the nation’s nutrition programs, and bolstering the economy and strengthening supports for working families in order to move more out of poverty, the root cause of hunger in this country.
In brief, the seven strategies are:

• Restore economic growth and create jobs with better wages for lower-income workers.
• Raise the incomes of the lowest-income families.
• Strengthen the SNAP/Food Stamp Program.
• Strengthen Child Nutrition Programs.
• Engage the entire federal government in ending childhood hunger.
• Work with states, localities and nonprofits to expand and improve participation in federal nutrition programs.
• Make sure all families have convenient access to reasonably priced, healthy food.

Arkansas Schools Including Weight, BMI On Report Cards

Video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5467044/

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Children in Arkansas are getting their report card on weight — and the results aren't pretty. The kids are getting heavier, and at earlier ages, not just in this state, but across the country.
It’s not just a weight issue. It’s also a major health issue — a crisis in the view of experts since overweight children are more likely to develop childhood diabetes, hypertension and lung problems.
In order to tackle the problem, the state of Arkansas has taken a bold step to measure the weight profile of every school child in the state. It’s a report card on weight, although researchers cringe at the term because it implies a passing or failing grade.

Processed People

"Celebrated author John Robbins discusses the sad state of the US health care system, and some approaches to consider for fixing it.  This is from the documentary PROCESSED PEOPLE -- more info at http://www.processedpeople.com." (You Tube: http://youtu.be/D6e7v7TwMnY, Retrieved: 5/5/2011)

Wootan: Hunger-Free Kids Act will have big impact

By Tim Carman

Margo Wootan had seen the story I wrote last week about the limited benefits of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which President Obama signed yesterday. The director for nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the article read like a foodie wrote it. She was smiling as she said that. There was no malice in her voice, but the subtext seemed clear: My foodie instincts -- and others like mine -- can't grasp the deeper complexities of this new law.
"It’s just too simplistic to judge this bill by the money because there are all of these no-cost reforms," she told me after the presidential signing ceremony at Harriet Tubman Elementary School, "that will help to insure that there is more healthy food in school lunches and breakfasts.”
Wootan has been on the front lines of school lunch reform for years, and she knows this bill like a sixth grader knows how to piece together "lunch" from vending machine junk food. She says there are a number of important provisions in the law that tend to get overlooked by the naysayers who focus too much attention on the tiny six-cent increase in school lunch meals.

Washington State Summer Meal Program from Northwest

Summer Meal Programs

Information courtesy of ParentHelp123, a program of WithinReach
Informational Flyer: English Espanol

There are hungry kids in every county in Washington during the summer

367,000 families in Washington face the threat of hunger every day; 452,076 schoolkids get free or reduced price meals during the school year. Many of them rely on the federal Summer Food Service Program (Summer Meals) that provides free meals and snacks to children and teens to ensure they have enough to eat when school is out.

Helping the Homeless In School and Out

By. Helena Holgersson-Shorter

It did not take long for John Heegard to put the clues together. Valencia McMurray was one of the most promising students in his Advanced Placement U.S.History class at North High School in Minneapolis. But the junior was missing three, four, five days in a row, often just showing up to pass an exam—no small feat, considering the legendary toughness of Heegard’s tests.
Heegard tried but was unable to reach Valencia or her family to check if she was okay. When she did show, he noted her usual wit and intellect were often muted by depression. “It was evident something was up,” Heegard says. “When a kid’s that bright, it doesn’t take long to figure out they’re having some kind of trouble.”