Hey Kids, Let's Get Cooking!

From the US Department of Education, encouraging kids to eat smart, a contest.

First Lady Michelle Obama is once again challenging America’s most creative junior chefs to put their talents to good use and whip up some delicious lunchtime recipes.

Let’s Move! is thrilled to announce the Second Healthy Lunchtime Challenge & Kids’ State Dinner, a nationwide recipe challenge that originated to promote healthy eating among America’s youth, sponsored by The White House, the U.S. Department of Education, and Epicurious.

The second Healthy Lunchtime Challenge & Kids’ “State Dinner” invites parents or guardians and their kids, ages 8-12, to create and submit an original lunch recipe that is healthy, affordable, and tasty. Each recipe must adhere to the guidance that supports USDA’s MyPlate to ensure that the criteria of a healthy meal are met. Entries must represent each of the food groups, either in one dish or as parts of a lunch meal, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and low-fat dairy foods, with fruits and veggies making up roughly half the plate or recipe.

Fifty-six children and their parent/guardian (one pair from each of the 50 states, plus the U.S. Territories, D.C., and Puerto Rico) will be flown to Washington, DC where they will have the opportunity to attend a Kids’ “State Dinner” at the White House this summer, hosted by Mrs. Obama. A selection of the winning healthy recipes will be served.

Recipes can be submitted April 3 through May 12 online at recipechallenge.epicurious.com, or via mail at “The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge c/o Epicurious.com,” 1166 Avenue of the Americas, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036.

For all the information, rules, and deadlines, go here.

School Lunch: "What we are feeding our Children is an Outrage"

The June 4th Metro Section of the Washington Post has an article on the push to improve our children’s lunches. The above quote is from Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Virginia. According to the Post article, written by reporter Jane Black,

…the city's Iron Chefs -- the group includes White House assistant chef Sam Kass, José Andrés of Jaleo, Todd Gray of Equinox, Spike Mendelsohn of Good Stuff Eatery and Robert Wiedmaier of Brasserie Beck -- decided that each chef would adopt a school. Kass is spearheading the project.

On Friday at the White House, to support First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative, the chefs launched a national ‘adopt-a-school’ program. As usual, the District is leading the way. Our children will have to wait while MCPS touts that it ‘meets’ current USDA standards that are acknowledged as out-of-date.

Or, as the Renegade Lunch Lady, Ann Cooper, Nutrition Director for the Boulder Valley (Colorado) School District has stated, "We’ve grown a generation of children who think chicken nugget is a food group."

And no wonder. Last week on Thursday June 3rd, our children who attend MCPS schools had a choice of ‘Chips Olé with whole grain taco pieces, and baked turkey corn dog nuggets with baked beans;’ the next day, Friday, June 4th, they were offered ‘cheese, veggie, or pepperoni pizza and Morningstar chik’n nuggets with confetti corn.’

The chik’n nuggets are actually a vegetarian choice; one website said they were made with ‘textured soy protein.’ Four of these soy nuggets (apparently one serving) contain 190 calories, 7 grams of total fat (11% of the recommended daily amount), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% of the RDA), 490 milligrams of sodium (20% of the RDA for sodium), 15% of the recommended daily amount of iron, 12 grams of protein and 18 grams of total carbohydrates which includes 1 gram of sugars and 2 grams of fiber. Caloriecount.com gave this food item a ‘B+.’ Again, given the diversity of ethnic groups and restaurants in Montgomery County, one would think our school system could develop a menu that reflects us. Vegetarian is good, right? So, do we really have to serve it to our children in the form of ‘chik’n nuggets?’ Do we really have to present them with hot dogs, pizza, and chicken nuggets week after week? My children’s friends are African, Iranian, Indian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Latino, Chinese, Italian, Jewish, Middle Eastern, and European, or descendents of the above, and more. So why are we feeding our children hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza?

To be fair, the MCPS website touts the ‘Maryland Farm-to-School Program’ which took place for one week in 2009, September 14-18. During that week on Thursday, children were offered ‘zucchini bread, pears, and cole slaw’ on Thursday; and ‘pizza veggies, cherry tomatoes, assorted fresh fruit’ that Friday. Which, really is even more scary, to know our children are not offered even cole slaw the rest of the year. I really hope that can’t be true.

What is your child eating?