Freshening up lunch options: Fairfax launches salad bars at all 198 schools

WASHINGTON (7News) — Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Food and Nutrition Services announced the launch of salad bars at all 198 schools on Thursday. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at Annandale High School at 10:30 a.m.

The ceremony featured remarks from FCPS Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid and Bonnie Moore, Executive Director of Real Food for Kids.

Attendees had the opportunity to personally experience Annandale High School’s Salad Bar and build their own healthy school lunch...

Freshening up lunch options: FCPS launches salad bars at all 198 schools | WJLA

Will MCPS food services roll back the healthy foods too?

The Trump administration is planning to roll back Obama era healthy food regulations for school meals. Will MCPS also roll back the healthy food now being served? We understand that MCPS has said while it will not go back on many of the old rules, they will go back on some.  For example, they will return to using white flour pasta and get rid of the whole grain pasta.

Check your child's school menus to see what MCPS is feeding them.

From CBS News, reporter Steve Frank:

New School Lunch Rules Could Mean More Salt, Sugar, and Fat. Full story here.

The dairy industry "says children don't drink as much milk if its not flavored and they really like that extra fat, the taste of it," said Mulvaney. (author's note: Lydia Mulvaney, food and agriculture reporter who co-authored the Bloomberg study, found here)

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, who was once a consultant to milk producers, announced early on a relaxation of the rules. Higher fat chocolate milk was back, along with more white breads and pizza. "I wouldn't be as big as I am today without chocolate milk," Perdue told reporters at the time.

New York City Offers Free Lunch for All Public School Students

From The New York Times, reporters Sean Piccoli and Elizabeth A. Harris, Sept 6, 2017. For the complete story go here.

Lunch at New York City public schools will be available free of charge to all 1.1 million students beginning this school year, Carmen Fariña, the schools chancellor, said on Wednesday in the basement cafeteria of a Hell’s Kitchen elementary school. The new school year begins on Thursday.

“This is about equity,” Ms. Fariña said. “All communities matter.”

This move has been long sought by food-policy advocates and many members of the New York City Council, who said that some students would prefer to go hungry rather than admit they cannot afford to pay for lunch. Nationally, the practice of “lunch shaming” — holding children publicly accountable for unpaid school lunch bills — has garnered attention.

URGENT – Today is Last Chance to Comment on the New MCPS Wellness Regulation

All public input on the new MCPS Wellness Regulation, which regulates Food and Nutrition, Nutrition Education, Physical Education and Activity and Communications with Parents on these topics in MCPS will be downloaded on April 19th. It is URGENT that if you haven’t yet, you submit comments today.

 

To do so, go to:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/foodserv/wellness/default.aspx?id=525403

and at minimum, we recommend that you submit these top two priority recommendations that RFKM is working on. Under “Food and Nutrition Services” copy and paste these two suggestions:

____________________________

 

The combination of all foods and beverages (including meals and a la carte snacks) served or sold to any child in MCPS during any breakfast or lunch period should contain no more than 10% of calories from added sugar.

 

All beverages sold in vending machines in MCPS at all hours should be compliant with MCPS’ wellness policy for drinks sold during the school day.

____________________________

 

Feel free to add your own additional thoughts in this and other areas as well! RFKM has also provided a more extensive list of recommendations for changes to the Wellness Regulation for your use.  

Should Ice Cream be Available 5 Days a Week in MCPS Elementary Schools?

A parent had not realized that MCPS allows ice cream to be served daily in the lunchroom.  The parent set up an online poll on this topic. 

How many days/week do you think it's appropriate for RCES to serve ice cream to the kids at lunch?  Click link below to vote.  Thank you!

https://fans.vote/vote/ACnkNKPeCl4/rces-capacity-discussion/how-many-days-week-do-you-think-it-s-appropriate-for-rces-to-serve-icecream-to-the-kids-at-lunch 

MCPS Students Love Seeing Their Teachers Behind the Counter at McDonald's

MCPS 2016:

Remember this from 2008?

Restaurant Fundraiser A McShock For Official

By Lori Aratani

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Call it the Big Mac Moment.
It happened Thursday, about a half-hour into a routine Montgomery County Council committee meeting on food marketing in the school system. Ameena Batada, co-author of a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, was briefing council members.
"And at the McTeacher's Night, teachers actually go and work behind the register," she said. "So students can see their teachers behind the cash registers at McDonald's."
Council member George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) interrupted her, disbelief in his voice.
"Teachers are enlisted by McDonald's to work behind the cash register at McDonald's, and students are recruited to go to McDonald's that night to see their teacher dishing out the Big Macs?" he asked with horror. "I never heard of that."
About 20 minutes later, Leventhal spoke up again. "The McDonald's thing really bothers me a lot," he said, his sentiment partly fueled by a concern about childhood obesity. "I mean, I don't know if we'd have a fundraiser at the local cigarette store."...

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020201966.html

My Two Cents: Debating Healthy Food In MCPS

For the past 15 years, I’ve worked as a federal contractor supporting a government survey that assesses school health.

I see what educators and health experts around the nation do to improve the lives of youth. And one of the side benefits of the work is that I get to attend the occasional conference to hear about what is actually happening on the ground.

Several years ago, for example, I spent half a day listening to Kentucky educators explain how they connected local farmers and schools to improve school lunches. Local farmers also helped build functional school gardens. The end result was a true farm-to-table operation. Kentucky school children were eating just like the hipsters on the Food Network.

And so when a small group of Montgomery County Public Schools parents started advocating for “real” food, I paid attention. Was farm-to-table coming to MCPS?...

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2015/04/14/my-two-cents-debating-healthy-food-in-mcps/

Real Food for Montgomery County

From The Sentinel, Nov 6, 2014, by Karen DeVitt, Real Food for Kids-Montgomery.  For the whole story go here 

What do Montgomery County parents want for their children? Access to free water in the cafeteria; fewer highly-processed meal choices; more salad bars; healthier a la carte and vending machine options; more transparency and accountability; utilization of our county’s Agricultural Reserve for fresh, local produce; less sugar; and more respect for the latest research on the dangers of chemical food additives.
 

Now that the school year is in full swing, we’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Real Food for Kids – Montgomery (RFKM), a grassroots parent and student advocacy group promoting healthier school food in MCPS. On October 1, RFKM celebrated its 2^nd anniversary. We have much to be proud of and much work ahead of us. 

Efforts to improve MCPS food go back decades. Children, parents and school board members all come and go, but the staff at Food and Nutrition Services (DFNS) remains the same, committed to doing more of the same, with only small incremental changes and more whole wheat. “Everything we serve is healthy and meets USDA guidelines” does not answer the ongoing frustration parents feel when faced with the reality in the school cafeterias. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 resulted in some positive changes such as more fruits, vegetables and whole grains; and the passage of the Smart Snacks rules, in effect this past July, improved some of the vending and a la carte options. But overall, MCPS lags behind other school districts that have made better school food a priority. 

We were pleased last year when MCPS agreed to eliminate strawberry-flavored milk. We were equally pleased when MCPS recently announced the elimination of certain chemical additives from school food. (A closer reading of this announcement revealed that this change will not take place any time soon, but only in future bids for contracts. And the most prevalent of all food dyes, Red Dye #40, is not slated for elimination.)     

Last year we got DFNS to acknowledge on the elementary school menu that it sells snacks in the cafeteria at lunch time, and that parents can block their child’s account from purchasing these snacks. This year, the blurb on the menu doesn’t mention the bit about blocking your child’s account. The piece of paper that goes home with elementary school kids when their lunch account needs re-filling states that parents may block their child’s account from purchasing snacks. However, most parents are still completely in the dark about the existence or nature of these snacks; school lunch menus at all levels do not mention the a la carte items sold (chips, Doritos, pretzels, ice cream, cookies, gummy candies, etc.).

Montgomery schools to prohibit certain chemicals in foods

New contracts won’t include some food dyes, sweeteners
From the Gazette.  Read the whole story here.
October 16, by Lindsay A. Powers, Staff Writer

Montgomery County students will be seeing fewer dyes, artificial sweeteners and other chemical additives in their food after a recent decision by school officials to add to a list of banned ingredients.

As Montgomery County Public Schools enters into new contracts with food vendors, the system will require that foods be free of the Blue 2, Green 3, Red 3, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 food dyes, aspartame, acesulfame-potassium, butylated hydroxyanisole, potassium bromate, propyl gallate, saccharin, sodium tripolyphosphate and tert-Butylhydroquinone, said Marla Caplon, director of food and nutrition services for the school system. Existing contracts won’t be affected.

And:

Lindsey Parsons, co-founder of Real Food for Kids-Montgomery, said the change marks “a huge step.” Her organization, which includes more than 3,500 members, has advocated for healthier foods in county school cafeterias.

She said Real Food appreciates the school system’s decision given the number of items that will be affected.
“We recognize that that’s a big give for them,” she said.

The organization still wants to see other chemicals banned as well, including other food dyes and substances similar to MSG. Parsons said Real Food’s main concern is that the chemical additives that remain in school foods might be carcinogenic. Members are also concerned the food dyes might cause hyperactivity in some children.

Finally:
[Marla] Caplon [MCPS Director of food and nutrition services] said some chemical additives are more prevalent in cafeteria foods and the school system thinks there are good reasons for keeping them.

Providing an example, she said that a caramel additive is used in nearly all the fully cooked meat items the school system serves. The system buys fully cooked meat due to safety reasons.

Items jettisoned from the lunch menu included gummy fruit snacks, Doritos chips and ice cream.

Advocates Honor Bethesda School For Healthy Food Changes

Real Food for Kids – Montgomery named the school “most improved” thanks to a flurry of changes and educational activities prompted by parents. RFKM’s Lisa Mandell — a member of the school PTA’s Wellness Committee — worked with Principal Sandra Reece to remove snack items on the school’s a la carte menu that more than half of parents disapproved of.
Items jettisoned from the lunch menu included gummy fruit snacks, Doritos chips and ice cream. The changes came after Mandell and PTA member Aimee Aronson met with Reece and MCPS Food and Nutrition Services Director Marla Caplon.
According to RFKM, MCPS agreed to remove the items after the meting. It followed a 2012-2013 parent survey the PTA put out about school food.

Real Food for Kids: Screening of "Lunch Hour" May 3rd

If you care about what your kids are eating at school, you won’t want to miss this compelling  new movie. On Saturday May 3, Real Food for Kids – Montgomery (RFKM) is  hosting a screening of “Lunch Hour”  (http://www.lunchhourmovie.org/), a feature-length documentary that explores the national school lunch program, childhood obesity, and our addiction to unhealthy food (starring Rachel Ray, Robin Quivers, Marion Nestle, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Amie Hamlin, Peter Eisler, and Alex Jamieson). 

 

Following the film, James Costa, writer and director of “Lunch Hour,” will be on hand to lead a discussion.

 

Details:

May 3: 6:30-9:00 p.m.

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

Takoma Park, MD 20912

 

Suggested donation: $10 per person.

Appropriate for ages 14 and older.          

 

Please sign our petition for better school food in MCPS!

 

We will be delivering our petition to the Board of Education and Supt. Starr at the June 3rd Board of Education Meeting.  This is your chance to have your voice heard.  Click on this link to sign:   online petition, have your spouse and kids sign, share it on Facebook, tweet it and e-mail it to all your friends in MCPS. 

 

Real FoodFor Kids - Montgomery is a grassroots, parent advocacy group promoting whole, delicious, fresh and nutrient-rich foods in the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). Formed in October of 2012, we currently have parents representing 69% (140) of MCPS' 202 schools - and over 1800 supporters. If you support our mission, please email us at realfoodMCPS@gmail.com.  For more information, visit our website at www.realfoodforkidsmontgomery.org

 

Thank you!

 

Karen Devitt and Lindsey Parsons

Co-Founders

Real Food For Kids - Montgomery

MCPS Says It’s Doing A Lot To Make School Menus Healthier

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/03/17/mcps-says-its-doing-a-lot-to-make-school-menus-healthier/

Sign the Petition!

From our friends at Real Food...

Real Food For Kids - Montgomery (RFKM) is a grassroots parent advocacy group promoting whole, delicious, fresh and nutrient-rich foods in the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). Formed in October of 2012,  it has now grown to over 1200 supporters and members in 128 schools in MCPS.

 

Over the last year, RFKM has been building its grassroots support to advocate for better school food for our children. Now is the moment that we are bringing it all together with an online petition designed to show support for our priorities by parents, students, community members, businesses, churches, health care providers, organizations and educators in the county. We will collect signatures over the next 2 months, then plan to deliver them to the Board of Education and Superintendent Starr at a BOE meeting in May, with hopefully many of you in attendance. 

We are counting on our supporters for this advocacy campaign to be a success! Please sign, have your spouse and kids sign, share it on Facebook, tweet it and e-mail it to all your friends in MCPS.  To sign, go to:

http://tinyurl.com/lcunonn.

For more information about RFKM, see www.realfoodforkidsmontgomery.org or call 301-202-4812.

Thank you! 

Karen Devitt and Lindsey Parsons

Co-Founders

Real Food For Kids - Montgomery

When your child's lunch is repossessed - and other communication failures that require a little civic hacking

From The Sunlight Foundation, blog post by Emily Shaw.  For the full story go here.

This week a Salt Lake City elementary school made nationwide news when several dozen children who were given a school lunch were then humiliated by having it taken away and thrown in the garbage. The problem was not with the food or the kids. From the school administrator's perspective, it was the necessary response to those children's parents’ failure to maintain their lunch accounts.

And failure there most unquestionably was. The event represented a failure of management since the effort to alert parents about accounts was late and not fully successful. It represented a failure of policy since it’s doubtful that the cost of subsidizing a few lunches outweighs the cost of having hungry children in school. Finally, it represented a very serious failure of basic human empathy because what kind of person doesn’t recognize the shame and waste involved with publicly taking and throwing away children’s lunches?

While the specific outcomes in this case are uncertain, it happens to point to a pervasive problem across the U.S. education system. The nation’s 12,880 school districts have yet to collectively figure out a successful method for regular all-parent communication. In a period with so much change and year-to-year difference across curricula, learning interventions and software, there is really quite a bit of material for two-way communication and yet regular parent communication still often happens through notes in backpacks. Despite the need for good communication, less than half of those surveyed about their experiences with traditional public schools report being “very satisfied” with the way their school communicates with parents.

and:

This area is a ripe one for civic hacking: the creative use of technology to solve civic problems. Volunteer groups like Code for America brigades work to find ways to use technology to — among other things — solve problems of communication between government and hard to reach populations. Code for America in San Mateo, Calif., worked specifically on the problem of improving coordination among food safety net providers and the people they serve.

Civic Fed Meeting Monday 7:45 PM

 

 Montgomery County Civic Federation Meeting

 

DATE: Monday, January 13, 2014TIME: 7:45 p.m.

PLACE: County Council Building - 1st Floor Auditorium, 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland. A few blocks from the Rockville redline metro stop; or, free parking in the garage behind (south) the building.  Directions here.

Program: 'Opening Government: Transparency and Ethics'
Speakers: Alisha Green, Policy Associate, Sunlight Foundation; and Robert Cobb, Chief Counsel and Staff Director, Montgomery County Ethics Commission

Community Heroes: Karen Devitt and Lindsey Parsons of
Real Food for Kids-Montgomery

BOE Off Camera Retreat Addressed Public Comments

Here's a memo about what the BOE did on their off camera retreat on October 17, 2013.  
Too bad all of the parents and citizens that have given or sent comments to the BOE missed the BOE's actual discussion of their issues. 

...In addition, the Board used this work session as an opportunity to conduct its first quarterly deliberation regarding concerns raised by the community. This memorandum seeks to memorialize the decisions made by the Board during our retreat...

  2013 Board Work Session by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Real Food for Real Kids Montgomery School Food Forum November 2nd

Wondering why cookies, chips, Doritos, high sugar juices, Rice Krispie Treats and Welch's fruit snacks (aka gummy candy) aren't on the menu but are for sale in MCPS? Want to learn more about the MCPS school food, what's causing the epidemic of Type II diabetes and obesity, dangerous food additives in our kids' food and how school gardens help children learn about healthy eating? Want to show your concern as a parent about the a la carte items sold to children in MCPS using your lunch accounts but not appearing on the school menus? Then join Real Food For Kids - Montgomery and Montgomery Victory Gardens at the SCHOOL FOOD FORUM:  Creating a Vision of Fresh, Real Food in Montgomery County Public Schools, to be held Saturday, November 2, 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Lutheran Church of St. Andrew, 15300 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring, MD 20905. The Keynote speaker is nationally-known school food reformer Tony Geraci, former Food Director at Baltimore City Schools, Director of Nutrition Services for the Shelby County Schools in Memphis and subject of movie "Cafeteria Man." A healthy, delicious, and locally-sourced lunch will be served. $25 for early bird ticket by Oct. 22, $30 until Oct. 29 registration deadline ($15 students) (scholarships are available). For more info and registration go to http://www.realfoodforkidsmontgomery.org/forum.htm.

Parents, food service directors debate snacks sneaking into kids’ diets at school

From The Washington Post, April 14, 2013, thanks to ace reporter Lynh Bui.

Over the din of sixth-grade lunch hour at Takoma Park Middle School, a student put down his juice and hollered: “He’s a genius! An ice cream sandwich-sandwich!”

At the other end of the table, a 12-year-old boy who had just finished a hamburger began shoving two ice cream sandwiches stacked together into his mouth.

Popsicles and a bag of chips are as easy to buy as a salad and an apple in the cafeteria of this school in Montgomery County. School officials say the snacks are healthy, meeting strict guidelines for fat, sugar and calories. But those assurances aren’t enough for some Montgomery parents, who worry about artificial dyes, processed foods and the occasional “ice cream sandwich-sandwich” sneaking into their kids’ diets.

“It’s the basic mom question, which is, ‘Should this kid be eating this at all?’ ” said Karen Devitt, co-founder of Real Food for Kids — Montgomery.

Across the country, school lunch directors, nutritionists and parents like Devitt are asking the same question as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crafts new federal nutrition standards limiting sugar, fat and sodium for school snacks and drinks. The rules would be the first update to school snack guidelines in more than 30 years and would come as first lady Michelle Obama continues to take aim at childhood obesity. About one-third of children in the United States are either overweight or obese.

For the entire story go here.

Real Food for Kids Testimony

Below is testimony to the MCPS Board of Education by Karen Devitt, co-founder of Real Food for Kids - Montgomery.

From her testimony:

Currently MCPS cafeterias and competitive food offerings support…unhealthy food trends.

For example, every day of the school year MCPS sells chocolate and strawberry milk with more sugar than a Hershey’s chocolate bar.  Efforts to remove or limit the availability of this product would be a good step.

Real_Food_for_Kids_Board_of_Ed-ltr_mar_2013.docx

Real Food For Kids - Montgomery hosts screening of Cafeteria Man March 15th

From Real Food for Kids - Montgomery:

Real Food For Kids - Montgomery is hosting a screening of Cafeteria Man followed by a community discussion, on Friday March 15, 2013 at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Ave, Takoma Park, MD 20912 at 7:30 p.m. Cafeteria Man is a 65-minute documentary about Tony Geraci’s work in transforming the meals in the Baltimore City Schools from pre-plated and processed to locally-grown and freshly prepared. The film's director, Richard Chisolm, will be our guest at this event. We would love for you to join us and would appreciate it if you could share this information about our event with your networks. Suggested donation is $5 per person, $10 per family. More information about the film can be found at: http://cafeteriaman.com/

Real Food for Kids - Montgomery is a grass-roots, parent advocacy group promoting whole, delicious, fresh foods in the Montgomery County Public Schools. Formed in October of 2012, we currently have parents representing 35 different elementary, middle, and high schools. We are looking for at least one parent from each of the 202 schools in the county to share their expertise and passion for this issue, and who would be willing to work on a variety of topics including but not limited to: bringing fresh, local produce into the schools; opting out of school snacks; teachers rewarding children with food; free water in the cafeteria; sugar in the schools; vending machines; and processed food. If you are part of a wellness committee in your school, or just a lone crusader, please consider joining us.

RFKM’s next event is already being planned for May: a recipe contest to create a new meal that could be added to the MCPS menu.

For more information, please email us at RealFoodMCPS@gmail.com. Thank you!