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

Community Forum on Sustainable Agriculture in Maryland:

Notice for a Forum on Sustainable Agriculture, sponsored by Food & Water Watch

Poultry Pollution and the Chesapeake Bay

Speakers: Carole Morison,  Katherine Ozer, Sophia Maravell, Mike Tabor and Terrill North

Join on November 20th to learn about and discuss the Poultry Fair Share Act, the poultry industry's impacts on the Bay, and sustainable alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture.

When: 6:00 to 7:00pm

Where: Takoma Park Seventh Day Adventist Church

Church Center
6810 Eastern Avenue NW
District of Columbia
The Chesapeake Bay is a global treasure and was once one of the most productive estuaries on Earth. But these days, phosphorus pollution contributes to the persistence of a vast dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay. The poultry industry dumps more phosphorus pollution into the Bay than any other single source. Yet under current law, the industry is not held fully accountable for that pollution and contributes far too little to save the Bay.

State elected officials will introduce the Poultry Fair Share Act in the Maryland General Assembly next January. The Poultry Fair Share Act will require large poultry companies to contribute to the Bay Restoration Fund, and use the revenue generated through this common-sense legislation to support local farmers efforts to plant cover crops. Cover crops are the most cost-effective practice to simultaneously enrich the soil and reduce runoff pollution.

About Food & Water Watch
Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

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.

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.

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!

Healthy and Sustainable School Food Journalism Awards

The Earth Day Network, the Edible Schoolyard Project and the Berkeley School of Journalism are teaming up for a high school journalism contest about healthy school food.  For all the information go here.

Deadline: February 28, 2013

The Healthy and Sustainable School Food Journalism Competition is designed to bring the hard facts about school food to entire school communities – in the students’ own words.

What could I win? First prize: $1,500. Second prize: $1,000. Third prize $500. Fourth Prize (x3): $300
…Plus, $200 for your journalism class and the opportunity to have your work publicized on our websites and through our extensive networks.

What is it? A competition for student journalists. Articles submitted for consideration must be about the need for healthy, sustainable school food and must have been published in a school newspaper.

Who can enter? U.S. high school students ages 13 to 18.

Who’s judging? Best-selling author and food activist Michael Pollan will judge the finalists and select the winners!

Food in our Schools

Here is the complete report by the Office of Legislative Oversight, 'Food in Montgomery County Public Schools.' We have written on this blog many times about healthy food that our children could be eating, as well as healthy school gardens. Public schools all over the country are helping their students to become healthy and active. Why not here in MoCo? Maybe this report will finally push the Board of Education to do something here. It's about time.

Food in Montgomery County Public Schools July 2012, Office of Legislative Oversight

Civic Fed Awards Gordon Clark 'Community Hero' Award

Please join the Civic Fed tonight as we award Gordon Clark the Community Hero Award.  The entire program is as follows:

Montgomery County Operating Budget for next fiscal year, FY2012

Speakers

Alex Espinosa, Manager for Operating Budget, MC Office of Management and Budget;
Steve Farber, County Council Staff Director; and
Community Hero Award Presentation to Gordon Clark, Project Director of Montgomery Victory Gardens, for spearheading efforts to allow healthy gardens in our public schools and create community gardens in neighborhoods.

DATE: Monday, April 11, 2011

TIME: 7:45 p.m.
LOCATION: County Council Building - 1st Floor Auditorium, 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville
For directions go here.

Paula Bienenfeld
Education Committee Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation

Civic Fed Awards Gordon Clark 'Community Hero' Award

Please join the Montgomery County Civic Federation in awarding Gordon Clark, of Montgomery Victory Gardens, the Community Hero Award, at our April 11th meeting.


DATE: Monday, April 11, 2011
TIME: 7:45 p.m.
LOCATION: County Council Building - 1st Floor Auditorium, 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland
For directions, go here.

Program: Montgomery County Operating Budget for next fiscal year, FY2012 with Speakers: Alex Espinosa, Manager for Operating Budget, MC Office of Management and Budget Steve Farber, County Council Staff Director, and Community Hero Award presentation to Gordon Clark, Project Director of Montgomery Victory Gardens, for spearheading efforts to allow healthy gardens in our public schools and create community gardens in neighborhoods.

Paula Bienenfeld
Education Committee Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation