Last week we talked about how the
Farm to School program is growing in
Minnesota, more than doubling in size in the past 15 months. Good thing, right? But it still has a ways to go.
So in a bit of serendipity, last
week was also when local food blogger Lee Zukor, after eating lunch at his kid's school,
posted an
open letter to school children, apologizing to the kids at Sanford Middle School in Minneapolis for their lack of healthy food choices. (They're not alone. The U.S.D.A. spends about $2.68 per lunch; and it's estimated after labor and transportation costs, each meal is really worth about 90 cents.)
The post by Zukor received a lot of attention. And now Zukor and his web site,
SimpleGoodandTasty.com, are hosting a
School Lunch Contest to spotlight the importance of community/parental involvement in shaping what kids eat at school. Parents are encouraged to eat a school lunch with their kids, take a picture of the lunch, and send the image to SimpleGoodandTasty.com. The images of the food will be posted, and Zukor hopes this will spark a conversation, and shed a much-needed spotlight on, what kids are eating at school.
The idea for the contest came to Zukor after he received numerous responses to his open letter to the children, some of them from farmers, some from parents, and one from a woman who works at a school cafeteria. "Each month our 'kitchen' makes between $4000-6000 selling potato chips, fruit snacks, juice boxes, and bottled water," a woman calling herself the "School Lunch Lady" wrote. "The administrator's administrator talks about nutrition. But her bottom line is the monthly profit. That is what her monthly meetings are about."
Learn more about the contest at
SimpleGoodandTasty.com