dlehmann’s Recent Comments

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  What Washington Thinks

  I'm in Washington DC for the School Nutrition Association legislative action conference, and I can tell you that Alice Waters has certainly sparked some resentment among the school food service crowd. They see her ideas as elite and unrealistic.

  In a way, that's understandable. These people are struggling to run programs that stay in the black and they're looking at a federal reimbursement that's less than $3.

  But there is enormous resistance to change. The association's lobbyist told the conference that there will be "lots of interest organizations lobbying to seek more than 1 billion for child nutrition and tell the president how to spend it. There will be people who want esoteric changes to these programs -- what I call the yuppies." That statement, and others specifically mentioning Alice Waters, received lots of applause from the audience.

  I'll be blogging throughout the week about the SNA conference and about today's senate hearing on child nutrition at www.schoolfoodpolicy.com.On Alice Waters' move into the political sphere is hitting some bumps posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago 3 Responses

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  The Politics of School Lunch Reauthorization

  I'm in Washington DC right now attending the School Nutrition Association's legislative action conference, and I'll be blogging about it a bit later this week. SNA is pushing for two things: uniform nutrition regulations across states, and increased funding for school lunch and breakfast programs.

  The NSLP nutrition regulations are in sore need of revision, and food service operations clearly need more money. But even with increased funding and limits on fat and sodium, cafeteria trays aren't going to change much. Most of the talk at the conference has been about ways to get kids to eat healthy foods without knowing it.

  That's really too bad. The nutrition advocates who brought the NSLP into reality saw the school lunchroom not only as a venue for feeding kids wholesome food, but also as a place where they would learn about how to eat. I'd love to see that happen, but it looks like we're getting farther and farther away from that ideal.

  I invite you to take a look at my posts about the conference. They should be up soon at www.schoolfoodpolicy.com.On For the first time in decades, a healthy school-lunch debate opens posted 8 months, 3 weeks ago 10 Responses