Why We Need Fresh, Local Food in Schools

Ann Cooper has a simple mission—getting American kids eating healthy, wholesome, locally grown foods. The “renegade lunch lady” has succeeded in that mission in Berkley, Calif., and Boulder, Col. She shared her strategies at the Farm to Table Festival in Columbia last weekend.

Here are the highlights:

Food and health issue context by the numbers:

–We spend $5 billion per week on diabetes and obesity

–The National School Lunch Program spends $9.5 billon per year to feed 5.4 million kids

–The United States Department of Agriculture spends $45 billion per year on commodity foods—corn, soy, cotton, wheat and rice. “Of the corn and soy almost none of it is for consumption by people. Most is for animals, but they can’t even eat it all, which is why we have high fructose corn syrup,” Cooper said.

–72 percent of Americans are obese or overweight according to the CDC

– DuPont and Monsanto control 90 percent of the commercial seed market in the U.S.

Cooper on the issues:

On the way food is prepared in schools:

“The USDA loves to make the claim: ‘untouched by human hands,’ but if no body ever touched it, then it probably isn’t food!”

On real food:

“What has labels on it? The only thing that has a label is basically not food.”

On changing our habits:

“Right now in America one out of every four meals eaten is fast food. One of every four meals is eaten in the car. One out of every four meals is eaten in front of a blue screen. That’s gotta stop.”

“Parents have to do their part at home. They have to turn off the TV, they have to shop with their kids, cook with their kids and make meals an important part of their lives,”

On serving unhealthy food, something Cooper refuses to do in her schools:

“Chocolate milk is like soda in drag.”

On some of the problem’s roots:

“We spend $5 billion per week on diabetes and obesity. But if we change it, who wins?”

“The USDA doesn’t win because they really need to support agribusiness, agribusiness doesn’t win, the medical industrial complex doesn’t win—we won’t be so sick, the pharmaceutical industrial complex won’t win because we won’t need all that medication. The only people that win are the kids and they don’t vote.”

What can you do as a parent? Cooper recommends going to schools and eating the lunch. If it’s not to your standards, get like-minded parents together to say this is not good enough. Check out your school’s wellness plan and look at the myriad resources on Cooper’s website The Lunch Box. Encourage school gardening programs that are integrated into the curriculum.