/PRNewswire/ -- Today the got breakfast?® Foundation announced its third round of Silent Hero Grants to award up to $50,000 in grants to public schools, non-profit private schools and non-profit organizations participating in the national School Breakfast Program. The grant program recognizes, encourages and rewards those silent heroes who help children start their day off right by serving breakfast. The grant monies can be used for such needs as serving equipment, staffing, food, and nutrition education materials.
The Silent Hero Grant Program was created to encourage schools and non-profit organizations to expand the reach of underutilized child nutrition programs, most notably the School Breakfast Program. According to the 2008-2009 Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) School Breakfast Scorecard, on an average day, 8.8 million low-income children participated in the national School Breakfast Program and 18.9 million low-income children participated in the National School Lunch Program. Fewer than 47 percent of children who participate in the school lunch program also receive school breakfast.
Where do those 10 million low-income children eat breakfast? "Clearly, millions of children go to school hungry each day, even though the resources are there to feed them," says Sonya Kaster, R.D., L.D.N., S.N.S., Grant Administrator for the Silent Hero Program. "For some children, the stigma of eating breakfast at school outweighs their hunger. By implementing alternate school breakfast service, such as breakfast in the classroom, it removes the perception that only poor children eat breakfast in the cafeteria. The school breakfast program can help fill the gap many Americans are experiencing today."
In yesterday's USA TODAY, the feature story "Breakfast in class: Fight against hunger starts in school," noted that feeding breakfast to students who can afford to pay helps remove the stigma associated with the cafeteria breakfasts for low-income students and that classroom breakfasts can alleviate other challenges, such as time constraints. The article also included remarks from got breakfast? Foundation founder Gary Davis who hopes the grant program will help increase breakfast participation. He said, "It's a message that really has to be heard: that there is just a simple way that we can improve our society."
Whether the reasons for not eating breakfast are financial issues or lifestyle issues - such as simply not having the time in the morning - research has shown that hungry children don't learn. Children who eat breakfast do better in school: they have higher test scores, less rates of absenteeism, less visit to the school nurse, less behavior problems, and overall better health.
Are You a Silent Hero?
Or do you know one? The got breakfast? Foundation wants parents, school board members, school administrators, and school food service directors to advocate for breakfast programs at their schools. "One of our goals is to help educate communities across the country on the lifelong benefits of eating nutritious meals," says Kaster. "We hope the Silent Hero Grant Program will act as a catalyst for schools to give the breakfast program a try."
Any public, non-profit private school or non-profit organization that participates in the National School Breakfast Program and provides alternate breakfast service options can apply for a grant. The Alternate Service Breakfast Grant helps those who serve breakfast in the classroom, grab-n-go, or any other alternate site meal service outside the standard cafeteria lunch line. Priority selection will be given to programs creating a breakfast program where one did not exist before.
Grants will be awarded up to $5,000. The deadline for submitting the application is November 15, 2010. Applicants will be notified of their award status after January 15, 2011, and winners will be announced by February 1, 2011.
For information about the got breakfast? Silent Hero Grant Program or to obtain a Request for Application (RFA), contact info@gotbreakfast.org or visit the www.gotbreakfast.org website.
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Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Tips For Packing Healthy School Lunches
(StatePoint) Getting kids to eat healthy can be tricky, especially when you're not with them during school lunchtime.
A little creative planning and the right food choices can make healthy eating fun, giving kids the nutrition, energy and stamina they need to do well in school.
Get Kids Involved
Take children shopping for healthy foods they like. Let them choose favorite sandwich stuffers, vegetables, fruits and juice. Only buy healthy items, so kids can't be tempted by junk foods.
Each evening pack the next day's lunch together, letting kids choose their main dish, snacks and beverage.
Go Preservative Free
Avoid foods with lots of preservatives. What children drink is as important as what they eat. Send kids to school with water, low-fat milk or 100 percent real fruit juice in ready-to use cartons. Juice boxes are particularly healthy and convenient, because they don't need added preservatives to stay fresh and last up to 12 months without refrigeration.
Keep Things Fresh
When refrigeration isn't possible, keep food fresh and safe by selecting items with long shelf-lives, like crackers, peanut butter and juice. Or, try freezing a juice box the night before, to keep meat or cheese sandwiches fresh until lunchtime.
"Families should also consider the environment when packing lunches," says Carla Fantoni, vice president of communication for Tetra Pak US & Canada, a packaging solutions company. "Juice boxes, for example, are made mainly from paper, a renewable resource, are lightweight, compact and recyclable. They meet consumer needs for convenience, safety and ease of use with a low environmental impact."
Pack Balanced Meals
Instead of fretting over each meal, make sure kids eat a variety of foods -- such as protein, fats, carbs and fiber -- over a week's time. It's okay to pack chips with a cold cut sandwich, so long as they're having veggies and fruit juice the next day. And if they want the same sandwich daily, roll with it. Just change the topping and include a balanced side.
Have Fun
Have kids help create fun sandwiches or silly sides, such as "ants on a log" (raisins atop peanut butter on celery). Share foods and stories from your childhood. This year is particularly nostalgic for parents who were kids in the '80s, as it's the 30th birthday of the juice box, a staple of many childhood lunches.
For even more fun, get creative with your kids and make your own music video as part of a contest honoring the juice box birthday. Visit www.juiceboxbirthday.com to hear a new tune from The Juice Box Heroes and submit your family's original take on the song's music video. Prizes include $2,500, a year's supply of juice boxes and more. The contest runs from August 3 to October 31.
"With a little ingenuity you can help kids form good eating habits while having fun," says Candace Cameron Bure, mother of three and star of "Full House" and the current hit show, "Make it Or Break It," who is currently celebrating the juice box birthday with her family. "The juice box was a part of my childhood and with my family's busy lifestyle, I love giving my kids convenient and healthy treats I know and trust."
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A little creative planning and the right food choices can make healthy eating fun, giving kids the nutrition, energy and stamina they need to do well in school.
Get Kids Involved
Take children shopping for healthy foods they like. Let them choose favorite sandwich stuffers, vegetables, fruits and juice. Only buy healthy items, so kids can't be tempted by junk foods.
Each evening pack the next day's lunch together, letting kids choose their main dish, snacks and beverage.
Go Preservative Free
Avoid foods with lots of preservatives. What children drink is as important as what they eat. Send kids to school with water, low-fat milk or 100 percent real fruit juice in ready-to use cartons. Juice boxes are particularly healthy and convenient, because they don't need added preservatives to stay fresh and last up to 12 months without refrigeration.
Keep Things Fresh
When refrigeration isn't possible, keep food fresh and safe by selecting items with long shelf-lives, like crackers, peanut butter and juice. Or, try freezing a juice box the night before, to keep meat or cheese sandwiches fresh until lunchtime.
"Families should also consider the environment when packing lunches," says Carla Fantoni, vice president of communication for Tetra Pak US & Canada, a packaging solutions company. "Juice boxes, for example, are made mainly from paper, a renewable resource, are lightweight, compact and recyclable. They meet consumer needs for convenience, safety and ease of use with a low environmental impact."
Pack Balanced Meals
Instead of fretting over each meal, make sure kids eat a variety of foods -- such as protein, fats, carbs and fiber -- over a week's time. It's okay to pack chips with a cold cut sandwich, so long as they're having veggies and fruit juice the next day. And if they want the same sandwich daily, roll with it. Just change the topping and include a balanced side.
Have Fun
Have kids help create fun sandwiches or silly sides, such as "ants on a log" (raisins atop peanut butter on celery). Share foods and stories from your childhood. This year is particularly nostalgic for parents who were kids in the '80s, as it's the 30th birthday of the juice box, a staple of many childhood lunches.
For even more fun, get creative with your kids and make your own music video as part of a contest honoring the juice box birthday. Visit www.juiceboxbirthday.com to hear a new tune from The Juice Box Heroes and submit your family's original take on the song's music video. Prizes include $2,500, a year's supply of juice boxes and more. The contest runs from August 3 to October 31.
"With a little ingenuity you can help kids form good eating habits while having fun," says Candace Cameron Bure, mother of three and star of "Full House" and the current hit show, "Make it Or Break It," who is currently celebrating the juice box birthday with her family. "The juice box was a part of my childhood and with my family's busy lifestyle, I love giving my kids convenient and healthy treats I know and trust."
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Monday, September 14, 2009
Whole Foods Market and Chef Ann Cooper Partner to Launch Thelunchbox.org to Support Healthier School Lunches
Calls for Public to Join 'School Lunch Revolution' Aimed at Transforming School Menus Across United States Partners Travel to Washington, D.C., to Raise Awareness, Seek Changes to the National School Lunch Program
Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI), a leader in natural and organic foods, and Chef Ann Cooper, the nation's "Renegade Lunch Lady," have joined forces to transform lunch in schools across the country with the "School Lunch Revolution" campaign. This national effort, which launches during the back-to-school season, aims to enable schools to revolutionize and improve the way children eat. The free, first-of-its-kind Lunch Box Web site - thelunchbox.org - provides the necessary resources for food service directors to make tangible changes in their cafeteria menus.
"It is past time for a wake-up call! Look at what our children are being offered at school: processed foods high in fat, junk food, soft drinks loaded with sugar...the list goes on. We are in the throes of a public health time bomb," said Chef Ann Cooper, author of "Lunch Lessons" and "Bitter Harvest" and founder of the F3: Food Family Farming Foundation whose mission is to provide every child in America with healthy and delicious fresh food at school. "This is THE social justice issue of our time, and schools have NO money to help solve the problem," said Cooper. "I felt strongly about partnering with Whole Foods Market to help tackle this issue because their customers have a successful track record of rallying around a cause and making a real difference."
Chef Ann Cooper's Lunch Box Web site is the most comprehensive, easily accessible and FREE set of resources available to help schools replace frozen processed foods with fresh, natural, made-from-scratch foods in a realistic, cost-effective manner. Tools include:
- Recipes that work for schools of all size and can be nutritionally analyzed, tested and costed
- Resources for procuring real, natural foods, regionally and locally, from smaller vendors to create local food economies
- Training videos that cover topics ranging from cooking techniques to food safety
- Educational tools for parents and children
- Community activism tools helping any single person, group or task force to initiate change in a school system
"One in three children born in the year 2000 will have diabetes, and 30 percent of them are overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC also says that the cost of treating diabetes in the United States is estimated at $174 billion each year," said Cooper. "The reality is we're going to pay now or pay later with rising health costs and poor health."
More than 30 million children eat a school lunch that is federally funded through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) every day. On average, only 90 cents per lunch is spent on food. That, combined with free commodity foods, like cheese and ground beef, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Distribution Program and many children are eating mostly frozen, processed, packaged foods. With no national standardized limit on sugar or other ingredients like artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, it is not uncommon to find hamburgers, French fries chocolate milk and popsicles offered as a typical school lunch.
"If you look at the entire picture, serving healthy food doesn't have to cost more for schools. Research from the USDA and CDC has shown that switching to healthier options has the potential to increase school lunchroom revenue," said Cooper. "I'm confident that with the right tools schools can learn how to provide more whole, fresh foods menus that nourish our children."
The Lunch Box will be supported in part by a donation from Whole Foods Market and a School Lunch Revolution donation drive at check-out stands in Whole Foods Market stores, and at wholefoodsmarket.com/schoollunchrevolution now through September.
Walter Robb, co-president and COO of Whole Foods Market, and Cooper will take the School Lunch Revolution message to Washington, D.C., to create public awareness and ask lawmakers to do their part to support stronger nutritional requirements and adequate funding for the National School Lunch Program.
While in D.C., Cooper will visit the Whole Foods Market store at Tenley Circle and lecture on the subject of healthy school lunches. She will also visit Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston in September, joining community leaders to talk about the importance of healthy lunches and the free Lunch Box Web site, with the hope of eliciting change on a local level.
"With proper nutrition playing such a critical role in improving a child's behavior, school performance, and overall cognitive development, Whole Foods Market has been searching for the next important way to do our part to improve children's diets. Even in this time of economic challenge, healthy choices for your family always make sense. Our goal is to raise awareness, engage our shoppers and give schools easy access to the tools they need to serve fresher, healthier meals," said Robb, whose passion and purpose for more than 30 years has been to offer natural and organic foods and encourage healthful eating. "Chef Ann Cooper is passionate, tenacious and committed to improving nutrition for school-age children and we are delighted to be working with her to present this online resource to schools."
To further raise awareness and encourage Americans to join in, the Whole Foods Market Web site will feature:
- A series of six short educational videos;
- A live chat with Chef Cooper on Aug. 28 at 3p.m. CDT;
- A video contest for PTO/PTA organizations, with the winner receiving a visit from Chef Ann; and
- Solutions for affordable, healthy lunches.
In addition, Whole Foods Market's in-store value guide, The Whole Deal, will offer menus, recipes and coupons.
About Whole Foods Market(R)
Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market (www.wholefoodsmarket.com), a leader in the natural and organic foods industry and America's first national certified organic grocer, was named "America's Healthiest Grocery Store" in 2008 by Health magazine. The Whole Foods Market motto, "Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet"(TM) captures the company's mission to find success in customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Thanks to its more than 50,000 Team Members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America by FORTUNE magazine for 12 consecutive years. In fiscal year 2008, the company had sales of $8 billion and currently has more than 275 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market, Fresh & Wild(TM), and Harry's Farmers Market(R) are trademarks owned by Whole Foods Market IP, LP. Wild Oats(R) and Capers Community Market(TM) are trademarks owned by Wild Marks, Inc.
About Chef Ann Cooper: Meet the Leader of the School Lunch Revolution
Chef Ann Cooper, aka, "The Renegade Lunch Lady" and author of Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, is on a mission to ensure that every child in America receives healthy, delicious food every day in school. Her work over the past decade has already transformed the school lunchroom experience for tens of thousands of children. She will share her methodology and tools through The Lunch Box, which has the power to help all schools to make simple, yet revolutionary changes to their lunch programs. Chef Ann Cooper is currently serving as the Interim Nutrition Director for the Boulder Valley School District and is the former Director of Nutrition Services for the Berkeley Unified School district. She is the author of four books and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park with more than 30 years working in the culinary world.
---
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www.FayetteFrontPage.com
www.GeorgiaFrontPage.com
www.PoliticalPotluck.com
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
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Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI), a leader in natural and organic foods, and Chef Ann Cooper, the nation's "Renegade Lunch Lady," have joined forces to transform lunch in schools across the country with the "School Lunch Revolution" campaign. This national effort, which launches during the back-to-school season, aims to enable schools to revolutionize and improve the way children eat. The free, first-of-its-kind Lunch Box Web site - thelunchbox.org - provides the necessary resources for food service directors to make tangible changes in their cafeteria menus.
"It is past time for a wake-up call! Look at what our children are being offered at school: processed foods high in fat, junk food, soft drinks loaded with sugar...the list goes on. We are in the throes of a public health time bomb," said Chef Ann Cooper, author of "Lunch Lessons" and "Bitter Harvest" and founder of the F3: Food Family Farming Foundation whose mission is to provide every child in America with healthy and delicious fresh food at school. "This is THE social justice issue of our time, and schools have NO money to help solve the problem," said Cooper. "I felt strongly about partnering with Whole Foods Market to help tackle this issue because their customers have a successful track record of rallying around a cause and making a real difference."
Chef Ann Cooper's Lunch Box Web site is the most comprehensive, easily accessible and FREE set of resources available to help schools replace frozen processed foods with fresh, natural, made-from-scratch foods in a realistic, cost-effective manner. Tools include:
- Recipes that work for schools of all size and can be nutritionally analyzed, tested and costed
- Resources for procuring real, natural foods, regionally and locally, from smaller vendors to create local food economies
- Training videos that cover topics ranging from cooking techniques to food safety
- Educational tools for parents and children
- Community activism tools helping any single person, group or task force to initiate change in a school system
"One in three children born in the year 2000 will have diabetes, and 30 percent of them are overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC also says that the cost of treating diabetes in the United States is estimated at $174 billion each year," said Cooper. "The reality is we're going to pay now or pay later with rising health costs and poor health."
More than 30 million children eat a school lunch that is federally funded through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) every day. On average, only 90 cents per lunch is spent on food. That, combined with free commodity foods, like cheese and ground beef, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Distribution Program and many children are eating mostly frozen, processed, packaged foods. With no national standardized limit on sugar or other ingredients like artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, it is not uncommon to find hamburgers, French fries chocolate milk and popsicles offered as a typical school lunch.
"If you look at the entire picture, serving healthy food doesn't have to cost more for schools. Research from the USDA and CDC has shown that switching to healthier options has the potential to increase school lunchroom revenue," said Cooper. "I'm confident that with the right tools schools can learn how to provide more whole, fresh foods menus that nourish our children."
The Lunch Box will be supported in part by a donation from Whole Foods Market and a School Lunch Revolution donation drive at check-out stands in Whole Foods Market stores, and at wholefoodsmarket.com/schoollunchrevolution now through September.
Walter Robb, co-president and COO of Whole Foods Market, and Cooper will take the School Lunch Revolution message to Washington, D.C., to create public awareness and ask lawmakers to do their part to support stronger nutritional requirements and adequate funding for the National School Lunch Program.
While in D.C., Cooper will visit the Whole Foods Market store at Tenley Circle and lecture on the subject of healthy school lunches. She will also visit Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston in September, joining community leaders to talk about the importance of healthy lunches and the free Lunch Box Web site, with the hope of eliciting change on a local level.
"With proper nutrition playing such a critical role in improving a child's behavior, school performance, and overall cognitive development, Whole Foods Market has been searching for the next important way to do our part to improve children's diets. Even in this time of economic challenge, healthy choices for your family always make sense. Our goal is to raise awareness, engage our shoppers and give schools easy access to the tools they need to serve fresher, healthier meals," said Robb, whose passion and purpose for more than 30 years has been to offer natural and organic foods and encourage healthful eating. "Chef Ann Cooper is passionate, tenacious and committed to improving nutrition for school-age children and we are delighted to be working with her to present this online resource to schools."
To further raise awareness and encourage Americans to join in, the Whole Foods Market Web site will feature:
- A series of six short educational videos;
- A live chat with Chef Cooper on Aug. 28 at 3p.m. CDT;
- A video contest for PTO/PTA organizations, with the winner receiving a visit from Chef Ann; and
- Solutions for affordable, healthy lunches.
In addition, Whole Foods Market's in-store value guide, The Whole Deal, will offer menus, recipes and coupons.
About Whole Foods Market(R)
Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market (www.wholefoodsmarket.com), a leader in the natural and organic foods industry and America's first national certified organic grocer, was named "America's Healthiest Grocery Store" in 2008 by Health magazine. The Whole Foods Market motto, "Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet"(TM) captures the company's mission to find success in customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Thanks to its more than 50,000 Team Members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America by FORTUNE magazine for 12 consecutive years. In fiscal year 2008, the company had sales of $8 billion and currently has more than 275 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market, Fresh & Wild(TM), and Harry's Farmers Market(R) are trademarks owned by Whole Foods Market IP, LP. Wild Oats(R) and Capers Community Market(TM) are trademarks owned by Wild Marks, Inc.
About Chef Ann Cooper: Meet the Leader of the School Lunch Revolution
Chef Ann Cooper, aka, "The Renegade Lunch Lady" and author of Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, is on a mission to ensure that every child in America receives healthy, delicious food every day in school. Her work over the past decade has already transformed the school lunchroom experience for tens of thousands of children. She will share her methodology and tools through The Lunch Box, which has the power to help all schools to make simple, yet revolutionary changes to their lunch programs. Chef Ann Cooper is currently serving as the Interim Nutrition Director for the Boulder Valley School District and is the former Director of Nutrition Services for the Berkeley Unified School district. She is the author of four books and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park with more than 30 years working in the culinary world.
---
Community News You Can Use
Follow us on Twitter: @gafrontpage
www.FayetteFrontPage.com
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www.PoliticalPotluck.com
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
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