Robb, co-president and COO of the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods, is accompanying Cooper to Washington, D.C., to urge lawmakers to support stronger nutritional requirements and better funding for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), where it is not uncommon to find hamburgers, French fries, chocolate milk and popsicles offered as a typical lunch.
“The reality is we’re going to pay now or pay later with rising health costs and poor health,” Cooper said. “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."
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 fresh food at school, has launched a new Web site – called thelunchbox.org - to help schools replace frozen processed foods with fresh, natural, made-from-scratch foods in a "realistic, cost-effective manner."
"This is THE [sic] social justice issue of our time, and schools have NO [sic] 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.”
The Lunch Box site offers 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; and community activism tools helping any single person, group or task force to initiate change in a school system.
The Lunch Box will be supported in part by a donation from Whole Foods and a School Lunch Revolution donation drive at check-out stands in the retailer’s stores as well as online at wholefoodsmarket.com/schoollunchrevolution through September. Whole Foods Market’s in-store value guide, The Whole Deal, will offer menus, recipes and coupons.
"With proper nutrition playing such a critical role in improving a child’s behavior, school performance, and overall cognitive development, Whole Foods has been searching for the next important way to do our part to improve children’s diets,” said Robb. "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."
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.
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.
Add that to the heap of 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.
”If you look at the entire picture, serving healthy food doesn’t have to cost more for schools,"Cooper said. "Research from the USDA and CDC has shown that switching to healthier options has the potential to increase school lunchroom revenue."
The Whole Foods Web site will feature a series of six short educational videos; a live chat with Chef Cooper on Aug. 28 at 3p.m. CDT; and a video contest for PTO/PTA organizations, with the winner receiving a visit from Chef Ann. Whole Foods operates 275 stores in North America and the United Kingdom and reports annual sales of $8 billion.
VIDEO: Check out video on National School Lunch Program from Feast or Famine
VIDEO: from Feast or Famine, an Institute for 21st Century Agriculture educational, non-profit initiative, produced by Capital Media Group in collaboration with the University Of Wisconsin - Madison. In order to produce insightful programming, the show’s producers develop beneficial relationships with thought leaders, award winning scientists, universities, pioneering industry experts and sponsoring organizations who share their passion for education and desire to improve the global knowledge of today’s food industry and tomorrow’s farmers.
