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By Abbe Hamilton, go-getter and student at South
Hadley
High
School
One day in March 2007, students at South Hadley
High School
were faced with three refuse bins, instead of the usual
two, as
they dropped off their trays and exited the school
cafeteria.
This third bin was for compostable food waste, and its
presence
there was the result of an effort by the school's
Environmental
Club to recycle the bulk of the food waste produced in
the
cafeteria.
The South Hadley High School Environmental Club
launched
their pilot Cafeteria Waste Composting Program
during the Spring
Semester of the 2006-07 school year. This program
was
initiated, designed, and implemented by students
working
cooperatively with government officials, custodians,
teachers
and staff at South Hadley High School. The project
received a
Technical Assistance grant from the Massachusetts
DEP,
which helped fund the use of biodegradable plates,
cups,
bowls, and trash bags. Student activity funds and
Envirothon
Team/ Environmental Club fundraising efforts also
helped
support the project.
This pilot project was originally scheduled to last for
two
months, but due to the overwhelming success of the
program,
school administrators allocated student activity funds
to continue the program through the end of the school
year.
During the course of the pilot study, Environmental
Club
volunteers collected waste stream data to determine
cafeteria
waste output. The first set of data collected was to
determine
how much trash was generated by the cafeteria on a
daily and
weekly basis. This data collection effort was
supplemented by
environmental attitudes/recycling-composting
knowledge
surveys that were administered to over 700 students
in all
science classes. Student survey data was then
crunched by a
statistics class as a part of a real-life data statistics
project.
At the end of the two-month pilot, waste stream data
measurements were taken. Students recorded
masses for
compost, recycling, and garbage bins in two
cafeterias for three
daily lunches. Analysis of this data determined that
the
program successfully reduced cafeteria trash
production by
approximately 75%. A second group of post-pilot
program
attitudes/recycling-composting knowledge surveys
were
administered and the data analyzed, once again, by
statistics
classes. These surveys showed that students and
faculty
overwhelmingly supported the program.
Based upon the success of the pilot program we have
received
permission from the School Committee and High
School
Administrative Team to continue our efforts into the
2007-08
school year. Over the summer, the Food Services
Director
purchased reusable trays to offset the costs of
purchasing
biodegradable dinnerware. Additionally, we recently
received
notification from our waste hauler (Allied Waste) that
decreased tipping fees associated with decreased
trash
production can be redirected to pay for compost
hauling to
Martin's Farm in Greenfield. This reallocation of funds
has
contributed significantly to the future sustainability of
our
program.
This winter, Whole Foods Market of Hadley agreed to
sponsor
the program with a 5% day, during whicha 5% of all
store
proceeds went directly towards funding our program.
Most
immediately, we hope to use this money to continue
the
program for the rest of the school year, and then apply
it
towards improving the program. Representatives from
our
environmental club also presented a workshop about
composting in a school cafeteria at the
Massachusetts
Agricultural Conference in Ludlow on February 9th.
Currently, our major goal for the program is to find
ways to
make the system more affordable and sustainable so
that our
school budget might be able to permanently support
the
composting effort. We're also doing a considerable bit
of
outreach towards other schools, those interested in
establishing
a composting program of their own and schools that
have
already succeeded in beginning a program. We hope
that by
connecting with other schools similarly enthusiastic
about
composting, everybody can learn a little more.
If you're
interested in more information about our program,
please
contact Abbe Hamilton: abbethh@yahoo.com.
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In February of this year the United States saw the largest beef
recall in its history after video footage from inside a California
slaughterhouse created concerns regarding the safety of 143
million pounds of meat. Within days of the recall, word got out
that roughly one-third of the recalled beef was purchased for
federal nutrition programs, most notably for the National
School Lunch Program. Still later it was revealed that at least
20 million pounds of that beef had already been consumed by
school children across the country. Another 15 million pounds
were still missing several weeks after the recall-largely
because much of the meat was processed into nuggets and
other pre-made meal items before being sent to schools. This
news revealed some of the inner workings of our food system
and left many parents with pressing questions about what their
kids are eating. So how does this food get on our children's
plates? And if we know there is a problem, why can't we fix it?
The National School Lunch Program was launched during the
Great Depression of the 1930's when the markets for farm
products dried up and an increasing number of school children
suffered from hunger and malnutrition. In response, the
government created the National School Lunch Program in an
effort to utilize the overflow of commodities to feed hungry
children, while preventing a price-depression from surplus
goods. Essentially, the government purchased commodities
that would have otherwise flooded the market and disposed of
them through 'domestic donations'-also known as subsidized
lunches. Since then, the program has undergone drastic
fluctuations in funding, availability, nutritional guidelines, and
content, but the basic tenants of the program remain the same.
Understanding the role of the National School Lunch Program
in purchasing surplus and low-cost commodity-based foods
starts to explain why this beef was in our children's lunches.
Schools receive about seventeen cents worth of commodities
and $2.47 in cash per free lunch served. After taking labor and
distribution costs into consideration, there isn't much money-
usually less than one dollar-with which to purchase food. This
puts a lot of pressure of schools to serve the meat available
through the School Lunch program, which is purchased from
large-scale, low-cost agribusinesses. This makes school lunches
especially vulnerable to food safety concerns, and the
centralized nature of the school lunch program means that
when there is a contamination, it affects millions of schools
and children. Of course, the problem is not limited to meat.
The average school lunch contains highly processed foods, the
contents of which are often untraceable.
The current system doesn't provide many alternatives for school
lunch programs. One option is to throw out the program
altogether-which is exactly what the Berkeley Unified School
District did in 2000. After concerns about nutrition and food
safety, the school officials decided to throw out the National
School Lunch Program-which provided lunches for 37% of
Berkeley students-and overhaul it with a completely new
lunch program. Instead of offering commodity-based foods in
their school lunches, their lunch program now makes meals
entirely from scratch every day for every child who wants it.
However, in order to make this possible, the district had to
supplement its federal lunch funds with $1 million from its
annual budget of about $100 million. It is unlikely that other
school districts will be able to replicate the Berkeley school
lunch program, particularly in schools with high subsidized
lunch participation and strained budgets.
Everyone who works with or within the National School Lunch
Program comes up against these limitations-and it's important
to remember the ways in which they also restrict school food
service directors and cafeteria managers. The problems are
structural and lie within the very foundation of the program.
Naturally, change will be slow. But like in all things, knowing
our limitations can help us to look outside the box and find
alternatives until the system does change. More and more
school food service directors are going the extra mile to serve
more fresh, local foods to students across the country, and
advocates of healthy school lunches are working closely with
them to come up with creative ways to make the food our
children eat safer and healthier.
For more information about the advocates working to change
school lunch programs and what you can do to help, we
recommend the following resources: Better School
Food, the National
Farm to School Network, Two Angry Moms,
and the School
Lunch Initiative at Berkeley.
Check out our archives (here, here, here, here, and here!) for profiles of the inspiring
commitment local schools and farmers have made to the Farm
to School movement.
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In the Northeast, the first hint that spring is coming is
the start
of
maple sugar season. As the days stretch longer and
warm up
(slightly!), maple trees throughout the Pioneer Valley
start
sporting metal buckets, and miles of tubing wind
through the
woods. There are lots of ways to incorporate lessons
about
maple sugaring into the classroom and to use maple
syrup as a
teaching tool for other subjects.
As one of his first orders of
business, CISA's new Executive Director, Phil
Korman, has
offered to share a maple syrup-based math lesson
that he
developed for use in his son's 4th grade classroom.
He's been
doing a variation on this lesson with his son's class
for several
years, so it can be adjusted to fit most young age
groups.
First he introduces the students to the lesson by
talking a little
bit about the history of maple syrup and how sap is
harvested
and turned into syrup. This is a great opportunity to
teach your
students about early American history, and also to
explore the
biology of maple trees. Visit the Massachusetts
Maple
Producers Association website for exhaustive
resources on
all things maple. Once the students are introduced
to the
wide world of maple trees, sap, and syrup, Phil leads
them
through the following math lesson, which includes a
syrup
tasting as a special treat.
Phil's lesson on Maple Syrup Math and the ratio of
40 to
1
Facts: It takes 40 pints of tree sap from a sugar maple
tree to
make one pint of maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of
tree sap
to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. Using that
information,
answer the following questions.
The possibilities for using maple syrup as a teaching
tool do
not end with ratios, of course. Many local sugar
houses offer
tours to student groups, so this is a great time of year
to plan a
field trip and visit a working farm, and you can visit CISA's
website to find
a sugarhouse near you. It goes without saying, of
course, that
all of these exciting ideas for incorporating maple
sugaring
season into your classroom will be most successful if
they
involve taste tests!
Check out these resources to help you bring your
maple
dreams to life: the Massachusetts
Maple
Growers Association and CISA's online
Farm
Products Guide.
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EVENTS
Mass Ag in the Classroom Workshop: "Keeping Your Classroom Fresh and Growing" Saturday, May 10th Gardner, Mass. Join us as we learn about the environmental impacts, financial savings, and uses of renewable energy. During the morning, Professor Thomas Montagno, will offer a renewable energy overview and provide hands-on activities for the classroom. After lunch, he'll take us on a tour of the renewable energy operations on the campus. The workshop runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mt. Wachusett Community College in Gardner. The $30 fee includes professional development points, lunch and all materials. To register, contact Debi Hogan at (508) 336- 4426. Creating School Gardens and Composting Systems with Karen DiFranza Sunday, September 28 Hubbardston, Mass. The Hubbardston Center School's garden program was developed using grant money, and is student-maintained. Learn how to start, run, and fund a student-powered composting program that recycles cafeteria leftovers and schoolyard organic materials works. The workshop will also cover curriculum and lesson plans that utilize both the garden and school composting system. The workshop will run from 10:00am-2:00pm. NOFA Members: $46 Non-members: $51. Click here to register online. Mass Ag in the Classroom Summer Graduate Level Course Wednesdays, June 25, August 13 North Grafton, Mass. Our popular Graduate Course for educators is back for a third summer. Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom, collaborating with Fitchburg State College, is offering a three- credit graduate course. Titled "Growing Agriculture in the Classroom," the course uses Massachusetts farms as its classrooms. Teachers participate in agricultural-literacy training through fun, hands-on study and investigation of agriculture education resources. It helps enhance their curricula and meet many MCAS requirements. The course meets at the Brigham Hill Community Farm in North Grafton from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each participant must attend both sessions and also participate in six additional workshops during the summer, selected from approximately twelve workshops on a variety of topics in locations across the state. Participants will also keep a journal of their agricultural journey and spend ten hours developing a classroom project, which they will present to their peers on August 13. Farm workshops may cover topics such as embryology, nutrition, plant science, soils, water, economics, ag-history, aquaponics, energy, heritage breeds, genetic diversity, sustainable agriculture, technology and much more. This course will assist new educators and those who want to expand their offerings to integrate agriculture into the classroom. Participants will learn how to create community partnerships; link the classroom to the farm; expand math, science, social studies, art, nutrition and other educational knowledge using agricultural examples, and explore technology and engineering techniques. The fee for this eight-day course is $450 and includes all materials; farm workshops; some meals and three graduate credits or 67 professional development points from Fitchburg State College. Participants will be paired with a MAC board member to give long-term access to agricultural resources and support. For more information visit their website. Web Conference: "How to Set up and Manage a Local Food Purchasing Program" Wednesday, April 23 Online Chef John Turenne of Sustainable Food Systems is internationally recognized for his innovative leadership approach in an extensive senior management and culinary career spanning over 25 years in the food industry. The web conference is aimed at institutions exploring local food purchasing or looking to expand their current local and sustainability initiatives. Directors of dining, dining services managers, purchasing managers, auxiliary service directors and sustainability coordinators will benefit from attending this event. For more information about how to sign-up for this web conference, click here. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mini-Grants Available from Mass Ag in the Classroom Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom offers mini-grants of up to $1,500 to Massachusetts educators to support their agricultural education efforts. Applications are due April 1 and September 1. To receive a copy of the mini-grant guidelines, send a letter to Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom, P.O. Box 345, Seekonk MA 02771, or visit the Mass Ag in the Classroom website here. |
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RESEARCH
Parental Blinders on Their Own Child's Obesity A survey of 2,000 parents questioned about their children's health revealed that many overlook weight problems. Despite increased publicity about childhood obesity, 40 percent of parents with children ages six to 11 reported their sons and daughters were "about the right weight" when they were actually obese. Fewer than 10 percent of parents with obese children said they were "very concerned" about their children's weight. The disconnect surfaced among the results of the National Poll on Children's Health conducted in March 2007 by the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan. "If they don't actually perceive their children to have excess weight, then how can we realistically expect them to make changes?" commented Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the study. For more details, visit the study's website. NEWS
Free Lunch Isn't Cool, So Some Students Go Hungry With only thirty-seven percent of eligible high school students in San Francisco taking advantage of the subsidized meal program, this New York Times article investigates why cities across the country are experiencing very low participation. The article suggests that the separation between those who pay for lunch and those who receive free or reduced-fare lunches may be more to do with the physical systems in place for payment- like having two separate lines. The article explores alternative systems in which students are not identified based on their method of purchasing a school lunch. For more information, read the full story. Preferential Procurement in Cambridge Following the recently relaxed state procurement laws in Massachusetts making it easier for schools in the Commonwealth to preferentially purchase local produce, the City of Cambridge announced it will allow preferential purchasing for local foods. The City will now encourage all governmental bodies, including the city's schools, to make every effort to purchase Massachusetts-grown products. Summer Food Rates for 2008 Issued Updated reimbursement rates for meals served in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) were published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the January 30, 2008 Federal Register. The annual adjustments reflect a 4.1 percent increase over last year due to food price inflation. Depending on the location and type of food service operation, SFSP sponsors may now earn as much as $3.0375 per lunch or supper served; $1.7275 for each breakfast, and 71.75 cents for each snack. For details, read the full announcement. Seeds of Solidarity Posts New Studies Seeds of Solidary 'Less Trash, More Compost' is a report on a community partnership among Seeds of Solidarity, a Summer Food Service Program, the local YMCA and a composting business that reduced trash and promoted composting and recycling at a summer camp. 'Beyond the Garden' depicts research that explored the impact of one of their garden programs on 3rd and 4th graders. Both of the articles are reader friendly and include many voices of program participants. The full articles are available on the Seeds of Solidarity website. Nutrition Directors Urge Uniform Standards Food service directors across the nation will ask Congress to govern the sale of all foods and beverages available in schools throughout the school day, according to a February 26, 2008 news release from the School Nutrition Association (SNA). Currently, only food and drink provided in the cafeteria are regulated. SNA is urging adoption of uniform national school nutrition standards that would cover all foods and beverages available during school hours. SNA's legislative agenda for this year includes: giving the Secretary of Agriculture authority to both regulate and enforce food and beverage standards outside the cafeteria; requiring a la carte and competitive foods to be consistent with the dietary guidelines; mandating nationwide uniformity for school meal patterns; and increasing per meal reimbursement rates to support healthful meals. "The federal government currently reimburses schools $2.47 for each balanced, healthy meal provided to children from families making 130 percent of the poverty level or less," said SNA president Mary Hill. "A latte costs more. This is not adequate to cover the cost of producing a school meal," she emphasized, noting the rapidly rising cost of food, labor, and milk. Updated Eligibility Manual Released USDA has published a new version of the "Eligibility Manual for School Meals," a 114-page document that details federal policy on the determination and verification of eligibility for school lunch and breakfast programs. This update, the first in seven years, covers the distribution, processing, and verification of school meal applications, categorical and income eligibility procedures, direct certification in coordination with other assistance programs, and confidentiality. The manual is available online. Local Farm-to-School Partnership Receives National Attention The Fisher Hill School in Orange, Mass. was highlighted in USA Today this month for its efforts to source locally grown foods. The article also mentions Local Hero farmer Joe Czajkowski, of Czajkowski Farms, as one of the many farmers that sell directly to the Fisher Hill School. The article discusses the hurdles schools face in sourcing local foods and the willingness of children to try fresh, local foods. For more, read the full story here. |
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