Cooking Up A Storm In Santa Monica
Fri 22 Jun 2012Story by The Food Revolution Team
Parents in the Santa Monica-Malibu School District have been working tirelessly over the last year to make changes to the food and beverages served in schools, and to help reverse the current trend of childhood obesity.
Following a huge effort focused on flavored milks, the group won a partial victory at the end of 2011, when an opt-out program was created within the district, meaning that parents can choose whether or not their child has flavored milk at school. While it’s not the ban they were looking for, it is a huge step in the right direction.
Make Your Own Real Food Lunch
Following their success with the flavored milk campaign, the team, led by Harriet Fraser and Chris Goddard, joined up with Chef Gino Campagna to host a monthly ‘make your own lunch’ program at Grant Elementary School in Santa Monica. During these sessions, between 80 and 100 kids get involved; touching, feeling and smelling real foods, and then creating their own lunch for the day. The latest ‘make your own lunch’ session was held in honor of Food Revolution Day on Friday, May 18th.
During the Make Your Own Lunch session, participating children celebrated real food by creating their own wraps filled with fresh ingredients such as roasted peppers, fresh carrots, arugula salad, mozzarella cheese and roasted chicken breast, followed by fresh fruit kebabs. The parents also set up a table at the entrance to the school, with more information supporting the Food Revolution campaign.
Whole Foods has sponsored the monthly event, providing the fresh and local food free of charge to the students and their parents. The project is also now being supported by the school’s PTA.
Harriet and Chef Gino plan to continue this work next year, provided that they can obtain on-going support from Whole Foods. They also plan to increase the partnership with local farms who supply Whole Foods by inviting farmers to visit with their ingredients, and talk to the children about what they do.
What's going on in your community? Are you cooking up a storm? Let us know by posting on our Food Revolution Community page!
The Food Revolution Team
Follow the Santa Monica & Malibu Food Revolution group here.
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