Fat fight turns to a new front: school lunches | Top stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD
Washington Bureau
Feb. 10, 2010, 12:27AM
Washington -- A federal program that began in 1946 to remedy the shocking malnutrition seen among World War II recruits is being transformed into ground zero in the nation's new war against obesity.
The national school lunch program and other food programs under the Child Nutrition Act, due for a five-year rewrite, may be the most promising avenue to improve the nutrition of a generation of children who think food comes out of a wrapper and who face shorter lives because of their rising weight.
The costs of treating the chronic illnesses stemming from obesity, already at $147 billion a year, threaten to swamp the nation's foundering health care system.
"Think of it as a down payment on a preventative health care program," said Anthony Geraci, director of food and nutrition for the Baltimore City Public Schools, who just won an award for increasing purchases from local farms to $1 million a year. "The up-front costs of feeding our kids better food are wiped out on the back end by the high cost of treating Type 2 diabetes. To me, it's a no-brainer."
This program and a raft of others that feed more than 31 million children a day -- and half of all infants born in the United States -- will be at the center of the new anti-obesity campaign that first lady Michelle Obama rolled out Tuesday.
Once-radical innovations are starting to go mainstream, including the school gardening movement, championed locally by Houstonian Gracie Cavnar and her group Recipe for Success, along with Urban Harvest. The concept is aimed at reconnecting children with real food. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has fielded a team of advisers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to carry out the idea of linking schools with farmers.
Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6859695.html
By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD
Washington Bureau
Feb. 10, 2010, 12:27AM
Washington -- A federal program that began in 1946 to remedy the shocking malnutrition seen among World War II recruits is being transformed into ground zero in the nation's new war against obesity.
The national school lunch program and other food programs under the Child Nutrition Act, due for a five-year rewrite, may be the most promising avenue to improve the nutrition of a generation of children who think food comes out of a wrapper and who face shorter lives because of their rising weight.
The costs of treating the chronic illnesses stemming from obesity, already at $147 billion a year, threaten to swamp the nation's foundering health care system.
"Think of it as a down payment on a preventative health care program," said Anthony Geraci, director of food and nutrition for the Baltimore City Public Schools, who just won an award for increasing purchases from local farms to $1 million a year. "The up-front costs of feeding our kids better food are wiped out on the back end by the high cost of treating Type 2 diabetes. To me, it's a no-brainer."
This program and a raft of others that feed more than 31 million children a day -- and half of all infants born in the United States -- will be at the center of the new anti-obesity campaign that first lady Michelle Obama rolled out Tuesday.
Once-radical innovations are starting to go mainstream, including the school gardening movement, championed locally by Houstonian Gracie Cavnar and her group Recipe for Success, along with Urban Harvest. The concept is aimed at reconnecting children with real food. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has fielded a team of advisers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to carry out the idea of linking schools with farmers.
Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6859695.html
