Organic Food for ThoughtA．Feeding 30 million schoolchildren is a difficult task. As a result, many of today's schoolcafeterias' offerings end up as appealing as a tray of lukewarm airplane food. And if there'sone point of agreement on the state of school lunches, it's that local school districts andthe federal government are overtasked. The US Department of Agriculture's NationalSchool Lunch Programme (NSLP) helps feed millions of American schoolchildren. Criticscharge that the programme is underfunded and misspends money on meals that are overlyprocessed, too rich in fat and not nutritious. The challenge is how to change this on anational and local level.
B．Help has historically trickled in courtesy of local entrepreneurs and nearby natural-foodadvocates who supplied some schools with organic and farm-fresh foods. Now, a newcampaign supported by national corporations hopes to make more sweeping changesacross the country. Whole Foods and a loose coalition of organic-food manufacturersand advocates say that creating a healthier national food policy is the start.
C．In August, Whole Foods launched a fundraising campaign to reform the country's schoollunch programmes and has so far raised more than $440,000 that will support an onlineeffort to help school districts create healthy and affordable meal options. According tothe supermarket chain's chief operating officer Walter Robb, some of that money willalso help raise awareness about the Child Nutrition Act (CAN). CAN determines schoolfood policy and financial resources as well as funds the NSLP. Advocates for healthierlunches say that the Nutrition Act will be reauthorised by the President and Congress
(although it may be delayed several months beyond its September 30 deadline, whiledebate about health-care legislation continues). School lunch programmes now get$9.3 billion in federal funding, or about $2.68 for each eligible child. Subtract labourand other administrative costs and some child-nutrition advocates estimate that only $1goes toward food. That's not enough, said Robb. "It's a Sisyphean ( 永远做不完的 )situation. We're at a tipping point. We need to raise exposure and do something right now."
D．For Ann Cooper, the former director of nutrition services for California's BerkleyUnified School District, help from either the public or private sector is much needed.
Cooper, a chef and author, created thelunchbox.org, funded by Whole Foods. The site'smission is "to help your community transition step by step to a school programme thatwill improve the health and well-being of our children." It features recipes for schools,information about food safety, and promotes community activism. "I hope we'rebuilding a trend," Cooper said of her partnership with Whole Foods. "More companiesare doing this, maybe it's part altruistic ( 利他的 ) , part capitalistic. But if a companycan make money feeding kids and make them healthier, that's the bottom line."
E. That's what the executives of Revolution Foods, a $10-million-a-year business basedin Oakland, said they've been doing since introducing organic meals to four NorthernCalifornia schools in 2006. Three years later, the company supplies 200 schoolcafeterias and has expanded into Denver and Washington, D.C., and sells some of itsproducts in Whole Foods stores. CO0 and co-founder Kirsten Tobey said that 80 to 85percent of Revolution's lunches go to low-income students who are receiving reducedrates or free meals.
F. Not everyone thinks that the current wave of corporate interest is purely about thechildren. Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health atNew York University, is skeptical about the Whole Foods initiative, calling it a public-relations ploy. "I think most schools know exactly what to do. They just don't have themoney to do it," Nestle said. And even Whole Foods' customers are skeptical aboutthe plan. In a comment on the Whole Foods official blog, "The Whole Story", onecommenter wrote: "There is a massive problem with our school meals. I agree. But Idoubt Whole Foods is going to make much contribution to this problem with fleecing (诈取) their customers for website funding."
G. The premium supermarket chain could indeed use some good public relations (PR)these days. Whole Foods took a PR hit on August 11, when CEO John Mackey wrote anopinion piece in The Wall Street Journal opposing the public option in President BarackObama's health-care plan. The piece caused an uproar among some of the market'scustomers who saw Mackey's views as out of step with Whole Foods' progressivestance. Some customers threatened to organise a nationwide boycott via Twitter andFacebook, but protests were mostly limited to a handful of store demonstrations.
H. Still, almost everyone is in agreement that school lunches need help. The debate is abouthow best to go about making things better. On one side there is the hyperlocal approach. InJuly, Kaiser Permanente, an Oakland, Calif-based managed-care organisation, donated $3,000to help fund a summer lunch programme for 300 students in Rancho Cordova, Calif. JackRozance, the physician-in-chief for Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento, was informed by acolleague that while year-round lunches were federally funded, there was no money to paystaff to serve those meals. The Kaiser money made up for the shortfall in an "economicallydepressed" community, according to Rozance. And in Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shieldallocated $2,200 to a Grand Rapids charter school for a salad bar, healthy snacks, and an in-class "smart eating programme." They also gave $15,000 to a Traverse City, Mich., elementaryschool that will be preparing "cook from scratch" meals instead of serving prepared foods.
I. Then there are companies like Whole Foods that think a national campaign would do themost to increase federal subsidies, ban trans-fats from school cafeterias, and infuse menuswith more locally grown foods. But solutions aren't borne out of an either-or mentality, saysNYU's Nestle: "The implementation of change needs to come both on the small scale andat the national policy level." "Because of their size and influence, national companies canexert the kind of pressure that could affect federal policy," she said. On a local level, smallgrants could fund approaches tailored for individual school districts. "Unfortunately, thereare barriers at every level to overcome."