Harvest Day - Pasta Pesto Salad Recipe!

For parents who looked on in awe during the recent Harvest Celebration as their kids tucked into pasta with green stuff on it, here's the tasty pesto pasta salad recipe - the family-scaled version - straight from SchoolFood Plus chef William Doherty. The Harvest Day pesto was of course made with the basil planted, tended and harvested by the kids. Just click below and print. Next Food & Farming Initiative is scheduled for Monday, November 3rd at 5:00 PM. We'll review the first year of the garden and plan for next!

Politics of School Food Conference, October 4th, Presented By NY Coalition for Healthy School Food

Please click above for information on The Politics of School Food Conference to be presented by the NY Coalition for Healthy School Foods on Saturday, October 4th at NYU's Kimmel Center. The conference, to be moderated by Mark Bittman, the New York Times food columnist (The Minimalist), features an impressive lineup of speakers. Reservations due by September 26th.

PS 29 Children's Garden Selected for SchoolFood Plus Garden-to-Cafeteria Pilot Program!!

We are very pleased to report that the PS 29 Children's Garden, already designated an official GreenThumb site, has now been awarded participation in the SchoolFood Plus Garden-to-Cafeteria Pilot Project.

Our program has been selected to be one of 20 school sites to collaborate with SchoolFood to grow vegetables and herbs that will be featured on the lunch menu as part of a fall harvest celebration during 2008 NY Harvest for NY Kids Week activities. PS 29 Harvest Day will be scheduled during September 29-October 3 or October 6-10; details will be posted on the calendar as soon as they are set.

Our Harvest Day Celebration will be an opportunity for us to showcase the work of our students, science teachers Nancy Henry and Tina Reres, and our Food and Farming Initiative (a collaboration of administrators, teachers, parents, and community members). The Coordinating Team for the SchoolFood Plus Garden-to-Cafeteria Program represents SchoolFood, NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, Added Value, GreenThumb, and Cornell Cooperative Extension.

The school year began with a lot of wonderful ideas for a vegetable garden and a black-topped corner of the schoolyard, and now ends with a garden from which kids have picked their own salads of vegetables they've planted, observed and tended! The salad bar, a pie-in-the-sky wishlist item mentioned in the very first PTA general meeting in Sept '07, also became a reality, along with designation as a SchoolFood Plus cafeteria (offering more plant-based menu choices). All amazing accomplishments for just one year in the life of a NYC public school!

Dial In Week for Healthy Schools Act!!

New York State still does not have a Healthy School Food Bill. The legislative session ends on Friday – so please make 4 phone calls to urge legislators to introduce and pass “Governor Paterson’s Healthy Schools Act”. It has several important provisions that will improve the food in schools.

PLEASE CALL THE FOLLOWING NOW:
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver - 518-455-3791
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno - 518-455-3191
Assembly Education Chair Catherine Nolan - 518-455-4851
Senate Education Chair Stephen Saland - (518) 455-2411

When you call, say:
My name is ___________
I live in ___________ (name of city).
I support “Governor Paterson’s Healthy Schools Act” bill.
I support Governor Paterson’s inclusion of a healthy plant-based meat alternative because it would have no cholesterol and be low in saturated fat and high in fiber.
It’s time that schools practice what they teach. Please ask Assemblyperson (or Senator) ________________ to introduce and pass the Healthy Schools Act before this legislative session ends.

Thank you!

These calls are vitally important. Remember that:

• 1/3 of all kids born in 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes (and for African American and Latino children, it’s even worse at 40 – 53%)
• 50% of children ages 2 – 15 already have fatty streaks in their arteries, the beginning stages of heart disease
• 35% of cancer deaths are caused by diet (and 1 hotdog or 1 bologna sandwich per week can increase colorectal cancer risk by 30 – 50%!)
• Obesity rates are out of control and we have a nation of malnourished children who are so far removed from eating a diet of whole, natural, unprocessed foods
• Less than 2% eat in line with the US Dietary Guidelines

Key provisions include:

1. A Requirement that the Departments of Health, Education, and Agriculture and Markets develop nutritional standards (rather than the standards being included in the legislation itself – and we see this as positive since there is a chance for public input). The regulations created by these standards would take effect sometime after September 1, 2010.

2. A Prohibition on the sale of soda and candy in elementary and secondary schools during the school day.

3. A Requirement that schools offer at least one plant-based meat alternative during the lunch period. This is a great provision given that schools are supposed to reduce saturated fat, cholesterol, and increase fiber.

4. A Requirement that schools offer fruit with no added sweeteners for breakfast and lunch and vegetables that are not fried during lunch and that half of the grain products offered over a school week be whole grain (despite the fact that schools are required to meet the US Dietary Guidelines for their meals, which require that half of grain products be whole grain, not all schools are doing this).

5. Development of media health promotion campaigns, establishing community-based obesity prevention programs, to develop effective messages about healthy eating and physical activity behaviors and to address factors which lead to eating disorders, an assessment of all schools to see if they have an adequate emphasis on physical activity and nutrition education, and the study of the feasibility of requiring school breakfast programs.

6. Click here to read a summary of the bill.

PS 29 SchoolFood Plus Cafeteria Launches Tomorrow!

Principal Melanie Raneri Woods and the PS 29 nutrition staff are thrilled to announce that tomorrow, Tuesday, March 11th, marks the launch of the PS 29 SchoolFood Plus Cafeteria. 

The components of the PS 29 SchoolFood Plus Cafeteria include:

• the implementation of plant-based recipes in the PS 29 cafeteria (SchoolFood Plus recipes are based on: beans, broccoli/cauliflower, carrots, corn, greens, potatoes, rice, salad, apples and whole wheat bread); see the March menu. 
• training of our cafeteria staff and managers to prepare and serve the new recipes;
• social marketing activities, such as decorations, bulletin boards and tasting menus, to encourage our children to eat the recipes;
• Farm to Classroom education (in conjunction with Added Value urban farm in Red Hook);
• an emphasis on locally grown, New York state produce. 

The PS 29  SchoolFood Plus Cafeteria is the most recent development in the school's 2007-2008 Food & Farming Initiative.  Major recent strides include the introduction of our highly successful new salad bar, as well as apples in the classroom (for healthy snacking). Parent salad-bar volunteers continue to be excited and impressed by the children's positive response and willingness to try new foods. 

The next milestone in the the PS 29 Food & Farming Initiative will be take place on  Saturday, March 29th, with the building of the vegetable garden beds for the brand-new PS 29  Farm.  The Food & Farming Committee is a collaborative of PS 29 administrators, nutrition staff, teachers, parents, and experts from our local community.

The SchoolFood Plus Initiative is a multi-agency effort initially funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2004. Its goal is to improve the eating habits, health and academic performance of New York City public schoolchildren while strengthening the New York State agricultural economy through the procurement of local, regional produce. The Initiative is based on the principle that school meals programs can enhance student health and academic achievement, and that a multi-tiered effort of government, school, and community involvement is the most effective way to enhance the school food and physical activity environment.

To volunteer to help with the salad bar, contact Jessica Delaney; to help on March 29th (especially if you own and operate power tools!), please contact Caroline Petersen. All of these significant improvements to our kids' day-to-day learning environment would not be possible without the extraordinary efforts of the Food & Farming Initiative members and volunteers. An enormous thank you from the PTA to each and every person involved!