Comments on: If there is no flour, there is no Torah… http://jcarrot.org/if-there-is-no-flour-there-is-no-torah/ Jews, Food, and Contemporary Issues Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:04:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Ben Murane http://jcarrot.org/if-there-is-no-flour-there-is-no-torah/#comment-128 Ben Murane Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:48:57 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/if-there-is-no-flour-there-is-no-torah/#comment-128 Her new book Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children spells out how parents and school employees can help instill healthy habits in children. And the numbers couldn’t help but explain the urgency more fully: * 100 - Percent of cafeteria food which was wrapped in plastic and reheated. * 78 - Percent of the schools in America do not actually meet the USDA’s nutritional guidelines. * $2.40 - Dollars per day to spend on each kid — 70 percent of which goes to payroll and overhead. * 72 - Cents from that initial $2.40 to spend on ingredients. * One in three - Numbers of white kids and fully half of African Americans and Hispanics born in 2000 who will develop diabetes in their lifetimes — most before finishing high school, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. * 2000 - Year of the first generation of Americans not to live longer than their parents. * $70 billion - Expenses of health-care for diet-related illnesses per year in the U.S. Her new book Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children spells out how parents and school employees can help instill healthy habits in children.
And the numbers couldn’t help but explain the urgency more fully:

* 100 - Percent of cafeteria food which was wrapped in plastic and reheated.
* 78 - Percent of the schools in America do not actually meet the USDA’s nutritional guidelines.
* $2.40 - Dollars per day to spend on each kid — 70 percent of which goes to payroll and overhead.
* 72 - Cents from that initial $2.40 to spend on ingredients.
* One in three - Numbers of white kids and fully half of African Americans and Hispanics born in 2000 who will develop diabetes in their lifetimes — most before finishing high school, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
* 2000 - Year of the first generation of Americans not to live longer than their parents.
* $70 billion - Expenses of health-care for diet-related illnesses per year in the U.S.

]]> By: Anna Stevenson http://jcarrot.org/if-there-is-no-flour-there-is-no-torah/#comment-110 Anna Stevenson Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:54:42 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/if-there-is-no-flour-there-is-no-torah/#comment-110 Our CSA was discussing just last week how we might work with the PTA to get more good food into the school in our neighborhood. We thought of a couple options: 1/ have the school buy a fruit share, and use the apples and pears that come in the fall for the recess snack (you'd have to see if it was possible to buy a share for just the fall-- but I think, that it would be more like buying wholesale from the farmer, where the CSA was serving as the mechanism for making the connection in the first place) 2/ a school in the bronx has bought 10 shares of a local CSA, and then resells the items individually at a farmer's market type table at the school the next day. They've found this to be a really helpful way to educate people about CSA and give them a taste of the vegetables, before asking them to commit to a whole season. In both cases, though, it's neat to think what you can do with institutional purchasing power....which is for that matter not rather unlike Jewish purchasing power, no? ;0) Our CSA was discussing just last week how we might work with the PTA to get more good food into the school in our neighborhood. We thought of a couple options:

1/ have the school buy a fruit share, and use the apples and pears that come in the fall for the recess snack (you’d have to see if it was possible to buy a share for just the fall– but I think, that it would be more like buying wholesale from the farmer, where the CSA was serving as the mechanism for making the connection in the first place)

2/ a school in the bronx has bought 10 shares of a local CSA, and then resells the items individually at a farmer’s market type table at the school the next day. They’ve found this to be a really helpful way to educate people about CSA and give them a taste of the vegetables, before asking them to commit to a whole season.

In both cases, though, it’s neat to think what you can do with institutional purchasing power….which is for that matter not rather unlike Jewish purchasing power, no? ;0)

]]>