Back to School Brings "Time for Lunch" Grassroots Campaign
Posted by Lynn Fredericks, FamilyCook Productions
When the issue of making a healthy school lunch available to public school children comes up this fall for congressional reauthorization of the USDA legislation known as Child Nutrition, a more grassroots ‘citizens’ campaign has also been unleashed by Slow Food USA.
The “Time For Lunch” campaign was begun this summer by Slow Food, to attract broad awareness and protest the wholesale inadequacy of federal funding for a program intended to ensure children are fed well and ready to learn. Time for Lunch zeros in on the fact that less than $1 per student is currently available to purchase food for school lunch. Hence schools purchase very inexpensive and otherwise unwanted commodity foods, most of which are unappetizing and frequently rejected by students, resulting in a vicious circle of waste and children that turn to fast food and snacks rather than eat ‘mystery’ meat and the flavorless frozen fare that is affordable under such a tiny budget per meal.
We sat down with the Time For Lunch campaign coordinator, Jerusha Klemperer, at Slow Food to hear how the movement is gaining traction among average citizens and parents beyond the hunger & child nutrition advocacy arena.
LF: What is the trend in response to the campaign; is there evidence you are reaching beyond the child nutrition advocates to create a larger population of concerned citizens?
JK: Today, over 300 Eat-ins took place in all 50 states around the country. Only half of these were organized by Slow Food chapters, which shows us that this is a universal issue, and that we were, in fact, able to reach outside our usual circles. No doubt about it--citizens are concerned.
LF: Is this the first time that Slow Food is engaged in raising awareness about government policy that relates to food?
JK: Yes, this was our first ever nation-wide advocacy campaign. In the past we have educated our members about various policy issues, but never asked for their involvement in such a coordinated fashion.
LF: Are there additional food policy issues that Slow Food members may be interested in rallying around? How do you see the role of SF in the policy arena in the future?
JK: In the long term, we definitely have our eyes on the Farm Bill. At this moment, however, we are focused on the Child Nutrition Act, and we'll stay focused until it gets reauthorized--whether that happens at the end of September, or December, or a year from now. One thing is for sure--we all realize that voting with our forks is no longer enough.
