Aces Day at West Oak + Organic Plant Sale Weekend!

All hands up for "No Guts No Glory!"

Pilot Light Chef's "Tacos Al Pastor" curriculum = "Engagement through the roof" - Mr Bercos 5th grade Dual Language.

You girls make the best hummus and pesto ever!

Mr Willeford loved our tasty samples too!

I tried to hit every table and talk FOOD!

Chef Rob knows how to inspire us with great food!

The students placed their tally on any of the boards they liked!

Super high Ambassador fives!

Sara put this fantastic video together! I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!! Thank you so much... I still cannot believe how fast you made it:)

It's been a week and I still can't stop smiling ear to ear! What an awesome day we had at West Oak School last Wednesday!

I know I have thanked everyone, but I must do so again.

Thank you Principle Chris Willeford - You said "Aces Day" and we said YES!

Thank you Pilot Light Chefs - Alex, you and I have been dreaming for a long time and finally, FINALLY we were able to get your common core aligned food education out to the suburbs. I can't wait to do it again!

Thank you Preferred Meals - Mary, it was wonderful having you in the lunchroom with us and the kids LOVED tricking out their tacos! Thank you for jumping into our hot food education balloon and Let's take it again up uP UP next year!

Thank you Ambassador Sara Lohrman + Stevenson High School Food Revolution Club - I have never had so much fun speaking, teaching and working alongside a group of students! By the last lunch (there were four of them!) you all were making everything on your own and running the entire tasting line. BOOM.

Thank you Chef Rob - Your presence, your wellness story and your sweet potato hummus rocked our worlds! I cannot wait to work with you again. What great energy we have together!

Thank you Sue Kruckman - You deserve Wellness Chair + Nurse of the YEAR! Thank you for spear heading this day from the "inside". It could not have happened without your passion and organization. You are my school wellness hero.

Last but not least, thank you Jamie's Food Revolution for inspiring us all to get food education back into our schools and to cook more from scratch at home together. We've been at it together for 4 years now and I love volunteering for this fantastic campaign.

What a team effort! What a day! Every smile, every tally mark, every conversation was one.more.drop into the good food conversation. There were so many students who had never tried hummus, let alone sweet potatoes or a pesto. "What is cilantro? What is pesto? You can put that on your taco? WHAT!?" The "Tacos Al Pastor" lesson connected the students to their food, a tangible take away lesson with real world application. My "No Guts No Glory" presentation made them laugh and it made them think a little bit more about what is in their food + where their food is coming from. It linked our gut health to our mental and physical health and encouraged them to take ownership like an athlete takes charge of the game!!

Wanna make what we whipped up on Aces Day? I know you will enjoy Jamie's Simple Hummus along with the other 9 recipes that are now LIVE on our website to download and cook for your family table. Here is the link: Jamie's 10 Food Revolution Day Recipes (Simple Hummus included) - And don't forget to sign your name as a fellow food revolutionary!

Chef Rob’s Sweet Potato Hummus

1 cup Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon Cumin

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoon Sea or Kosher salt

1 whole Sweet potato Roasted and Diced

1/4 cup lime juice

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper (optional)

Add all ingredients to a blender, food processor or nutribullet and blend! Feel free to use reserved garbanzo bean juice to thin out the hummus rather than add extra oil for a creamier consistency (thanks for the great tip Chef Rob!)

Super Food Ambassador Lindsey’s Cilantro Pesto

1 zucchini diced

¼ cup sunflower seeds

1 bunch fresh cilantro (stems included)

1 lemon juiced

2-3 Tablespoon avocado oil OR extra virgin olive oil

A healthy pinch of sea salt

Add all ingredients to a blender, food processor or nutribullet and blend! Feel free to add more lemon juice or oil to get to your desired consistency.

What's up NEXT!?!?!?

FOOD REVOLUTION DAY - May 20th!

Our Food Revolution Day Community event will be on Saturday from 10-2pm at the Liberty Prairie Organic Plant Sale and Farm Open House. Please come out and see us! We will have a booth with kids' cooking kits for sale, FRD recipes and loads of suggestions on what to buy for your kitchen garden so you can cook up a storm with us this Summer!

Here is the list of organic plants that will be available to purchase: Liberty Prairie Organic Seedlings

See you Saturday!

xoxoL

ps

Connect up with us on Facebook at our Lake County Food Revolution Page for great articles, recipes and information on upcoming community, school and workplace events.

ACES Day - A Perfect Day for Food Education + Exercise

Our planning is complete!

On Wednesday, May 4th, our District 76 Wellness team is partnering with the Chicago Pilot Light Chefs organization to bring the common core aligned food education lesson, "Tacos Al Pastor", to West Oak Middle School on ACES Day (All Children Exercise Simultaneously). 

Here's how our Wellness Committee decided to weave Food Education into ACES day: 

1. Half of the student body will participate in a classroom Pilot Light lesson while the other half will join me in the gym for my “No Guts No Glory” presentation. Ambassador Sara Lohrman, students from her Stevenson High School Food Revolution Day Club and Chef Robert Collins will be joining me on stage to inspire and engage with West Oak students and staff. **Any teacher or school administrator who is interested in bringing Pilot Light to their school can access this special lesson online: Pilot Light Chef's - Reset the Table Curriculum. (In case you don't have time to review the materials now, take the time to watch this incredible video: The Whole World is a Taco.)

2. During lunch, all West Oak students will be inspired to "Trick Out Your Tacos" with our freshly prepared samples and a special Preferred Meals’ lunch. Our school lunch provider has aligned their lunch menu to Pilot Light's food education curriculum to include an all beef taco and hotdog lunch with an expanded condiment bar including tomatoes, lettuce, onions and jalapeños. A perfect pairing to our live chef's demonstration and tasting table! The SHS students will prepare Jamie’s Oliver's Simple Hummus and my special cilantro pesto; Chef Rob will demonstrate his “Sweet Potato Hummus.” The Simple Hummus is one of 10 special "Cook for your Life" recipes as part of Jamie Oliver's new Food Revolution Day Campaign being launched May 9th on www.jamiesfoodrevolutionday.com. The students will walk away with all three recipes to cook at home with their families!

I cannot wait to share pictures and highlights from this special day next week! I am so grateful for the collaborative efforts between our Wellness Committee, Pilot Light Chefs, Preferred Meals, SHS, Chef Rob and our amazing school administrators. This could not have happened without the positive synergy we have been building together over the past few years. I have to give a special shout out to Sue Kruckman (school nurse), Chris Willeford (school principle) and Tracy Zeman (Student Services Coordinator). Sue is our Wellness Committee Chair, West Oak nurse and a true partner in crime! I will never forget the meeting when Chris said, "Let's do this on ACES Day!" This could NOT have been accomplished without their hard work, support and mutual passion for good health and well being. I am so grateful to be a part of our D76 Wellness Team!

Speaking of TACOS... Last night, my family table "tricked out" ours with watercress and green leaf lettuce!

Happy weekend everyone!

xoxoL

ps

And as today's my 39th bday (AHHHH YEA!), I'm pretty pumped to post about school food ed today!!

School's in Session with Sweet Polenta Blueberry Cake

This cake is delicious.

Find Terri's delicious Sweet Polenta Blueberry Cake recipe here.

Don't have a kitchen scale? Get one (you'll thank me later) or visit this website for easy conversions (I have made a cheat sheet in my kitchen so I don't have to keep clicking back).

School's in session, my kitchen is quiet (for a wee bit) and I'm so happy to be full throttling into Fall.


Here are a few things I'm excited about:

• Our school district's meal provider Preferred Meals is now providing sugar content information for parents. Check out the menus here. Our district has also begun an email list for parents and caregivers who would like to receive ingredient information in addition to nutritional content. Click here to sign your District 76 family up for communications from the Preferred Meals Team. I am hoping to get in on the school lunch action as soon as that first email comes in! 

• Introducing The Chef Ann Foundation. They are a non-profit organization that helps schools transition from serving unhealthy processed and packaged foods, to scratch cooking with fresh produce and wholesome ingredients. They carry out that vision by actively supporting school districts nationwide through grant programs and by providing tried and tested tools for school food change and #foodtruth! Sign up for their delicious newsletter here.

• Food Day 2015 is coming up fast! As a member of the planning committee for Chicago Food Day (October 22-24th), we are gearing up and actively seeking exhibitors, sponsors and partners to help us create a Farm-to-Table experience across the Chicagoland area. Learn more here! Applications are due September 1st. #FoodDayCHI

Welcome back and let her rip!

xoxoL

District 76 Scores BIG WIN for Food Transparency

I'm thrilled to announce a big win for school food transparency!

District 76 parents and staff now have access to Preferred Meals' school food ingredient lists (product specs).  At this time, parents or staff simply login and request product specifications available through the District's website shown above. "As we work with Preferred Meals to get additional information about the ingredients in the food provided through the meal program, we will be able to include that on the webpage."

How awesome is that!? I just signed up myself and I'm looking forward to getting updates!

Here is a link to the District 76 breakfast and lunch menu information page:

http://www.dist76.org/mealsprogram.aspx

Thank you District 76 and Preferred Meals for making this happen!

Speaking of FOOD, mark your calendars everyone!!!

Click the above picture or go here to read about what myself and some of our global Food Revolution Ambassadors have begun planning for Food Revolution Day coming up on Friday, May 15th!

I can't hardly WAIT!!

Happy Friday everyone!

xoxoL

District 76 + Preferred Meals = Food Transparency for all!

Hello Dr Joe, Colette, Kathleen and Dwayne,

I wanted to reach out and say how thankful I am to have met with you all Friday morning at West Oak to discuss increased food transparency, added sugar and your innovative allergy systems menu. It was truly lovely to meet, shed our computer terminals and talk face to face. There is no doubt we are all working in the same direction.

I am thrilled to know that our district families will have full ingredient transparency in 30 days and that you’ll be following up with us on the challenge of including added sugar content information. I am also excited for our school board to continue the conversation regarding the allergy systems menu and am hopeful that these cleaner, more organic options might be accessible to our families in the future.

There is such frustration over food. I could feel it from us all. Questions and debates swirl around what we should eat, what we shouldn’t… conflicting messages everywhere we look… Thank you for sitting at the same table with such optimism and shared concern. What has become clearer than ever is the need for more real food over fake food ingredients, less sugar and food education for all. I am so inspired to hear that Preferred Meals is doing everything possible to remove these controversial ingredients from your school food menu. I believe that not only will these changes positively affect the children in this district who rely on us for 2/3 meals a day, but in the long term, these changes will position your company as a food service provider who can deliver more nutrient dense, real food to school districts across the country. A transition every school food company should be focusing on in order to meet the evolving consumer demand for cleaner, more nutrient dense food. 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the hidden MSG, partially hydrogenated oils and other artificial additives that are still lurking in some of the ingredient lists. I can only imagine the challenges you face in phasing these ingredients out. This important work should be applauded, supported and celebrated at every level.

Thank you again!  Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to continuing our conversation!

Lindsey Shifley
JOFR Super Ambassador

ps

The challenge Preferred Meals faces with required calorie amounts (fat is regulated and sugar is not) could be changing! I am hopeful the new 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) recommendations may lead to some regulatory changes that will allow food companies more flexibility and send the sugar packing - This just in:

 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/nutrition-panel-calls-for-less-sugar-and-eases-cholesterol-and-fat-restrictions/?_r=0

http://www.foodpolitics.com/?s=dietary+guidelines

And of course, I couldn’t resist this little ditty:

http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/this-is-why-sodium-benzoate-is-so-scary

Making the Case for School Food Transparency

My printer is tired.

I am prepping for Friday's #schoolfood brainstorming meeting with Preferred Meals and District 76. 

Please leave comments below if you have any concerns or ideas you would like me to bring along to the meeting! 

In addition to driving positive change, I hope this evolving story is a source of inspiration and hope for other parents, grandparents, teachers, administrators and any individuals who are interested in improving school food education and school food transparency. Our teachers and schools need our help in reaching our kids. I'm sick of hearing that it's the teacher or the school district's fault. I have a family FULL of teachers, not to mention a bus full of teacher friends. It's getting harder and harder to teach and reach students (for a variety of reasons... But I'm just sticking to food ed here). In our case with Abbie, it was not the teachers. It was her food. Instruction was not meeting her "needs" because of the food was not meeting her needs. I just didn't know. Once I cleaned it up for Abbie, her brain opened up. This mind blowing experience is what drives my passion. I am not keeping this information to myself. There are other kids out there whose brains could use a roto rooter too. 

This is not about food control, food judgment or food snobbery. This is about food transparency, food education, freedom of choice and the power of the consumer. Schools are the biggest restaurants in town and I think it's time we took a closer look at the ingredient lists to see if they are serving our children for increased academic success, not the other way around.

Let this article bring you up to speed: Connecting Attention and Nutrition

Food transparency = a win win for all: The kids win. The schools win. The companies win. 

Well, that is for the companies who change with the tides.

Food companies who are meeting the demands for cleaner, more organic food are being rewarded and those who are keeping up with the "status quo" of chemical companies who are being left in the dust.

Read about the food companies who keep the chemicals + fake food = real BIG profit losses (Robyn O'Brien)

I hope to discuss the following on Friday:

1. Fake food vs real food ingredients: D76 Preferred Meal Systems - Can we improve the quality of breakfast and lunch offerings within budget to increase sales?
2. Food transparency: Can the District provide full online ingredient list access to parents before June?
3. Can the "Allergy Systems Menu" be offered to all D76 families? At extra cost? How can we make this option accessible to all with or without a doctor's note.
4. When will added sugar amounts be provided to the D76? Is D76 responsible for calculating added sugar? How & when can we get this vital food education information on sugar to our parents and staff? We do have some more eating to do after school and most of us like to eat dessert from time to time.

The amount of added sugar is especially alarming in our school breakfasts. According to my quick math (on an OLD menu, albeit same items) PM breakfasts range from 27g of added sugar up to 46g of sugar. According to the Fed Up Challenge Sugar Facts, 4g of sugar = 1 tsp. The American Heart association recommends that children should not exceed 5-8 tsp's in a DAY (20-32g per day). So, we're already at a minimum of 6.5 tsp's of added sugar BEFORE they even have a snack or lunch at school. Got chocolate milk? That'll put you over the limit in one 8 oz box. What's a Mom and Dad to do at home!? That is one tough, restrictive menu to be handed in my kitchen.

Here is what I have come across in my search for information. More than you need I am sure, but the following is what District 148 offered online in 2011. This simple PDF format will be something I suggest our District can offer families from our District website. (It sounds like PMs website is still "under construction" for full ingredient food transparency.) In the meantime, let's take some pictures and upload them for anyone who would like to look into the school food ingredients.

District 148 - 2011 Preferred Meals spec sheet 1

District 148 - 2011 Preferred Meals Condiments

District 148 - 2011 Preferred Meals spec sheet fruit and veggies

Partially hydrogenated oil + high fructose corn syrup much? WOW - Major MEGA props to PM as these 2011 menu items have been reformulated and updated to meet the growing demand of parents and school districts for cleaner, more organic and local school food. 

Here is the most updated information I could find to access current PMs menus in our country. It took A LOT of searching. Nobody is granting much access to school food ingredient lists in America:

To find this, first you must cut and paste the following into a google search (it won't let me link it for you):

"preferred meals systems product specification sheet 2014"

Next, the following should come up 3rd in your list. Click to download:

"Elementary and Comm Ed Labels. pdf"

www.chelmsford.k12.ma.us/site/.../filedownload.ashx?...3415&dataid...

• Cached

(July 14, 2014)

So what do our menus look like now? I don't know. I still haven't gotten my hands on anything and there is NOTHING current online. So crazy. I have requested that D76 provide me the ingredient lists on Friday. I am looking forward to bringing home a "packet."

I'm most concerned with PM's claim that artificial flavors and MSG have been taken out of the menu. An ingredient does not have to be labeled with "Monosodium Glutamate" (MSG) for it to be in the product. Check out this link for MSG's "spy names". Unfortunately, companies are still able to get away with MSG in products under different names. There are still a shocking amount of MSG "spy names" listed and I'll bring these to everyone's attention on Friday. I'm so happy to see the menu's progress over the past 5 years AND I think there is still room for some progress. Baby steps. High fives. And we can do better. As I do not have our D76 - 2015 menus in hand just yet, I am going to have to wait before I assume anything.

I am fighting for cleaner, less sugar laden, more nutrient dense school food for ALL of our students so that they can perform at their highest potential in the classroom. This should be our highest priority, our shared responsibility in our District's quest to support our families and teachers, to inspire higher learning and to raise our District's academic performance. 

Below is a comment I received from PM on my recent blot post. I am so excited to hear back from them and I'm thrilled to get the opportunity to sit and brainstorm alongside them and the District. 

I am so impressed by the menu changes I can see between 2011 and 2014 and they should be applauded!!!

I'm not sure who should be responsible for providing me with ingredient information and added sugar content (the vendors are not "required" to give that to PM? WHAT!?), but somebody better.figure.it.out. It sounds like the District has had this information all along, which is highly aggravating as I/we asked for this information in several past Wellness Committee meetings. We were told that they would get the information from PM.  Shame on me for being complacent.

"Who's on first?"

***

Hello Lindsey,

Thank you for reaching out to us on your blog! We love and share your passion in providing healthy foods to kids. Our menu website is relatively new and we are still working on a way to tie in ingredients with specific products. Our menu system calculates nutrients as part of the planning process but ingredients are not part of the database yet. 

As for the nutrients that show, we do not include sugar because our vendors are not required to provide that information to us. Since some do provide it and some don’t, our calculation is inconsistent and we wouldn’t want to pass along incomplete information.

We do want parents to be able to view ingredients if desired and we provide updated product spec sheets to the district on a regular basis. Also, each case of product delivered to the schools is labeled with all ingredients. I’m sure if you visit the school they will be able to provide that information to you.

You will be pleased to know that we have eliminated from our products many of the ingredients that are likely a concern to you, such as MSG, artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and fats, bleached flour, high fructose corn syrup, palm/coconut and partially hydrogenated oils and more. In addition, by regulation, our menus are calorie, fat and sodium controlled by age group and contain 0 grams of trans fat. Since our menus are calorie controlled, we don’t add extra sugar and fat and always choose low fat, lean meats and cheese. Items are baked and not fried, all breads/ breadings /crusts are whole grain, juices / fruit cups have no added sugar or syrup and juice is always 100% juice.

Did you know school meals are very highly regulated? Check out the USDA’s website for more information: http://www.fns.usda.gov/…/national-school-lunch-program-nslp

As for our Allergy Meal System, this is available to the district as an option and should be discussed with the school. Offering an alternate meal may require additional planning and preparation for school staff, resulting in higher cost and additional labor, so making this available to all students would be a district decision.

A representative from Preferred Meals is always available to attend a meeting with the district if you would like to discuss further.

Thank you!

***

BIG thanks in advance to all the individuals who weigh in at the comments section below. Regardless of your school district, your voices COUNT and together, we can make change... 

One school district at a time!

Fighting for food transparency + food ed,

Stay tuned,

Lindsey
JOFR Super Ambassador


ps

Check out this fake food ingredient I just discovered from the lists: Cinnamaldehyde. Instead of adding real cinnamon, they add this "pesticide" to give applesauce and other foods a cinnamon essence. GROSS.

where are school food ingredient lists?

i honestly would LOVE to let my kids have school food. it would be so lovely if i knew what exactly was IN the food so that i could trust that my kids (especially miss gut-brain sensitive abbie) weren't overloading on fake food additives and added sugar.

currently our school food service, preferred meals provides basic nutritional information, excluding (what i consider the MOST IMPORTANT) added sugar content and ingredient lists online for parents and staff. in my digging to find information, i also discovered they offer an amazing "allergy meal system" for students with food sensitivities. of course, you need a doctor's note (why can't this menu be offered to all students even if at extra cost?) and i have no idea if our school district even offers it to families at all. i still haven't heard back. 

i am dumbfounded that our wellness committee was not informed of this option. 

here's the letter i sent off this morning to our district business manager. i haven't heard back from an email i sent off a week ago. i'm posting it here today in hopes that it may inspire another parent, staff or food revolutionary out there to ask the most basic food truth question: "what is in school food?" 

as a parent, i would sure like to gain access to that wonderful allergy menu. my kids just might like some of those options every once and awhile and i'd love to have the day off or two from making lunches every morning! 

***

Good Morning!

I hope all is well!  I have a few questions and thoughts for you regarding our school food provider. Is "Jane" still the contact at Preferred Meals?  You mentioned that there has been a change of personnel and I would like to get the ball rolling with getting our District families full menu ingredient disclosure plus added sugar content online. It is simply unacceptable that this information is not available to parents and staff.

In addition, is the special "Allergy Meal System" available to our student population?  If so, there needs to be information sent out to families regarding this amazing school food option. If not, we need to find out how to bring it into the food offerings. 

I am blown away by this menu option and am hoping it is something we can promote to the district. Also, I would also like to investigate the possibility of getting this option available at extra cost to parents who would like access to cleaner, more organic food.

Thank you!

***

xoxoL