Changing the Way We Feed Our Children
An evening with
Chef Ann Cooper
“The Renegade Lunch Lady”
Friday, May 4, 2012
7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
First United Methodist Church
1376 Olive Street, Eugene, OR
Ann Cooper is a celebrated author, chef, educator, and enduring advocate for better food for all children.
In a nation where children are born with shorter estimated life expectancies than their parents because of diet-related illness, Ann Cooper is a relentless voice of reform who is focusing on the links between food, family, farming and children’s health and wellness.
Chef Ann Cooper is a celebrated author, chef, educator, and enduring advocate for better food for all children (see full bio on last page). Her current focus is to put her skills and background to use in creating a sustainable model for schools nationwide. This will enable schools to transition any processed food based K-12 school meal program to a whole foods environment where food is procured regionally and prepared from scratch.
Educating our community on this topic will help create the change we want in school cafeterias across Lane County.
Ann Cooper has agreed to speak to the Lane County community on “Changing the Way we Feed our Children.” Following this presentation, attendees will understand why our lunch program is set up the way it is today, and will know that it is possible to offer healthy and tasty scratch-based school food while being fiscally responsible and meeting USDA guidelines for free and reduced lunches.
Ann is currently the Director of Nutrition Services at Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, where she has created a scratch-based kitchen that serves a variety of healthy foods with fresh ingredients. Prior to this, she was instrumental in changing the food served within the Berkeley School District in California. In 2009, Ann founded Food Family Farming Foundation (F3) as a nonprofit focusing on solutions to the school food crisis. F3's pivotal project is The Lunch Box - a web portal that provides free and accessible tools, recipes and community connections to support school food reform.
Thank you to our Event Sponsors:
Deliciously Simple.
Fresh from our family-owned farms, our organic dairy products are the closest to the way nature intended. Produced without antibiotics, synthetic hormones or toxic pesticides. Just simple, pure goodness–wholesome and delicious for you and your family. Visit www.organicvalley.coop for coupons and to meet the farmers nearest you.
Oregon Tilth, Hummingbird Wholesale,
Coconut Bliss, GloryBee Foods, The Kiva,
Café Yumm!, Dr. Dexter D.M.D., Clinic of Natural Medicine
If you would like to volunteer for this event, or become an event sponsor please contact:
Holly McRae, hollymcrae@yahoo.com, 541-968-0653
"In the long view, no nation is healthier than its children, or more prosperous than its farmers."
President Harry Truman, on signing the 1946 National School Lunch Act
Eugene Coalition for Better School Food
The Eugene Coalition for Better School Food (ECBSF) was created in the spring of 2010 by a group of parents concerned about the nutritional value of the food their children were being served at school. They envisioned working with the Eugene 4j school district to provide all students freshly prepared, nutrient-dense meals with more locally sourced ingredients.
The group has grown to over 700 supporters; parents, community members, businesses and related organizations and have doubled the number or supporters since August. If you support healthy food that nourishes Eugene's children and local economy, please sign our online petition.
We support the following:
- Feeding our Kids Well: Providing our kids fresh, nutrient-dense food critical for long term health, brain development and behaviour conductive to the school setting.
- Responsible and Sustainable Food Purchasing: Responsible and sustainable food purchasing that takes into consideration how to optimize the school food budget and provide what is best for children, our local economy and our planet.
- Food Education: Teaching our children about food so that they may learn how to feed themselves well and develop living practices that will help them become good stewards of their own health and of the earth (healthy diets, food traditions, gardening, food selection and purchasing).
- Food Preparation and Serving: Teaching our children how to prepare food and serve it in an optimal environment increases their chance of living healthy lives and passing that knowledge on to their children and communities to serve the next generations.
- Supporting our Community: Supporting the local economy and creating long-term food security for our community
The national climate is changing as more and more people are becoming aware of the need to improve school food and give kids a better chance at living healthy lives. Consider the following:
- The First Lady’s "Let's Move" initiative to end childhood obesity
- Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution show that targeted the quality of school food in the USA
- The many examples of schools and districts across the nation making positive changes such as Berkeley, CA and Washington DC
- The many Lane County organizations and businesses that are already working on these issues.
Visit our Resources page for website links to the above organizations and many more.
People all over the world are finding ways to help us connect what we eat with issues of environmental and economic sustainability. Eugene is blessed with a plethora of local farms, healthy food producers, and people interested in making positive change in the community. The time is right to raise the standards on food quality in our schools as well as take responsibility for the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the food we buy, prepare and consume.
You can help by telling other community members about our organization or you can get more involved by donating your time, resources or funds to our group. Find out more about how to participate with the ECBSF and show your support. Join us. Let’s work together now to make a difference for the children of Eugene and the 4J school district.