We Want Healthy School Lunches: Peaceful Protest in Potluck Form

By Brooke Burton Mon., Aug. 31 2009 at 9:30 AM

Categories: Cooking & Kids, Kids

Brooke Burton

Helping kids to eat fresh food

Every day more than 30 million public school children in America, from both rich and poor communities, are served food made from ingredients that cost less than a dollar. That's based on a breakdown of the USDA's reimbursement budget to the National School Lunch Program.

Slow Food USA hopes to change the way kids are fed with an event they call Time for Lunch, a national Eat-In that will take place in schools, parks, homes and restaurants across the country this Labor Day, September 7. Organizers hope to bring communities together to eat good food and get people involved in asking Congress to change the current structure of the Child Nutrition Act, a federal law that governs the National School Lunch Program. This September will mark five years since Congress renewed the Child Nutrition Act.

The Time for Lunch campaign is "somewhere between a protest and a potluck," says Josh Viertel, Slow Food's president. According to Viertel, the event was created to bring people together to share food and "to tell congress that it's time for kids to have real food in schools."

Los Angeles Eat-In events will take place in Redondo Beach, Highland Park, Elysian Park, Downtown, Culver City and Hollywood. Terry August, a Slow Food member and owner of Fancifull, a gourmet food store on Melrose Avenue, hopes that more than a hundred people will attend her Hollywood Eat-In." The event will offer activities for kids and food from her store, as well as other local restaurants including Homegirl Café and Whole Foods.

"Obama and other politicians have basically said 'Show me the movement,'" August says. "With this event we want to show them just that. Tens of thousands of people are interested in this issue. Not just a few."

Time for Lunch events are free and open to the public. Attendees are asked to bring a favorite dish and non-disposable cup, plate, and utensils.

For more details on local Eat-Ins, go to Slow Food's Time for Lunch website.