audrey rowe

School nutrition folks in Chicago have been busy. Last May, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and locally-based Healthy Schools Campaign launched the city’s Go for the Gold campaign. The effort seeks to have 100 city schools qualify for USDA’s HealthierUS Challenge gold award. As part of that announcement, CPS revised its food menus and made other changes, as well.

While some might think that Chicagoans are only passionate about sports and pizza, they’re mistaken. In fact, lately it seems that residents of the Second City are as jazzed about the food their children eat at school as they are about their Bulls and Bears.

Last week I attended a rollicking event on Chicago’s West Side.  Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking Up Change event—a benefit and competition between students to create healthy and tasty school meals—was attended by over 600 enthusiastic high schoolers, community leaders, local government leaders and Chicagoans with an interest in improving school meals.

There is new hope for more families in Clarksville, TN thanks to a larger WIC clinic opening to service expectant and new mothers and their children. WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, provides Federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk I had the opportunity to go to Clarksville, Tenn., near Fort Campbell, Ky., to participate in a ceremony announcing the renovation of a portion of the Montgomery County Health Department which will now be a new “WIC Wing”.  The current WIC facility located several miles away is at capacity and the 10,000 square feet of new space will allow the Montgomery County Health Department to expand and serve new families and will improve WIC Program access.  Because of the co-location, WIC participants will also be able to take better advantage of other health services.

Top U.S. Department of Agriculture officials came to Novato in September to learn about the district’s success in partnering with various community organizations to bring fresh, local and organic fruits and vegetables to school meals while supporting local farmers. Project Lunch is the culmination of several innovative developments sought by Food & Nutritional Services Director Miguel Villarreal since coming to Novato in 2002. “We’re putting nutrition and wellness in the forefront,” Villarreal stated to the crowd gathered in Novato High School’s cafeteria for the kick-off event on September 9. Whole Foods, Marin Organics, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Teens Turning Green and the Marin Department of Public Health are just a few of the partners that participated in the event. Novato High, the event site sponsor, is leading the movement by launching the district’s first Food Club. Food Clubs are made up of students, food service staff, farmers, chefs, and other school community partners working together to improve school lunches through hands-on learning. The Club will take field trips to farms, farmers markets, and green grocers and will prepare meals and host chef demos.

It was my privilege to celebrate National School Lunch Week in Byram, MS, the greater Jackson area, to recognize Byram Middle School for meeting the Gold level of the HealthierUS School Challenge.  I was glad that Deuce McAllister, retired running back for the New Orleans Saints and Ole Miss, was also there to talk to the students about the importance of good nutrition and physical fitness as part of Fuel Up to Play 60.  Deuce and I both agree that it is so important that our children are healthy and active, that they not go hungry, and that they have access to nutritious meals.

National School Lunch Week is underway this week. It’s an annual event, of course, but this year I think we have a lot to celebrate because more and more people are coming to understand how important it is to provide America’s school children with a healthy nutrition environment at school.   In fact, as I look around, I see encouraging developments in many areas, but none more so than the growing number of schools that have decided to take on USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge.

I recently had the pleasure accompanying Deputy Administrator for Special Nutrition Audrey Rowe and Yvette Jackson, Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator on a visit to Duval Elementary-Middle School in Lincoln County, West Virginia.  Known for wide open spaces and a laid back lifestyle, Lincoln County is also becoming known as a healthy place. We were there because Duval was recognized with a HealthierUS School Challenge gold award, the first of its kind in West Virginia.

It was all hands on deck at the 3^rd Annual Faith, Families & Schools Conference held in Cromwell, Connecticut.  I was extremely pleased to see many of my state colleagues working together in such an important effort.  I participated as the keynote speaker and was introduced by George A. Coleman, Deputy Commissioner Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE). Working together for Student Success was the theme throughout conference.  Members of numerous organizations set up exhibits and had the opportunity to listen to our FNS message. 

I recently took a drive out to Martinsburg, West Virginia to visit Orr’s Farm Market .  The Orr’s market, like dozens in the area, stock fresh fruits and vegetables just harvested from the nearby fields and fertile orchards.  In fact, more than 95 percent of Orr’s produce is grown just feet from where I strolled: an impressive display of berries, sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes, and a wide assortment of peach varieties of every imaginable type.  But fresh and local produce isn’t all I found at Orr’s.  You see, this market, along with many more around the country, welcomes participants in USDA food and nutrition programs--and that is very good news.