potrero view

September 2009

Slow Food Event Aims to Raise Consciousness about School Lunches

By Mary Purpura

This year on Labor Day, September 7, Slow Food USA, the American branch of a global, grassroots movement that promotes healthy eating, will coordinate Time for Lunch at more than 200 locations around the country.  Time for Lunch revolves around eat-ins that feature healthy foods that are locally grown and produced. The main San Francisco eat-in venue will be Civic Center Plaza, with tables and chairs for 500 people and a potluck, outdoor meal from noon to 3 p.m. A satellite eat-in will be held at Potrero Hill’s 18th and Rhode Island Permaculture Garden from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“The main point of these events is to educate people about what’s going on in our public schools’ food systems,” explained Dava Guthmiller, president of Slow Food San Francisco and a Potrero Hill resident.  According to Guthmiller, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides a $2.57 subsidy to pay for every free school lunch.  “Once labor, electricity, transportation, and pest control are paid for out of that $2.57, there’s very little left over to actually spend on food,” said Guthmiller.

According to Guthmiller, lunch ingredients are often grown in California, transported out of state for processing, and then sent back to the state to be micro-waved or deep-fried in school kitchens before being served to children. To encourage healthier foods and more local food sourcing, Slow Food San Francisco has funded the establishment of school gardens, as well as classes in growing and cooking food, at various San Francisco elementary schools, including Paul Revere and Sanchez.

“We target elementary-aged children since they’re still quite open to these issues, and we want to instill good eating habits in them from an early age,” said Guthmiller. She pointed out that everyone – not just kids and their parents – should be paying attention to food-related issues. “When you look at what we as a society spend in health care dollars for adults and children who have chronic, often preventable diseases, such as diabetes and obesity, and you also consider that a healthy diet plays a huge role in interfering with the development of those diseases, it seems like common sense for us as a society to do all we can to introduce healthy eating habits in youth,” she said.

David Cody, coordinator of the 18th and Rhode Island Permaculture Garden, agrees that outreach to youth is critical. “Any successful movement must include children,” said Cody. “It’s important to popularize permaculture among adults, but if we want it to last and become incorporated into the culture of tomorrow, we’ll have to reach out to children.”

According to Cody, Time for Lunch cuts to the heart of what permaculture seeks to accomplish. “Slow Food is an organization with a specific focus on healthy, local food,” he said. “Permaculture, on the other hand, offers a macro lens, which leads to holistic, integrated solutions to the world’s problems. We can all agree, though, that food is the largest ecological challenge we face. Slow, healthy food grown in local communities has the potential to rekindle the connections between people and the food that nourishes them that have characterized most of human history.”

The Labor Day events represent a big undertaking, but Slow Food San Francisco’s commitment to the school lunch issue is ongoing. The organization sponsors a school lunch working group that includes parents, teachers, nutritionists, and cafeteria workers. The group is open to anyone who shares an interest in getting healthy foods into schools. It meets every two weeks, sometimes on Potrero Hill, sometimes in the Castro.

To participate in Time for Lunch, bring your own plates, cups, silverware, and a dish to share. To learn more, call Slow Food San Francisco at 957.1313.  Those interested in learning more about permaculture are welcome to join the Potrero Hill-based permaculture design course starting on September 5.  For information: http://www.permaculture-sf.org/fall-2009-pdc.htm

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