UPDATE: Organic Valley has agreed to give BOTH OF OUR WINNERS A FULL YEAR OF FREE MILK, rather than having them share the prize. Thanks Organic Valley, you rock!
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Thank you, friends, for your good food resolutions, and for promising to do a better job for your kids when it comes to food this school year. After tallying nearly 500 votes from people all over the country, two of the nearly 50 promises we received from parents, teachers, and school administrators committed to getting our kids healthier clearly stood out from the pack. That's why Sadie Sponsler, RD and Andrea Zehnder will share our grand prize. Here are both of their resolutions, one last time:
Sadie Sponsler, RD
The Lemon Grove School District Nutrition Services Department (Lemon Grove, CA) our resolution is to “walk the talk” about providing healthier choices for students and staff during the school day and beyond in our school district. The Lemon Grove School District has set the School Wellness bar high and shown that it is possible to do more with less, you just have to collaborate and believe.
We decided to put our money where are mouth is and for that reason the following questionable items have been removed from the school menus:
(a) Chocolate milk: a research study is being conducted to determine the effects of this removal by SDSU Graduate student in Nutrition Science
(b) Undergo a district wide marketing campaign for students to drink white milk.
(b) Pepperoni pizza
(c) Questionable food items (i.e. Nachos, cinnamon roll, pre-sweetened cereal)
(d) Self serve Ranch dressing, ketchup, pancake syrup and other condiments
Our resolution is to continue to build our garden program and teach nutrition from the ground up.
Our resolution is to continue to add healthy, new, fresh, scratch menu items whenever possible.
Our resolution is to work with local chefs to continue to promote the skills of our nutrition service staff.
Our resolution is to continue to support our School Wellness policies.
Andrea Zehnder
OK .... so, what is my resolution? To continue to cook like I have been for my 2.5 year old boy, Oliver! He's in daycare.
You will find me scrunched down in a little toddler chair, my knees to my chin, sitting with him each day as he eats lunch at the daycare. I watch the other kids eat: applesauce from a can, fish sticks, pancakes with syrup. I'm so glad my little guy does not ask for syrup or have to eat what the others do. I bring him organic whole wheat pancakes made with berries and bananas. No sprinkling of sugar, no syrup. No chemicals. No corn syrup. My new years resolution is to NOT FEEL BAD that he is the only kid there not eating what everyone else is. I have to continue to not feel like I am imposing on the staff when asking them to heat up his organic, healthy food. It's hard! So many days I just want to say, screw it! Let him drink their milk, their juice, their food. But as I sit with him each day on my lunch hour, I am reminded that he is happy, healthy and a growing young child who needs the natural nutrition that I pack for him.
And guess what? Sometimes the other kids stand around his chair and ask for bites! I have to remember what I'm doing is advocating for his health and not let myself feel I'm being an inconvenience to the staff. (The staff has been great and have been very willing to accommodate!)
We were not expecting the race to be a dead heat -- our intention was to award just one person a full year of free organic milk. And yet, in a contest built around community, somehow a tie doesn't seem all that bad (not to us, anyway). For their terrific resolve and commitment, Ms. Sponsler and Ms. Zehnder have each won themselves 6 months of free organic milk from the great folks at Organic Valley. Big thanks to all of you who participated in this contest by submitting resolutions and voted for your favorites. If you haven't yet read all of our submissions, please go ahead and do it now. Big thanks once again to our friends at Organic Valley for donating the grand prize too.
Now the hard work begins: whether you won the contest or not, each of us has made our promises. Now we've got to keep them.
Lee Zukor is the founder of Simple, Good, and Tasty. E-mail him at lee@simplegoodandtasty.com or follow him on Twitter.
