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October SGT Book Club This Week!

The Simple, Good and Tasty book club meetings are fast approaching and I expect an interesting and lively discussion this week. Why you ask? It seems that school lunch and what we are feeding our kids was always somewhere in the food discussion this summer and on into Fall. Governor Dayton declared September farm-to-school month and don't forget, the chocolate milk debates that were raging at the beginning of the summer.

 

If you are at all interested in learning more, it seems like the book club is a good place to start. Even if you haven't read all of the book, feel free to drop in and be part of the discussion. That is what a book club is all about! This is certainly a book that will provide much insight into not just the history, but harsh realities about how we have gotten to the current state of school lunch. 

 

Coming to the book club? At the Linden Hills Coop in Minneapolis, the meeting is this Thursday, October 27th, 6:30-8:30. If you are up in the Bemidji area, their book club is also meeting on Thursday, at 6:00 at the Harmony Coop. Can't make it this week? November's book is Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds by Claire Hope Cummings, so get a head start and we will keep you posted about dates and times!

 

How did our children end up eating nachos, pizza, and Tater Tots for lunch? Taking us on an eye-opening journey into the nation's school kitchens, this superbly researched book is the first to provide a comprehensive assessment of school food in the United States. Janet Poppendieck explores the deep politics of food provision from multiple perspectives--history, policy, nutrition, environmental sustainability, taste, and more. How did we get into the absurd situation in which nutritionally regulated meals compete with fast food items and snack foods loaded with sugar, salt, and fat? What is the nutritional profile of the federal meals? How well are they reaching students who need them? Opening a window onto our culture as a whole, Poppendieck reveals the forces--the financial troubles of schools, the commercialization of childhood, the reliance on market models--that are determining how lunch is served. She concludes with a sweeping vision for change: fresh, healthy food for all children as a regular part of their school day. --from BetterWorldBooks.com

 


Lawrence Black is a writer and editor at 
Simple, Good and Tasty.  He can be reached at lawrence@simplegoodandtasty.com.