organic valley

If you read this website semi-frequently, you already know that I'm a big fan of Organic Valley's products, philosophy, and people. So when the good folks in LaFarge asked me if I'd host an Earth Day giveaway this week, they didn't have to twist my arm too much to get me to say yes.

For a few years now, Organic Valley has been hosting what they call Earth Dinners, events scheduled to coincide with Earth Day on April 22. Here's the explanation on the Earth Dinner website:

If we've eaten together in the past few years, I might have told you that eating more local, organic, and sustainable food has considerably enhanced my experience and relationship with food. This is absolutely true.

I might also have told you that eating local, organic, and sustainable food doesn't mean depriving myself of anything, that I never feel like I was missing out. This is mostly true. I used to love sushi, for example, but nowadays I tend to avoid it. But of all the foods I've given up in my quest to eat better, the loss of flavored non-dairy creamer has hit me the hardest.

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:

Last week, I published a post about our new school lunch contest, asking parents and other concerned adults to make a school year resolution on behalf of their children and families. If we're serious about making change in our lives, I reasoned, we should be willing to share our thoughts broadly, to make public commitments, and to reach high. In less than a week, nearly 50 of you did.

Ah, autumn! The leaves are starting to change color. The air is crisp and clear. School is back in full swing, with all of the excitement and change it brings each year. My family is still adjusting to the new schedule.

Wow, wow, wow! What terrific photos you sent! What great stories you told! The school lunch challenge that began just over a month ago with an open letter to our children apologizing for the current state of school lunch ends right here, right now. Many of you have done the hard part: you've eaten lunch with your kids, taken photos, and sent them to us (so have we, by the way). You've done this in the name of research, in the name of love, and in the hopes of winning valuable prizes from great companies.

Thanks to a big national push and the large group of moms in Colorado who told us that running a school lunch contest during their kids' spring break was unkind, we are officially extending the deadline for school lunch contest entries until Friday, April 9, 2010. We will be posting our top entries and gathering votes during the week of April 12, and announcing the winner on April 19.

Click here to read details about our school lunch challenge, including rules and prizes (like lunchboxes and free organic milk from Organic Valley for a year). 

Last week, while going through a box of old things my father saved before he died, my younger brother found this old school lunch menu. It's from Valley Stream Union Free District Thirteen in NY (my family spent several years at Howell Road Elementary School in that district), and it's dated 1976. My dad was a pretty sentimental guy, so I'm not terribly surprised that he saved a menu from when we were kids.

I find the menu fascinating, and not just because there are still union free school districts in this country. I've been thinking a lot about what was on the menu back in 1976 in the context of the some of the comments you've posted related to our article "An Open Letter to Our Children: We're Sorry About School Lunch." For example, Ginger wrote:

For a fortunate few, eating gluten-free is simply a choice. For others it's a difficult lifestyle change once they've been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, which can ranging from a mild sensitivity to full-blown celiac disease.

Last week's school lunch post, our "Open Letter to Our Children," was a direct response to the sixth graders at Minneapolis' Sanford Middle School who I'd met with the month before. Their question was simple and heartbreaking: if our communities love us, why do they knowingly feed us this junk?

The response to this post was fantastic. Many of you provided explanations, made suggestions, and shared your own views, and we at SGT were reminded once again of how much we love this community. For example, Laura wrote: