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Food fight
03490
November 14, 2003

Food fight

Presbyterians join call for better school nutrition

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - More than 250 agricultural and anti-hunger leaders - including
Presbyterian Hunger Program officials - have called on the U.S. Congress to
pass legislation countering obesity and improving nutrition in school
lunchrooms.

	At it's Nov. 10 annual meeting in Boston, the Community Food Security
Coalition (CFSC) urged passage of The Farm to Cafeteria Projects Act, which
is designed to help schools create a healthy menu through grants to school
districts to buy local food from regional farms.

	The Presbyterian Church (USA) is a CFSC member. Other participating
groups included food banks, farmers' markets, community farms, sustainable
agriculture groups, food co-ops, anti-hunger advocates, social justice and
public health organizations.

	The legislation also carries an education component: connecting
students to agriculture through visits to farms and farmers markets, visits
by local farmers to classrooms and other hands-on farm-to-school activities.

	CFSC leaders called the bill a "win-win" - school kids will gain
access to
farm-fresh produce and farmers increase their income and become more involved
in their communities.

	"When kids connect the source of their food with the person who grew
it, like a vine ripened tomato, they are much more likely to eat fresh fruits
and vegetables," said Marion Kalb, national Farm to School Program Director.

	In addition to organizing support for healthy school meals, the 550
CFSC conference participants also discussed issues related to strengthening
the local and regional economies by connecting farmers to regional markets.
Topics included national food and farm policy, nutrition and obesity, saving
farms and farmland, the lack of supermarkets in urban and rural regions, city
food production, and connecting chefs to local farms.

	Among the attendees were Carolyn Bush, Presbyterian Hunger Action
Enabler from Sacramento, CA, and Andrew Kang Bartlett, Presbyterian Hunger
Program associate.

	Kang Bartlett, who has co-chaired the coalition's Faith Based
Committee for the past two years, led a workshop entitled "Questioning the
Moral Claims of Genetic Engineering: Faith Based Perspectives in the Global
Debate."

	"Interest in community food security is soaring, as a solution to
rising obesity levels in our country, the increase in hunger and food
insecurity and the continued challenges facing America's family farms," said
CFSC Executive Director, Andy Fisher.

	"It is important that we stop talking about ending hunger and start
talking
about building food security for the disenfranchised," said newly elected
CFSC president Sharon Thornberry, director of the Oregon Food Bank. "Everyone
from seniors to children, and inner city to rural residents need access to an
adequate or nutritious food supply, even the average person who lives on fast
food."

Information for this story furnished by Andrew Kang Bartlett.

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