Dear Dr. Susan,
Ah,
back-to-school. By now we've all said goodbye to lazy summer mornings and
adjusted to the routine of getting kids up, dressed and on the bus. But
how many of us are carving out the necessary time to sit our children down
for breakfast? Here's why we need to: Students
who eat breakfast have better grades, a better attention span, reduced nurse
visits, better behavior and a better chance of meeting their daily nutritional
needs.If you feel that your family is already rushed in the
morning and you don't have the time to provide a nutritious breakfast, remember
that it doesn't have to be a home-made hot spread every morning to be good
healthy food for your child. Try a bowl of steel-cut oats with fresh fruit;
a yogurt fruit smoothie, whole-grain toast with nut butter or a slice of
turkey or scrambled eggs with some diced vegetables (cut them the night before).
If it just seems impossible to you to fit it in, check to see if
your school offers a breakfast program that your child can participate in
(see Community Spotlight below for an example).  Kids
who eat breakfast may not need a morning snack, and they'll be hungrier for
a healthy lunch! And speaking of healthy lunches, next issue we'll have
suggestions on brown-bagging it when your school cafeteria isn't up to snuff.
In the meantime, check out the BSF Children's Bill of Rights on YouTube--the
kids speak for themselves! Sincerely, Dr. Susan Rubin, Founder, Better School Food |
BSF Affiliate Program
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Two
Angry Moms is being seen by increasing numbers and the better school food
movement is growing! And more parents from around the country are contacting
us for help. We feel one of the biggest things we have to offer parents,
and communities, is support in operating a local grassroots effort. That
is, we can't run your show, but we'll help you shine! It benefits
local communities to be seen as part of a larger movement to improve school
food--strength in numbers! And it benefits BSF to have member programs--that
whole strength in numbers thing again. The more people working together
to improve kids' health, the better.  BSF's
Rockland County, NY, affiliate just hosted its first conference, gathering
50 people from the community around school food issues. Annemarie Colbin
(see photo with Susan Rubin), David Ludwig, Kate Ademick and Susan Blum were
the featured speakers. Please email BSF President Mary Ann Petrilena ( maryann@betterschoolfood.org) for guidelines on becoming an affiliate program. |
FoodNews: Handling Halloween, Veggie Grants for Schools
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Halloween is great holiday for children of all ages;
many of us enjoy embracing our inner witches, decorating the house--and ourselves--for
Halloween. Halloween spirit notwithstanding, it can be challenging to handle
the astronomical amounts of candy connected to trick-or-treating; too many
sugary treats in your kid's possession and ensuing arguments over said sugar
treasure the day after (and the day after, and the day after that...) If
you don't feel like contributing to the neighborhood children's tooth decay,
consider giving treats that are healthier. Here are some ideas for non-tooth
toxic treats:
…
Fun stickers or temporary tattoos … Halloween crayons, pencils, colored chalk
or fun-shaped erasers … Rubber spiders, worms, or other equally creepy figure
… Spider, skull, or pumpkin plastic rings
And, on the day of Halloween, make a point to start the day off right with a solid breakfast (see Founder's letter, above), and get a healthy dinner in before starting out on the trick or treat trail.
Whatever the occasion, all health professionals agree kids need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. If you are a school administrator looking for help in getting more fresh produce to your students, check out the Hidden Valley's Love Your Veggies Grants. Applications are being accepted until November 30, 2007.
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Community Spotlight:
White Plains School District, NY
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Mamaroneck
Avenue Elementary School (MAS) Principal Gail Epstein obtained a $5,000 Nutrition
Consortium of New York State grant to implement a school-wide breakfast program
for all 600 students. Many students were skipping breakfast, leaving them
with little fuel for the day. By offering whole grains and fresh fruit,
among other options, Ms. Epstein hopes to eliminate the mid-morning snack
(often high-sugar) and see hungrier students for lunch.
The Breakfast
program extends the efforts made by the school to promote better health:
last Spring's health day was extended to a full month, and included free
gym and yoga classes, nutrition workshops, the debut of a new lunchtime walking
club, field trips to Whole Foods markets, and a mini-marathon. Keep up the
good work, MAS!
For
more information on the grant or the wellness month, please contact Judy
Eisele, BSF Board member and MAS Wellness committee member at judy@betterschoolfood.org.
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Events
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- Have dinner with your Family Day September 24. A national initiative to turn off your tv and computer screens and remind parents that what your kids really want at the dinner table is YOU.
- Our next BSF Teleconference is scheduled for October 11,
 1:00pm EST. Here's the topic: Is your district's Wellness Policy all talk and no action? Learn strategies for making Wellness Policies effective and how to implement them.
- National School Lunch Week, October 15 - 19 Join us for a "Lunch-In" and take your child to lunch in their school cafeteria. Download this handy checklist and take it with you to your child's school. You may be surprised about what your child is being offered to eat.
- Conference for educators: BOCES Southern Westchester, October 16th from 5:30pm - 8:30pm,
Southern Westchester BOCES, Elmsford, NY. Dr. Susan Rubin and Geri Brewster
will be discussing how to use food as a tool and the ABC's of food in your
school's curriculum. For more information contact Kathleen Schoen at kathleen@betterschoolfood.org.
- Preschool Directors, Parents and Caregivers Conference coming in October.
- November 15: BSF Teleconference Learn low-cost/no-cost strategies to improve the food environment at your school. We'll cover holiday celebrations, fundraisers, food rewards and snack lists.
For more information on these events, visit our events page.
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Our Mission
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Is to raise awareness of the connection between food and children's health, behavior and learning.
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Become A Member
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The Documentary about the Movement
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Ingredient Facts
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Artificial Sweetners:
To
date, five artificial sweeteners are listed as approved by the FDA: aspartame,
saccharin, acesulfame-K, neotame and sucralose. Every single one of them
has been identified as a known carcinogen.
No doctor, government agency or scientist is 100% sure that artificial sweeteners are safe for human consumption.
Source: BSF Ingredient Fact Sheet This and other BSF research sheets are available to download for BSF members on our website |
Food Facts
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Simple
deficiencies in brain nutrition, caused by our unhealthy and often toxic
food supply, can contribute to the onset of astma, allergies, ADHD, and autism.
Add together all of the children who have these disorders and it comes to 20 million kids, or almost one-third of all American children.
Source: Healing the New Childhood Epidemics by Kenneth Bock, M.D.
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| For More Information |
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Better School Food
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About BSF
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About Better School Food
Founded
in 2005, The Coalition for Better School Food (BSF) is a nonprofit
organization dedicated to improving school food for a positive impact
on children's health, behavior and learning. BSF founder Susan Rubin,
DMD, HHC, is a dentist, holistic nutritionist and parent of three who
has been advocating better school food for over a decade. BSF aims to
provide resources and guidance to parents who are inspired to take
action after seeing the film Two Angry Moms, created by award-winning
documentary filmmaker and Yale University Department of Medicine and
Psychiatry Lecturer Amy Kalafa, HHC |
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Become A Member
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