ANNOUNCING - TIME FOR LUNCH

A Special Message from Slow Food USA


Time for Lunch Petition

This summer Slow Food USA is launching an awareness campaign called Time for Lunch to bring public attention to the need to help our schools feed our children healthy foods (not fake or fast foods), and to help our schools source real food locally.

This fall the Child Nutrition Act, the bill that governs the National School Lunch Program, is up for reauthorization in Congress. The National School Lunch Program provides a meal to more than 30 million children every school day. By giving schools the resources to serve real food, 30 million children will benefit with better health, better nutrition, better concentration, and, as many studies have shown, academic achievement.

The Slow Food USA platform is recommending these inclusions to the bill:

Invest in children's health - Give schools just one dollar more per day for each child's lunch.
Protect against food that puts children at risk - Establish strong standards for all food sold at school, including food from vending machines and school fast food.
Teach children healthy habits that will last through life - Fund grants for innovative Farm to School programs and school gardens.
Give schools the incentive to buy local - Establish financial incentives that encourage schools to buy food from local farms for all child nutrition programs, thereby creating jobs in our communities, rebuilding rural economies, supporting family farmers, and shortening the distance food travels to save oil and ensure school foods are as fresh and healthy as possible.
Create green jobs with a School Lunch Corps - Train underemployed Americans to be the teachers, farmers, cooks, and administrators our school cafeterias need in a program similar to Americorps.
To sign the Time for Lunch petition and learn more: www.slowfoodusa.org/timeforlunch


Contact Your Legislators

A second component is telling your legislators that this issue is important to you. Quick steps:

1. Write a letter to your Washington legislators to vote for the reauthorization.
2. Make a phone call to tell them that change can't wait: It's time to provide America's children with real food at school.
3. Invite your legislators to your Eat-In (see third component below) and/or set up a meeting to talk in person.

To find your legislators' addresses, visit http://congress.org and type in your zip code. Remember that politicians work for you.


Community Eat-Ins on Labor Day

A third component of the campaign involves heightening media attention on the need to reauthorize the Childhood Nutrition Act through hundreds of Community Eat-Ins across the country on Labor Day. An Eat-In is a potluck that takes place in public and gathers people to support a cause - like getting real food into schools. Any type of Eat-In can be planned - big or small.

To learn more and for details on how to organize your own Eat-In on Labor Day, visit the Slow Food USA website at http://www.slowfoodusa.org/timeforlunch.


If anyone is interserested in hosting an event or would like to join an event, contact us at slowfoodwestchester@gmail.com.



Slow Food International is a non-profit, member-supported organization founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Today, we have over 85,000 members in 132 countries. To become a member, or renew your membership to Slow Food USA, please visit:
www.slowfoodlongisland.org
or
www.slowfoodusa.org