‘Healthy’ choices in the school lunchroom? No. 10 cans of commercial tomato and chicken noodle soup…
By Pat Tanner Special Writer
When my first child started elementary school almost two decades ago, two things distressed me to no end. One, there were no seatbelts on the school bus she would ride for almost two hours every day. Second, when I inquired about options for “healthy” choices in the school lunchroom, the director took me into the kitchen and proudly pointed to the No. 10 cans of commercial tomato and chicken noodle soup. I vowed to initiate changes on both those counts. In no time, I encountered roadblocks and stonewalling. In an embarrassingly short amount of time, I simply threw in the towel.
Which is why I have enormous respect for persistent mothers like Amy Kalafa and Susan Rubin, the filmmaker and “star,” respectively, of “Two Angry Moms,” a screening of which is being presented by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA- NJ) at The Lawrenceville School on Thursday evening, Nov. 8.
This film is for anyone who has asked themselves this question, as posed on the “Angry Moms” Web site: Am I sick and tired of packing my kids’ lunch box every day because the cafeteria food is unfit for human consumption?
Dr. Susan Rubin, a Westchester, N.Y., dentist-turned-nutritionist as well as a mother, started asking questions about the health of school lunches in her children’s school district and ended a year later with substantial improvements in its school lunch program. Amy Kalafa documents not only Ms. Rubin’s efforts, but also highlights other model school lunch programs across the country. Ms. Kalafa is an award-winning producer and lecturer at the Yale School of Medicine and Psychiatry.
Like Ms. Rubin and Ms. Kalafa, and unlike me all those years ago, Princeton-area parents have initiated programs aimed at improving school lunches, building school gardens, and bringing fresh, locally grown products into lunchrooms.
Speaking about these initiatives at the screening of “Two Angry Moms” will be Mikey Azzara, NOFA-NJ’s outreach director; Dorothy Mullen of the ýPage=018 Column=001 OK,0000.00þ Princeton School Garden Cooperative; Gary Giberson, a chef and director of dining services at The Lawrenceville School, and Beth Feehan, who spearheaded the establishment of the West Windsor Farmers Market.
Mikey Azzara is already a familiar presence to many of the students in the area’s public and private schools. As part of NOFA’s mission to expose schoolchildren to the process of growing food, he, working with community organizations in Lawrence and Princeton townships, has established school gardens, an after-school food- and garden-based program, a similar summer camp, and a food club at Lawrence High.
Over the last five years or so, Princeton parents such as Dorothy Mullen have established and maintained gardens at all four of Princeton’s public elementary schools, working with children and teachers on a class-by-class basis. Until now, the work of the Princeton School Garden Cooperative has been voluntary and unofficial. Soon, Ms. Mullen says, the school district will add a link about the gardens to their official Web site, and the cooperative is expanding its scope with funding from several likeminded community groups, among them the Master GardenýPage=018 Column=002 OK,0000.00þ ers Program and the Princeton Garden Club.
At The Lawrenceville School, which is hosting the screening, Mr. Giberson has become a key figure in that prestigious private school’s Green Campus Initiative, a multi- pronged, multi-year project aimed at developing and implementing environmentally sustainable solutions campus-wide. His accomplishments include establishing an organic garden and using produce and products from local farms and food artisans, among them Cherry Grove Farm, Terhune Orchards, Griggstown Farm and Village Bakery. His model is now being adopted by private schools nationwide.
NOFA-NJ’s screening of “Two Angry Moms” will be presented on Thursday, Nov. 8 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Heely Room in Memorial Hall at The Lawrenceville School, 2500 Main Street (Route 206), Lawrenceville. Entry is free for students; a suggested donation of $5 for adults will benefit NOFA’s school garden initiatives. Refreshments and light food from area businesses will be served.
On the Web: www.angrymoms.org.