Month: July 2014

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Do you make the pope pay for lunch?

Pope Francis popped in unannounced at the Vatican workers’ cafeteria Friday and lined up, tray in hand, along with stunned diners.

Cashier Claudia Di Giacomo told Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore…

This piece comes to us courtesy of Education Week, where it was originally published.

This piece comes to us courtesy of Education Week, where it was originally published.

While many students weren’t keen on more nutritious school lunches when their districts first began complying with new federal meal standards in the 2012-13 school year, they eventually warmed up to the healthier fare, complaining less and eating as much as they did before the rules went into place, according to two national surveys of school administrators released Monday.

The pair of surveys–one of elementary school administrators and one of middle and high school administrators–was funded by Bridging the Gap, a research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which supports the standards, created through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

“Policymakers at all levels should be encouraged by these findings and should continue to support schools’ efforts to provide students with healthy meals and snacks,” Tina Kauh, a program officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a statement.

The research was released as debate continues over the standards, which have been gradually implemented since the fall of 2012 and require schools to serve more fresh fruit, vegetables, and whole grains and to limit calories, fat, and sodium in their federally subsidized meals. Supporters of the standards, including first lady Michelle Obama, have argued that they are necessary to address childhood obesity and related illnesses.

But the School Nutrition Association and others have argued that the new standards have been too much too fast, driving up costs for many districts and spurring an increase in plate waste from students who find the healthier food unpalatable. They’ve rallied support for a rider in the U.S. House of Representatives’ proposed agriculture appropriations bill that would allow some schools to opt out of the standards for a year if they can prove a net revenue loss over a six-month period since adopting the rules. The Senate’s proposal does not include such waivers. Neither chamber has voted on its plan.

The School Nutrition Association supports “many of the new federal requirments” for meals, SNA President Julia Bauscher said in a statement Monday responding to the release of the surveys.

“However, these reported perceptions about school meals do not reflect reality,” Ms. Bauscher said, citing declining participation nationally. “While many changes have been welcomed by students, there is no denying that some of the new requirements have driven students away from the National School Lunch Program.”

A central point of contention in the nutrition standards’ debate has been whether students are actually willing to eat the healthier foods.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has countered claims of increased discarded food by pointing to a March study by researchers at Harvard University that found that students are now eating more fruit and vegetables, and that, while plate waste is a concern, levels are not any higher than they were before the standards were adopted. Research included in the Bridging the Gap brief shows that respondents, who were either principals or food service providers, have seen fewer complaints since students first began eating meals prepared under the new rules.

Reviewing the Findings

In response to a nationally representative survey of 557 elementary school administrators conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, 56 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that students complained about the new meals at first, and 64 percent agreed or strongly agreed that “few students complain now.” Seventy percent of elementary school administrators surveyed said students “generally like the new lunch.”

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said about the same amount of lunch is consumed under the new rules, and 65 percent said about the same number of students purchase lunches now, according to the study, which was also published in Childhood Obesity on Monday.

“Respondents at elementary schools with more students from lower-income families reported increases in student purchasing, compared with decreases reported from higher-SES schools,” said the Bridging the Gap brief.

In a parallel survey of 640 secondary school leaders, also conducted by the Institute for Social Research, 44 percent of respondents from middle schools said students complained at first “to a great/very great extent,” and 53 percent of respondents from high schools said the same. Eleven percent of middle school respondents said students complain now, compared with 18 percent of high school respondents. Seventy percent of respondents from middle schools agreed with the statement that “students generally like the new lunches” at least to some extent, compared with 63 percent of respondents from high schools.

“Compared with urban or suburban middle schools, rural ones reported more student complaints (at first and at the time of survey) and were more likely to report increases in plate waste,” the research brief said.

Among respondents from middle schools, 15 percent said students were throwing away less lunch, 44 percent said the amount was about the same, 25 percent said it was a “little more,” and 20 percent said it was “much more.”

Among respondents from high schools, 14 percent said students were throwing away less lunch, 41 percent said the amount was about the same, 25 percent said it was a “little more,” and 16 percent said it was “much more.”

Less plate waste was reported at schools where 40 percent or more of students were eligible for free and reduced-price meals than at schools with fewer students from low-income homes, the brief said.

Debate Continues

The survey findings join a clamor of conflicting personal testimonies and official research that are fueling the school meal debate.

For example, advocates for waivers counter positive research findings by citing a February report from the Government Accountability Office that found student participation in the National School Lunch Program declined by 1.2 million students, or 3.7 percent, between 2010-2011 and 2012-2013, after “having increased steadily for many years.”

“This decrease was driven primarily by a decline of 1.6 million students eating school lunch who pay full price for meals, despite increases in students eating school lunch who receive free meals,” the GAO report said.

In a national survey used to complete that report, state and local officials listed winning student acceptance, addressing plate waste, and planning menus as challenges, but said “that they expect many of these areas will become less challenging over time.”

More school nutrition rules have been implemented since administrators completed the surveys detailed in Monday’s research brief. On July 1, rules requiring lower sodium limits and stronger whole-grain requirements went into effect along with new “Smart Snacks in Schools” rules, which apply new standards to foods sold throughout the school day, including those offered in vending machines, on a la carte lines, and in school fundraisers.

Both sides in the debate over waivers from the meal rules appear to be entrenched in their positions.

The USDA has argued that it will help schools implement the rules through regulatory flexibility, which it has already offered for whole-grain pasta and protein requirements. At a “Kids State Dinner” at the White House last week, the first lady encouraged children in attendance to “be ambassadors” for healthier eating and to push back against efforts to change the rules’ implementation.

The School Nutrition Association, meanwhile, remains committed to supporting the waiver plan, a spokesperson said after representatives met with officials from the White House and the USDA earlier this month.

What happens when several groups of 7-year-olds take over a restaurant to plan, prepare, cook, and serve a meal? If you answered a 5 alarm kitchen fire, you’re surprisingly wrong. Well, at least in this case.

Kinderkookkafe is a restaurant in Amsterdam that’s completely run by children. That’s right, kids. Terrifying? Yes. A little gross? Kind of. But before you get your parent panties in a wad, fear not, because Kinderkookkafe is actually a safe, kid-friendly daycare program and cooking school that’s entirely supervised by adults who really, REALLY don’t want to get sued by you.

According to the official Kinderkookafe website, which I ran through Google Translate, the children will,”…participated delicious and balanced meal boil”. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds a little wonderful, and a little terrifying.

The menu includes healthy main-course meals and deserts that are easy to make, and are low cost for the customers. The students use easy-to-follow picture-recipes while preparing sandwiches, milkshakes, cakes, cookies, pies, and pizza that are all eventually served to the waiting customers… no matter how botched or booger-covered. The kiddos also learn how to take orders, make change, and afterwards are even put to work scrubbing dirty pots and pans in the kitchen.

The cost of Kinderkookkafe is €12.50 per child, but before you get all, “why am I paying for child labor?”, relax, you’re going to get a meal out of this! Will it be good? Who knows? A seven-year-old made it. Will it be adorable? You’re darn-tootin’ it will.

The idea for Kinderkookkafe (translated as Kids’ Kitchen Cafe) was dreamed up in 1981 as a place where kids could cook and serve food to guests all on their own. In 2004, Kinderkookkafe as we know it moved to their new location and has become so successful that foodies have to make reservations way ahead of time just to get a table.

If you are looking for a great daycare/educational event where your kids can learn about responsibility while wearing tiny white chef hats and coats there’s no better place than the Kids’ Kitchen Cafe! If you just want to watch a bunch of kids slaving in the kitchen to serve you meal, that’s okay too, I guess.

If you’re looking to pig out at some of the best dinners and cafes in America look no further! Here’s your guide to the Best Sandwich in America. 

Thank goodness it’s not another steakhouse. A Southern European restaurant called Pinea is moving into the W Hotel this September. It replaces J&G Steakhouse, which closed in June. In charge of the French, Spanish, and Italian–inspired menu is none other than chef Barry Koslow, who was previously the chef at DGS Delicatessen. The restaurant is […]

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — A southwest Florida waitress has dubbed the trio of naked hamburger thieves who broke into a southwest Florida eatery “dumb, dumber and dumbest.”

Waitress Nancy Sansevieri was still laughing after police released surveillance video Wednesday showing the college-aged men — two naked and one clad in underwear — stealing 60 hamburgers from Doc’s Beach House in Bonita Beach. Police say the men broke in early Sunday and left a trail of red peppers on the beach.

Doc’s general manager Lou Bangert told the News-Press of Fort Myers (http://newspr.es/1pevKLk) that he’s never witnessed such a crime in the restaurant’s 27-year history. Thieves have broken in and taken money from the cash register, but he says no one has ever slammed through a door completely naked looking for beef.

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Information from: The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press, http://www.news-press.com