Partnership for a Healthier America's two-day childhood obesity summit begins Tuesday; includes Great American Family Dinner Challenge... First Lady Michelle Obama will give the keynote address on Wednesday morning at Partnership for a Healthier America's (PHA) Building a Healthier Future Summit. The two-day event in Washington, DC, is the first national summit hosted bythe non-profit foundation established to further Mrs. Obama's Let's Move! campaign, and will bring together business and industry leaders with their nonprofit, academic, and government counterparts for panel meetings and discussions. It begins on Tuesday morning at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
Mrs. Obama serves as honorary chair of PHA, which is led by Dr. James R. Gavin III. The foundation is responsible for organizing and managing the private-sector commitments the First Lady has garnered for the Let's Move! campaign, including the pledges from Walmart and other grocers to build stores in food deserts, and from national chain Darden Restaurantsto revamp its menu offerings.
At the summit, "private sector leaders from all industries will be announcing new commitments while current PHA partners will be proving updates on their progress," according to organizers.
Honorary vice-chairs Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, NJ and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., will both speak at the summit, as will Gavin.
Healthy cooking in the spotlight... Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass is also a featured participant at the Summit. Kass will serve as the emcee for The Great American Family Dinner Challenge on Tuesday night, a cooking exhibition that will pit two teams of James Beard Award-winning chefs against each other to create a fabulous dinner on a Food Stamps budget. The chefs--Tom Colicchio and Maria Hines vs. Holly Smith and Ming Tsai--will have $10 of ingredients and just thirty minutes to dazzle the judges, who are two sets of "real" parents. (Kass, above)
A dinner on Tuesday night for all Summit attendees will be cooked by James Beard Award winners and nominees Floyd Cardoz, Koren Grieveson, Michel Nischan and Anne Quatrano. Social media: PHA's website is here; a Facebook page for the summit is here; Twitter is @PHANews with the hashtag #PHASummit. Check out @LetsMove and Letsmove.gov for the First Lady's campaign.
Never waste a crisis: Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan says that a South Lawn crop disaster might have been a good thing... Washington Whispersreports that during a Monday event about sustainable farming held at the U.S. Archives, the Deputy Agriculture Secretary (l) discussed the possibility of First Lady Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden failing:
"Merrigan, who manages the Agriculture Department's "Know your farmer, know your food" program, joked at an event last night that when Sam Kass, the assistant White House chef who tends the garden, expressed concern about the visibility of the first lady's garden and the chance that it might fail during the first year, she told him, "That would be great. ...Then people would understand the kinds of challenges that farmers face."
The Kitchen Garden is visible to the thousands of tourists who walk along the fence line of the South Lawn each month, and is kept in meticulous shape by the US Park Service, which manages the White House grounds. There's been no crop failure: The garden produced about 2,600 pounds of vegetables this year, according to the White House.
Merrigan, Washington Whispers pointed out, "has since applauded the First Lady's gardening success for setting an example for families on basic planting."
First Family's feast includes turkey, ham, oyster & cornbread stuffing, five sides, and six kinds of pie... President Obama and the First Family are celebrating Thanksgiving in the White House with a traditional menu starring turkey and six different kinds of pie, including Pumpkin Pie and Banana Cream Pie. The Obamas will share their Thanksgiving with unidentified “friends, family and staff,” according to the White House. The feast will be created with bounty from First Lady Obama'sKitchen Garden, according to assistant chef Sam Kass. Honey from the White House Beehive will also be used for the dishes. (Above: At Wednesday's Turkey Pardoning Ceremony, Malia pets Liberty as the President and Sasha look on)
"Like millions of Americans, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and I will spend the day eating great food, watching a little football, and reflecting on how truly lucky we truly are," President Obama said today.
In addition toturkey, the Thanksgiving table will be laden with ham, two kinds of stuffing, five side dishes including macaroni and cheese and green bean casserole, and dinner rolls. The show-stopping pies also include Apple, Cherry, Huckleberry, Sweet Potato, and Pumpkin. The President is a fanatic for pie, and Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses has said that Banana Cream Pie is his favorite. Yosses' Apple Pie recipe is here.
2011 Obama Family White House Thanksgiving Menu
Turkey Ham
Cornbread Stuffing Oyster Stuffing
Side Dishes Greens Sweet Potatoes Mashed Potatoes Green Bean Casserole Macaroni and Cheese
Dinner Rolls
Dessert Apple Pie Pumpkin Pie Sweet Potato Pie Banana Cream Pie Cherry Pie Huckleberry Pie
Like many Americans, the First Family enjoys the same Thanksgiving menu each year, and the 2011 menu is identical to the the 2010 menu the White House issued, as well as to the 2009 menu, minus the words "honey baked" in front of "ham."
In an annual Thanksgiving tradition, President Obama made calls to US military service members this morning, at around 9:00 AM ET from the Oval Office. The President's weekly address also thanked the troops, and today Mrs. Obama sent out an e-mail asking Americans to join the Joining Forces/USO "Thanks From Everywhere" campaign. (Above: The President made his calls to troops from the Oval Office)
On Wednesday morning, President Obama granted a Thanksgiving pardon to turkey Liberty and his alternate Peace during the annual White House ceremony. In the afternoon, the First Family packed holiday grocery bags at a local food bank.
President Obama's Thanksgiving address:
*Top photo by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama; second by Pete Souza/White House. National Turkey Federation Chairman Ricard Huisinga is in the Pardon Ceremony in the photo at top.
Thanksgiving is about family, friends, and guilt-free eating for the White House chef... Sam Kass, Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives, mixes personal and political food policy observations as he talks about the First Family's Thanksgiving plans, and First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign in a new interview with NBC's David Gregory. Thanksgiving, not surprisingly, is the favorite holiday for the White House assistant chef; it's "about being together and enjoying delicious food and being able to not worry about it and just eat and eat," Kass said. The First Family shares the same feeling, said Kass.
"Thanksgiving is about celebration," Kass said. "About enjoying food and family and coming together...We just have fun and enjoy really traditional dishes that are being eaten all over the country."
Kass gives some cooking tips, too, revealing his secrets for perfect gravy and the ideal stuffing. Add nuts and cranberries, he advises, for ultimate deliciousness.
GREGORY: I just want to start by pointing out I wouldn't normally wear a full suit here, in the kitchen, but a) this is the First Kitchen, and you're in your dress whites here, so I mean that’s formal --
KASS: You know, this, this is my nice coat --
GREGORY: So I do have to ask you as we look at the White -- is this, is this the whole White House kitchen? I mean is this where everything happens?
KASS: This is where all the magic happens. And it's pretty amazing; it is quite small, at least to me--
GREGORY: It is small. I mean I’m looking around -- I mean it's bigger than my kitchen but it's still small. So whether you're cooking for the first family, or whether you’re cooking for a state dinner, it all was staged out of here.
KASS: It's all staged out of here, and you know this is an historic building, right, so we can't change any walls.
GREGORY: Right.
KASS: But when this kitchen was built, state dinners were closer to thirty people, as opposed to say a hundred and fifty or even up to three hundred. So this is what we have to work with and Chef Comerford and the team makes it happen -- and it's an amazing thing to see.
GREGORY: Let me first talk about you, because it’s interesting: You can be in your chef whites, but you're also spending part of the day wearing your suit, as an advisor in the White House on a lot of these nutritional issues. I mean this is a unique role that you play.
KASS: It is. It is a unique role, and it's a real honor to be able to work with the First Lady and the broader team, and we're trying to improve the health and nutrition of the country particularly as it pertains to our youngest, our youngest kids, so it's been a great honor.
GREGORY: Well let's talk more about that in just a minute, but I do want to talk about what everybody's talking about, which is: over Thanksgiving, and the Thanksgiving meal, this first family in particular is so committed to nutrition on a national scale and certainly in their own home. Does that also pertain to Thanksgiving or is it as much of a celebration of historical eating as it is for most families?
KASS: Thanksgiving is about a celebration, and enjoying food and family and coming together and really enjoying that whole, that whole process. So we really, we just have fun and enjoy really traditional dishes, just like dishes that are being eaten all over the country -- and the same way that they've been eating in their family for, since long before they got here. So it's about fun and enjoyment.
GREGORY: And let me ask you more generally: I mean is Thanksgiving to you, is the Thanksgiving meal a celebration of American food? Is that how you view it?
KASS: Oh absolutely. I mean I think Thanksgiving, you know, it comes from a celebration of the harvest, right – as the original, from way back when -- and for us, being in the White House, you know we just had a great harvest with a bunch of kids from the area and the First Lady and we're going to be using some of that produce for the Thanksgiving dinner here. But it is about tradition, and it is about togetherness and eating as a family and celebrating all that we have to be thankful for. And I think that is at the core of it, and you know personally I'll say it's my favorite holiday for that very reason -- that it's just about being together and enjoying delicious food and being able to not worry about it and just eat and eat.
GREGORY: What, what particularly interests you as a chef at this stage and working here? What is it that excites you the most about food? I should say what kind of food excites you the most -- whether cooking it or thinking about it.
KASS: Right, well in dual roles I probably have a couple different answers for you on that. But I think in terms of the cooking and as a chef, what excites me every day is being able to go down to the first lady's garden and being able to cook out of that. I mean it's just such an honor, number one, but two, as a chef, it's the best way to cook. I mean I can go down and pick whatever looks the best and is the most ripe, and then bring it up here and be putting it on the plate in thirty minutes. And that's, there's just, that's just exciting -- every day – ‘cause there's always something new getting ready to be harvested in the garden, so that's just been great.
GREGORY: And that is a great model for a lot of people who can eat that way, but one of the challenges you face and the First Lady faces is that so many Americans are not in a position --
KASS: That’s right.
GREGORY: To, you know, go into their garden and cook that for dinner, because -- you talk about food deserts, where fresh fruit and vegetables is not available for families to cook, whereas fast food seems to be everywhere.
KASS: Right. You know, we talk about choice and choice being you know the essence of what the First Lady is trying to, trying to work on here. But for families that don’t have any fresh food in their -- or any kind of healthy food in their neighborhoods, the notion of choice just doesn’t mean anything to them. So we’re working very hard to try to ensure that all communities really have access to healthy and affordable food.
Just this past summer the First Lady had a major announcement with, with retailers both big and small to target their growth and expansion in fifteen hundred locations across the country in the next five years. According to the companies this would, this will impact 9.5 million people -- families who do not have access to healthy and affordable food -- by either building new stores of refurbishing old stores that don’t have food to make sure we’re bringing in healthy food to these stores. It’s going to have a transformative impact for these families and make it much easier for them to make those healthier choices for, for their kids.
GREGORY: You’ve also, we’ve talked about the food pyramid and how the government revises those guidelines. What should the dinner plate look like?
KASS: Right. The the ‘My Plate’ has just been this great breakthrough. And it’s something that the First Lady had always said – ‘We need to give simple tools that make sense, and that are applicable to people’s lives.’ And while the pyramid, you know, was great and had its, had its strengths, we don’t eat off pyramids, and being able to put this in a plate form provides a framework that we can just see what is what is a plate should look like. But it’s open to the interpretation of any chef, and I say that in the most broadest terms -- all parents are chefs right? They’re cooking every night for their families -- to interpret this in a way that is delicious and creative and makes sense to the cultures and traditions of any family or community. So that’s why this has been so exciting and the response has just been overwhelming, it’s been great.
GREGORY: And so the key to your plate is what? In terms of getting the best nutritional value for particularly young people.
KASS: Yeah and eating balanced meals essentially. If every, if everyday we’re eating basically balanced meals with fruits and vegetables, whole grains, some good protein, some dairy: Then you know then our kids are free to do what they want and not for parents to not worry about them. So, you know, as a kid goes to a pizza party or has a, you know, splurges on the weekends, it’s no big deal. It’s if where kids are eating in that manner day in and day out is when they start to run into trouble.
GREGORY: But typically, I mean even like the old food pyramid, you want to see a lot of green on that plate.
KASS: A lot of green, a lot of leafy greens, dark orange vegetables, some whole grains, we’re really on the way if we’re doing that.
GREGORY: I have to ask: My colleague Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe has been so upset about the news in the past couple of weeks, that somehow Congress came to the agreement that pizza was a vegetable. Can you help me understand how this could possibly come to pass?
KASS: You're going to have to ask them for those, for the answer on that one. You know, we’re working really hard to try to make sure that their standards are reasonable and that schools can achieve them, but also that are supporting the health of kids. So that kind of decision I’m going to have to say, the Hill is where you’re going to get the answer for that.
GREGORY: What about what’s happening in schools? Where do you think is an appropriate place for government generally, and for the administration given the First Lady’s concern about this, to have the best possible impact on what children are eating in schools?
KASS: I would say, you know the First Lady’s said this a lot -- that government has a role to play here certainly. But most of the answers to the challenges we face when it comes to our kids’ health are going to come from the country -- from citizens and teachers, parents, community leaders, business leaders, and not really from from the government. We do have a role to play and I think schools is one of the places where it’s clear we have a responsibility to ensure that there are good standards that are based on science, that really help make sure our kids are getting the food that they need. You know we’ve done a lot.
The passage of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act that the First Lady championed along with leaders on the Hill and lots of people from around the country is is is doing a lot of that work. But the First Lady also is championing the Healthier U.S. School Challenge, which is a challenge that has very high standards around both what’s being served but also physical activity and nutrition education. We’re seeing incredible response to this all over the country -- schools are working so hard to on their own raise their owns standards and meet these really high benchmarks, and that has been amazing.
So we’re working to be supportive in any and every way we can, and it’s happening all over the country. Everywhere we go we run into a science teacher who has built a garden and is doing curriculum, or we run into a food service professional who’s just taken it on his or her back to just make some big changes and educate their kids about how to make a better choice even in the cafeteria line. Story after story like this. So it’s just been great.
GREGORY: And along with that, a big part of the campaign is Let's Move, and being active and for kids as well as grownups to be active, because any of us know who try to live a fit life that you've got to get the eating right but you’ve got to -- that level of activity has to always be there. One can't go without the other.
KASS: That's absolutely right. And you'll see in this next year we're going to really focus a lot on making sure our kids are getting the activity we need. Right now, you know, the average American child is in front of a screen for about seven hours a day. And so long as our kids are sitting in front of a screen for seven hours a day, we're going to have some real challenges in making sure that they're going to reach their adulthood, you know, in a healthy place. So we're going to really work to inspire the nation, to work with mayors and other key stakeholders to provide better access to play, better access to being physically active, both in schools but then also in the community. So we're going to work hard on that.
GREGORY: So let me ask you a few quick ones. On the topic of Thanksgiving, is there a standout food for you that you like to eat or cook or both?
KASS: I'm a stuffing and gravy kind of guy.
GREGORY: Oh there's the fitness right there.
KASS: Hey, come on, look it's Thanksgiving, right. We’ve got to enjoy ourselves, you’ve got to blow it out.
GREGORY: And what's the secret to your stuffing and gravy?
KASS: Oh, well I mean I keep my gravy real simple. You just take the drippings from the turkey, a little flour, some herbs, a little shallot, a little onion, you're good to go. I keep that really simple. But I love in stuffing, some cranberries, some nuts, like pecans, and any kind of herb you throw in there. And whatever you do, whether you go bread or you go rice, you'll be good to go.
GREGORY: We've talked about grains. Like some hot grains right now that are being used in cooking. You know, great for your families instead of cooking rice, you can cook your kids some other grains -- talk about em, what excited you?
KASS: There's lots of great options out there that are really affordable and we just need to learn you know, practice, to practice cooking with them, cause you know we haven't cooked with them a lot. Couscous can be made in five minutes -- whole wheat couscous is literally done in five minutes; it's available in most stores, it's very cheap. Cracked wheat -- also really delicious, easy to cook, it's great. Brown rice, we always, you know, I always try to cook with brown rice whenever possible.
GREGORY: Farro.
KASS: There's also farro. Farro is a great grain, really good whole grain and lots of nutrients, lots of fiber, becoming more and more available. It's a really old grain, it's actually one of the world's oldest grains.
GREGORY: And you can make it like risotto.
KASS: Yeah, I make it like risotto all the time. Or you can cook it just like rice --there's lots of ways to use it. But we’re trying to, yeah, families are experimenting and coming up with new dishes all the time. It's really exciting.
GREGORY: What is a house standout, a White House favorite that you've cooked, you or the team have cooked?
KASS: Oh that’s, that's top secret information.
GREGORY: That's classified information?
KASS: There's no way I can disclose that. Oh a standout, I don't know, what's a standout? You know, we, to be quite honest with you, we just try to cook balanced meals, there always has to be a vegetable on the plate ,and it always has to get eaten -- that's for sure, that's non-negotiable. And we just try to keep balance, but we also make sure we're having fun. We have kids in this house and so you know, we throw them a bone every once and while, give ‘em something that's fun now and again--
GREGORY: Do you keep anything in the kitchen here for any late night snacks, or it's just like the leftover farro?
KASS: Yeah they’ve got to fend for themselves.
GREGORY: They’ve got to deal with that. What about when you really get to let loose? A state dinner, a time when you really want to be creative, what really gets your juices flowing as a chef and for that kind of setting?
KASS: Oh you know, look, it just depends on the season. I think a lot of times we really try to cook with what's the weather, what's the season like. So today it's cold and rainy, well you know that would be more exciting to get the soups, the squashes, we did, Chef Comerford did an amazing squash dish, squash soup, for the Korean state dinner that was made with squash from the garden. It was actually planned as a part of a three sister's garden, with the corned beans and squash that some young kids planted with us. So that was amazing. We got so excited about that. It's really fun to watch that whole process translate into a state dinner, I mean it's just been amazing.
GREGORY: Chef Kass, thank you very much.
KASS: It's been such a pleasure.
GREGORY: Happy Holidays.
KASS: To you as well.
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*Photo by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama. NBC Video.
Hot lunch: How lobbyists, big food corporations, and their friends on Capitol Hill fried the Administration's school nutrition standards...
By Marian Burros
Not everyone remembers how the Reagan Administration was shamed into withdrawing its effort to put ketchup in the same category as a serving of broccoli or kale in 1981. But Dr. MarionNestle, author and professor of nutrition at New York University, remembers it well. Which is why she says the Congressional bill passed on Thursday that has turned pizza into a vegetable “makes me crazy."
“It’s about profit. It has nothing to do with the health of children,” Nestle told Obama Foodorama.
The Agriculture Appropriations bill, part of the larger "minibus" that provides funding for FY 2012, was approved by the Senate on a 70-30 vote, just after the House agreed to it 298-121. It provides $18.2 billion for school lunch and breakfast programs but contains four nutrition riders, two of which prohibit the Agriculture Department from providing healthier food for children.
The proposed changes that would reduce fat, saturated fat, sodium and sugar, add more whole grains and increase the variety of vegetables and fruits in school meals are science-based recommendations from the National Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Congress had asked for the update to help reduce childhood obesity, one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s signature projects, the Let’s Move! campaign. But lawmakers appear to have had second thoughts, though both Mrs. Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have repeatedly said the changes are essential to combat childhood obesity, pointing out that many children, particularly those that are disadvantaged, get up to half their daily calories from school lunch and breakfast. Better nutrition in schools is crucial for academic achievement and "winning the future," according to President Obama.
But spurred on by lobbyists for companies that might have their profit margin adversely affected by the proposed regulations, Congress is now requiring the USDA to back off from its efforts to require pizza makers to use more than 1/8 cup of tomato paste in order to call pizza a vegetable serving, and to reduce the use of potatoes (read French fries) in school lunches.
USDA wanted to reduce the frequency of potatoes along with other high-starch vegetables like corn, lima beans and peas because the IOM report said schools need to serve more orange and dark green vegetables.
The National Potato Council, in concert with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Col), made sure Congress killed the proposed potato restriction: French fries will be available every day in school cafeterias. The potato industry points with pride to Mrs. Obama’s professed love of French fries, ignoring her admonition to treat them as an occasional indulgence rather than part of a daily diet. Many schools brag that they bake the French fries before serving. But that takes place after they have been fried at the facility where they were made.
Companies like ConAgra, the industrial agriculture giant, and Minnesota’s Schwan’s Food Service, which sells 70 percent of the pizzas served in school lunches, went all out to prevent a change in amount of tomato paste required to classify it as a serving of vegetables. Under the current regulations, tomato paste has a special exception carved out for it so that the 1/8 cup used on a pizza slice is comparable to the standard serving size of ½ cup of any other vegetable. USDA wanted to take away the special exception.
Pizza purchases from schools account for the largest part of Schwan's $3 billion in annual sales, so it is not surprising hat Democrat Amy Klobuchar, the company's home-state Sentator, sent a letter to USDA warning them to leave the pizza standard alone.
At the same time Schwan's was complaining about the pending change in the pizza regulation requiring more vegetable content, it was vigorously selling itself to school lunch directors as the company that could help them meet the proposed new rules, because it had added whole grain to its pizzas and reduced the fat and sodium content.
“We’re passionate about feeding children better," Schwan's president Jim Clough told Business Wire in August. But that passion does not extend to vegetables.
The company did not return repeated calls requesting comment.
ConAgra and Schwan's have also funded the website Coalition for Sustainable School Meal Programs, which has urged parents to help change the proposed regulations, particularly the one about pizza. Barry Sackin, a former vice president for public policy of what is now called the School Nutrition Association (SNA), is running the website and has worked with ConAgra and Schwan's.
The SNA is a trade association made up of the people who are responsible for school lunches. It also has industry members, like Schwan's and ConAgra, who pay hefty fees for membership. SNA is not happy with the changes USDA is proposing. It wants another year before the changes take affect: 2013 instead of 2012. It favors leaving the exception for tomato paste, claims there is not enough whole grain in certain sections of the country to use in school meals, worries that fresh leafy green vegetables are not available in certain part of the country in certain seasons and that if they can’t put enough salt in the food children won’t eat it.
When the First Lady gathered hundreds of professional chefs at the White House in June of 2010 to launch the Chefs Move to Schools initiative, she asked them to help schools improve the meals they served. But many of the chefs were surprised to discover that the professional lunch ladies resented their efforts.
“Members of the School Nutrition Association don’t have any power,” said Nestle. “Unlike anything else in school they have to run a break-even enterprise and the only way to do it is having lots and lots of kids eat their meals, so they pander to lowest common denominator.”
The Chefs Move program, run by USDA, now has 3,700 chefs enrolled, according to Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass. But there are more than 90,000 schools participating in the federal school lunch and breakfast programs.
The other riders in the bill: Sodium and Whole Grain...
There are two other riders to the Ag bill that seem designed to slow down the process of changing school lunch rather than an outright prohibition of changes. One requires USDA to provide scientific evidence that reducing sodium is important for health reasons. That shouldn’t be too hard: the Institute of Medicine has already done that. The other requires a definition for whole grains, and USDA already has a definition.
A USDA spokesman said the Agency sees “no barriers to implementing those parts of the regulation.”
House Republicans claim these four nutrition riders will save $6.8 billion over five years, a claim USDA vigorously disputes.
According to the Agency spokesman, the changes “will have little to no affect on the cost the new standards.”
Mrs. Obama could not have imagined that her efforts to reduce childhood obesity would cause such forceful reaction from the food industry, its assorted front groups and its friends in Congress.
Another anti-Obama front group...
The Coalition for Sustainable School Meal Programs is not the first front group fighting against healthier food. The Sensible Food Policy Coalition, whose members includes PepsiCo, Kellogg and General Mills, has been working to quash the government’s voluntary nutritional guidelines for advertising food to children, quite similar to the core principles of Let’s Move!.
The coalition wants to substitute the food industry’s far less stringent standards for the guidelines put together by the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, USDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last month, there was a hearing in the House in which the members made speeches, using text provided by the coalition’s members.
“What corporations want is free reign,” said Nestle. “They want to market anyway they want, to put any kind of junk food in kids and they’ve got Congress to back them up."
"The idea the Senate is passing laws about potatoes, putting riders on bills and the senatorial staff members are writing letters to USDA about the amount of tomato paste on pizza is power politics in action.”
Though Mrs. Obama agressively championed the school nutrition legislation that offered the improved standards for meals, the East Wing would not comment on the recent developments in Congress, instead referring queries to USDA.
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Update, 11:00 AM: In Bali, Indonesia, today, President Obama signed the bill into law.
Ed. note: Dr. Nestle was recently named by Forbes magazine as one of "The World's 7 Most Powerful Foodies" -- #2 to Mrs. Obama's #1 spot on the list. Burros, the author of this post, was actually the journalist in the Reagan era who coined the idea that "ketchup is a vegetable," which is now part of the food culture lexicon.
*Obama pizza at top of post was created by British food artist Prudence Strait for the Daily Mail. Photo by Alistair Heap.
Let's Move!: A special episode devoted to school lunches... For the second time since First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Let's Move! campaign, Senior Policy Advisor For Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass will judge a TV culinary competition dedicated to school lunches. In 2010, Kass guest-judged Top Chef: Washington, DC, as pro chefs tried to please middle schoolers. But Kass' upcoming TV outing on Tuesday, Nov. 22, has a better twist: He'll judge real!live! "lunch ladies" battling it out on "Chopped," Food Network's popular pot boiler hosted by Ted Allen. (Above: Kass onscreen)
The episode is billed as "an incredible competition" with "an emotional victory," and that's because the four women going knife-to-knife for the $10,000 prize are standouts in the school food world. Each lunch lady comes from a school that declines to offerpre-processed, re-heated fare from the kind of big food corporations that successfully lobbied Congress to weaken school nutrition standards. They all run cafeterias on a tight budget, yet manage to serve delicious, healthy scratch-cooked fare. One contestant works at a school she says is more like a farm, with a 1-acre vegetable garden and livestock. One was trained at Johnson & Wales, and one is a former baker. Still, the lunch ladies will be using USDA ingredients they'd have in a school kitchen, including dill pickles and canned tuna. But they'll also be using quinoa and fresh vegetables as they show America that cooking healthy school lunches with the kind of challenges all schools face is possible.
"The two finalists pour their hearts into making fantastic desserts that include grapes and cream cheese. And an emotional victory brings an incredible competition to its conclusion."
And the competitors are... Three of the chefs come from Connecticut. Cheryl Barbara, from High School in the Community in New Haven, runs a backpack program, and sends food home with kids on weekends. Rhonda Deloach, from the Common Ground magnet school in New Haven, is the chef who sources from her own school farm. Diane Houlihan is the assistant cook manager at Great Neck Elementary School in Waterford. New York provides the fourth lunch lady: She's Arlene Leggio of Islip High School in Long Island.
Two other judges join Kass: Chef Marc Murphy, noted in the video as a "big supporter" of Share Our Strength's "No Kid Hungry" campaign, and fine "dining specialist" and chef Amanda Freitag, noted as a supporter of Edible Schoolyard NYC.
The episode airs on the Food Network on Tuesday at 10 PM ET/PT. On Nov. 29, Kass will emcee a different culinary competition--but this one's not on television. Read all about it here. Check out the White House's before-after school lunch menu, which shows how child friendly meals in institutional settings can be far healthier.
An "exclusive" interview with First Lady Michelle Obama was posted today on EverydayHealth.com as the website unveiled its Fall editorial feature, "Eat Like the White House Eats." The website claims 28 million visitors monthly, and Mrs. Obama begins her interview on healthy eating and the importance of the Let's Move! campaign by professing her love for French fries. The above photo compilation of Mrs. Obama and her favorite food is posted with the interview.
The web feature includes five recipes that are credited to the White House chefs, but three of these were NOT actually created by the white-jacketed folks working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There's also a section on presidential snacks; President Obama's favorite snack, according to the website, is chocolate Smoked Salt Caramels. As her interview begins, Mrs. Obama is asked her favorite food.
"This is an easy one — it’s French fries. I love them. And I’m not afraid to talk about it because it’s important that we realize that healthy eating doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach. Choosing a healthy diet isn’t about deprivation, it’s about balance. It’s about moderation. Like I tell my kids, as long as you eat fruits and vegetables at every meal, you’ll be okay if you have pizza or ice cream every once in a while. The problem is when the treats become the habits."
Mrs. Obama also offers some parental advice for getting children to try healthier foods.
"Give them some choice in the matter. Find nutritious recipes they like and build up from there. Garden with them. Take them grocery shopping. Get them involved in the kitchen."
The recipes... As for the recipes: Three of the "Five Fresh Recipes From the White House Kitchen" that are posted online and credited to the White House chefs were actually created by the food editors at Better Homes and Gardens magazine to accompany Mrs. Obama's July cover story about the Kitchen Garden. These include the recipes for Sweet Potato Fries with Baby Tomato Ketchup, smashed Apple Jam, and Fruit Pockets. They're perfectly good and easy recipes, but the White House chefs did not create them.
A fourth recipe that's posted, for Turkey and Spinach Lasagna, was previously released by the White House, created by Executive Chef Cris Comerford for an appearance on The Martha Stewart Show. But the recipe is credited on EverydayHealth.com as a creation of Assistant Chef Sam Kass. There seems to be one new White House recipe, for "I Made It Myself" Pizza, which is a veggie-loaded pie. But the White House, as of this writing, has not yet confirmed if a White House chef actually created the recipe.
Above: A screengrab of the online feature, which also includes ten recipes "inspired" by the First Lady's White House Kitchen Garden, and a healthy eating quiz.
The press release for the feature notes that "In addition to the French fries indulgence admission, Michelle Obama also notes in the exclusive interview that healthy eating does not have to be an all or nothing approach and she encourages Everyday Health readers to remember that treats should not become the habit. She offers ideas on how to involve children in the process and provides insights into a typical Obama family dinner – a time she says helps her family be a bit healthier, with their eating and as a family." *Images from EverydayHealth.com
First Lady discusses Let's Move! campaign, the importance of gardening for children, and praises America's chefs... Nate Berkus, host of NBC's The Nate Berkus Show, visited the White House during the October 5th Fall Harvest of First Lady Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden. In this video clip from the show that aired on Monday, Berkus interviews Mrs. Obama. They discuss the Let's Move! campaign, Mrs. Obama's efforts to change the palates of America's children, the Chefs Move to Schools initiative, and how the Kitchen Garden has inspired similar projects in schools and communities across the country. The special White House episode aired on Monday, and to date it is the best visit by a TV series. (Above: Mrs. Obama and Berkus during their interview)
"Our ultimate hope is that when kids participate in the growth of food they'll be more interested in using that food, and being more likely to try some new things," Mrs. Obama said. "And then that way you can slip in a little education...and they take pride and ownership in it."
Chefs Move to Schools is a Let's Move! component run by USDA that marries professional chefs to local schools to boost nutrition initiatives, and has become an important initiative. 3,700 chefs have now signed up to participate, according to Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass.
"The chefs in this country have stepped up in major ways," Mrs. Obama said. "And many of them — I'm proud to say — have found it as a pathway to healthier living for themselves as well."
The White House chefs have adopted DC's Harriet Tubman Elementary School for Chefs Move. The collective 75-pound weight loss of three of the chefs made national headlines last week.
Does the Secret Service protect the Presidential vegetables? Nate Berkus, host of NBC's The Nate Berkus Show, visited the White House during the October 5th Fall Harvest of First Lady Michelle Obama's Kitchen Garden, and he got a special tour from Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass. Berkus also interviewed the First Lady and cooked soup in the kitchen with Executive Chef Cris Comerford (the recipe and video is here). The special White House episode aired on Monday, and to date it is the best visit by a TV series. (Above: Kass and Berkus in the Kitchen Garden)
There's an amusing moment near the end of the tour when Berkus asks if the Secret Service is involved with the garden.
"Does the Secret service protect these cabbages from rabbits and things like that?" Berkus asks.
"Yes, I hold them to task. If a bird gets a tomato, I'm all over them," Kass responds, laughing. "I'm just kidding. They have more important people to protect than our tomatoes."
Two critical White House partners are also on the list... Bestselling author and sustainable food advocate Michael Pollan has created a list of "The Word's 7 Most Powerful Foodies" for Forbes magazine, and First Lady Michelle Obama takes the top spot in a field of acclaimed contenders. According to Pollan, the individuals are the "most powerful voices" in the "movement to reform the American food system." Two of the other powerful foodies on Pollan's list have close ties to the White House: Urban farmer Will Allen is #4, and Jack Sinclair, Head of Grocery for megagiant Walmart is #5. (Above: The photo of Mrs. Obama that appears on the list)
Pollan names the First Lady the World's Most Powerful Foodie because "her Let's Move campaign has moved the food issue to the top of the national agenda, shining a bright light on the links between childhood obesity and America's fast food diet."
Last April, Mrs. Obama was named to the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world for the Let's Move! campaign.
Walmart's Sinclair, who does all the purchasing for the corporation, is a crucial partner for Mrs. Obama. Walmart has made the largest private-sector commitment to the Let's Move! campaign, pledging to build markets in food deserts, re-formulate its private-label foods to reduce calories, sodium and fat, and drop prices on "healthy foods."
Allen, a MacArthur "genius," is also crucial to Mrs. Obama's goal of eradicating all US food deserts by 2017. He's the founder and CEO of Growing Power, an urban agriculture non-profit and land trust headquartered in Milwaukee that teaches impoverished communities to grow food. He's been involved with the Let's Move! campaign from the beginning, and spoke at the February 2010 White House launch event. In September, Allen was awarded a $1 million grant by the Walmart Foundation to expand his work to fifteen states. Two weeks ago, Mrs. Obama toured Growing Power's Chicago headquarters, Iron Street Urban Farm, with Allen, during the first-ever food desert summit. (Above: Allen speaking at the Let's Move! launch)
Given that Pollan's list is so short, it's telling that two of his food-world power brokers are in the First Lady's immediate orbit, and crucial to the success of her campaign. But in two different interviews in the last few weeks, Pollan said he is concerned that the First Lady has been "co-opted" by Walmart, a sentiment shared by many in the sustainable food movement;click here for Pollan's interview with Michael Ruhlman and click here for a longer, more detailed interview with Washington Post'sTim Carman. Walmart's million-dollar donation to Growing Power also caused an outcry among sustainable "foodies." A critique by Andy Fisher, Executive Director and co-founder of the Community Food Security Coalition is here; Allen's general response to this kind of criticism is in this poston Growing Power's blog.
It's also worth noting that Pollan names Dr. Marion Nestle as #2 on his list. A nutritionist and the Paulette Goddard Professor at New York University, Nestle is an outspoken critic of both major food corporations and government agriculture and nutrition policy. She is recognized on the list as "an indispensable voice on the problems of the American diet and their roots in industry marketing and government policy."*
#2 Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor, New York University
#3 Josh Viertel, President, Slow Food USA
#4 Will Allen, Urban Farmer
#5 Jack Sinclair, Head of Grocery, Walmart
#6 Ken Cook, Executive Director, Environmental Working Group
#7 Mark Bittman, Columnist, The New York Times
*Ed. note:Nestle has frequently offered commentary on Obama food initiatives here on Obama Foodorama; most recently, she commented on the Let's Move! commitment from Darden Restaurants, Inc., America's largest chain restaurant corporation, to revamp its menus and child-centric advertising practices.Read here. *Photos: At top of post, Mrs. Obama is at Vhuthilo Community Center in Soweto township in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked with volunteers in the community garden last June. By Charles Dharapak/AFP/Getty. Allen photo by Eddie Gehman Kohan/ObamaFoodorama.com
Don't tell Michelle?: In North Carolina, President's food pit stops included loads of candy and BBQ, as well as a beloved regional beverage... His wife is running a national campaign to encourage healthy eating, but President Obama enjoyed a nice cold bottle of Cheerwine during his Oct. 17th visit to Mast General Store in Boone, North Carolina, where he also purchased a very big supply of candy. Mast's community relations manager Sheri Moretz confirmed the President's selection to Obama Foodorama, after the White House today released the photo, above, of the President drinking a scarlet-colored beverage at the store's checkout counter. Cheerwine, a cola, is billed by its maker as the "singular soft drink of the South," and it's a customer favorite at Mast's. Moretz described the taste as "pretty unique, like Mr. Pibb but more cherry."
"It's one of our top sellers," Moretz said. "Cheerwine is particularly popular because you just don't see glass bottles for sodas anymore."
President Obama enjoyed his Cheerwine during one of several food pit stops he made in North Carolina during his three-day American Jobs Act bus tour. He took to joking about all the traditional, regional delights he was eating while hopping off his armored black bus.
"Don't tell Michelle exactly what was on the menu," the President said to an excited audience in a high school gym, as he described a take-out luncheon platter of smoked pork barbecue, acquired during an eat n' greet stop at Countryside Barbecue in the town of Marion.
They likely serve Cheerwine too; it has been produced since 1917, according to the company website. it was first created in Salisbury, North Carolina, and is now sold across the continental US by mail order and at brick and mortar stores.
President purchased several pounds of candy... The President during his visit to Mast loaded a wicker bucket with maple nut clusters, macaroons, and York Peppermint Patties from the store's vast selection, which is arrayed in tubs on the sales floor. (Above, the President chooses candy)
"He bought several pounds of candy," Moretz said. "I think the Secret Service was helping him make his choices."
The President's other purchases... The President spent about $125 at Mast General Store for his purchases, and paid cash, according to Moretz. he also bought a piggy bank and a key chain with the store's logo on one side, and the phrase "A house is not a home without a dog" on the other side. Mr. Obama during his visit petted a little black dog that looked like a miniature version of First Dog Bo(above).
"Bo says hi," the President told the dog's owner.
The store had just about fifteen minute's notice before the President arrived, Moretz said, and everyone was very excited, of course.
As for the "official" White House position on soda? It's served at White House functions, and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kasshas said that the White House will never get behind a soda tax or a soda "ban" as part of the First Lady's efforts to end childhood obesity.
“This issue is not caused by one drink,” Kass said. “It’s about a much broader food landscape.”
As the Obama administration struggles to create voluntary principles for advertising food to children, Kass takes the Let's Move! message to content creators... As the chief ambassador for First Lady Obama's childhood obesity campaign, Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass regularly speaks at food and health policy conferences. But late this afternoon in Washington, DC, he'll be making his first-ever appearance before a group of media professionals, explaining the Let's Move! campaign to food marketing and PR mavens as he gives the keynote address at the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC) conference. (Kass, above)
The IFEC has located its three-day conference in Washington this year because it is specifically focused on food policy, something that is crucial to understand for a membership that's devoted to creating food product placements and food ad campaigns, lobbying campaigns, and editorial content for publications aimed at America's multi-billion dollar grocery, restaurant, agricultural product, and food and beverage sectors. Kass' speech comes as the Obama Administration is in the midst of re-tooling "voluntary principles" to guide food, beverage and media companies in their advertising campaigns aimed at children.
Among other Let's Move! initiatives, Kass is today expected to discuss the major private-sector commitment Mrs. Obama has gotten from America's largest chain restaurant corporation, Darden Restaurants, Inc, to change its menu offerings. Darden's commitment included changes in how it will market foods to the children visiting its thousands of restaurants. He'll also explain the Chefs Move to Schools initiative, and Walmart's partnership with the White House.
In April, the Federal Trade Commission unveiled a sweeping set of "voluntary principles" that included specific nutrition standards for food and beverages marketed to children. But in October, David Vladeck, head of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, testified at a House hearing that FTC is considering "significant revisions" to the proposal, offering a version that's far less stringent, which will cover just the 11-and-under crowd. That came after the food and beverage industry launched an aggressive lobbying campaign against the Administration's proposals, and also issued their own "voluntary" principles in response to the FTC proposal.
All of this is in addition to Kass' other Administration duties, such as unveiling MiPlato, the Spanish-language edition of USDA's MyPlate, and his many White House meetings with stakeholders (one example is here). He also still reportedly cooks dinner each night for the First Family, and travels with them.
Partnership for a Healthier America's two-day childhood obesity summit begins Tuesday; includes Great American Family Dinner Challenge...
enior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass is also a featured participant at the Summit. Kass will serve as the emcee for The Great American Family Dinner Challenge on Tuesday night, a cooking exhibition that will pit two teams of James Beard Award-winning chefs against each other to create a fabulous dinner on a Food Stamps budget. The chefs--Tom Colicchio and Maria Hines vs. Holly Smith and Ming Tsai--will have $10 of ingredients and just thirty minutes to dazzle the judges, who are two sets of "real" parents. (Kass, above)
