It’s Time for Lunch

Every school day, we have an opportunity to build a strong foundation for our children’s health by serving them real food at school. In the United States, the need has never been greater. Today, one in four children is overweight or obese, and one in three will develop diabetes in his or her lifetime. In the face of this crisis, our schools are financially struggling to feed children anything but the overly processed fast food that endangers their health.

That’s why on September 7, 2009, Slow Food USA is asking people in communities all over the United States to sit down to share a meal with their neighbors and kids. This National Day of Action will send a clear message to the U.S. Congress: It’s time to provide America’s children with real food at school. This fall the Child Nutrition Act, which governs the national school lunch program, is up for renewal. We’re asking everyone to speak up and tell our nation’s leaders that change can’t wait. We already have nearly 200 Eat-Ins scheduled for that day, in 43 states. We are aiming for all 50. Go to www.slowfoodusa.org/timeforlunch to sign the petition and learn more about our campaign.

Later this fall, Slow Food USA is partnering with 350.org (www.350.org) to support their day of global environmental action on October 24, helping to highlight the link between global warming and farming. In Copenhagen, in December, the world’s leaders will meet to finalize a new treaty on climate change. NASA said recently that any amount of carbon in the atmosphere greater than 350 parts per million was not compatible with “the planet on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.” This “350 day” will take that number and push it into the human heart and mind, resetting the psychological bar for these negotiations. It will feature thousands of actions in almost every country on earth. There will be climbers in the Himalayas, and 350 scuba divers underwater on the Great Barrier Reef.

We need to make sure that farmers are involved as well. Slow Food chapters in Spain will make and serve 350 paellas in solar ovens; farmers markets in New England will make pyramids of 350 pumpkins. Anything that’s beautiful and smart will help —especially when you take a picture and upload it to the website that day, joining the thousands of images from across the globe. It will help remind people of the enormous role that shifts in agriculture could play as we try to tackle this most basic problem. Please go to 350.org to register an action for that day.

For more information, please visit Slow Food USA’s website:
www.slowfoodusa.org