Two Angry Moms
A-Ray Productions
Director: Amy Kafala
Do you know what your child eats at school for lunch every day? Are you sure? Maybe you are one of those moms who packs a healthy lunch for your kids. Perhaps you allow your child to occasionally get a snack or a special lunch from the cafeteria. Can you be sure that they are making the right choices? Are they trading for other food items with friends? Are they bringing their own money? Are they using the money you may give them for things that you don't approve of?
Schools claim to want to promote “healthy eating” and “good choices.” Sadly all of that goes out the window when the Food Service Company walks in the door. Concerned with only one thing, profitability, they twist the message of healthy eating and then say it is the parents job to teach their kids to make good choices. How can they make good choices, even when taught to do so at home, if they are surrounded by bad ones?
Often the school cafeteria is full of fried foods, artificial colors, preservatives, sugary treats, flavored milks and low nutrition, often non-fresh food. School parties with candy, vending machines in the hallway, ice cream machines in the cafeteria, these all add to the lure of bad choices.
Two Angry Moms is a documentary about what happened when two women, both passionate about the heath of their kids and others, got together and attempted to change the system. Amy Kafala, a Certified Holistic Health Counselor, and Dr. Susan Rubin, Founder of Better School Food, created a grass-roots movement. Going across the country raising important questions about school food and it's impact on education, fitness, as a contributing factor to disease, and as part of forming lifelong health habits. According to their press release there are over 4.3 billion (stop and think about that number for a minute) school lunches served every year. The two reached out to luminaries such as Chef Alice Waters, Creator of the Edible Schoolyard program, and Chef Tony Geraci, now the Director of Food and Nutrition in Baltimore, among others to highlight what is wrong with the current cafeteria setup and to show how we can all make a difference. They share the message that it is possible to successfully get real food into the cafeteria and into our kids. Advocating to make a change and help others spread the word they are reaching out across the country.
As stated on their website, http://www.twoangrymoms.org, “Texas Agricultural secretary Susan Combs said that it’s going to take 2 million angry moms to change the school lunch program. Please join us!” Want to learn more? Check out the following organizations, watch the movie trailer, take the School Junk Food Test (you'll be surprised by what you learn). Then become an Angry Mom (or Dad).
- Alice Water's Edible Schoolyard
- Bettina Elias Siegel – The Lunch Tray
- Better School Food
- Center for Science in the Public Interest School Food Kit
- Chef Ann – The Renegade Lunch Lady
- Searching for Food in the School Cafeteria
- Tony Geraci on Local School Lunches
I originally wrote this for a private client. They are no longer publishing their newsletter and I am now able to share this review with you.
disclaimer: cmp.ly/5
Jamie Oliver did a summer series on ABC about just this issue. He showed the schools how IT WAS CHEAPER to feed the kids fresh, wholesome foods. That the kids did better on tests, in attitude, in staying awake in class. But the almighty dollar raises it’s ugly head again…