On Tuesday, there was an interesting article in the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera, which we highlighted in our In The News section of the Web site. The newspaper reported that the Boulder Valley Board of Education has raised $400,000, toward a goal of $700,000, to improve breakfast and lunch menus in Boulder schools.
About three-quarters of the money raised thus far will go to pay Lunch Lessons, the menu consulting firm founded and headed by Ann Cooper, to remain in the district for at least one more year as it tries to make the district “a leader in student nutrition,” according to the article.
Last year, Boulder hired Lunch Lessons to show the district how to make school meals healthier. The board of education also appointed Cooper as interim director of foodservice, to lead the charge into what one board member called “the new world of school food.” The district’s goal is to have a foodservice program where everything is made from scratch, using all natural foods and nothing that has been processed. Cooper gained national attention from her work as foodservice director for the Berkeley, Calif., School District, and has parlayed that success into her new company and a gig with the Boulder district.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Cooper also has become a partner with Whole Foods Market to try to widen her sphere of influence. She and Walter Robb, co-president of Whole Foods, plan to go to Congress to argue for sweeping improvements to the federal Child Nutrition Act.
They even have created a Web site, thelunchbox.org, where people will be able to get healthful recipes, information about food safety, and suggestions on how to be a community activist, among other things.
You can’t fault Ann Cooper’s passion on the subject and you have to admire her for mounting a charge up Capitol Hill to try to sway the collective heart of Congress and for fighting to raise awareness about the need for, and tools for, eating more healthfully. But I, for one, am not quite ready to anoint Cooper the patron saint of healthful dining.
What she accomplished in Berkeley is impressive, and what her consultancy wants to do in Boulder is admirable. It’s also like trying to grow the culture for a cancer vaccine in a petri dish. Success you might have, but you would still be a long way from curing cancer. Berkeley and Boulder are not New York and Los Angeles, or Boston or Detroit or Philadelphia or any major urban area. Raising $400,000 in a town like Boulder is impressive. Tell me how much you would need to raise in, say, St. Louis to try to accomplish Boulder’s goals, and then do it, and then I'll believe you have a chance.
The bottom line is, until Cooper, or some one or group like her, can go into a major city and effect meaningful and lasting change in the eating habits of schoolchildren, we’re about as far along this issue as cancer researchers are in their fight.
Oh, and here’s a note to Congress: If Ann Cooper and Walter Robb can convince you men and women to radically alter the Child Nutrition Act for the betterment of school meals, kudos to them and shame on you. The School Nutrition Association has been bending your ears for decades, without much success. If you respond to them you better be prepared to explain why SNA has never really been taken seriously.