Organic. It’s Worth It in Schools.
Reading, writing, arithmetic, and now, the fourth R: real food. This spring, the Organic Trade Association (OTA) is helping schools access and offer students more organic food with a national contest to award a winning school with an organically grown garden or an organic vending machine.
With its “Organic. Its Worth it in Schools.” initiative, the OTA – which represents more than 1,400 organic food and product companies – is calling on teachers, parents, students, educators and others to vote for their favorite school to win an organic garden complete with seeds, soil and expert gardening support; or a fully stocked vending machine, which can feature organic items like milk, fruit, cheese, yogurt and snacks.
Through May 1, 2010, individuals visit www.OrganicItsWorthIt.org and enter their school name and address while at the same time “voting” by signing up for an electronic newsletter featuring organic tips, recipes, news and more. A school must receive a minimum 1,000 votes (or newsletter sign-ups) to win. (Full details on rules and regulations are at www.organicitsworthit.org/join/current-campaigns.) The winning school selects the garden or vending machine for installation in the 2010-11 school year.
“Organic food is the only food certified by the USDA to have no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, irradiation and genetically modified organisms (GMO’s). And, organically grown gardens use no harmful pesticides and synthetic fertilizers on the soil,” said Christine Bushway, executive director of OTA. “We know schools in large cities and small towns work hard to promote healthy food and environmental stewardship. With ‘Organic. It’s Worth it in Schools.,’ we want to provide them with one more tool to help them along.”
The site also features tools and information for schools, parents and students to advocate for more organic food in schools, as well as information about the healthful, economic and social benefits of organic food and gardening.
“Be honest: our children are at the heart of our worlds. Because we care, they influence the schedules we keep, the cars we buy, the entertainment we consume and the food we purchase,” said Stanford pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene. “But when we send our kids off to school, we have little control over what they eat. The more we can provide healthy organic food and organic gardening in schools today, the further we can go in ensuring a healthy future for our kids and our soil.”
The Organic Trade Association is conducting the initiative as an extension of its first-ever national consumer education and awareness campaign, which launched in March 2009. “Organic. It’s worth it.” is an online outreach effort highlighting the benefits of organic food, farming and home products.
I wish my schools growing up opportunities to learn about organic food. I think it’s the perfect way to help out our society so everyone can lead good healthy lifestyles.
Educating children about the benefits of healthy eating and healthy environments is a wonderful idea. That’s where real change starts.
I wish the OTA lot of luck… Personally I would love to see better choices in the school menu. My child does not eat at school except what we pack for her. More organic choices would be a step in the right direction.
I think it was bold, even to pass. There are no organic food almost anywhere. This campaign awesome.
I think it is a good idea of introducing organic food in schools. Organic foods are healthier so I support this initiative
Organic food could be useful but our school cafeteria is way to full during lunchtime and as such there is very long lines.
Our school offers real lunches (burgers, frys, soups, etc) but you can’t please everyone.
Here where I am from (Austria) kids eat horrible stuff at school. I can remember my days at school and it was mainly fries and unhealthy food like that.
It wasn’t because of my parents. It was just that all my friends ate it so I did too.
Seen a TV show in which Jamie Oliver tried to change the UK school food system by providing them with healthier food. FAIL!
This project sounds great and I hopw it will succeed. But this is something that can only change over a long period of time.
It will be great if children would be taught at school not only how to achieve success in thir lives, but also how to eat correctly and eco-friendly in order to maintain their health from young years of their lives! I wish luck to those who are responsible for such a useful project!
This is a great introduction for children to learn about nature and eating healthy foods. Cheers to the OTA for being involved in such a great venture.
I was watching a show on Oprah that my wife had asked me to watch with her and it showed the state of our children eating habits. One school was actually serving Pizza for breakfast and then something else with french fries for lunch. Our children are dieing because of their diet, we need to make sure there getting the proper nutrients, they are the next generation and right now many are obese. Let us help them make good decisions for their future.
It’s sad we still need campaigns to help organic food. I think the organic segment should have mor help from the government. After all, organic food is a great way to prevent the “fat epidemy” wich costs a lot for our government.