NEWSSCHOOL LUNCH

Jamie Oliver's second season of Food Revolution may have been filmed in Los Angeles, but there was one group in the city that refused to participate in the reality show — the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Until now, that is.

Tinseltown's new superintendent, John Deasy, and Oliver seem to have bridged the gap between the city's public schools and the Food Revolution. Deasy recently agreed to take a meeting with Oliver, and he even gave the celebrity chef a tour of the LAUSD's central kitchen, where many of the city's school lunches are prepared. Then last week, the duo unveiled an even bigger partnership: Deasy and Oliver appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and announced that they would work together to phase out sugary, flavored milks from Los Angeles' public school cafeterias.

The move is a huge win for Los Angeles students. Flavored milks oftentimes contain more sugar than a can of soda, and with more than one-third of America's kids weighing in as obese or overweight, calorie-packed milks are the last thing children need with their lunches and breakfasts.

Jamie Oliver came to Los Angeles to film the second season of his popular Food Revolution reality series. But so far, the nation's second-largest school district has been schooling him on just how difficult change (or transparency) will be. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) blocked any of its schools from participating in Food Revolution, despite the fact that Oliver wanted to help cafeterias improve their meals.

Consider it recess, but Oliver finally caught a break. Earlier, we brought you news that the celeb chef and activist was finally granted a tour of LAUSD's central kitchen and a meeting with the new superintendent, John Deasy. Change.org members have been writing letters to Deasy and, past dealings between LAUSD and Oliver aside, Deasy is willing to play nice. Schools in the district will now drop sweetened, flavored milks for lunch and breakfast programs. Deasy and Oliver made the announcement on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Watch the Los Angeles season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and you'll likely laugh, cry, and get angry. If you caught the most recent episode of the reality show, you saw a comical segment with Oliver, a celeb chef and food activist, dressed up as a big tomato in order to bring attention to healthy school food. That bit was followed by a very poignant moment when 17-year-old culinary arts student, Sofia, told Oliver about how her grandparents died from diabetes, how both her parents suffer from the disease, and how she learned to give her little sister insulin injections when she developed diabetes at age ten. The show closes with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) blocking Oliver from even talking about school lunch with the city's students.

As we've previously reported on Change.org, LAUSD refuses to let L.A. schools participate in Food Revolution even though Oliver wants to help improve cafeteria meals. But just when Oliver and L.A. parents were thinking it might be time to call the Food Revolution battle a wrap, hope may finally come in the form of new school superintendent, John Deasy.

Many parents don't like the meals that school cafeterias dish out. But you can always send the kids off for the day with a healthy, brown bag lunch, right? Not if your children attend Chicago's Little Village Academy.

Little Village's principal, Elsa Carmona, banned brown bag lunches from the school cafeteria. The lunch box is now a thing of the past at this Chicago school.

The rule understandably has many parents and students very upset. Not only does the regulation seem overreaching (though Carmona states that it's a fairly common practice in Chicago), but it prevents parents from packing nutritious, healthy meals that they know their kids will actually eat.

Kids with a medical reason can still have parents pack them a lunch, but all other students and parents must adhere to this extreme cafeteria rule. Carmona says that banning bag lunches is healthier for students and oftentimes is the difference "between a milk and a Coke." Here's an idea: just ban sugary sodas from school — not all foods brought from home.

This is the first installment of a three-part series on school lunch called "Turning the Tables." Check back for more stories on childhood nutrition, healthy meals, and school lunch reform.

It's been nearly four months since President Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act — the school lunch reform bill — into law. Parents applauded, public health experts breathed a sigh of relief, and Change.org members put on their victory party hats. But since December, not a whole lot has been said about how, exactly, this reform is progressing. Like many folks concerned about the health of the nation's school children, you're probably wondering: "What's going on with school lunch?"

Despite the dearth of reporting on the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, there's actually quite a lot happening right now with school lunch improvements. Back in January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released recommended nutrition guidelines in line with those established by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). School cafeterias must meet USDA-established guidelines in order to receive federal reimbursements for school meals. While the new guidelines call for less sodium and fat and more fruits and veggies, the USDA won't establish official new guidelines until after the public comment period. You have until April 13th to support the USDA's improved nutrition guidelines.

Like most parents, Michigan resident Rachael Hilliker cares very much about the kinds of foods her kids eat. Hilliker has a three-year-old daughter, Claire, and her fiance is the father of an eight-year-old and 10-year old. All three children attend Michigan's public school system. So when Hilliker found out about House Bill 4306, she was understandably irate.

"The types of foods kids are going to end up with on their plates is not going to be healthy food," Hilliker says.

That's because HB 4306 could be the death knell of fresh, nutritious school meal programs in Michigan. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Dave Agema, mandates that public schools throughout the state must privatize their custodial, transportation, and food services programs. In other words, say goodbye to the lunch lady and freshly prepared, local foods and hello to corporate catering services like Sodexo, Aramark, and Chartwells.

Jamie Oliver is quickly learning that the best lessons are oftentimes learned beyond school walls. Undeterred by the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) stubborn refusal to allow the celebrity chef to film inside its schools, Oliver continues to push for school lunch reform on the streets of L.A. From outdoor cook-offs with students to cooking classes on wheels, Oliver's truancy looks to be helping to bolster his efforts to teach kids about nutrition and may even convince LAUSD to rethink his expulsion from its cafeterias.

Last weekend, 32 students from eight Los Angeles County high schools joined Oliver for a cooking competition on Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade to inspire healthy cooking amongst their peers. The culinary spectacle also featured seven local chefs serving as mentors to the kids, including school garden supporter Ben Ford. The large-scale cooking demonstrations Oliver hosted during Food Revolution's first season in Huntington, West Virginia helped garner tremendous public support for the campaign. And holding the junior Iron Chef-style competition on the country's second-most traversed stretch of walkway (allegedly after Main Street, Disneyland), the 3rd Street Promenade, will surely help heighten the scope of Jamie's efforts in L.A. Inviting local star chefs who can help carry the school lunch reform torch for L.A. was a wise move as well.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution is still yet to be televised, er, filmed in Los Angeles schools, but encouraging progress has been made on the battleground to uncover what's served up in the city's school cafeterias. While the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) still refuses to allow Oliver's camera crew inside schools, the district's director of food services, Dennis Barrett, has invited the celebrity chef to propose three weeks' worth of healthy menus. The concession will be made as long as Oliver follows federal and local regulations and stays under the 77 cents-per-serving budget that the city allows.

Just as Oliver tackled the seemingly Sisyphean challenge of convincing the town of Huntington, West Virginia to rethink its school lunch program in the first season of Food Revolution, the move offers a glimmer of hope that LAUSD might open its doors as well.

That is, if we keep up the pressure. So far, everyone from students to parents to educators have stepped up to defend Oliver's filming Food Revolution in L.A. schools, and more than 2,000 Change.org members have signed our petition asking the LAUSD to let Oliver in.

Celeb chef Jamie Oliver just can't catch a break with the L.A. school district. The country's second-largest school system recently put the kibosh on the filming of any reality shows on campus while school is in session. Oliver, host of the Emmy Award-winning show Food Revolution, moved to L.A. to film his second season. The reality show aims to improve the nutritionally devoid American diet, particularly honing in on school lunches. Los Angeles schools were pushing their plates away from the very beginning, with the school board refusing to let the chef film. Oliver tried holding a rally, asked parents to write in to the board, and even procured a roofless school bus and filled it with white sand to represent the shocking amount of sugar Los Angeles students imbibe in their school lunches' flavored milk each week. More than 1,900 Change.org members petitioned the L.A. school board to let Oliver film inside schools — no dice.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Oliver managed to get some filming in at West Adams Preparatory High School before the L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) pulled the plug. The central L.A. high school is operated by MLA Partner Schools under a contract with the LAUSD. Oliver was planning to film at Manual Arts Senior High School in South L.A., which is operated in the same way, when the district said not a chance.

Portland, Oregon's school board members got some unusual visitors during their meeting this past Monday night — a group of four students toting more than 1,000 Styrofoam trays. The students, who ranged from third to seventh graders, showed up to protest local schools' use of plastic silverware and Styrofoam lunch trays. More than 40 Portland schools continue to serve all breakfasts and lunches on disposable serving ware, to the detriment of the environment. Residents — including young students — want the schools to green up their acts already.

When it comes to environmentally degrading food packaging, it doesn't get much worse than Styrofoam. The disposable plastic is petroleum-based, a fact that perpetuates our reliance on oil and contributes to climate change. The stuff also doesn't biodegrade, so it winds up sitting around in already-full landfills for years and years (and years and years). Finally, there's just no need for Styrofoam anymore. Lots of greener alternatives exist, including compostable/biodegradable serving ware, plastic crafted from corn, and paper goods made from recycled material, just to name a few.

It's pretty surprising that Portland of all places would continue to serve its lunches on such planet-killing plastic ware. For one, most folks regard Portland as one of the greenest cities in America. And second, according to The Oregonian, the city banned restaurants from serving food on polysterene plastic (aka Styrofoam) more than 20 years ago. Strange to think that the same policy wouldn't apply to the lunchrooms that keep the city's kids fed.