In Minn., new effort to get the farm to the food shelf

by Julie Siple, Minnesota Public Radio

September 4, 2012

Hunger relief organizations are stepping up their efforts to capture the millions of pounds of produce from Minnesota fields that go to waste each year, and put it on the plates of those who need it.

With that in mind, volunteers for the Neighborhood House food shelf visit the St. Paul Farmers Market on Sunday afternoons. After customers have left, the volunteers haul carts around the market.

Vendors gladly hand over what they didn't sell -- piles of beans, tomatoes, and beets.

"A lot of it would go to waste, because after today, we pick everything all over again," said Julie Yang, a farmer whose family donates leftovers every week.

The food shelf collects about 1,500 pounds each Sunday from the downtown St. Paul farmers market, mostly produce that would otherwise be composted or tossed.

Increasingly, hunger relief groups are trying to bring in what's called "agricultural surplus." They're also looking beyond farmers markets to potential sources for larger amounts of food.

They have their eyes on some of Minnesota's biggest consumable crops: potatoes, sweet corn and peas.

An estimated 210 million pounds of those three crops go unharvested in Minnesota each year, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group that was based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Millions more are picked but never sold to retailers or consumers.

"The potential is substantial," said Tony Mans, director of food sourcing for Second Harvest Heartland food bank. "We're looking for a new stream, and this is the next big thing."

Mans said hunger relief groups need a new stream of food, because traditional sources of donations are declining. For example, they're getting fewer nonperishable donations from big food manufacturers.

"You know, manufacturers are really tightening up their inventories and doing a better job of controlling waste, as they should," he said. "As the economy has tightened, they've really changed their systems and become much more efficient. That's made it harder for us and our food shelves to help serve our clients."

Mans hopes agricultural surplus will help fill the gap. One of the biggest challenges is logistics: figuring out how to get perishable donations quickly.

To do that, Second Harvest has refrigerated trucks that crisscross much of southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The trucks pick up produce as soon as a farmer calls.

When Second Harvest receives more produce than it needs, it sends the extra to food banks outside Minnesota. In return, it receives other produce, perhaps tomatoes in January.

The biggest volume of unused produce could come from large-scale food processors -- the companies that can and freeze vegetables. Hunger relief groups are talking with some of those companies and hope to bring in high-volume donations, Mans said.

Second Harvest is also reaching out to vegetable farmers like Gary Pahl in Apple Valley. As Pahl recently walked through fields of sweet corn and cucumbers, he stopped to check the crops, then conferred with his brother to make a game plan for the day's harvest.

"We'll just pick whatever cukes we get, cut our cabbage so we don't have to mess around with that tomorrow," Pahl said.

It's an art to get the vegetables ready just in time to sell. Pahl plants sweet corn in batches, so it will ripen bit by bit through the summer. But sometimes, the weather doesn't cooperate -- then there's too much corn at once, and he can't get a good price for it. That leads to something he hates to do.

"Put a disc to it, till it back into the ground," Pahl said. "That's the only thing you can do. If nobody wants it, you know, what else are you going to do with it?"

That changed last year, when he had truckloads of corn still in the fields and called Second Harvest. The food bank paid him a small fee to help cover the cost of harvest. He said he still lost money, but it was nice to see the corn go to someone in need.

"You have a lot of input costs in there; you got a lot of sweat equity," he said. "To see it go to waste, it's disheartening."

In the end, the produce winds up at a food shelf.

At Neighborhood House in St. Paul, Sarah Yang, basic needs manager for Neighborhood House, is thrilled to be able to offer food shelf users a healthy option. It can be hard for low-income families to afford healthy food, she said.

"We're trying really hard not to have Ramen noodles," she said. "We're trying to get more nutritious food in here."

The food shelf offers vegetables from the farmers market, potatoes and sweet corn from farmers' fields. But Yang has a problem: not enough refrigerator space.

The food shelf is trying to expand. Yang wants a walk-in cooler that would allow the food shelf to store more vegetables and keep them fresh longer.

"It's hugely important," she said. "Produce is huge."

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/09/03/regional/foodshelf-produce/ 

Lunchroom menus push healthy foods

Article by: MARIA ELENA BACA , Star Tribune * Updated: September 3, 2012 - 11:39 PM

As Minnesota students return to school, healthy living is on the menu and the syllabus.

For the first time in more than 15 years, federal school nutrition standards are changing. Cafeterias must offer more fruits and vegetables and cut carbohydrates, meat and calories overall.

Minnesota is going a step further, requiring all districts to adopt minimum physical education standards and issuing optional guidelines for "active recess."

Across the state and the nation, school cafeterias are adding new equipment, retraining staff and overhauling menus to reflect a sea change in school nutrition, just one part of broader recognition of the dual problems of malnutrition and obesity among children. Today, 17 percent of American schoolchildren are obese, and as many as 1 in 5 are at risk for going hungry.

Some parents and educators wonder how well the changes will go over at schools. But supporters say the healthy overhaul is overdue.

"It's just common sense," said Deb Loy, director of Coordinated School Health, a division of the Minnesota Department of Education. "There's a recognition that the quality of the nutrition is important, for kids to get the essential nutrients that their bodies need for brain development, physical development, attention, moods, energy levels, those kinds of things."

Fix it and they will eat

Despite concerns that students won't swap chips for chard, school nutrition experts say they've found the opposite to be true, if kids can choose among several healthier options, help create menus and see foods that are prepared and displayed to look delicious.

The changes in school lunch were approved by Congress in 2010 and reflect current thinking about the optimal proportions of different food groups. They adjust portion sizes for students of different ages. They also dial up daily fruit and vegetable servings and set a limit on protein, breads and grains.

Right now, the federal government pays a percentage for each meal certified to meet USDA nutritional requirements, from a minimum of 27 cents for paid meals to a maximum of $3.04 for meals served free to the poorest kids in the country, and in Minnesota, the state adds 12 cents per qualified meal.

The new federal rules include an additional 6 cents for each qualified meal. Food service directors said they expect the decrease in meat and grains to offset much of the expense of produce, but food costs depend on many factors. They said they won't know for a few months how the changes will affect their budgets.

The standards were written for the average U.S. student, raising some questions about whether the calories will be enough to fuel high school athletes.

Dr. Bill Roberts, chairman of the sports medicine advisory committee of the Minnesota State High School League, said it's more relevant to ask where students get their calories.

"You can get quite a lot of calories by plopping 2 or 3 pats of butter on a piece of bread," he said. "Or you can aim toward fruits and vegetables and healthy fats ... and some milk. It sounds like they're barking up the same tree I am with my patients."

Schools roll out their menus

Last Monday, aromas of fresh basil, basmati rice and baked mushrooms filled the Hopkins High School kitchen, as workers made lunch for 1,000 teachers and administrators. Cook Paul Kapala topped trays of grilled chicken with brilliantly red roasted peppers, feta and basil, and extended services manager Anne Ferreira consulted a well-thumbed cookbook, "Mediterranean Food of the Sun," which inspired several dishes on the menu.

Students in the district of 7,200 won't see much change in their lunchrooms on Tuesday, said Barb Mechura, the district's director of Student Nutrition Services. For the past several years, Hopkins has been committed to "scratch cooking." Nutrition directors find great dishes and hand them to professional chefs like Kapala, who adapt the recipes to feed thousands of students. The chopping, mixing and cooking are done daily in nine school kitchens, often with local ingredients.

Hopkins' experience shows that students are more likely to buy in if they are involved in the process, Mechura said. She recalled the day she introduced chili, which can be loaded up with veggies.

"We had to beg kids to take a bite of it, and there were lots of inappropriate comments," she said. "But just last winter, I was in the same serving line area and there were kids coming in, and they were jumping up and down and saying, 'Oh, yay! It's chili today!'"

Changes will be more noticeable elsewhere.

For decades, all of the Minneapolis school District's cooking has taken place at the Nutrition Center in north Minneapolis. Hot and cold items are precooked and prepackaged.

"The biggest issue is that when you package everything in a TV dinner, that's what you get," said Bertrand Weber, who took over as Minneapolis' director of culinary and nutrition servicesin January.

Starting this year, Weber's staff is installing fresh fruit and vegetable bars in every cafeteria. Two elementary schools that still have their own kitchens now will reheat bulk foods separately and serve portions on trays. Cooks are preparing meals from scratch in all the high schools. The changes have resulted in 31 new positions; some are new hires, and others have shifted from packaging jobs to cooking.

Weber says the changes are long overdue. "The biggest resistance I've always had were adults saying, 'Kids won't eat that,'" he said. "Kids will eat the food if it's presented well, if it tastes good and if we keep reinforcing and keep doing it over and over again."

But will it work?

Families visiting the Minnesota State Fair last week were largely supportive of the changes.

"Schools never should have been in the business of teaching unhealthy habits," said Tim Rust of Glenwood, father of a high school senior. "It's just a lack of common sense, and I'm glad to see it going in a different direction."

Charlie Marble, a fifth-grader at Lake Marion Elementary School in Lakeville, noted that kids at his school like to eat fruit, though some try to take seconds of dessert.

James Shelton III, a St. Paul third-grader, wasn't sure.

"I think there's enough fruits and vegetables," he said. With some prompting from his dad, James Shelton Jr., he admitted that he'd like to see more strawberries and pineapple.

The elder Shelton was among a few adults who worried that the produce will end up in the garbage. "When you waste food, it's like wasting money," he said. "But they've got to try it."

The program has other skeptics. Work by Food and Nutrition Services in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan schools has been recognized for excellence. Coordinator Wendy Knight understands about giving students options and has seen attractive displays entice kids to try new foods. But she worries that portions are too small for active teens.

"I support the program; I just feel that kids need more calories than I think what this is allowing them," she said. "Right now I've got some of them scavenging the lunchrooms after lunch because they're hungry. ... Kids need calories, and kids need good protein sources, and they're going to be looking at their burger and thinking, 'Where's the beef?'"

From food to phys ed

Beyond the lunchroom, students will need to meet the very general goals for physical competence and active lifestyle, as set out by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education and outlined by the state Department of Education. Students must take physical education yearly through eighth grade; school districts will continue to set their own high school requirements.

This fall, the department will release "Quality Recess Guidelines" to help students make the best use of active time. The optional guidelines will include suggestions that students take a 20-minute activity break, daily, before lunch if possible. It also suggests the use of group games.

In Loy's mind, the nutrition and activity are linked.

"If you attend to making sure that kids have good, nutritious food, or that they have breaks throughout the school day to get physically active, then you're not spending so much time dealing with disciplinary issues," she said. "The kids are more focused and their brains are more primed to learn."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409

http://www.startribune.com/local/168412536.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Two New Resources about Access to Healthy Food

The Public Health Law Center is happy to announce the release of  two new resources related to access to healthy food:

Our new policy brief, Access to Healthy Food: Challenges and Opportunities, provides public health advocates, policymakers, and community organizers with an overview of key policy and legal strategies being pursued to reduce or prevent obesity by increasing access to healthy food. These strategies can support efforts to develop and implement policies that will increase access to healthy food and reduce obesity. This document is attached, and can also be found on our website at: www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/PHLC%20Access%20to%20Healthy%20Food%20-%20Challenges%20and%20Opportunities%202012.pdf

We also compiled a new fact sheet, Healthy Vending and the Randolph Sheppard Act. Federal, state, and local governments can increase access to healthy foods and beverages for their residents by requiring all vending service providers to ensure healthier options are sold in vending machines on public property. Legally blind vendors can be particularly influential in what is sold in vending facilities located on government property because of the Randolph Sheppard Act.  This fact sheet discusses the Randolph Sheppard Act and what the law means for healthy vending efforts.  This document is attached, and can also be found on our website at: http://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/PHLC%20Healthy%20Vending%20and%20the%20Randolph%20Sheppard%20Act%208.21.2012.pdf

Police get cross about crosswalks

Article by: KELLY SMITH , Star Tribune * Updated: August 17, 2012 - 10:50 AM

Robbinsdale's first-ever major crosswalk crackdown netted 80 citations over two days for drivers who blew past two neon signs, painted pavement and even an undercover pedestrian.

The ramped-up enforcement comes amid a rise in pedestrian deaths in Minnesota and as cities promote walkability, which puts more pedestrians in the danger zone.

"People are driving aggressively, they're not paying attention. ... It's not safe," Robbinsdale Police Chief Steve Smith said about the need for crackdowns like the sting, which prompted some residents to pull up lawn chairs to watch the action.

Part of the problem is that drivers and walkers are more distracted than ever before, cued in to smartphones and other diversions. The dangerous combination is sparking new safety efforts this year by many Twin Cities communities and also by the state, which is launching its first crosswalk safety campaign in nearly 15 years with a slew of ads, billboards and events in the next month.

"There are more distracted drivers and more distracted pedestrians," said Gordy Pehrson of the traffic safety office at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. "Not only do we need more enforcement, but we need to educate people more, especially motorists."

In short, drivers are supposed to stop or yield to pedestrians whether they're in a marked crosswalk or not, while walkers are supposed to enter a crosswalk with care.

"There's a shared responsibility," he said.

Seniors requested help

The blitz to enforce and educate comes at a time when walkability is a growing priority, with the number of people walking to their destinations up 18 percent from 2007 to 2011, according to Bike Walk Twin Cities. Cities such as Minneapolis, Bloomington, Edina, Hopkins and St. Louis Park are all looking to make streets more walkable with infrastructure changes.

That's prompted residents in Edina to request better enforcement of crosswalks, spurring police to start a new annual three-week crosswalk safety campaign this year. In July, Edina police handed out an estimated 20 citations around popular areas such as Southdale Center and the 50th and France commercial area.

"We've never had a focused effort like this," Edina Sgt. Tim Olson said.

In Robbinsdale, it was also residents, particularly senior citizens, who prompted the city to step up crosswalk enforcement. Last week, police enlisted the help of several metro area officers to nab 80 drivers, to the cheers and thumbs-up of onlookers.

"It's an issue that generally doesn't get a lot of attention, and I think it's an issue that needs it," Robbinsdale officer Ryan Pankratz said.

Robbinsdale enlisted the help of last year's newly formed Hennepin County Traffic Enforcement Group, traffic officers from Minneapolis, west and north metro suburbs and other agencies that assist one another. Initially they were asked to help with speeders, but after Robbinsdale officers were inundated with stops for drivers violating the crosswalk law near Sanborn Park, they reassigned the group to visibly boost crosswalk control.

Pedestrians vs. drivers

All too often, it takes a tragedy to spur action.

Between Chanhassen and Eden Prairie, a pedestrian flasher system will be added to an intersection on Hwy. 101 after a 12-year-old girl died when struck by a car while crossing the highway.

In the blame game, crashes are often attributed to actions by both drivers and pedestrians. In the 857 cases last year of Minnesota pedestrians killed or injured -- a rise of nearly 50 from the year before -- 35 percent of drivers had failed to yield to the pedestrians. The next biggest cause: distraction or inattention. Of the 40 pedestrians killed, 11 were trying to cross a road without a crosswalk or signal and 12 had consumed alcohol.

Pehrson said both drivers and pedestrians are more distracted, texting while walking or driving (which is illegal in Minnesota), checking phones or tuning out with music.
While other traffic-death causes such as drunken driving or not wearing seat belts continue to dip, pedestrian deaths in Minnesota have risen since 2008 after declining over the previous decade. Because other traffic deaths have fallen in number, pedestrian deaths now make up a higher proportion -- about 10 percent -- of overall traffic deaths.

In states like California, Pehrson said, "people literally slam on the brakes to stop for you." It will take a cultural shift, he said, to change Minnesotans' mind-set about crosswalks.

Starting Sept. 25 -- just ahead of October, the deadliest month for pedestrians -- the Minnesota Department of Transportation will unveil new billboards, radio and bus ads and stage events in Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud, Rochester and Duluth to spread the word that every corner should be treated as a crosswalk, marked or not.

So far this year, 15 pedestrians have died.

"We're not really seeing any big change," Pehrson said. "If we do absolutely nothing, I don't think that the trends are going to change."

Kelly Smith • 612-673-4141; Twitter: @kellystrib

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/166496886.html?page=all&prepage=2&c=y#continue

School food workers grapple with new USDA guidelines and how to get children to eat healthier

Article by: KRISTEN WYATT , Associated Press * Updated: August 21, 2012 - 2:06 AM

DENVER - There will be more whole grains on school lunch menus this year, along with a wider selection of fruits and vegetables and other healthy options. The challenge is getting children to eat them.

"We don't want healthy trash cans. We want kids who are eating this stuff," said Kern Halls, a former Disney World restaurant manager who now works in school nutrition at Orange County Public Schools in Florida.

At a School Nutrition Association conference in Denver this summer, food workers heard tips about how to get children to make healthy food choices in the cafeteria.

The problem is a serious one for the nation's lunch-line managers, who are implementing the biggest update to federal school-food guidelines in 15 years.

New Department of Agriculture guidelines taking effect this fall set calorie and sodium limits for school meals. Schools must offer dark green, orange or red vegetables and legumes at least once a week, and students are required to select at least one vegetable or fruit per meal. Flavored milk must be nonfat, and there's a ban on artificial, artery-clogging trans fats.

At the conference, Halls demonstrated some healthy recipes for curious cafeteria managers, joining White House chef Sam Kass to prepare a veggie wrap using a whole-wheat tortilla.

Halls' main mission, though, was not pushing new recipes but teaching cafeteria managers marketing strategies used to great success by private-sector restaurants and food producers.

The first step, cafeteria workers were told, is to stop thinking of lunchtime as a break from academics, but a crucial part of a child's school day.

"Your job is not to serve kids food. Your job is motivate kids to be adventurous and healthy eaters," said Barb Mechura, head of nutrition services at schools in Hopkins, Minn.

Her school district recruited parent volunteers to be elementary-school "food coaches," touring cafeterias and handing out samples of fruits and vegetables. The food coaches would also demonstrate eating them. Food coaching may seem silly, but kids who have had chicken only as nuggets or patties may not know how to eat bone-in chicken and need to see how a grown-up eats it before trying it themselves.

As the kids graduate to middle and high schools, and grown-ups in the cafeteria aren't as welcome, schools can tap student ambassadors to be food coaches, perhaps asking the baseball team or a popular student athlete dish out veggies. Or, high school seniors might give underclassmen samples of a new vegetable coming to the cafeteria.

School cafeterias also are using cutting-edge market research. They're filming what kids eat, test-marketing new products before they go on the line and doing menu surveys to find out exactly what students think about a dish's taste, appearance and temperature.

A Colorado State University professor studied the dining habits of kids in Loveland, Colo., with an eye toward measuring ways to get them to choose healthier foods. Leslie Cunningham-Sabo, who photographed "before" and "after" pictures of kids' lunch trays, found that kids eat more fruits and vegetables if they have lunch after recess, instead of before recess. She found that corn consumption went up when generic "corn" labels were replaced with colorful cards describing the vegetable as "mellow yellow corn."

"Don't put veggies in opaque containers or give them boring labels like `corn,'" Cunningham-Sabo told the lunch workers, showing diagrams of how to lay out a service line to encourage trips to the salad bar.

Another trick — just like supermarkets place impulse buys like candy and chewing gum by the checkout, lunch lines should place easy-to-grab fruits and veggies by their own cash registers. Her study saw cafeterias double their sales of fresh fruit when they placed it colorful bowls in a convenient place.

"You really have to be in their face with what's available," Cunningham-Sabo said.

The marketing doesn't stop at the cafeteria doors. Lassen View Elementary School in Redding, Calif., got children to eat more fruits and vegetables when cafeteria manager Kathie Sardeson started a recess snack cart bringing the foods straight to the playground for kids to munch on.

Her school also bought an iPad 2 to raffle away to students who entered by choosing a healthy breakfast yogurt parfait and turning in tickets attached to the bottom. She tempted kids to try unusual flavors by giving out "Fear Factor Smoothies" including unexpected ingredients such as spinach. Sardeson said schools can be persuaded to invest more in nutrition promotions because the payoff is better students.

"We get a lot of feedback from teachers that behavior problems are way down because the kids are eating right," Sardeson said.

Educators are coming around to recognizing value in having better school food, Mechura told the cafeteria workers.

"Food is one of the most important influences on your everyday brain cells," Mechura said. Healthy eating habits, she argued, is as important as everything else schools are trying to teach.

"We have to change," Mechura said. "We have to build an environment that creates excitement about what we are doing rather than fear of new foods."
___

Follow Kristen Wyatt at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

 http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/166770936.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue