In spite of laws in many states regulating the nutritional content of foods and the availability of “junk food” and soda, a 2001 Surgeon General’s Report indicated that 15% to 20% of the nation’s children are overweight or obese. In areas that are predominately Hispanic and African American, the numbers rise to between 40% and 50%. Although there are continuing efforts to educate the adult population, many school systems and public health jurisdictions have had little impact on the rising (...) numbers of overweight and obese children. This session described the process of initiating a student-based, student driven approach to obesity, junk food, and diabetes and disease prevention.A need existed for a grassroots approach at the student level to raise awareness of increasing obesity rates and diabetes and other related diseases in the adolescent population. (shrink)

In spite of laws in many states regulating the nutritional content of foods and the availability of “junk food” and soda, a 2001 Surgeon General’s Report indicated that 15% to 20% of the nation’s children are overweight or obese. In areas that are predominately Hispanic and African American, the numbers rise to between 40% and 50%. Although there are continuing efforts to educate the adult population, many school systems and public health jurisdictions have had little impact on the rising (...) numbers of overweight and obese children. This session described the process of initiating a student-based, student driven approach to obesity, junk food, and diabetes and disease prevention.A need existed for a grassroots approach at the student level to raise awareness of increasing obesity rates and diabetes and other related diseases in the adolescent population. (shrink)

Due to the pandemic and the suspension of in-person school classes, there was an interruption in the meals served to approximately 40 million students who benefited from the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE). This article describes two case studies, comparing the strategies adopted by two municipalities for maintaining school feeding during the Covid-19 pandemic in the northern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and discuss possible impacts of these strategies on food and (...) class='Hi'>nutrition security. These municipalities together cover about 81% of the population in the region. In July 2020, we conducted interviews with PNAE municipal managers, following a qualitative approach. We discuss the results in relation to existing Brazilian guidance on food and nutrition security. The municipalities have developed distinct strategies to overcome operational obstacles and maintain PNAE goals, such as distributing food kits and making cash transfers to students’ families. The main determinants of these strategies are financial availability, the relationship between municipal teams and school communities, and the pre-pandemic PNAE logistics and management. Depending on the strategy and duration of the pandemic, the impacts on food and nutrition security can be wide-ranging, affecting food quality and local farmers who sell products to PNAE. It is necessary to acknowledge that this is not a short-term pandemic and find ways to perform school feeding in accordance with PNAE criteria. (shrink)

India is home to 243 million adolescents. Two million of them belong to Scheduled Tribes living in underserved, rural areas. Few studies have examined the health of tribal adolescents. We conducted a cross-sectional survey to assess the health, nutrition and wellbeing of adolescent girls in rural Jharkhand, eastern India, a state where 26% of the population is from Scheduled Tribes. We aimed to identify priorities for community interventions to serve adolescents and their families. Between June 2016 and January 2017, (...) interviewers visited all households in 50 purposively sampled villages of West Singhbhum district, Jharkhand. They aimed to interview all girls aged 10–19. Interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews with girls to administer a survey about physical and mental health, disability, nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, gender norms, decision-making, education and violence. Interviewers also measured girls’ height, weight, and Mid-Upper Arm Circumference. Interviewers collected data from 3324 of an estimated 4068 girls residing in the study area. Their mean age was 14.3. 82% were from Scheduled Tribes. 89% of younger girls aged 10–14 and 46% of older girls aged 15–19 were in school or college. Girls dropped out of school because they were required for household work or work on the family farm or business. Over a third reported symptoms of anaemia in the past month, but less than a fifth had a blood test. The prevalence of thinness was 14% for younger girls and 6% for older girls. 45% of girls were stunted. 40% reported emotional violence in the past year, 14% physical violence, and 0.7% sexual violence. 12% had problems associated with depression or anxiety. 30% aged 15–19 had heard of contraception. Among married girls and their husbands, only 10% had ever used methods to prevent or delay pregnancy. Our study identified several priorities to improve adolescent girls’ health, nutrition and wellbeing in largely tribal areas of Jharkhand: reducing violence, early marriage and undernutrition, as well as improving mental health, knowledge about contraception and school retention. (shrink)

Farm-to-school (FTS) programs have garnered the attentions and energies of people in a diverse array of social locations in the food system and are serving as a sort of touchstone for many in the alternative agrifood movement. Yet, unlike other alternative agrifood initiatives, FTS programs intersect directly with the long-established institution of the welfare state, including its vestiges of New Deal farm programs and public entitlement. This paper explores how FTS is navigating the liminal terrain of public and private (...) initiative, particularly the ways in which it interfaces with neoliberalism as both a material and discursive project. It examines the political emergence of school food programs and finds that FTS is strikingly similar to traditional school programs in objectives, but differs in approach. Yet, in their efforts to fill in the gaps created by political and economic neoliberalization, FTS advocates are in essence producing neoliberal forms and practices afresh. These include those associated with contingent labor relationships, private funding sources, and the devolution of responsibility to the local, all of which have serious consequences for social equity. The paper also discusses how FTS programs are employing the rhetoric of neoliberal governmentality, including personal responsibility and individual success, consumerism, and choice. While these may be tactical choices used to secure funding in a competitive environment, they may also contribute to the normalization of neoliberalism, further circumscribing the possibilities of what can be imagined and created to solve social problems. (shrink)

Farm to School (FTS) programs are increasingly popular as methods to teach students about food, nutrition, and agriculture by connecting students with the sources of the food that they eat. They may also provide opportunity for farmers seeking to diversify market channels. Food service buyers in FTS programs often choose to procure food for school meals directly from farmers. The distribution practices required for such direct procurement often bring significant transaction costs for both school food service (...) professionals and farmers. Analysis of data from a survey of Vermont farmers who sell directly to school food services explores farmers’ motivations and distribution practices in these partnerships. A two-step cluster analysis procedure characterizes farmers’ motivations along a continuum between market-based and socially embedded values. Further bivariate analysis shows that farmers who are motivated most by market-based values are significantly associated with distribution practices that facilitate sales to school food services. Implications for technical assistance to facilitate these sales are discussed. (shrink)

Farm to school programs have been positioned as interventions that can support goals of the global food sovereignty movement, including strengthening local food production systems, improving food access and food justice for urban populations, and reducing distancing between producers and consumers. However, there has been little assessment of how and to what extent farm to school programs can actually function as a mechanism leading to the achievement of food sovereignty. As implemented in North America, farm to school (...) programs encompass activities not only related to school food procurement, but also to the development of student knowledge and skills under the framework of food literacy. Research on farm to school initiatives has largely been conducted in countries with government-supported national school feeding programs; this study examines farm to school organizing in Canada, where there is no national student nutrition program. Using qualitative fieldwork and document analysis, we investigate the farm to school movement in British Columbia, in a context where civil society concerns related to education and health have been the main vectors of farm to school mobilization. Our analysis suggests that, despite limited institutional infrastructure for school meals, the British Columbia farm to school movement has contributed toward realizing goals of food sovereignty through two main mechanisms: advocacy for institutional procurement of local and sustainable foods and mobilizing food literacy for increased public engagement with issues of social justice and equity in food systems. (shrink)

To understand the phenomenon of the rapidly increasing prevalence of overweight and obese children and youth, it is especially important to examine the school food environment, the role of structural factors in shaping this environment, and the resulting nutrition and health outcomes. The paper examines research on school food environments in the US and Canada. It notes evidence of widespread availability of poor nutrition products in both environments and delineates reasons for the situation, and examines initiatives (...) presently being undertaken in a number of jurisdictions in both countries to encourage healthy eating in schools. Empirical data are presented from a pilot study of high schools in the Canadian province of Ontario. The study documents the extent of student purchasing of nutrient-poor foods and beverages, and the structural factors internal and external to the school that appear responsible for the availability of such products in food environments in this critical institutional sphere. The paper also examines positive local initiatives in high schools that seek to encourage healthy eating in schools. (shrink)

Changes in the US food system and an interest in changing dietary habits among youth have impelled numerous schools and communities to develop programs such as community gardens. Youth community gardens have the potential to positively influence dietary behaviors and enhance environmental awareness and appreciation. However, actual data supporting youth gardening and its influence are limited. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of community gardens on youth dietary behaviors, values and beliefs, and cooking and gardening behaviors. (...) Focus groups were conducted with inner-city youth living in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota and compared those involved in a youth garden program with those uninvolved in order to investigate whether the gardening program influenced their habits, beliefs, and values. Findings indicate that youth garden program participants were more willing to eat nutritious food and try ethnic and unfamiliar food than those not in the program. Additionally, it was apparent that garden participants had a stronger appreciation for other individuals and cultures and were more likely to cook and garden on their own than youth not involved in a garden program. The findings suggest that garden programs positively impact youth garden habits, food choice, social skills, nutrition knowledge, and cooking skills. (shrink)

Farm to school is a popular approach to food systems education in K-12 schools across the United States. FTS programs are highly heterogeneous, but generally include serving locally grown fruits and vegetables in school nutrition programs, planting and maintaining school gardens, and engaging students in garden and food-based learning across the school curriculum. While FTS has been promoted as a “win–win–win” for children, farmers, and communities, it has also been critiqued for reinscribing neoliberal trends that (...) exacerbate social inequalities. Through a year-long, ethnographic study of FTS within one public middle school in the Southeast US, this paper contributes to these debates. Drawing upon theoretical frameworks of materiality and affective labor, we investigate how engagement with FTS activities can transform the social practice of everyday life in school for students, staff, and teachers. We find that FTS can reframe success in collaborative terms, engage the school around collective responsibility, and foster relationships across socioeconomic and racial difference. Although there is continued need to expand policies to ensure equitable funding for FTS, our research demonstrates that the hands-on work and collective subjectivities produced through FTS can mitigate the harms of neoliberalism and be a force for positive social change within a school. (shrink)

Interest in and initiation of farm-to-school (FTS) programs have increased in recent years, spurred on by converging public concerns about child obesity trends and risks associated with industrialization and distancing in the modern food system. A civic agriculture framework that more specifically considers civic engagement and problem solving offers insights about variations in the development and prospects for FTS programs. Drawing on comparative case studies of two emerging FTS initiatives in Pennsylvania—one in a rural setting and one in an (...) urban setting—this article examines the role of internal and external “champions” in launching FTS programs and fostering civic engagement. Farm-to-school community stakeholders across the two cases framed FTS in broadly similar terms of (1) redressing poor food environments; (2) improving student nutrition, health and well-being; and (3) revitalizing rural community through support of local agriculture. However, specific concerns and emphases differed across the rural and urban cases, illustrating the significance of local context for such programs. The article concludes by discussing the importance of frame bridging and frame extension as strategies for expanding the FTS movement, and also ensuring programs that correspond to the specific circumstances and possibilities of their social and geographic settings. (shrink)

_In _Broader, Bolder, Better_, authors Elaine Weiss, of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education campaign, and Paul Reville, former Massachusetts secretary of education, make a compelling case for a fundamental change in the way we view education._ The authors argue for a large-scale expansion of community-school partnerships in order to provide holistic, integrated student supports (ISS) from cradle to career, including traditional wraparound services like health, mental health, nutrition, and family supports, as well as expanded access to opportunities (...) such as early childhood education, afterschool activities, and summer enrichment programs. The book builds on nearly a decade of research by the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, a national initiative endorsed by more than sixty policy experts and leaders from across the country, and draws on the work of Harvard’s Education Redesign Lab. It pulls from case studies of effective ISS efforts in twelve diverse communities to illustrate the variety of strategies that can be adopted locally. A call to action that also provides examples of communities that are successfully leveling the playing field for poor children, this book offers a detailed vision for building—through field work, mobilization, and financing—comprehensive systems to prepare all children for success. (shrink)

Poor nutrition habits have been reported in the childcare setting. While the literature advocates the need to carry out ‘Voice of the Child’ research, few studies have explored this methodology with regard to children and food, in particular in the pre-school setting. This article aims to outline the ethical issues raised by a research ethics committee and to discuss the impact of these issues on a study that hoped to determine the food perceptions of children (aged three to (...) four years) within an ongoing nutrition and lifestyle pre-school project in Ireland. Ethical approval was granted for this study but only upon the clarification of two aspects: that only hedonic symbols previously used in the literature could be included in the study; and that parental consent be obtained from both parents of each child. Children were shown food pictures and asked to use the hedonic symbols to answer questions posed to them on the food. Owing to the ethical constraints imposed by the requirement for two-parent consent, seven children, from a potential sample of 85, were eligible to partake in the study. These children did not seem to understand the hedonic symbols recommended for use by the ethics committee, therefore preventing the collection of in-depth qualitative data. The ethical constraints placed on this study impacted on both its design and its methodology and are discussed in relation to national and international ethical guidance and legislation. Future research with children regarding food choice must balance the need for strict ethical standards with the need to explore children’s views on this subject. (shrink)

Farm to School programs aim to connect school children with local foods, to promote a synergistic relationship between local farmers, child nutrition and education goals, and community development. Drawing from 18 months of ethnographic research with a regional FTS project and interviews with child nutrition program operators implementing FTS across Georgia, we identify perceptions of food safety as an emerging barrier in efforts to bring local foods into schools. Conducting a thematic analysis of data related to (...) food safety, we find that FTS participation may be hindered by discourses and perceptions of safety risks attributed to local foods—and to local produce in particular. We argue that this results, paradoxically, from a core tenant of FTS and other local food movements: forging personal relationships with farmers, through which POs confront the transparency of local food production, in contrast to the opacity of food procured through standard supply chains. Faced with unfamiliar production practices, and responsibilized to protect students as “at risk” subjects, POs may decide that buying local food is “not worth the risk.”. (shrink)

Farm to School programs aim to connect school children with local foods, to promote a synergistic relationship between local farmers, child nutrition and education goals, and community development. Drawing from 18 months of ethnographic research with a regional FTS project and interviews with child nutrition program operators implementing FTS across Georgia, we identify perceptions of food safety as an emerging barrier in efforts to bring local foods into schools. Conducting a thematic analysis of data related to (...) food safety, we find that FTS participation may be hindered by discourses and perceptions of safety risks attributed to local foods—and to local produce in particular. We argue that this results, paradoxically, from a core tenant of FTS and other local food movements: forging personal relationships with farmers, through which POs confront the transparency of local food production, in contrast to the opacity of food procured through standard supply chains. Faced with unfamiliar production practices, and responsibilized to protect students as “at risk” subjects, POs may decide that buying local food is “not worth the risk.”. (shrink)

Māori (Indigenous people of New Zealand (NZ)) suffer food insecurity disproportionately in New Zealand. Some research suggests that Māori value mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori knowledge) when it comes to the collection, preparation and eating of kai (food). This study explores the connections between mātauranga Māori and kai in regional NZ schools for potential pathways to impact food security for children. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with five primary school principals in the Hawke’s Bay region. Principals were purposively selected on commitments (...) to proactively incorporating mātauranga Māori into their school environment. Reflective thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Three main themes were identified: teaching and learning around mātauranga Māori and kai; environmental sustainability and the sustainability of kai initiatives; and school values. A strong emphasis was placed on the learning of traditional Māori values around kai and the whenua (land) and the sustainability of teaching programs. School values were invariably bound in Te Ao Māori (a Māori worldview) however, schools felt challenged in aligning their values and their mātauranga Māori-bound teaching practices with the current food provision programme in their schools (Ka Ora, Ka Ako). The programme’s strict nutritional guidelines appeared to challenge traditional Māori approaches to kai. Schools remain an ideal environment for the incorporation of mātauranga Māori to support food security and food education, and future work should explore a demonstration project that incorporates the knowledge gained in this study and ways to integrate mātauranga Māori into Ka Ora, Ka Ako. (shrink)

Maintenance of proper health and prevention of diseases of civilization are now significant public health problems. Nutrition is an important factor in the development of youth, as well as the current and future state of health. The aim of the study was to show the benefits of the application of cluster analysis to assess the dietary habits of high school students. The survey was carried out on 1,631 eighteen-year-old students in seven randomly selected secondary schools in Bialystok using (...) a self-prepared anonymous questionnaire. An evaluation of the time of day meals were eaten and the number of meals consumed was made for the surveyed students. The cluster analysis allowed distinguishing characteristic structures of dietary habits in the observed population. Four clusters were identified, which were characterized by relative internal homogeneity and substantial variation in terms of the number of meals during the day and the time of their consumption. The most important characteristics of cluster 1 were cumulated food ration in 2 or 3 meals and long intervals between meals. Cluster 2 was characterized by eating the recommended number of 4 or 5 meals a day. In the 3rd cluster, students ate 3 meals a day with large intervals between them, and in the 4th they had four meals a day while maintaining proper intervals between them. In all clusters dietary mistakes occurred, but most of them were related to clusters 1 and 3. Cluster analysis allowed for the identification of major flaws in nutrition, which may include irregular eating and skipping meals, and indicated possible connections between eating patterns and disturbances of body weight in the examined population. (shrink)

The obesity epidemic among children and adolescents in the United States continues to worsen. The most recent analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents – defined as a Body Mass Index at or above the 95th percentile on gender-specific BMI-for-age growth charts developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – increased significantly between 1999-2000 and 2003-2004. Over this period, the prevalence of overweight among (...) children and adolescents aged 2-19 increased 23% – from 13.9% to 17.1%. In 2003-2004, 18.8% of children aged 6-11 and 17.4% of adolescents aged 12-19 were overweight. Roughly comparable proportions of each age group were considered to be at risk of becoming overweight. (shrink)

Based on a sample of 46 Portuguese schoolbooks, this study aims to understand how factory-farmed animals are presented in such books across the themes of food and health, the environment and sustainability, and animal welfare. It examines whether schoolbooks address the importance of reducing the consumption of animal-based products for a healthy diet, whether plant-based diets are recognized as healthy, whether animal welfare and agency are considered, and whether the livestock sector is indicated as a major factor in environmental degradation. (...) The findings show that schoolbooks present animals as essential for economic activities and human nutrition. Recommendations on reducing the consumption of animal-based products in consideration of the environment, sustainability and human health are very rare. Animal production is presented as benign, and the agency and welfare of factory-farmed animals are simply not addressed. (shrink)

This is the first comprehensive overview of the influence of Platonism on the English literary tradition, showing how English writers, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Wordsworth, Yeats, Pound and Iris Murdoch, used Platonic themes and images within their own imaginative work.

This paper challenges the first Gettier counterexample to the tripartite account of knowledge. Noting that 'the man who will get the job' is a description and invoking Donnellan's distinction between their 'referential' and 'attributive' uses, I argue that Smith does not actually believe that the man who will get the job has ten coins in his pocket. Smith's ignorance about who will get the job shows that the belief cannot be understood referentially, his ignorance of the coins in his pocket (...) shows that it cannot be understood attributively. An explanation for why Smith appeared to have justified true belief is given by distinguishing between 'belief' and 'belief in truth'. Smith believes the sentence 'the man who will get the job has ten coins in his pocket' to be true (he mistakenly believes that Jones will get the job, of whom he knows that he has ten coins in his pocket) (hence his 'belief'), the sentence is true (hence 'truth'), and he has sufficient reason to assent to it (hence his 'justification'). But he does not believe the proposition expressed. Hence he does not know it either. (shrink)