Caryn received her My First Organics Classroom Bundle free as part of our recent launch of www.RealFoodAction.org and the Real Food Action Campaign. Real Food Action is a culmination of years of research that we did on the topics of nutrition, earth science education, school food, childhood obesity, local food systems and much more.  We found that they are all tied together, and that U.S. children are having a disconnect from the concept of where their food comes from.  Real Food Action is a resource derived from this extensive research, a resource for anyone seeking guidance on how to get involved, get educated, and get going!  It’s a wonderful springboard that points you in the direction of numerous other organizations and individuals that can help you make lasting healthy changes for our nation and our planet.

Jamie Oliver

Our recent post on Jamie Oliver covered his acceptance speech for the prestigious TED prize.  The speech says volumes about Mr. Oliver and his dream.  Today we cover just a few of his achievements to date.  Let’s take a look at what motivates this young chef to help so many people.

James Trevor Oliver, born May 27 1975, was born into kitchen life.  His parents Essex pub (which you can visit today) was his playground and at age 16 he left school to attend Westminster Catering College.  After working several outstanding restaurants in England and the rest of Europe he was discovered by TV producer Pat Llewellyn and “The Naked Chef” was born.  The show was a hit.

Now a celebrity, he was asked by Tony Blair to become Britain’s ‘Food Tsar’, and approached by Nestle and Coca-Cola to endorse their products -- all declined in favor of loftier ambitions.  But he wasn’t waiting for a bigger deal.  He wanted to cook up his own destiny.  Jamie decided to instead create a new TV show and a charity.  The show, Jamie’s Kitchen, opened a new restaurant called Fifteen and a new commercial business with a purpose.  The shows premise was to follow the training of 15 disadvantaged youth in the field of catering.  The show was another hit, and there are now 4 Fifteen location: Amsterdam, Cornwall, London, and Melbourne.  The work continues to aid the youth in the employ of these restaurants under the arm of the Jamie Oliver Foundation, and profits feed their apprenticeships.

From here Jamie Oliver moved into a more public arena, launching into a new endeavor.  Creating a new show, Jamie’s School Dinners takes a step into the schoolyards of Greenwich Village to address childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes.  He simply showed how easily we could get the processed junk food out of schools and feed kids REAL food again.  The success of this show led to the acquisition of a 300,000 signature petition, numerous headlines and the eventual agreement of Tony Blair to allocated $1 Billon in government cash to equip and train Britain’s schools to wean themselves off of junk food.

Which brings us to the here and now.  www.jamieoliver.com averages about 70k hits per day from U.S. traffic alone. Americans have been watching his shows, reading his books and downloading recipes for years.  But what prompts this high profile Chef to care about us yanks?

Simple really.  Americans are sick.  And getting worse by the day.  ABC television has teamed up with Jamie and will be airing a show that they filmed in Huntington, WV.  At the time of shooting, Huntington was named “the unhealthiest city in America”.  Premiering Friday, March 29th at 8/9pm CST we’ll see first hand how this man is on a quest to eradicate obesity and help humanity reclaim it’s dignity and health.  I’ll be taking notes to see how he does it.  The resistance to change is powerful and everyone here in California has a tendency to announce our common defense:  It’s too expensive and too difficult to change.  Often we agree that something should be done.   But our fiscal crisis seems to always paralyze us.  So, how do we do it?

Community.  Local family support.  Parent volunteers.  Donations.  These are OUR kids.  Not the Federal Governments, or the States, or the School Districts.  We need to realize just how much power we have to change the system.  Once we get this epiphany, we need to ACT, and follow through.  We cannot rely on support from government.  There is just too much at stake.

Linda and I struggle with this every day.  Just like everyone else, todays food system has fueled a lifestyle on the run -- we are just as trapped by the simplicity of it, blinded by it.  We grew up straddling 2 worlds.  One foot in childhood memory of home-cooked meals and lunchboxes and cafeteria’s that had real kitchens, and the other foot in today’s food system:  One of fast, corporate junk food, extraneous packaging, and failed labeling.  And my opinion is that our generation, Jamie’s generation, is the only one that can stop it before the art of growing, cooking and eating whole food is a lost art.

I believe that food education, as Jamie puts it, does need to be brought back into the school system.  I also believe that growing food is an integral part of food education.  Creating a sustainable, local food system so that we feel empowered when it comes to nutrition, not shackled by cheap (or rather, expensive…) ‘food’.

Our 1st grader eats government issue twice a week.  He likes it.  Then again, it’s engineered to taste good.  So it’s not a shock.  For weeks we have been on a quest to bring a true, healthy lunch into his school.  It’s hard work.  But we have angels coming out of the woodwork, joining us along our journey.  We are gathering strength, ideas, and momentum!  And you realize you are on the right track when someone sends you the news that Jamie Oliver wins the TED prize -- and it’s right in line with our quest.

Chef, writer, blogger, speaker, activist, and TV’s ‘Naked Chef’…these are just a handful of the things Jamie has done over the years, but it’s his passion for changing the way we eat that has captivated us here at EcoFare.

Jamie Oliver has tackled childhood obesity head on.  As a small ‘mom and pop’ shop, Linda and I need someone with his verve to lift us up and encourage us to continue our own quest to educate our youth about gardening and where whole, real food comes from.  His passion is contagious.  If you weren’t a believer in an inevitable food revolution, he will make you see the light.

Last week Jamie won the prestigious TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference award of $100,000 for his campaign to fight childhood obesity.  So, sit back, take 20 min to watch his TED acceptance speech and then decide how YOU want to make a change -- and start by heading over to Jamie’s website to sign his Food Revolution Petition.

Just a few days ago, USDA agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack announced several new initiatives to assure the safety and quality of food purchased by USDA for the National School Lunch Program, stating, “Nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our Nation’s school children”.   Glad to hear it. This announcement came just two months after a scathing USA Today article declaring that fast food standards for meat are far superior to those the USDA has for meat in your children’s school lunch.  The USDA was sending chicken slated as compost or pet food to our school cafeterias!  Alarming to say the least.

President Barack Obama signs a memorandum on childhood obesity in the Oval Office. From left are, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar February 9, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

One of Michelle Obama’s biggest supporters is her husband and President, Barack Obama.  President Obama signed a memorandum February 9, 2010 that establishes a task force on childhood obesity to address this growing health epidemic. The new task force is charged with developing an inter-agency action plan to solve the problem of obesity among our Nation’s children.  Within 90 days, the task force is to develop and submit to the President a comprehensive inter-agency plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines an action plan. Members of the task force include: the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Agriculture; Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of Education; Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady; Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; and heads of other executive departments, agencies, or offices as the Chair may designate.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on our First Lady’s work.  We’ve been tickled from the beginning that she was carrying a torch for ‘growing your own’.  This kind of campaign is exactly in line with our own efforts here at Surf City Growers and our new organic curriculum for preK-3rd graders.  The direct link between growing wholesome food, education, exercise and nutrition for children in order to create lifelong habits of health for our nation is at stake.  Some of us argue that it’s a national health crisis of proportions we cannot fathom.

Let’s join together to stop it in its tracks.

Visit Michelle Obama’s website at LETSMOVE.GOV

Alice Waters shows us what a tomato should look like

If you didn’t watch 60 minutes last week, we beg you to take 15 minutes to watch this captivating story on Alice Waters. Excuse us, but we must pause in reverence to our organic goddess…

Now, we simply can’t say enough about her, what she’s done, and what she’s trying to do. A self-confessed dreamer, she acknowledges that the way she cooks is a luxury (she doesn’t own a microwave and cooks eggs over an open fire in her kitchen!). But poison-free food should be accessible to everyone.

“I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides. And everybody deserves this food. And that’s not elitist,” Waters argued.

Her overall message is that we cannot afford to eat poorly. The processed, pesticide-sprayed, hormone-injected food that we eat is making us sick. Okay, but how do we change that? Through education.

Her Edible Schoolyard has been our inspiration for My First Organics, and our quest is to make this a reality in every school and home in America. It’s our way of making organic produce accessible to everyone!

She closes the interview with her desire to see the White House plant a sustainable, organic garden.

“I have been talking nonstop about the symbolism of an edible landscape at the White House. I think it says everything about stewardship of the land and about the nourishment of a nation,” Waters said.

The woman gets what she wants (a woman after my own heart). Check my previous post…

Enjoy watching Alice Waters on 60 minutes or check out the article and transcript.