While I haven't had a chance to report back on the last batch of event I posted (and I do plan to), here are a couple of other things I'm really excited about that are happening in the next week!

Thursday, November 19

Getting to Work: Labor Issues in the 21st Century
6:30pm
Theresa Lang Community & Student Center, 55 West 13th Street
Following every economic crisis, American labor has risen up to fight for reform. Where is organized labor now? Have American workers surrendered their expectations of in order to compete within the world market?
Bookforum, in conjunction with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, will host a discussion on November 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the New School to investigate how the American workforce has changed, how work can be fairly rewarded in a post-industrial economy, and what rights still exist.

Friday, November 20

Down by the River: An Undergraduate Symposium on Race and Environmental Justice Organizing and Policy
9:00am
Eugene Lang College, New School for Liberal Arts
66 W. 12th Street Room 510
Whether responding to harsh effects of toxic-dumping in Birmingham, Bronzeville or Brooklyn, activists, community members, and politicians have often regarded race and ethnicity as crucial factors in the research and analysis produced to combat unjust environmental practices. In light of these efforts, Eugene Lang College’s Ethnicity and Race Program presents Down By The River: An Undergraduate Symposium on Race and Environmental Justice Organizing and Policy.

Books Through Bars Solidarity Event
Co-sponsored by Amnesty International, Students Creating Radical Change, and Sustainable Silver
7:00pm
The Parlor
Books Through Bars is a volunteer collective that gathers and sends books to incarcerated people all over the United States, who too often severely lack access to education. On September 14, a fire in an apartment above the space they use at the New York City AIDS Housing Network caused serious water damage, destroying nearly all of their library and supplies. Students have always played an important role in Books Through Bars’ work, and their solidarity is needed now more than ever. Come learn more about what Books Through Bars does and why, and strategize with other student activists about what role we can play in their recovery and growth.

Tuesday, November 24

Swip Swap and Food Inc. Screening
Co-sponsored by Oxfam America @ NYU, Net Impact, Earth Matters! and Sustainable Silver
6:30pm
Kimmel 802
Join us for a night of swip-swapping, screen- printing, movie-watching, and dinner-eating.
6:30 Bring over clothing, books, CDs, and miscellaneous items and swap em for someone else’s cooler stuff.
7:45 We’ll screen Food Inc., an awesome movie that looks into America’s industrial agriculture as well as its alternatives.
Dinner will be provided.

Hi Daily Samosa! Just wanted to share a few events I'm planning to attend in the next couple of days, and thought folks who read this blog might be interested in too:

SUSTAINABLE SILVER EAST NY FARMS VOLUNTEER TRIP, Saturday, 11/7/ 10am-2pm
On Saturday, November 7, Sustainable Silver be taking a volunteer trip out to East New York Farms, and urban farm and community-based organization in, guess where, East New York. We’ll have a chance to get our hands dirty on their farm, check out their farmers’ market, and learn about their awesome community organizing and youth empowerment work. Meet us at the Farm at 10am or at the School of Social Work at 9am. Please RSVP by emailing us at sustainablesilver@gmail.com with “East New York Farms” in the subject line.

FREE THE HIKERS VIGIL IN WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK FOLLOWED BY FUNDRAISER AT THE TOWN TAVERN, Sunday, 11/8, 4:30pm (vigil), 5-8pm (fundraiser)
My friend Sami is organizing this event for her friend Josh, who was one of the three American hikers detained in Iran after accidentally crossing the border a few months ago. Here's an email she sent about the event:

As many of you know, a dear friend of mine, Josh Fattal, is one of the hikers that has been missing in Iran for over three months when he along with two friends, Sarah and Shane, mistakenly crossed an unmarked border into Iran. This Sunday marks 100 days in detention and I am helping coordinate a vigil and fundraiser to mark this date and appeal for the hikers' release.

Sunday, November 8th @ 4:30pm in Washington Square Park in NYC we will be holding a 100 Day Vigil of Hope to mark the long duration of our friends' detention. This event will be followed by a fundraiser at the Town Tavern (a 21+ bar located at 134 W 3rd St) from 5 - 8pm. A $5 suggested donation will be collected at the door, and drink specials are being offered!

This vigil is an opportunity for us to gather our energy and love and send it to Tehran. However, this vigil is also quickly becoming an important opportunity to gain critical media attention for Josh's cause.

Lisa Ling, from The View, and her sister Laura Ling, who was one of the journalists detained by North Korea this past year, will be attending the event. PEOPLE Magazine will also be there covering our story. At the last vigil, Fox News, Reuters and a number of other media outlets were also there.

If you have the time, please make it out to Washington Square Park at 4:30 this Sunday! Please also pass this email on to friends, family, and your networks. Also, if you haven't done so already, please visit the website: www.freethehikers.org.

THE COST OF INEQUALITY: EXPLORING THE INTERCEPTION OF RACE, POVERTY, AND POLICY, Wednesday, 11/11, 9:30-3:30pm, Kimmel 802
Check out the schedule of this amazing-looking conference:

9:30 – 10:00 Registration & Continental breakfast

10:00 – 10:30 Keynote: Introductory Remarks

10:30 – 11:45 Education Panel: A Look at the Economics of Education and its Effect of Students of Color Achievement

Speakers

Pedro Noguera, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University

Dr. Sheila Evens Tranum, Associate Commission of Education, NY State Education Department

Shawn Dove, Open Society Institute

11:45 – 12:45 Lunch and Networking

12:45 – 2:00 Applied Research Center’s presentation on report entitled "Race and Recession: How Inequity Rigged the Economy and how to Change the Rules" by Seth Wessler, ARC Senior Policy Researcher

2:00-3:00-The Prison Pipeline: A Closer Look at the Prison Industrial Complex with Max Kenner, founder of the Bard Prison Initiative, and Mishi Faruqee, Director of the Juvenile Justice Project with the Correctional Association of New York

3:00-3:30 Closing Remarks

I'm taking a break from writing my mid-term paper for my Human Behavior in the Social Environment class, which I seem to be entirely incapable of focusing on. This is the only paper I've had to write this mid-term season, and all of those problem sets and exams seem to have completely destroyed my ability to think qualitatively.

Every couple of weeks, our blogger advisory committee sends us suggested topics to address on our blogs -- nothing obligatory, but just ideas to help us overcome writer's block if we're facing it. One of the ones this week was:

What do you do to keep healthy and happy while balancing school, your internship and all of your other commitments?

In my opinion, this question is phrased in a rather optimistic and leading way -- who's to say that I do manage to keep happy and healthy while balancing school, work, volunteering, life, etc, etc, etc? That's a pretty big assumption to make! But curmudgeonliness aside, here's my answer:

Cooking is something that really helps me deal with stress. I'll never be able to follow a recipe to the tea spoon, but there's something about turning dry, lifeless beans, scruffy vegetables, and whatever else into warm, delicious food that I find extremely comforting. I especially love making soup, and I recently received an immersion blender which has revolutionized my life.

I'm a member of a CSA, so each week I walk to a church in my neighborhood to pick up a box of fresh, organic vegetables from a farm out on Long Island. A picky eater by nature, I've discovered that I love vegetables I'd never even heard of, and in every box there's a new culinary adventure to be had.

This week, the more conventional vegetables went fast -- the potatoes and leeks quickly became soup, the carrots were devoured with hummus, and the baby lettuce made a delicious salad. I'm now scratching my head about what to do with the two bulbs of kohlrabi I have left, and the large bunch of bok choi.

Kohlrabi, for those of you who have never heard of it before (I hadn't), is part cabbage, part turnip, and looks like a space ship. It comes in both purple and green varieties, and can can be either eaten raw or cooked. I've never cooked it, just had it chopped into salads, and barely noticed. My boyfriend finds it to be utterly offensive, and when I told him that I was writing about kohlrabi on my blog he wondered if I was writing about how disgusting it is and how we should eat the farmers that farm it because they would probably taste better.

Actually, that wasn't what I'm going to write -- I've got two bulbs of kohlrabi, and I'm going to make the most of them! Between paragraphs, I've been browsing cooking blogs, and here are some good-looking recipes I've found:

Raw Kohlrabi, Apple, and Carrot Salad (I think I'm going to make it with lemon-tahini dressing. A vegan friend came over for dinner the other day and I was making cole slaw, and so instead of putting mayo in the dressing I put tahini, and it was SO GOOD. My mayo days are over.)
Roasted Kohlrabi with Romesco Sauce (I'm not sure I'm up to the Romesco Sauce, but I have some muhammara I made the other day that might fill in well. By muhammara, I mean something based on muhammara, made with pine nuts instead of walnuts, and no tamarind paste.)
Kohlrabi Greens Pesto for Grilled Pizza (A way to use the greens! That involves pizza! Fabulous! I love pizza!)

As you can see, I'm feeling very optimistic about this whole kohlrabi situation. Does anyone else have any favorite recipes? Any favorite cooking blogs or websites to share? I personally am in love with Tastespotting, which takes beautiful pictures from cooking blogs across the internet and puts them all in one mouthwatering database. 101cookbooks.com is also great.

I got an email the other day from someone who works with Revolution Books asking that I post this open letter on my blog. While I'm not actually in agreement with Ray Lotta on a lot of things, and I know almost nothing about Tony Judt, it was an interesting letter, and I think that the event promises to be fascinating. I also think that these types of conversations are important to have, especially at an educational institution like NYU -- conventional wisdom must always be questioned, and the status quo challenged. So, after that disclaimer, here's the letter:

An Open Letter from Raymond Lotta to Tony Judt and the NYU Community on the Responsibility of Intellectuals to the Truth... Including and Especially the Truth About Communism

This letter was written before I had learned of Tony Judt’s health condition. His difficult situation is saddening and of great concern. At the same time, the debate around the ideas that he stands for remains an urgent one.

I invite members of the NYU community to a talk I will be giving on October 26 at 7:00 p.m. at the Cantor Film Center titled “Everything You Have Been Told About Communism Is Wrong.” I will be deconstructing the core lies spread about communism and surveying communism’s real past, real lessons, and real prospects for the future.

I address this letter to Professor Judt in particular because in the past period he has contributed towards opening up intellectual discourse and critical thinking in certain arenas, including about Zionism.

But I also address this letter to Tony Judt because he has at the same time been doing the opposite. When it comes to the signal political breakthrough of the 20th century—that the “wretched of the earth” rose up and made revolutions in the Soviet Union (1917-56) and China (1949-1976) that represented the first and historic steps towards creating a communist world without exploitation and oppression—when it comes to this most important question, Professor Judt has actually contributed to the perpetuation of ignorance. He has contributed to the grave constriction of critical thinking and critical inquiry by repeating and reinforcing “official verdicts” and hackneyed distortions about communism.

In his 1998 commentary on The Black Book of Communism, Judt asserts: “Communism and Nazism are, and always were, morally indistinguishable.” Under both regimes, Judt argues, “whole categories of people, real or imagined…were exterminated not for anything they had done, but just for being who they were.” To which I can only respond: you are wrong, you are spreading lies, you don’t know what you are talking about, and you are causing great harm.

One of the authors of the anticommunist The Black Book who subsequently dissociated himself from the Introduction to the text told Le Monde: “death camps did not exist in the Soviet Union,” and “the more you compare communism and nazism, the more the differences are obvious.”

Tony Judt seeks to buttress his case that communism has been a political failure and moral disaster with the outrageous assertion that “the facts and figures [in The Black Book]…are irrefutable.” But such “facts and figures” ostensibly documenting communism’s “crimes” can be readily refuted. The only problem is that no one is allowed to seriously do so in the public square. Such is the weight and influence of the institutionalized conventional wisdom about communism.

I intend to crack open debate and change this situation with my talk at NYU, as well as through other events. I will show that this received wisdom is built on lies and misrepresentations about the aims and methods of communist revolution, and about the actual historical-social conditions they faced and sought to transform. I will show how humanity made unprecedented leaps in moving beyond the “long dark night” of exploitative and class-divided society.

The stakes of this discussion are very high. These spurious verdicts about communism lower sights and constrain discourse and exploration about how the world could be radically different. In short, these verdicts reinforce the oppressive status quo and its conventional wisdom that the best we can do is tinker around the edges of contemporary capitalism.

Tony Judt’s account of communism as a closed and totalizing system of thought intent, as he says, on “solving the problems of mankind in one stroke” is not only a grotesque and pedestrian distortion. It also effaces the reality that the communist project is a developing one that has learned from previous experience and mistakes in conception and practice. In fact, as I will show in my talk, Mao Tsetung effected a major rupture with Stalin’s approach to building a socialist economy and confronting counter-revolution. Mao developed new understanding for continuing a revolution that seeks to change people’s material circumstances, along with their thinking and values, through their ever-more conscious activism.

But my talk will not confine itself to a defense of the past. Most importantly, I will be discussing the new synthesis of communism brought forward by Bob Avakian. Yes, revolutionary power must be held on to: a new state power and the overall leadership of a vanguard party are indispensable. But leadership must be exercised in ways that are, in certain important and crucial respects, different from how this was understood and practiced in the past. This new synthesis recognizes the indispensable role of intellectual ferment and dissent in socialist society. Indeed, socialism must be a place where a Tony Judt can and must have the ability to articulate and disseminate his views, and where there will be great debate about these views as part of the struggle to understand and change the world.

Again, I extend an invitation to all of you to attend my talk.

To anyone seriously concerned about the state of the world...you need to come and bring your toughest questions.

To the many students at NYU who want to dedicate their lives in one form or another to the betterment of humanity but who have never heard a coherent and spirited defense of the past, present, and future of the communist project…you need to come.

To those who want to defend this system…you need to be there too, because I am taking on all comers.

Raymond Lotta
_________________________________

Raymond Lotta is a Maoist political economist, author and contributing writer to Revolution Newspaper. His writings can be found at www.revcom.us

NYU, New York City
Monday, October 26, 7pm
Cantor Film Center
36 E. 8th Street
contact Revolution Books NYC
212..691.3345, revolutionbooksnyc.org

Hi Samosa friends! Those of you who are in the School of Social Work (and those of you New Yorkers who aren't), I hope you can come to one of Sustainable Silver's upcoming events:

On Tuesday, October 27 at 8:00pm we’ll be hosting a City Biking workshop in the Parlor of the School of Social Work. The workshop will cover everything you need to know about biking in New York City, from choosing the right lock to riding safely to fun rides to take on the weekends. Plus, refreshments will be served! Please RSVP by emailing us at ssw.sustainability@nyu.edu with “Bike Workshop” in the subject line.

Then, on Saturday, November 7, we’ll be taking a volunteer trip out to East New York Farms, and urban farm and community-based organization in, guess where, East New York. We’ll have a chance to get our hands dirty on their farm, check out their farmers’ market, and learn about their awesome community organizing and youth empowerment work. Please RSVP by emailing us at ssw.sustainability@nyu.edu with “East New York Farms” in the subject line.

While there's no good excuse for my absence from this blog -- again -- I do have a lame one: last week, my wonderful roommate told me that she had decided to move back to San Francisco, where we're both from. This didn't come as a huge shock, but I still felt shaken. Housing in New York is no picnic, as anyone will tell you, and I wasn't quite sure what to do. Now, a couple of Craigslist ads, some mass emails, a Facebook note, and some potential roommate scrutiny later (to the extent that that's possible), I'm pretty sure I've found a good roommate for the time being. But it's completely consumed my life for the past little while!

I love my apartment dearly, but it's very much a two-person apartment -- no other close roommates to mitigate the awkward newness of a stranger. Before, when I had thought abstractly about my roommate leaving, which I knew she almost certainly would do before I did, I'd thought that living with a stranger would be fine -- fun, even! But now that it was actually time to find that stranger, I wasn't so confident.

I contemplated looking for a studio close by -- I wasn't willing to leave my neighborhood -- but my options were few. I looked at one, and said I'd decide within a day, but just a few hours later a family of four put down a deposit -- four. I considered about another; it had been described as "cozy" on Craigslist. I envisioned a closet with a hot plate.

I nervously posted an ad for a roommate on Craigslist, and got a couple of promising looking responses. Also an opera singer and an "international business man." I arranged to show the my apartment to a few people that weekend, and crossed my fingers. I kind of dreaded meeting them, but I was pretty anxious to figure this out -- even though I live in Queens, New York rent is HIGH, and even a week without a roommate would me a significant financial loss.

Then, a friend of mine wrote to say that she would be moving to New York in January and would be willing to live with me then! All of a sudden, living with a stranger didn't seem so bad -- after all, it would only be for a couple of months. I let the people I'd originally talked to know, put up a new Craigslist ad, sent a couple mass emails out, and posted a Facebook note. Full speed ahead to find a subletter! Funnily enough, the person who I ended up finding was someone who had responded to my original Craigslist post. I'm very optimistic about the whole thing -- but stay tuned!

Having been inspired by my fellow-blogger Jason's advice-filled blogging, I have decided to offer a bit of advice about housing in New York City. However, since I'm not sure how good my advice is, I'm putting it after the jump. Keep reading for my advice!

Continue reading "Doing School (and Samosa) when Life Happens, or, Housing in New York Sucks" »

As I've been thinking of ideas for blog posts (oh, lots of ideas), I've noticed that a lot of them either refer back to RISE, or to the classes I'm taking this semester. Which is logical, considering that this is a blog about my life as a social work student. So I thought I'd give a brief overview of the classes I'm taking this semester -- that way you'll know what I'm talking about when I refer back to them in the future.

Human Behavior in the Social Environment I: Pretty self-explanatory, I guess, and I imagine most people who read this blog will have taken it. So far: a far reaching class that ricochets from tangent to tangent, touching on at times interesting topics. This far into the semester, I'm still not sure what to make of it.

Poverty and Income Distribution: Econ class studying, in a word, poverty: how we measure it, how it manifests itself, what causes it, how it differs across countries, and how economic policy can work against it. I wish there weren't so many darn prerequisites, because it's an amazing class that's extremely relevant to social work and I'd love to be able to recommend that everyone take it.

Labor Economics: All about labor markets (in a capitalist economy, that is), in theory and in practice. The teacher, who also teaches my Public Economics class, used to be a social worker so has a more complete view of what, for example, unemployment truly entails than any econ professor I've had so far. It's really cool to see someone a little more legit than I am merging these two fields too.

Public Economics: Built on the acknowledgment of the fact that, in a capitalist economy, markets fail. Yep, that's right, they fail -- in the strictest sense of not maximizing efficiency, but also in the sense of not maximizing social welfare or equality. So this class is about the role of government in mitigating the effects of market failure, and increasing equality in already-efficient markets.

So, I'll be the first to admit that this blog has gotten up to slow start this year. But, I promise you, it was well worth it! Since about last February, I've been working with an amazing group of women to put together a one-day conference on social justice and anti-oppressive social work, in hopes of reclaiming the social work profession's traditional focus on social justice, and mobilizing social work students and new professionals to become powerful agents of social change working against structural inequity -- kind of a tall order. I'm happy to say that just a little more than a week ago, it finally happened! From a totally unbiased perspective, I'd say that RISE: Social Work in an Era of Change was a true success, with six panels on topics ranging from Non-Profit Funding to Community Organizing, a slew of workshops not only educating participants on issues from racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system to cultural competency with gender non-conforming individuals in medical settings but also brainstorming concrete strategies to face these issues, 150 passionate attendees (and 50 more on the waiting list), and connections being made and business cards exchanged wherever I turned.

What was so exciting to me about RISE, both the conference itself and the planning process, was the sense of like-minded community it created. I've griped before on this blog about how I felt like my education in social work at NYU was too clinical, and I really feel like my involvement with RISE has begun to fill a lot of holes. I've also discovered a movement of people I didn't even know existed, with whom I share many values and objectives, and who inspire me to find the best way that I can contribute to the struggle against structural injustice -- whether or not it's as a social worker. In short, it was -- and is -- great.

That's right, is! The conference was just the beginning. I don't know what shape RISE is going to take, but I know that a lot of momentum was built, and that there is a dynamic, progressive community of activists out there which is ready to harness it. There will be smaller RISE events throughout the year, another conference next year, some YouTube videos, and a better utilization of our website to create and facilitate the kinds of conversations and connections that we believe are so important to our work. And then some -- but I don't know what yet.

If you want to be involved, please check out our website, and/or leave a comment here and I'll invite you to our next meeting. I know some of my fellow bloggers made it to the conference (and Jason took some great pictures!), and maybe some readers did too. If you didn't, Marie Romeo's amazing keynote speech is available on our website near the end of this blog post, and many of the sessions were taped so we'll be posting them. Also, many of the presenters are going to allow us to post their materials on the website, so they will be up soon too. And remember, the conference was only the beginning :).

That Lunch is Nasty: Perspectives on the National School Meal Program

This post is a less academic summary some of the work I did for my independent study last semester. It was originally published on the Green Fork. The hyperlinks didn't travel well, so read the original version if you're interested in delving deep.

Last semester, while researching the National School Lunch Program, I found myself in the cafeteria of New York City’s Munro High School,* which serves children from almost exclusively low-income backgrounds. A school social worker there told me that more than 70 percent of the school’s students qualified for free or reduced price lunches, but as I looked around, I noticed that almost no one was eating – a group of kids tossed a bag of Doritos around at one table, and some other students picked at French fries and pizzas at others, but they were in the minority. A conversation with the school’s chef confirmed my observation – remarkably, in a school with about 4,000 students, he serves just a quarter of that number of meals per day.

“Why don’t people eat the school lunch?” I asked a student who was hanging out in the social worker’s adjacent office. He delicately lifted a dry, hard French fry from his plate, raised his eyebrows, and replied, “Because that lunch is nasty.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t disagree. Another student told me that she had gotten food poisoning from the school lunch, and now ate only peanut butter sandwiches because, “I don’t know where the food comes from.” At this point, the first student chimed in, “I don’t even know what it is!”

Sadly, Munro High School is not an anomaly. In 2008, the Food Bank for New York City found that of the 63 percent of high school students entitled to free or reduced price lunches in New York, only 45 percent eat school lunch on any given day. Nor is New York unusual in this regard; as far away as Oakland, “nasty” seems to be the word of choice (emphasized, of course, by “hella,” as things often are on the West coast) for describing school lunch.

With both child obesity and hunger on the rise, a quickly warming planet, and, conveniently, the federal law that funds school lunch programs, the Child Nutrition Act, up for reauthorization in September, there couldn’t be a better time than right now to revisit what we want to see in the nation’s school cafeterias. Organizations like Slow Food are lobbying to have the reauthorization address the intertwined public health issues of hunger and obesity in low-income communities, as well as the development of a more just and sustainable food system.

So what would a better CNA look like? Different organizations have different priorities, but some common goals are increased funding, creating green jobs in nutrition and food service, giving schools incentives to buy local food and to teach kids about where their food comes from, eliminating junk food from schools entirely, and improving access to the school lunch program. A more detailed discussion of these priorities follows here.

Spend more money on school lunches

Though reimbursement rates (PDF) vary by state, on average school districts receive just $2.60 for each free lunch served, and just 25¢ for each full-price lunch. As the group California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA) points out (PDF), federal increases in reimbursement rates for school lunches lag far behind increases in food prices. Slow Food’s Time For Lunch lobbying platform suggests that the reimbursement be raised by one dollar.

Create green jobs in school nutrition and food service

Another element of Slow Food’s platform is the creation of a School Lunch Corps, a program that would “train underemployed Americans to be the teachers, farmers, cooks, and administrators our school cafeterias need.” We need them alright – at Langdon Elementary School*, which I also visited, a staff of five prepares and serves lunch for nearly 1,000 students each day!

Encourage school districts to serve local food, educate children about food, and participate in Farm-to-School programs

This is a popular one, and dear to my heart as a sustainable food advocate. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) suggests increasing reimbursements (PDF) to districts that provide healthier foods, particularly for those buying from local farmers. Meanwhile, CFPA suggests that Congress fund pilot projects to conduct nutrition education in cafeterias. Slow Food also advocates both local food sourcing and nutrition education through the promotion of Farm-to-School programs and school gardens. When I mentioned the idea of Farm-to-School or a school garden to the director of operations at Langdon Elementary school, she told me that the kids would love it, but that she doubted its feasibility. Maybe its inclusion in the school lunch reauthorization would make it seem a little more doable.

Get junk food out of schools

Sounds obvious, right? Well, you’d think so. But you’d be surprised to find out which are considered junk food by the USDA, and even more surprised to find out which aren’t. Plus, apart from what’s served in the cafeteria, there’s plenty of nutritionally devoid eatables available. At Munro High School, vending machines offering sugary juices and potato chips were relatively abundant, and there was a cash-only snack bar serving ice cream sandwiches and similar fare. There’s actually a proposed law addressing this problem – the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act of 2009, which advocates like Slow Food hope will be approved this fall.

Improve access to the National School Lunch Program

Finally, troubled as the school lunch program is, it’s an important safety net for many children and families facing food insecurity. NYCCAH and CFPA, as well as the Child Nutrition Forum (CNF) all call for increased access to the program, either by raising income thresholds for eligibility or by making school meals free to all students. At the moment, families living at or above 185 percent of the federal poverty line must pay full price for school lunches. For a family of four that’s $40,792.50 per year, but according to CFPA, many of these families face food insecurity. CFPA advocates increasing the threshold to 200 percent of the federal poverty line, while NYCCAH calls for universal free school lunch, noting that this would “decrease government expenditures on paperwork now used to make income eligibility determinations.” This is actually already an option for schools in high-poverty districts, and Langdon’s director of operations told me although their school hadn’t implemented it yet, they were planning to the following year, and had calculated that it would save them a significant sum of money.

For more information on the National School Lunch Program, and the upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act visit the following websites:

School Lunch Talk
The Food Research and Action Center
Slow Food’s Time for Lunch Campaign

This summer, I spent a couple of days a week as an intern at the Eat Well Guide, an online directory of local, sustainable food sources. The internship gave me the chance to do a different kind of blogging, and I wrote a few posts for their blog, the Green Fork. Links and short descriptions are below, and I'm going to cross-post one of them, too.

That Lunch Is Nasty: Perspectives on the National School Lunch Program
My favorite, so you can read the full text in the next post. Basically a summary of some of the work I did for my independent study last semester, but less academic and with more hyperlinks.

Vouching for Healthy, Local Produce: State Programs WIC Programs Improve Farmers' Market Access
About the new WIC Cash Value Voucher program -- slightly dry, but relevant to any social workers working with WIC recipients!

Don't Let a Little Soil Contamination Keep You from Gardening: Why You Shouldn't Panic if you Find Lead in your Garden's Soil
I love my garden, which happens to be lead-laden. All about poisonous (or not so poisonous) soil!

Kitchens for Change: Transforming Lives One Plate at a Time
About a job-training and rehab program for individuals recovering from homelessness, addiction, and incarceration, run out of an upscale Baltimore cafe.