Things Seen, Heard, and Mused Upon ...

If you’ve wandered the web today, you likely came across some black-out sites.  Self-censored in protest of the SOPA and PIPA legislation currently before the US congress, which will end up allowing censorship of the web (among other things) if it goes through.  Please check it out, and do something if you can. 

—————-

I saw Pina last night, a 3D movie about the choreographer Pina Bausch.  I knew nothing about her prior to going, other than seeing the trailer several times.  It was beautiful, full of raw emotional dance that was almost painful to watch.  I loved it, but was a bit unsettled by it. 

Read More

Food and Kids

No matter where (in the USA at least) your kids get their education, chances are the food program at their school could use some improvement.  I can certainly vouch for the craptastic quality of most of what Douglas was served for 4+ years.  It’s full of sugars and fillers and all kinds of stuff that we know isn’t the healthiest thing for our kids.  I think we can all agree there’s a lot of room for improvement in the public school system! 

I’ve gotten a chance to watch the first couple episodes of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and it’s enough to make me hope that he can pull off some kind of change that makes other cities sit up and take notice!  He shows that many people have no idea where their food comes from, or what it even is.  That a classroom of kindergartners couldn’t identify a raw potato or tomato?!  There are some scare tactics in there for sure, but they make a very clear point.  We can do better.  It’s a cause I’m happy to support, and hope you do too!

The link to his petition is here, and the shows can be seen online here.  Check it out, and sign if you think it’s time to change the food served in our schools!

Slow Food membership offer ...

Clean, local food is a soapbox of mine, and I saw this offer and wanted to pass it along.  You can join SlowFood.org for any donation (via Democracy in Action), just until the end of the month.  Get involved in your local chaper, get event discounts, and just learn a bit more about appreciating and protecting our food sources!  It’s a great way to have an effect on what your kids get served at school.

Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.

> Join now!

Offer good until Wednesday Sept 30th

School Lunches

I don’t know about you, but the lunches my son gets at a public NYC school are appalling to me.  Sugar coated fruit, sugared bread and PB and jams, fried food, super processed carbohydrates, sweetened millk, etc … I can usually tell what he’s had by how he acts when I pick him up.  Peanut  butter and Jelly days are the worst.  Did you know candy bars aren’t considered junk food according to school nutrition standards, but Poland Spring selzer water is?!  It has no minerals or vitamins.  Riiiight.

This happens to be a soapbox of mine (can you tell by the sarcasm?!), and something I’m trying to figure out how to get more involved in.  I’d love to work on a farm to table program that works through the school food program … anyone know where to start? 

In the meantime, I just signed this from MomsRising, and hope you will too!

———————————————

The USDA’s school nutrition standards were developed in the 1970’s and aren’t consistent with current nutritional science. USDA doesn’t even consider candy bars, snack cakes or french fries to be junk foods. The standards don’t even address calories, saturated and trans fats or sodium.

I added my name to a petition calling for an update to these standards and I hope you will too.

http://momsrising.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/t/1546/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1925

The petition will be hand delivered to Congress June 24th. The more signatures we have, the greater our impact.

Thanks!

SaneMom

Choices in Childbirth | Petition

I received the message below from a birth organization here in NYC that supports women’s right to give birth in whatever way they choose … hospital, birthcenter, home, etc.  The petition below is specific to the Service Employees Internation Union, but it’s great (I think!) to have insurance cover hospital AND non hospital births.  Please look and sign if you feel free.  Thanks!

———————————
Hello everyone,
I wanted to see if you might help us get the word out about a rally we’re holding with our sister organization on March 18th (details below). We’re working with a woman who was denied health insurance coverage for an out-of-hospital birth (in her case, homebirth) by the SEIU. We’re planning a support rally for her for the actual appeal hearing, but we want to show that there is national support for this coverage - please sign the below petition and we’ll be sure that the SEIU hears your voice (and yes - a rally at a union is a bit odd - agreed!)
Can you forward to anyone you think might be interested?
Many thanks,
Becca

Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/newspace/petition.html