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What to do about school lunches so bad, one student exclaims, “I ate it because I was hungry and had nothing to eat”?
Chef Tony Geraci was named one of the top 20 most influential food service people in the U.S.
Chef Tony Geraci ambitiously tackled this problem as food and nutrition director for Baltimore public schools, an urban area serving 83,000 students.
His efforts at reforming the school food program are documented in the feature-length film Cafeteria Man, released online today. Geraci set out to transform not just what students eat, but their whole relationship to food—and succeeded.
Check out the trailer and learn more about how food can be served fresher, more wholesome and tastier to students, from “farm to school” programs to a national model teaching farm.
If you are interested in transforming school lunch programs, visit the Cafeteria Man screening action guide.
Geraci, named one of the top 20 most influential food service people in the U.S., offers the following tips for improving school food:
Get involved.
Mobilize support.
Learn what’s going on locally.
Aim to work with the school staff.
Articulate your goals.
Help students make healthier choices.
Help the district see that it can afford a better program.
As the documentary, which also features Michelle Obama and Michael Pollan, confirms: Change is on the menu.
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Imagine that you had a film camera running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for more than 32 years.
Welcome to the world of award-winning producer, director and cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg.
The filmmaker, moved by the wonder and joy of watching plants grow and clouds move, took to time-lapse, high-speed and macro cinematography, so that others could similarly be spiritually moved and transformed by the beauty of the natural world around them. He makes the invisible visible.
“I love to explore things that the human eye can’t see,” says Schwartzberg. And through his camera work, he offers audiences a stunning, intimate, high-definition glimpse of nature.
Schwartzberg talks with the Green Divas about his three-decade-long career, including his recent film Wings of Life, a feature-length documentary for Disneynature, narrated by Meryl Streep.
Recognized for their importance this week—National Pollinator Week—pollinators are crucial for the food we eat, to our survival. Wings of Life pays homage to (and offers a glimpse into the hidden world of) bees, bats, hummingbirds and butterflies, including the precarious relationship they have with flowers. “Beauty is nature’s tool for survival,” reflects Schwartzberg.
You can see some beautiful, mind blowing images in Schwartzberg’s TED talks.
Here he explores the intersection between technology, art and science, curiosity and wonder. And through time-lapse, high-speed and macro filming, the anatomy of Earth is brought to life.
Schwartzberg describes his greatest satisfaction as creating works that have a positive effect on the future of Earth: “I hope my films inspire and open people’s hearts … If I can move enough people on an emotional level, I hope we can achieve the shift in consciousness we need to sustain and celebrate life.”
Ever wonder about chemicals in your day-to-day life?
"What’s in the air I breathe? The water I drink? The food I eat? Even the things I put on my skin?"
Ed Brown wondered these same things after his wife suffered two miscarriages (they now have two beautiful children). But instead of just wondering, he traveled around the country with his video camera to interview top minds in the fields of science, advocacy and law and learned there are unacceptable levels of chemicals in so many things. Including our bodies.
Brown’s documentary, Unacceptable Levels, dissects the ways chemicals saturate our homes and environment amid the backdrop of a glaring lack of regulation. It chronicles the results of the post-World War II chemical boom and details common avenues of exposure, from food to fluoride to toxic sludge.
Some "unacceptable facts" from the film:
- Autism now affects one in 50 children.
- Cancer is the leading cause of death (after accidents) in children younger than 15 years in the U.S.
- In the last 20 years, the rates of asthma, allergies and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are on the rise: 400 percent increase in allergies, 300 percent increase in asthma, 400 percent increase in ADHD.
- $2.6 trillion of the Gross Domestic Product is spent on treating disease every year.
- Approximately 200 synthetic industrial chemicals interact with our cells every single day.
Brown is touring the country this summer, which started with a premiere June 12 in Hollywood, CA, where he was joined by Mariel Hemingway, Gary Hirschberg, Christopher Gavigan and other passionate environmentalists to inspire others to take action.
Actress Jessica Capshaw Gavigan, who is also part of the Moms Clean Air Force Leadership Circle, has this to say about the film:
This film is a huge eye-opener! Once a parent sees this, they thankfully won’t ever approach their child’s health and future the same way ever again!
Visit the Unacceptable Levels website for a growing list of screenings.
Visit EcoWatch’s HEALTH and FOOD pages for more related news on this topic.
