Organic Foods Policy OKd for Berkeley Schools
The city’s school board unanimously passed a measure Wednesday night designed to encourage students not only to eat their organic vegetables, but to grow them.
Under the new policy, schools will have gardens and will incorporate eating, gardening and nutrition into the curriculum. A garden planning session, for instance, might be a math exercise calculating the area of vegetable plots.
“We want the cafeteria to be a learning experience,” said Tom Bates, a former state assemblyman who now heads the Berkeley Food Systems Project, which has been working with the district on the new food policy.
The plan stems from school Supt. Jack McLaughlin’s desire to do something about school lunches and student health, said district spokeswoman Karen Sarlo.
“School lunches are horrible, not only in our school district,” Sarlo said. “Would it cost that much more to make the food good and fresh?”
Eventually, Berkeley school officials hope to have an all-natural menu, where even the milk comes from cows not injected with bovine growth hormones.
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