The goal of the September 7th Eat-In, a day of action across the country, was to get Congress to commit additional money to the National School Lunch Program.

30 million children eat school lunches every day in the United States. Unfortunately the food is usually supplemented with artificial nutrients to meet guidelines for nutrition. In Brooks Park in San Francisco, and at nearly 300 events around the country, the goal was to send the message to Congress--get some REAL food into schools.

School lunch funding is part of the Child Nutrition Act. That legislation is up for reauthorization this year, so the message from people pushing for healthy food in schools, grown locally where possible, is urgent.

Nationally the Eat-Ins were sponsored by Slow Food, which has a reputation as a “foodie” organization. At the San Francisco Civic Center location, Eat-In organizers affiliated with Slow Food USA scheduled a heavy program of speakers. That was NOT the case at Brooks Park, where there was spirited guitar playing and romping through veggie and fruit sculptures.