For those fed up with junk food in school lunch programs come stir up a recipe for change, as Shaping Youth once again hosts our “screen a movie, make a difference” film fest, this time with ONE of the TWO Angry moms in person!
Filmmaker Amy Kalafa is joining us Monday, October 20 at Parents Place right here in San Mateo, before her screening the next day at the 11th annual United Nations Association Film Festival taking place at Stanford. (UNAFF feature forthcoming!)
Hurry, RSVP now, as it’s FREE and there’s limited space! Full details here.
Next week is national School Nutrition Week, what better time for A Fresh Approach, to get active, host a film screening and engage kids and parents in Two Angry Moms’ second annual “lunch-in” to actually SEE what kids are eating at school.
School food policy has become like an octopus with multi-sucking tentacles and limbs of outreach that swirl into some scary places, so thread bare budgets need some creative solutions and strategies to ‘show and tell’ the cost benefit analysis of feeding kids REAL food.
Amy K. and Amy J. (me!) will BOTH be on the Q&A panel following the film to give you some positive peeks at what CAN be done, and HAS been done to serve up chow that’s local, fresh, and nutritious…rather than bulk buys of overly processed mystery meats and pre-packaged fare trucked in from hither and yon.
Other speakers in the works will shed light on our OWN peninsula policies and practices to find out where things stand as of this very minute…and help you survey kids and parents and form wellness committees for YOUR child’s school. (I’ll even talk a bit about my own documentary film, Body Blitz: Media, Shaping Youth about the trickle down impact on K-5 kids!)
Two Angry Moms has made it easy with a turnkey kit to get energized with other local leaders in this food fight for the health of America’s children. (this flyer at left was done last night!)
You can customize the Q&A guest panel to focus on policy change, or dialog about picky eater questions, dietary concerns, vegan kids, farmer’s market partnerships, new lunch ideas, and take home tips!
Her film itself is an eye-opener that comes across as part expose, part call to action, as they blast open the complex roles federal government, school administrators and corporate interests with an ‘Appetite for Profit’ and notes the impact on the nearly 73 million school-aged children in America relying on ‘school lunch’ as a large portion of their daily meal.
I heartily encourage any and all to ‘screen a movie, make a difference’ as it will no doubt ignite ACTION and champion change for the health of each child and the long-term health of our country!
For those of you joining us Monday October 20 in the Bay Area Shaping Youth will give EACH of you a 2008 Green Zebra, Local Savings for Sustainable Living coupon book ($25 value) to introduce you to some fresh, organic finds and healthy businesses throughout the peninsula.
Hurry, Parents Place has limited capacity, so it’s a perfect, intimate spot for our ongoing film fest Q&A conversations and for community building with other local leaders. RSVP today! We’re thrilled to have Shaping Youth partner with Parents Place from now on as our venue for screening these important films.
Parents Place San Mateo and Palo Alto locations enable us to shift capacity for each film topic and give local peninsula residents access to Shaping Youth’s documentary screenings and hands-on education and demos of our research in two inviting hubs of different sizes, with ONE regular meeting place for easy recall!
It will be MUCH easier than bouncing around trying to find community space in central libraries and parks and rec facilities since some of our guest speakers like Amy Kalafa (or Susan Linn!) are only in town when they’re ‘on tour’ and we need to KNOW we have a place ready and able to welcome them with open arms!
Meanwhile, I hope you’ll join ‘the two Amys’ on Oct. 20th, and that national readers will take action in the school nutrition debate in their own hometown for School Nutrition Week October 13-17!
We need to to go from 2 to 2 million to get the momentum rolling on behalf of the kids, so sign the petition to get better food in our schools!
By the way, I’m always looking for lead sponsors to cover speaker fees, munchies and to fund our own hands-on demo programs that we’re taking into open-source digital download form, so please contact me if you know of a good fit!
Locally, Shaping Youth is in media partnership with: Bay Area Parent Magazine, Childhood Matters.org radio show, Green Zebra Local Savings for Sustainability, Nuestros Ninos…heartily champions A Fresh Approach, and now Parents Place, but the more the merrier in the education realm, so ping me if you feel you’re a logical local ally! Meanwhile, here’s a bit more on Amy Kalafa and her work, don’t miss this vibrant media maverick…
Shaping Youth Presents Filmmaker Amy Kalafa, C.H.H.C. and Amy Jussel, Founder/Exec. Dir. of Shaping Youth and Producer/Dir. of Body Blitz: Media, Shaping Youth at Parents Place in San Mateo Oct. 20, 2008.
Amy Kalafa is the Producer / Director of Two Angry Moms. Since childhood, Amy has been passionate about social justice and environmental issues. She is now compelled to express that passion by speaking out as an Angry Mom fighting for the health of America’s kids.
For over 15 years, Amy has produced award-winning films, television programs and magazine articles in the field of health education. Amy’s production credits include three seasons of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton’s parenting show, “What Every Baby Knows”, PBS specials, “Our Nation’s Health: A Matter of Choice” and “Healthy Aging”, as well as the Reiner Foundation’s, “The First Years Last Forever”. She has produced food and health segments for “Martha Stewart Living” and has appeared as a guest chef on PBS’s, “Cultivating Life”.
Amy holds a Lectureship at the Yale School of Medicine and Psychiatry for her work in the field of health communication, particularly in recognition of a series she created for Court TV, “Inside the Criminal Mind”. As a subcontractor, Amy has worked on numerous training films for Yale University and the US Department of Education. She is the Executive Producer of a grant-funded project, “The Trauma Business” in cooperation with the New York State Psychiatric Center and Columbia University.
Amy is also a holistic health and nutrition counselor and a Lyme Disease consultant. Her advocacy work extends to her personal life as well. She served a four-year term on the advisory board of the Weston / Westport Health District’s CDC funded “Target Lyme” prevention initiative and she is a founding board member of the AIDS Treatment Data Network, a certified Kripalu Yoga teacher and an organic farmer. Amy and her husband, filmmaker Alex Gunuey, have two daughters who have always “brought” their lunch to school.
A Few of Our Related Posts on Shaping Youth
A Fresh Approach to School Lunch Programs
HFCS Corn Wars: A Surprise That’s Far From Sweet
HFCS Ad Analysis: Media Literacy Mandatory, Dieticians Dissed
Screen a Movie Make A Difference
A Few of Amy Kalafa’s Recent Articles & Noteworthy Media
Amy Kalafa: My Beef With School Food (Huffington Post)
Rachael Ray Show: Amy Kalafa & Susan Rubin
Webcast: Amy Kalafa Interviewed by Jenny McCarthy on Oprah.com
Redbook: ‘Hot Mamas’ (Amy Kalafa & Susan Rubin)
Video: Amy Kalafa & Susan Rubin on the Rachael Ray Show
And in related news, Bill Daul just sent me this great article from Australia where the Parents Jury took action on junk food tie-ins:
http://business.smh.com.au/business/parents-find-junk-food-push-distasteful-20081008-4wt5.html
“KELLOGG’S and McDonald’s have been named and shamed by an online parents’ forum for the techniques they use to promote junk food.
McDonald’s was voted by members of the Parents’ Jury for the Techno Hack Award for the way it exploited the web to promote its “happy meals”. Another happy meal ad for a tie-up with the movie Kung Fu Panda, was given the Pester Power Award. An ad portraying schoolchildren turning their nose up at the healthy contents of a lunchbox in favour of the sugar-loaded LCM snack bar netted Kellogg’s the Smoke and Mirrors Award for the most misleading ad.
Krispy Kreme was awarded the School Bully Award for the effectiveness of its techniques in involving its doughnuts in school fund-raising drives. Woolworths, however, won the Fame Award for its Fresh Food Kids campaign, which encouraged children to eat more fruit and vegetables.
McDonald’s declined to comment but Kellogg’s hit back. A spokeswoman, Rebecca Boustead, said the ad did not “place treats above healthy foods – it simply illustrates that should a mum be looking for a treat to put in the lunchbox, this is a option for them to consider”.
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