Healthy School Food Campaign

[Guest guest]

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 08:41:59 -0700 (PDT)

Shalin Gala <shalin2003

Please Read - Healthy School Food Campaign

shalin2003

X-OriginalArrivalTime: 23 Oct 2003 15:57:42.0406 (UTC)

FILETIME=[644AD260:01C3997E]

 

Dear Friend:

 

My name is Mr. Shalin Gala and I am the Founder and Project Leader of

Houston-based Project P.H.A.T. - Promoting Healthy Alternatives through

Teamwork, a grassroots initiative dedicated to getting the Houston Independent

School District (HISD) to provide healthy, plant-based, non-dairy food and drink

options in all HISD schools.

 

Recently, you gave a formal endorsement to Commercial Alert's " Childhood Obesity

Prevention Campaign. " In the same light, I am writing you to ask for your help

in

the form of an endorsement letter that shows your expert support for Project

P.H.A.T.'s goals and the need for getting nutritious, plant-based, non-dairy

meal options in all HISD schools. With expert endorsements, Project P.H.A.T.

will be better able to persuade HISD to offer more healthy school food options.

 

In addition, there are several reasons why I feel that my request deserves your

valuable attention. First, the dairy industry still continues to inject dairy

cattle with Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), which stimulates the

production of higher levels of Insulin Growth Factor (IGF-1) - a significant

risk factor for breast and colon cancer. Second, the Environmental Protection

Agency and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies are two of the

many organizations that have stated, with scientific authority, that animal fat

and dairy products contain dioxin, a carcinogenic chlorine byproduct found in

Agent Orange, and that human consumption of these products poses a great public

health risk. Along with increasing one's risk for various cancers,

dairy products also have been systematically and scientifically indicted as

being responsible for increasing people's risk of heart disease, osteoporosis,

and diabetes. In addition, a diet high in fat, mainly resulting from the high

consumption of

various meat products over nutritious fruits and vegetables, has helped lead the

nation into an obesity epidemic, such that 56% of Houston's children are

overweight. Dieticians and researchers alike have recognized that a key to

stemming the tide of these pressing problems facing Houston's children is to

provide them with healthier, plant-based, non-dairy food and drink options.

 

An ideal place to provide these healthy meal options is at school - a place

where Houston's children spend a significant amount of their day, and a place

where an increasing number of students rely on school nutrition as their main

source of nutrition due to household financial troubles. Thus, while schools are

ideal places to provide students with proper nutrition to help them succeed in

their respective lives, the HISD system is failing its students in this regard.

For example, in 2002, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine rated

the Houston Independent School District's food program as earning a failing 57%,

based on various food nutrition and meal option

criteria. In addition, many students in HISD are lactose intolerant and cannot

easily digest dairy products.

 

Thus, in an effort to improve the HISD food program, properly accommodate for

lactose-intolerant students, and lower the students' heightened risk levels for

obesity, heart disease, breast and colon cancer, and osteoporosis, I formed

Project P.H.A.T. But getting healthy plant-based non-dairy food and drink

options in all of HISD's schools is only part of Project P.H.A.T.'s goals. In

addition to having healthy meal options, students must be allowed to have

objective knowledge about the healthy meal options so that the

students can make well-informed choices about what to eat. Currently, HISD is in

a partnership with the " Mobile Dairy Classroom " - a program funded by dairy

businesses across the Southwest that targets 800 to 1000 pre-kindergarten

through sixth grade students per school visit and extols the " virtues " of dairy

milk.

By hooking youth into the biased philosophy that dairy milk " does a body good, "

the dairy industry solidifies its consumer market for the future at the price of

the consumer's health. School is supposed to be a place where students come

to learn and enhance their intellects, not a place

where their health interests are sold to big business

for a price. Students should have the opportunity to

make an informed decision about which product to buy,

be that dairy milk or some non-dairy alternative (such

as soy milk). Hence, Project P.H.A.T. demands that

HISD's " Mobile Dairy Classroom " project be amended so

as to present a more balanced and un-biased view of

the dairy industry and its associated products so that

students are equipped with objective knowledge upon

which they can begin to make healthy nutrition

decisions.

 

Finally, Project P.H.A.T. is working in conjunction

with Project Healthy Beginnings - an organization in

California that has succeeded in getting a state-wide

resolution (ACR-16) passed that recommends that all

California schools provide healthy plant-based meal

options to students. In the process of obtaining

organizational support for her campaign, Barbara

Gates, the founder of Project Healthy Beginnings, was

able to get a formal written endorsement from several

high-profile organizations, such as the American

Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. In

addition, Project P.H.A.T. recently received an

enthusiastic endorsement from the Physicians Committee

for Responsible Medicine. I hope that you will follow

in the footsteps of these major health organizations

and kindly submit a formal endorsement for Project

P.H.A.T.'s initiatives concerning the request for

healthy, plant-based, non-dairy meal options in all

HISD schools, and the need for amending the " Mobile

Dairy Classroom " to present students with un-biased

objective knowledge regarding dairy products. I humbly

request that you please send an endorsement through

e-mail to shalin2003, or by postal mail to

Project P.H.A.T., 1011-B Nantucket Drive, Houston, TX

77057.

 

If you would like to keep up with Project P.H.A.T.'s

progress, I invite you to view its official web site

at

http://www.geocities.com/projectphat_organization

 

With your help, we can help get Houston's children

back on a healthier track. Thank you for all of your

time and effort and I eagerly look forward to hearing

from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Mr. Shalin Gala

Founder/Program Leader

Project P.H.A.T. - Promoting Healthy Alternatives

through Teamwork

S.G.G.

 

 

 

The New with improved product search