Mom’s Fight Against Junk Food School Lunches

The Weston Forum:

For several years, the poor quality of food served in school cafeterias was eating away at Amy Kalafa. Having once owned a farm, she raised her family on wholesome, fresh-grown fruit and vegetables. It bothered her to see children being served greasy fries and neon-colored slushies on a daily basis.

But what could one woman do about it?

Texas Agricultural Secretary Susan Coombs said it would take “two million angry moms” to change the school lunch program. That gave Ms. Kalafa an idea.

She joined forces with Susan Rubin, a Westchester County mother and an outspoken critic of school lunches who had been trying for 10 years to improve the quality of food in her school district. The pair became known as the “Two Angry Moms.”

An award-winning documentary filmmaker, Ms. Kalafa tackled the subject of school lunches in a new film, titled Two Angry Moms, which follows the duo’s crusade over the course of a school year.

The film offers an inside look at what’s on the menu in many of the nation’s school cafeterias and captures the step-by-step transformation of one dedicated Westchester school district.

Part exposé, part “how to,” the film goes beyond why and how schools have been infiltrated by junk food peddlers, to demonstrate workable strategies for replacing “junk” with real, whole food. The film also showcases model schools from Connecticut to California that offer high-quality food programs.

“Basically, it is our quest to get better food in schools,” Ms. Kalafa said.