TFarah Lobbying Post #4

Posted by Theodora Farah in American Government - Laufenberg on

It took me a while to choose what decision-makers I was going to contact.  I was originally considering Mayor Michael Nutter, but I decided that he didn’t have enough direct influence over something like school lunches and he probably had more pressing concerns anyway.  I also considered Governor Tom Corbett, but again, he had little to do directly with the issue of school lunches.  The same went for Anna Verna, who was both my city council district representative and city council president, because she has a history of supporting education.  However, she has just retired and been replaced by Darrell Clarke.  I looked at the members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission and found that of the four members listed, only one, Lorene Cary, seemed to have had actual involvement on a personal level with Philadelphia students.  I briefly considered contacting her but decided she had too little involvement with food and not enough decision-making power on her own.  I also found a woman named Joan Nachmani, director of the school district's Nutrition Education Program.  Sadly her work is concerned with educating people about proper eating, not implementing new ways of making healthy food more accessible.

            In the end, I chose four people to contact: Don Schwarz, the Philadelphia City Health Commisioner; Leroy Nunery, the acting superintendent of the Philadelphia school district; Wayne T. Grasela, the senior vice president of the school district’s Division of Food Services; and Darrell Clarke, the new president of city council.  Don Schwarz does hold a powerful position, yet he is also directly involved with the health of Philadelphians.  Given that Philadelphia’s child obesity rate is 40%—twice the national rate—I’m sure he is interested in ways to combat child obesity.  Leroy Nunery has of course a great say in what schools do, and while he may be less concerned with child obesity, there is ample evidence that a healthy diet improves academic performance, which I think would interest him.  Wayne T. Grasela is perhaps the least powerful but most directly relevant of the people I am contacting.  Looking at the web page for the Division of Food Services, it is clear that efforts have already been made to improve school lunches.  School breakfast, lunch and after-school dinner menus for the month of January are even downloadable from the site.  In my letter to him, I begin by applauding the steps that have already been taken before urging him to continue supporting healthier school lunches.  Darrell Clarke doesn't have much involvement with the school district directly, but city council does pass legislation regarding all of Philadelphia, so I think it would be good to have him support healthier school lunches.

            Of course, it isn’t enough to be one person asking for something, so I’ve created a Facebook group called Philadelphia Students for Improved School Lunches to spread the message and urge other people to contact decision-makers about improving school lunches.  I know that there are many people who would support healthier school lunches, but I haven't been able to find other groups that push directly for better school lunches, only things like banning soda or vending machines.  On the group page, I have also made available for download some Keynote slides for parents to present at PTA meetings, and shirts that say “Good Students Eat Good Food” available for purchase.  With the profits from the shirts I can purchase more shirts to distribute for free to school district employees, which they can wear to show support for improved school lunches.

            Finally, I have written to Don Sapatkin, a health writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, suggesting that he do a piece on the state of Philadelphia school lunches.  Such an article would be fantastic for drawing more attention to the issue of school lunches.  I am waiting to hear back from him.  If he declines to do such an article, I have notes prepared to write my own op-ed piece that I can try to get published.

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