Slowing Down School Lunches
Organization plans potlucks to raise awareness.
Food plays a central role in our lives. I can recall what was on the menu from dinners years ago, and I’m sure I’m not alone in associating good times with good food. But on the flip side of those fond memories is the queasy feeling I get when I walk down the frozen food aisle and glance at a package of fish sticks. The horror of school lunches immediately comes back to me. School lunches are in the spotlight every five years when the Child Nutrition Act comes up for reauthorization. The current act, which governs the National School Lunch Program that feeds more than 30 million children every school day, expires on Sept. 30. Read more
Pregnant Women, Health-Care Workers Top Swine Flu Vaccine Candidates
CDC advisory panel outlines priorities for a fall flu shot rollout
Women who are pregnant, children 6 months and older and health-care workers should all get top priority when the H1N1 swine flu vaccine arrives this fall, a U.S. government advisory panel recommended late Wednesday.
Added to that list of first-line recipients are parents and caregivers of infants, non-elderly adults with risky medical problems and young adults ages 19 to 24, according to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The panel met in Atlanta to review data for setting swine flu vaccine priorities.
“The committee recommended five target groups for the initial focus for immunization,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at a late-afternoon news conference Wednesday. “These are groups that had higher risk of disease, who had greater burden of complications.” Read more
