News & Events | 10 September 2012 | Food Systems and Education
Food Systems
Panera Sandwich Chain explores “pay what you want” model: Sandwich and coffee giant Panera creates a nonprofit version of the national chain, encouraging customers to pay what they want, with the dual goals of helping the community and raising awareness about middle class food insecurity.
Study casts doubt on advantage of organic food: Stanford University researchers conclude that organic food is no more nutritious than its non-organic counterparts—challenging the belief that organic food is inherently “healthier” than conventional fruits, vegetables, and meat.
Lower calories, or increased nutritional value?: In an attempt increase the nutritional value of student lunches, in New York City’s public schools were found to have dropped calories below U.S.D.A. minimum requirements. This conflict casts a light upon the complexity of food insecurity—and the link between obesity and hunger.
Trends in Philanthropy and Education
There have a been a couple of articles recently about a shift in locally-based philanthropy away from individual program funding towards more strategic goals and partnerships:
- Local Foundations Shift Strategies on Schools, from EdWeek
- Education group making quick progress in fundraising goal, from the Philadelphia Inquirer about the the Philadelphia School Partnership and the Philadelphia Great Schools Fund
Q&A: How Facebook Money Is Used for Newark Schools: Interesting article about the complexities of putting Mark Zuckerberg’s challenge grant to the Newark Public Schools to work.
Teacher Evaluation
Why Complex Teacher Evaluations Don’t Work: A sobering and timely commentary about how good ideas can go badly wrong in implementation comes this week from Mike Schmoker about the adoption of overly complicated teacher evaluation instruments.
