What's New?

Institute of Medicine Reviews School Lunches

This month, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences will make recommendations regarding appropriate nutrition standards for foods and beverages at school, with attention given to foods and beverages offered in competition with federally-reimbursable meals and snacks. PAJF will post highlights of the study as soon as it is published, please check back for details.

PAJF Members Receive Free Recipes From America's Test Kitchen

This month's recipes include Recipe Makeovers for NY Cheesecake, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Banana Bread (HINT: they are all low-fat). You will also find Easy Weeknight Meals and Healthy Side Dishes like White Chicken Chili, Cape Cod Picnic Salad, Low-Fat Mashed Potatoes, and Wild Rice Pilaf. Tastings and Testings are also included.

Visit Our Junk Food Hall of Shame

Click on the link above to see what junk foods are being sold in America's Public Schools.

Not Your Regular Lunch Lady

Meet Susan Lacy, School Food Service Director at Stoneham Public School, Stoneham, Mass.

Protect Our Children’s Health in Massachusetts

If you are a resident in Massachusetts, you can help pass the Act to Promote Proper School Nutrition. This act is seeing to replace sodas with healthier drinks, such as water, low- and non-fat milk, and juice, set healthy standards for fat and sugar in snacks and make fresh fruits and vegetables available in cafeterias. Click on the link above to make sure that this bill is passed into law.

The Chef's Campaign for a Better School Lunch

Read the U.S. News & World Report article about Parents Against Junk Food.

10 Facts Every Parent Should Know

• Nine out of 10 schools offer junk food to kids.
• One of every five calories in the American diet is liquid.
• Researchers calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times.
• The USDA supplies schools with the same commodity foods as prisons
• More than 32% of youths are overweight and nearly 74% are unfit.
• About 19,000 public schools, 1 in every 5, sell branded food in the cafeteria.
• Teenagers' milk consumption decreased by 36% between 1965 and 1996, while soda consumption increased by more than 200%.
• Vending machines are in 43% of elementary schools and 97% of high schools.
• Only 29% of adolescents meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity.
• In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control declared obesity the most important public health issue in the United States.

What Is "Parents Against Junk Food"?

We are an organization devoted to eliminating junk food from our public school system. No sodas. No candy bars. No chips. No processed lunch or foods of minimal nutritional value. Let’s ask our public schools to feed both body and mind properly, to take seriously their role as guardians of our children’s health and welfare. It is time to take the corporate profit out of school lunches and replace it with common sense, good nutrition, and the love and care that our children surely deserve.

Christopher Kimball
Founder & Editor, America's Test Kitchen

We Need Your Help

1. Become a member of Parents Against Junk Food
2. Take action: Click here to learn more about how you can help.