Lynn Fallon Wants Good Food In Schools

From Lynn Fallon:

Hi. This is Lynn Fallon. I’m working on the national Farm to School program because I believe our kids deserve safe, nutritious, economical, tasty school lunches.

Childhood obesity has become a critical problem in the United States. One-third of U.S. children are obese or overweight; 11 % are obese in Iowa. Over 80% of our children do not eat enough fruit and vegetables each day, but 1/3 of them drink a can, bottle or glass of soda (not including diet soda) each day.

Despite this bad news, regular access to healthy food has been proven to be one of the strongest predictors of improved school performance. Along with the health benefits to our children, local farmers benefit by added sales, which then benefits the local communities.

This brings me to the reason I’m writing to you today. I know everyone is busy, but I think providing our kids with healthy food is really important. If you can do one thing from the list below, it will show our elected officials that we want them to support the Farm to School legislation.

Call, email or write and ask them to support Section 122 of the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization. See contact information at the end of this note.

Write a letter-to-the-editor, to your local newspaper, supporting the Farm to School program. I would love to get a copy if it gets published. You can email it to me at lynn@sustainableagriculture.net.

Sign up for Action Alerts at: http://sustainableagriculture.net/take-action/sign-up-for-action-alerts/

Pulling Out the Stops

Grafton state senator Merlin Bartz is using the the state Towa Senate Republican Caucus website to encourage voters to petition county recorders to "appeal directly to you, our county recorder, to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples on April 27th, 2009, and every day after, until such conflict between the Supreme Court’s opinion and the law is addressed by a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE OF
IOWA." On the website supporters are asked to distribute the petition to "anybody you feel who would be inclined to help in this endeavor" and to "send a copy for accountability purposes to the Iowa Family Policy Center, 1100 N. Hickory, Ste. 107, Pleasant Hill, IA 50327."

In response, former State Representative Ed Fallon and his wife Lynn's group I'm for Iowa "plan to deliver to Secretary of the Senate Mike Marshall at 11:15 this morning their formal ethics complaint against Senator Merlin Bartz for encouraging county recorders to break the law by refusing to grant marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples."

"For a state senator to use his office and public resources to encourage other elected officials to disobey a unanimous ruling of the Iowa Supreme Court is unconscionable, and possibly a violation of state law,” said Ed Fallon. “Thus, Lynn and I have filed a complaint with the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee, Senator Jack Kibbie, inquiring as to whether Senator Bartz’s action is a violation of his oath of office.”

Meanwhile likely gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats will have a press conference at 11:30 today to pressure governor Chet Culver to use an executive order to stay Iowa county recorders from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning next Monday.