At the recent USDA Outlook Forum, IATP President Jim Harkness did a double take: "On the screen at the front of the hall was a 30-foot-tall image of the IATP Food and Society Fellows' Web site! Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan was at the podium preparing for her talk, and she wanted to download a video about the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act that she knew we were involved in producing."

The Deputy Secretary, it turns out, is a fan of Lunch Encounters, a school lunch spoof of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, created by IATP Food and Society Fellows Shalini Kantayya, of 7th Empire Media, Nicole Betancourt, of Parent Earth, and Debra Eschmeyer, of National Farm to School Network. The goal of the video is to raise awareness of Farm to School for the upcoming reauthorization of federal child nutrition programs by depicting the cafeteria tray as the centerpiece for a reformed school food system that supports healthy children, local farms and smart schools.

This video and “Priceless,” a MasterCard parody, are part of One Tray, the national campaign to improve child nutrition by encouraging a more direct connection between local farms and federal nutrition.

The Deputy Secretary took the videos on the road for a recent standing-room-only lecture at The New School. (One Tray and the "Lunch Encounters" video are introduced at minute 39.)  

We are thrilled to have our Administration use the incredible work of the IATP Food and Society Fellows as an example of the united advocacy work happening around Farm to School and Child Nutrition Reauthorization.  Please visit One Tray for information on how you can get involved in the effort to provide fresh, healthy food to all of our nation's children.