Boston Public Schools Begin Offering Free Meals for Every Child

This year, Boston Public Schools will serve free meals ? both lunch and breakfast — to all students, regardless of their income status. Boston becomes one of the largest cities in the nation to join a program aimed at serving healthy meals to more children and save families money. Over the summer BPS and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education joined a national program, currently available in 10 states and the District of Columbia. The program, called the ?Community Eligibility Option,? waives meal fees for all children regardless of income status and is also being implemented in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago and parts of New York City. Already, 78 percent of BPS students qualify for free- or reduced-price meals due to their income status. Many of those who do not qualify fall just beyond income limits. Previously, families had to fill out and return forms to qualify for the meals program. By entering into the Community Eligibility Option, BPS can waive all meal charges for all students. Parents do not need to take any action to participate.?Community Eligibility is a great new option that helps low-income children have better access to healthy school meals and helps schools reduce administrative burdens,? said Jim Weill, President of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). ?Boston Public Schools has been a leader in the effort to increase participation in school meals, and FRAC applauds the City for quickly embracing this opportunity which will benefit every BPS student.

Illegal Carcinogen Found in Nearly 100 Shampoos

Independent laboratory tests have identified 98 shampoos, soaps, and other personal care products sold by major national retailers that contain a chemical outlawed in California as a carcinogen.?The chemical, cocamide diethanolamine, known as cocamide DEA, is a chemically-modified form of coconut oil used as a thickener or foaming agent.?In June 2012 California listed the chemical under Proposition 65 as a known carcinogen based on an assessment by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which classed cocamide DEA as ?possibly carcinogenic to humans.??The Oakland-based nonprofit Center for Environmental Health purchased the shampoos, soaps and other products and commissioned the lab to determine the total content of cocamide DEA they contained.?Products tested with high levels of cocamide DEA include shampoos sold under well-known brand names, such as Colgate Palmolive, Prell and Paul Mitchell, and many other little-known brands. As a result of this investigation, the Center for Environmental Health is suing four companies that make or sell products containing cocamide DEA. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Alemeda County Superior Court, targets Walgreens, Lake Consumer Products, Vogue International, and Ultimark Products, makers of Prell shampoos. In addition, the nonprofit has sent legal notices to more than 100 other companies that produce and/or sell cocamide DEA-tainted products to inform them that their products violate state law. In addition to many brand name shampoos and personal care products, the tests identified cocamide DEA in store-brand products purchased at Walmart, Trader Joe?s, Pharmaca, and Kohl?s. Falsely labeled organic products from Organic by Africa?s Best also tested for high levels of the cancer-causing chemical. The Center for Environmental Health previously won a legal settlement with this company requiring it to end its use of phony organic labels.Center for Environmental Health has purchased the shampoos and other products containing cocamide DEA at Bay Area locations of major retailers and from online retailers since June, and commissioned an independent lab to determine the total content of the chemical in the products.In many cases, products contain more than 10,000 ppm cocamide DEA, and one shampoo tested at more than 200,000 ppm ? that is 20 percent cocamide DEA. The Center for Environmental Health works with major industries and thought leaders in green business to promote healthier alternatives to toxic products and practices. For its efforts the center earned the ?San Francisco Business Times? annual ?Green Champion? in 2010.

Chinese Chicken Processors Are Cleared to Ship to U.S.

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture quietly ended a ban on processed chicken imports from China, allowing these products to be sold in the U.S. without a country-of-origin label. Initially, just four Chinese processing plants will be allowed to export cooked chicken products to the U.S., as first reported by. The plants in question passed USDA inspection in March. Initially, these processors will only be allowed to export chicken products made from birds that were raised in the U.S. and Canada. Because of that, the poultry processors won’t be required to have a USDA inspector on site, as The New York Times , adding: “And because the poultry will be processed, it will not require country-of-origin labeling. Nor will consumers eating chicken noodle soup from a can or chicken nuggets in a fast-food restaurant know if the chicken came from Chinese processing plants.” That’s a pretty disturbing thought for anyone who’s followed the slew of stories regarding food safety failures in China in recent years. This year alone, thousands of dead pigs turned up in the waters of Shanghai, rat meat was passed off as mutton and ? perhaps most disconcerting for U.S. consumers ? there was an outbreak of the among live fowl in fresh meat markets.