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2A Daily News – Monday, November 28, 2011 Community people&events Quilters meet today The Sun Country Quilt Guild will meet today at the Community and Senior Center, 1500 S. Jackson St., with a "Mini Retreat" beginning at a special time of 3 p.m. Bring whatever you would like to work on for a wonderful opportunity to get to know other quilters. The guild will be having a pot luck dinner. The general meeting will be at 7 p.m. when the club will be electing officers for next year. Interested quilters may join for a half year member- ship fee of $15 or attend the meeting for $5. More information is available by contacting the Sun Country Quilters at P.O. Box 8266, Red Bluff, Ca. 96080 or at suncountryquilters.com. Writers' forum potluck Writers' Forum will host a read-around and potluck, Saturday, Dec. 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Memorial Hall of All Saints Epis- copal Church, 2150 Benton Drive, Redding. The church is located at the corner of Benton Drive and Quartz Hill Road. This popular event showcases writers by offering the opportunity to read up to five minutes from their original works. Sign in and readings are on a first come-first- read basis. Limited spots for nonmembers are also available. Members bring their favorite holiday dishes and desserts for a potluck after the readings. There will be a drawing at the event for a chance to win free admission to the special all-day literary agent event taking place on Jan. 14. The public is welcome to attend. Admission to regular two-hour meetings is free. Donations are requested only at the refreshment table. Writers Forum, a nonprofit organization founded in 1983, is dedicated to promoting writing as an art and as a profession and to supporting and inspiring writers from all over far northern California. Visit www.writers-forum.net or contact pro- grams@writers-forum.net for more information. SECRET WITNESS 529-1268 A program of Tehama County Neighborhood Watch Program, Inc. Setting it straight –––––––– It is the policy of the Daily News to correct as quickly as possible all errors in fact that have been published in the newspaper. If you feel a factual error has been made in a news story, call the news department at 527-2153. Is pizza a vegetable? A "meme" is a basically a "thought virus." In the same fashion that influenza infects one person, replicates itself and then spreads to another, eventually infecting large numbers of a population; memes fol- low the same process through the consciousness of our culture, affect- ing (or "infecting" if you wish) the way we react or behave. Unlike an "urban legend," which is a wide- spread false story wrongly accepted as fact; or a "fad," which is a behav- ior that explodes in popularity and quickly dies; a meme is more akin to a belief or a concept that affect our view of society — and therefore how we react to it. As illustration, a recent diet meme was "carbs are bad, protein is good." This spread so quickly and deeply to the point that some honest- ly believed that scarfing down a one pound bacon cheeseburger — pro- viding you avoided the bun — was a healthy method of dropping weight. This misguided all-protein diet meme spawned several variations of fad diets. Currently, although the meme might remain, those diets are mostly debunked. Today's column had its impetus because I was (once again) irritated with an action by our "leaders." In this instance, the meme currently winding its way through convention- al wisdom is that Congress has defined pizza as a vegetable. The underlying logic (if indeed it can be classified as such) was that since that a certain amount of tomato paste equates to a "vegetable," and where- as there is more than said amount on pizzas; they too would therefore be classified as vegetables. I imagined children being told by their parents, "If you don't eat your pizza, you won't get any dessert," or seeing the old food pyramid returning with "pesto-chicken pizza" or "double pepperoni" on par with carrots and lettuce. (We can only wish.) Umbrage redlining, I sought facts (because unlike some cable news networks, I wish to be accurate) and discovered that although the story is untrue, it is not made up out of whole cloth. What essentially happened is the U.S. Department of Agriculture wanted to increase standards so a half- cup of tomato paste would count as a vegetable serving, instead of the cur- rent one-eighth cup. In an over-sim- plified nutshell (which I fear might also soon be classified as a veg- etable), in bowing to the wishes of large agricultural companies — and against the wishes of the Adminis- tration — Congress opted to main- tain the status quo. Therefore, two tablespoons of tomato paste remain the virtual nutritional equivalent of one half-cup of broccoli, green beans or any other vegetable in a school lunch. (In fairness, Congress did not however re-classify pizza to be a vegetable.) Although somewhat relieved to hear the complete story, it is still dis- quieting. Childhood obesity is at all-time high. The current generation of youngsters might indeed grow up to Scott Q. Marcus need as much health care in their middle age as my generation will require in its old age, adding yet additional pressure to an already overly-expensive, ineffective health care system, and lowering the quality of life for two generations (plus burden- ing those following behind). Would it really hurt to teach them to munch on a carrot or cel- ery stick now and then? We cannot regulate what people eat, nor am I an advocate of doing so; but — tomato paste? Really? This too has become a political battle line? If we cannot stop bickering long enough to help devel- op standards of what we feed our kids, it will be a short leap before chips are equated with bread and wine is considered a fruit. Scott "Q" Marcus is a professional speaker and the CRP of www.ThisTimeIMeanIt.com, a website for people and organizations who are frustrated with making promises and are ready to make a change. Sign up for his free newsletter at the site or friend him at facebook.com/thistimeimeanit. He is also available for coaching and speaking engagements at 707.442.6243 or scottq@scottqmarcus.com. His first five years of these columns are now available on Amazon at http://amzn.to/StrivingBooks. Recipe for a revolution in school lunches CHICAGO (MCT) — For lunch, Josh Rivera chose a plate of saffron rice, Jerusalem salad and a Greek-marinated kebab of free-range chicken raised without antibiotics. "Last year I used to D NEWSAILY HOW TO REACH US RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY THE VOICE OF TEHAMA COUNTY SINCE 1885 VOLUME 127, NUMBER 6 On the Web: www.redbluffdailynews.com MAIN OFFICE: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Main Phone (530) 527-2151 Outside area 800-479-6397 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080 ______________________ Fax: (530) 527-5774 ______________________ Mail: Red Bluff Daily News P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 CUSTOMER SERVICE: Subscription & delivery Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (530) 527-2151, Ext. 1 subscription rates (All prices include all applicable taxes) Monday through Saturday $9.50 four weeks Rural Rate $10.59 four weeks Business & professional rate $2.19 four weeks, Monday-Friday By mail: In Tehama County $12.17 four weeks All others $16.09 four weeks (USPS 458-200) Published Monday through Saturday except Sunday, by California Newspaper Partnership. Home delivery NEWS News Tip Hotline: 527-2153 FAX: (530) 527-9251 E-mail: clerk@redbluffdailynews.com Daytime: Sports: Obituaries: Tours: (530) 527-2151 Ext. 109 Ext. 103 Ext. 112 After hours:(530) 527-2153 ______________________ ADVERTISING Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Display: 527-2151 Ext. 122 Classified: 527-2151 Ext. 103 Online (530) 527-2151 Ext. 133 FAX: (530) 527-5774 E-mail: advertise@redbluffdailynews.com SPECIAL PAGES ON THE FOLLOWING DAYS Mondays: Kids Corner, Health Tuesdays: Wednesdays: Business Thursdays: Entertainment Fridays: Select TV, Education Saturdays: Farm, Religion Publisher & Advertising Director: Greg Stevens gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Editor: Chip Thompson editor@redbluffdailynews.com Sports Editor: Rich Greene sports@redbluffdailynews.com Circulation Manager: Kathy Hogan khogan@redbluffdailynews.com Production Manager: Sandy Valdivia sandy@redbluffdailynews.com POSTMASTER SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO: PO BOX 220, RED BLUFF CA 96080 newspaper of general circulation, County of Tehama, Superior Court Decree 9670, May 25, 1955 © 2011 Daily News Postage Paid Periodicals The Red Bluff Daily News is an adjudicated daily 90 years ago... Tailor Shop and Office on Main Street Gutted Fire that broke out at 5:30 this morning in the building of the Bert Charles estate, on the west side of Main street, between Pine and Walnut streets, completely gutted the tailor shop of W. A Brown, and the adjoining offices to the south of Ellenwood & Ramsey, McKenzie & Stover, Ramsay & King, W. H. Conrad, Ramsay & Lyon, the Tehama County branch of the California Cattlemen's Association, E. L. Hart, public accountant and secretary of the California Woolgrowers Association. — Nov. 28, 1921 get a burger and pizza, but they were really greasy," the high school sophomore said. "This is a lot tastier than before." Lynn Vo, a sopho- more who was eating organic fruit salad with penne in a Bolognese sauce with grass-fed beef, agreed. "Last year the pasta tasted like sweat," she said. "But this year it's really good." It's astonishing enough that notoriously picky high schoolers would have something nice to say about their cafeteria, in this case the one at Niles North High School. But these meals containing premi- um ingredients are pro- vided free to low- income students or sold for $2.25 at most. A fascinating experi- ment has been playing out in recent months in Niles Township High School District 219, where a student petition for better lunch, chang- ing demographics and a willing school board led to a massive overhaul of the lunch program this year by a Chicago com- pany called Organi- cLife. In August, the com- pany took over opera- tions from Aramark food services and began serving daily meals of sustainable, local and organic food to 4,700 students at Niles North and Niles West high schools in Skokie, Ill., just north of Chicago. It is presenting these meals under the supervi- sion of the National School Lunch Program, which provides federal funding in exchange for meeting certain require- ments. This year was the first time in decades the historically middle- class district has taken part in the program, spurred by poverty rates that grew from 16 per- cent in 2007 to 31 per- cent today. The overhaul coin- cides with national calls for school lunch reform, though Congress this month blocked many of the tougher federal stan- dards that had been pro- posed for 2012. Some have argued that providers couldn't meet the standards under cur- rent levels of federal funding. OrganicLife co- founder Justin Rolls would not provide detailed financial infor- mation but says the company is making things work by cooking economically from scratch, buying high- quality items in bulk, boosting sales through tastier food and factor- ing in slimmer profits as part of the business plan. In its spring bid to the district, OrganicLife offered to deliver more healthful lunches for $1.24 per meal. Since arriving, Rolls said, the company has significantly boosted lunch sales among the district's low-income population to 85 per- cent, bringing in dependable reimburse- ments of $2.77 per meal from the federal govern- ment. Laid out in seven sta- tions — similar to a food court — the cafete- rias must offer seven to 10 complete lunches each day that can be served free or for 40 cents to about 1,200 low-income students under the National School Lunch Program. Others can buy the meal for $2.25 or pay extra for "a la carte" items or more elaborate lunches. To chef Ann Cooper _ who overhauled school lunch systems in Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. — that kind of multi-tiered lunchroom menu has drawbacks. With a few exceptions, Cooper said, she presents the same complete meals to all BOOK BARN 619 Oak St., Red Bluff (530) 528-Book 2665 HOLIDAY HOURS Closed Tuesday thru Saturday Dec. 27th to 31st Reopen: Tuesday, January 3rd TEA AND BOUTIQUE Fri., Dec. 2nd 10AM to 3PM 25076 Sycamore Avenue, behind La Corona, Los Molinos 9AM to 8PM Sat., Dec. 3rd , 2011 , 2011 kids regardless of income. "I don't want to criti- cize it," she said, "but I worry that when you have some kids who can afford your more expen- sive lunches and you have other kids who can't, you are creating a stigma around the free lunches and increasing the chasm between the haves and have-nots." Most students inter- viewed in the lunch- room praised the new food, though a few com- plained about the price of a la carte items. A Lavazza espresso or cappuccino, for instance, costs $2.50 to $2.75. Large muffins and danishes can hit $3. Organic fruit cups or small yogurts, on the other hand, cost $1 to $1.50. "We as a board asked them to do it that way," school board member Sheri Doniger said. "We said please make the healthier foods more reasonable because our previous company actu- ally charged more if the students wanted salad and carrot sticks." That strategy fits some of the research findings of Cornell Uni- versity behavioral econ- omist and "Mindless Eating" author Brian Wansink. He found that remov- ing junk food from a cafeteria only made it more appealing outside school. Better results were achieved if junk food was available but healthier items were easier to choose social- ly, logistically and eco- nomically. 36th Annual