--- title: There's A lot of Junk Food at the School Nutrition Association's Annual Conference description: This year's annual conference run by the School Nutrition Association is not without politics canonical: https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-16T19:23:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:07.102Z article:section: Health og:title: There's A lot of Junk Food at the School Nutrition Association's Annual Conference og:description: This year's annual conference run by the School Nutrition Association is not without politics og:url: https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's A lot of Junk Food at the School Nutrition Association's Annual Conference twitter:description: This year's annual conference run by the School Nutrition Association is not without politics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # There's A lot of Junk Food at the School Nutrition Conference > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=19839f32-3f3a-4104-9b8e-88eb4cdc3dd3&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Alice Waters on Edible Education [Watch (HLS stream): Alice Waters on Edible Education](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BRkbfoQ5.m3u8) (4:14)  _Published 2014-04-24. Alice Waters, chef and activist, talks about her project The Edible Schoolyard_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 16, 2014 7:23 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 16, 2014 7:23 PM UTC The 68th [Annual National Conference](http://www.schoolnutrition.org/anc2014/) of the School Nutrition Association is finishing up today in Boston, and it’s not go on without controversy. Here’s some backstory: When the Obama administration revamped the school lunch requirements, they received a lot of praise and counted among their champions the [School Nutrition Association](http://sna.dev.networkats.com/home.aspx). But now, the group, which is a national organization of school nutrition professionals, is heading up a lobbying campaign to let schools opt out of the requirements saying they are too restrictive and costly. (You can read in detail what the group is pushing for [here](http://docs.schoolnutrition.org/meetingsandevents/lac2014/ppldocs/2014PositionPaper.pdf).) Many experts in the school-nutrition world are surprised by the stance the SNA has taken and some of its members have resigned, voicing criticism of SNA for accepting sponsorship money from food companies. At the same time, Congress is considering legislation to delay by one year some of the school-lunch regulations, as the _New York Times_ [reported earlier this month](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/us/nutrition-group-lobbies-against-healthier-school-meals-it-sought-citing-cost.html). Given the ongoing debate about school nutrition, it shouldn’t be surprising that this year’s convention—which brings together 6,000 school nutrition professionals and industry members—has been mired in politics. As [Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/white-house-school-nutrition-association-108874.html) reported: Sam Kass, the Executive Director of Let’s Move! was even turned down when he asked to speak at the conference this year. Though the conference has long allowed food companies to be involved, their new position on the school lunch standards have some nutrition groups and experts skeptical. And that makes the presence of fast food and junk food at the event all the more surprising. Here are some tweets from public health lawyer Michele Simon: > [](https://twitter.com/MicheleRSimon/status/489082512791318528) > [](https://twitter.com/MicheleRSimon/status/488714126920015873) > [](https://twitter.com/MicheleRSimon/status/488709682664837121) > [](https://twitter.com/MicheleRSimon/status/488708855036395520) > [](https://twitter.com/MicheleRSimon/status/488700995900547072) To be sure, there were certainly booths with healthy food–even a great vending machine idea like this one: > [](https://twitter.com/JDonzeBlack%5FPew/status/488721738721554432) > [](https://twitter.com/JDonzeBlack%5FPew/status/489165709860036608) So while the conference highlighted ways to get kids to eat more healthy food, it’s hard to take seriously when Cheetos and pizza are so heavily marketed. ## Transcript [ SOUND ] Edible education is an idea whose time has come. It's a way of teaching. It has to do with the growing of food and the way that we nourish ourselves. [ MUSIC ] In the mid' 80s and early' 90s, we were really in a fast- food culture, it was also the vice of fast, cheap and easy that had really taken over. Tonight, McDonald is making my family dinner because there's no way I can tell these big brown eyes mommy doesn't have time. And we need to teach children how to nourish themselves. And we need to edible educate every child in America. When I went to the edible school- yard, I was flowered. What I loved most was, the collaboration. The urgency of working together and making things work, of the children taking what they were planting and cutting down and gathering, and bringing it into the kitchen and cooking along with the chef. I also loved the way the chickens walked around [ LAUGH ] and visited everyone. This isn't just a garden in a school, I've never thought of it that way. I always thought about it as a complete [ INAUDIBLE ] that had the cafeteria at the centre. They could learn the value, the cooperation that happens when children cook together. They are having a master chef competition. Each table becomes a team, and they compete with the other two tables in the kitchen to plan a menu, execute the menu, and then present it. They're working independently with no help from any teachers or volunteers. And they are selecting their own vegetables, and timing themselves, and organizing themselves. We need to understand the traditional foods that were so nourishing to people, and we have to learn how to make these things tasty. And it actually tastes good like, it's sweet and spicy, and really nice. When they first saw food like chick peas, [ SOUND ] they didn't want to taste it. You know, the unknown doesn't always look like it's smiling at you, I love to see the children really cooking. I love the way they learned to cut like a chef. They learned to, try food. Honestly the sausage stuff if really good. I used some of the recipes that they can own and if I really like it, then I start trying to cook it. Learning how to cook, learning how to grow food. Everyone needs to know these things, because they're they're essential for our survival. We know about the health issues of fast food, we know about poverty, we know about hunger in America. This is something that there really needs to be taught in a very different way. Children will not immediately change their diets because someone has told them that it would be better to do so. I'm not wanting to tell children what to eat, I'm wanting to win them over. We need to live on the planet together. We need to be good stewards, we need to know how to nourish ourselves, and we need to know how to come to the table. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/"},"headline":"There's A lot of Junk Food at the School Nutrition Conference","datePublished":"2014-07-16T19:23:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:01:07.102Z","description":"This year's annual conference run by the School Nutrition Association is not without politics","url":"https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Nutrition","Michelle Obama","Fast Food","food industry"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/","name":"There's A lot of Junk Food at the School Nutrition Conference"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Alice Waters on Edible Education","description":"Alice Waters, chef and activist, talks about her project The Edible Schoolyard","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BRkbfoQ5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-24T10:24:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BRkbfoQ5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/","duration":"PT4M14S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/2993491/theres-a-lot-of-junk-food-at-the-school-nutrition-conference/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```