Calls for Public to Join 'School Lunch Revolution' Aimed at Transforming School Menus Across United States

Partners Travel to Washington, D.C., to Raise Awareness, Seek Changes to the National School Lunch Program

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI), a leader in natural and organic foods, and Chef Ann Cooper, the nation's "Renegade Lunch Lady," have joined forces to transform lunch in schools across the country with the "School Lunch Revolution" campaign. This national effort, which launches during the back-to-school season, aims to enable schools to revolutionize and improve the way children eat. The free, first-of-its-kind Lunch Box Web site - thelunchbox.org - provides the necessary resources for food service directors to make tangible changes in their cafeteria menus.

"It is past time for a wake-up call! Look at what our children are being offered at school: processed foods high in fat, junk food, soft drinks loaded with sugar...the list goes on. We are in the throes of a public health time bomb," said Chef Ann Cooper, author of "Lunch Lessons" and "Bitter Harvest" and founder of the F3: Food Family Farming Foundation whose mission is to provide every child in America with healthy and delicious fresh food at school. "This is THE social justice issue of our time, and schools have NO money to help solve the problem," said Cooper. "I felt strongly about partnering with Whole Foods Market to help tackle this issue because their customers have a successful track record of rallying around a cause and making a real difference."

Chef Ann Cooper's Lunch Box Web site is the most comprehensive, easily accessible and FREE set of resources available to help schools replace frozen processed foods with fresh, natural, made-from-scratch foods in a realistic, cost-effective manner. Tools include:

• Recipes that work for schools of all size and can be nutritionally analyzed, tested and costed
• Resources for procuring real, natural foods, regionally and locally, from smaller vendors to create local food economies
• Training videos that cover topics ranging from cooking techniques to food safety
• Educational tools for parents and children
• Community activism tools helping any single person, group or task force to initiate change in a school system
  

"One in three children born in the year 2000 will have diabetes, and 30 percent of them are overweight, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC also says that the cost of treating diabetes in the United States is estimated at $174 billion each year," said Cooper.