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Great Kanawha food fight

Last August, Kanawha County school cooks were abruptly ordered to quit serving prepackaged food and cook instead, from scratch, with fresh ingredients, five days a week. With fewer students eating, Kanawha County's food program is projected to make about $350,000 less than it did the previous year.

Success from scratch

Last summer, seven of West Virginia's poorest counties agreed to try cooking lunch and breakfast with fresh ingredients all year, five days a week. They would offer meals free to all students who want to eat.

Food Solutions

A Dorchester shelter works to transition women and their families to permanent housing through job training and education assistance, and also works to develop other skills like parenting and nutrition. In addition, these women have the opportunity to work on an urban farm.

"I Can't Believe It's Pot Butter": Q&A with Ron Shinkman on Covering Medical Marijuana

Ron Shinkman has worked many gigs in his career, but none perhaps as eye-opening as his experience covering the medical marijuana industry in Southern California. Here's our Q&A with the veteran health business journalist.

Healthy Homework: Committed to nutrition

Candy bars, Pop-Tarts and french fries were always on the menu in Ruth Sanchez's daily diet.

For years, the 17-year-old consistently made poor eating choices. "Fast food is what I would eat the most," she recalled.

Ruth, a former Merced Scholars Charter School student, said the two main reasons she turned to fast food were because it was affordable and easy to get.

"You are on the run, and you are going to get something from the $1 menu," she explained. "It's quick and it's the cheapest."

Not only did Ruth, who weighs 183 pounds, make the wrong choices when it came to eating, she also didn't live an active life.

That's no longer the case. She has made a dramatic change in her habits.

This is part two in a four-part series.

Part one: Convenience often trumps nutrition

Part three: Providing healthier choices

Part four: No escape from healthy lifestyle effort

Golden Years Grow Dark for Isolated Seniors

Serious depression is a growing problem for multicultural seniors. But unlike older whites, ethnic people 50-plus are blocked from treatment by poverty, limited or no insurance, lack of programs geared for them—and the stigma of mental problems that permeates many cultures. New America media senior editor Paul Kleyman reports his series on mental challenges for ethnic seniors.

To find the link between swine flu and actual pigs, check the water

Tom Philpott, food editor for Grist, has been calling for an investigation into the connection between H1N1, or swine flu, and actual swine.

Dropping science: Journalists can check food safety claims in the lab

Food is packaged with a veneer of sincerity. Contents are dutifully itemized along with tables showing the percentage of recommended nutrients, fat content, etc. But there is much that remains a mystery. You are never going to see a candy wrapper that says, "May contain lead."

Q&A with Mark Katches: Editor breaks reporting down to the chemical level

Mark Katches is the deputy managing editor for projects at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He leads a team of reporters who have been watch-dogging the use of chemicals in food containers and other products for the past two years.

Data Reporting E-book - Download.

What makes your community healthy or unhealthy? Use our step-by-step data reporting guide to uncover untold stories!

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