Ending Processed School Meals: The Real Food Movement in Public Schools | Nora LaTorre

Summary

Real Foodology Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Ending Processed School Meals: The Real Food Movement in Public Schools
Host: Courtney Swan
Guest: Nora Latour, CEO of Eat Real Certified
Release Date: May 6, 2025
Produced By: Wellness Loud

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Introduction to the Real Food Movement in Schools

In this compelling episode of the Real Foodology podcast, host Courtney Swan engages in an insightful discussion with Nora Latour, CEO of Eat Real Certified. The conversation centers on the critical issue of processed food in public school meals and the transformative efforts by Eat Real Certified to overhaul the food system in schools across America.

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The Problem with Current School Meals

Courtney opens the discussion by highlighting a staggering fact: public schools are the largest restaurant chain in the United States, serving millions of meals daily. She points out that many of these meals consist of ultra-processed foods, including items from fast-food chains like McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway.

Notable Quote:

[00:14] Courtney Swan: "Public schools are the largest restaurant chain in America... many of these kiddos are just getting ultra-processed foods all day in their school lunches."

Nora elaborates on the severity of the issue, citing that 67% of calories consumed by children come from ultra-processed sources. This has led to a rise in preventable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among children.

Notable Quote:

[06:31] Nora Latour: "Today, 67% of kids' calories are ultra-processed calories... kids are eating way more ultra-processed food than real food."

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Eat Real Certified's Mission and Impact

Nora shares the mission of Eat Real Certified, emphasizing that every child deserves access to healthy and delicious food on a livable planet. Founded by leading doctors concerned about the health decline in children, Eat Real Certified focuses on connecting school systems with local farmers to provide whole, nutritious foods.

Notable Quote:

[05:38] Nora Latour: "Every child deserves a healthy, delicious future on a livable planet... we help schools overhaul the food system quickly."

Eat Real Certified began its efforts five years ago, starting with 50,000 children and rapidly expanding to serve half a million kids. By the end of the year, their goal is to reach one million children across 20 states.

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Benefits Observed from Revamped School Meals

The shift to real food in schools has yielded remarkable benefits:

1. Health Improvements: Significant reductions in sugar consumption (up to 34 pounds per student per year) and the elimination of toxic ingredients.
2. Academic Performance: Enhanced focus and better academic scores among students due to improved nutrition.
3. Behavioral Changes: Teachers report fewer behavioral issues and better classroom management as children are more focused and less hyperactive.
4. Economic Advantages: Schools have transitioned from being financially "in the red" to "in the black," experiencing increased participation and revenue.

Notable Quote:

[09:40] Courtney Swan: "I get messages from teachers noticing more behavioral issues... they're seeing a direct link to poor nutrition."

Nora shares a powerful anecdote about a school food service director who removed 34 pounds of sugar per student annually, leading to healthier and happier students without increasing costs.

Notable Quote:

[44:14] Nora Latour: "He removed 34 pounds of sugar per student per year... and it was a cost-neutral change because participation increased."

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How Schools Can Get Involved

Eat Real Certified offers a turnkey solution for schools to transition to real food. Schools can either reach out directly, be approached by Eat Real Certified, or have parents advocate on their behalf. The process includes:

1. Assessment: Conducting a thorough evaluation of the current food system.
2. Certification: Schools receive certifications (Green, Silver, Gold, Platinum) based on their adherence to real food standards.
3. Support: Continuous support through playbooks, data analysis, and connections to local suppliers.

Notable Quote:

[24:03] Nora Latour: "We help schools with assessments, certifications, and provide the playbook and support to make school food the best restaurant in town."

Parents play a crucial role by reaching out to school administrators with template emails provided by Eat Real Certified, facilitating swift adoption of healthier meal options.

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Policy and Advocacy Efforts: AB 1264

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to advocacy efforts surrounding California's AB 1264, a groundbreaking bill aimed at setting the highest standards for school meals to eliminate the worst forms of ultra-processed foods. This legislation has garnered bipartisan support and is poised to make a substantial impact on the quality of school meals.

Notable Quote:

[63:03] Courtney Swan: "AB 1264 is the highest standard ever introduced to protect kids from the worst forms of ultra-processed foods in schools."

Nora urges listeners to support the bill through various means such as signing petitions, sending letters to lawmakers, and participating in lobby days. The success of AB 1264 in California could serve as a model for other states, potentially leading to a nationwide movement towards healthier school meals.

Notable Quote:

[65:14] Courtney Swan: "There are ways to support through letters and petitions, even if you're outside California."

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Success Stories and Transformations

Nora shares inspiring stories of schools that have successfully transitioned to real food:

• Morgan Hill Unified: Successfully removed 34 pounds of sugar per student annually, sourced from over 11 local farms, and introduced delicious menu items like cauliflower tikki masala.

• Coupeville Unified: Collaborating with local food hubs to source from 70 organic farms, offering diverse and nutrient-rich options such as sunchokes and pickled jalapeños, which have been well-received by students.

These transformations demonstrate that upgrading school meals is not only feasible but also highly beneficial for students' health and academic performance.

Notable Quote:

[46:16] Nora Latour: "The kids are loving it... it's so delicious that parents are requesting to buy school lunches for home."

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Engaging the Community and Future Plans

Both Courtney and Nora emphasize the importance of community involvement in driving the real food movement in schools. By fostering relationships between parents, teachers, and local farmers, Eat Real Certified creates a sustainable and supportive environment for healthier school meals.

Notable Quote:

[26:52] Nora Latour: "Our program encourages other school districts to join, making school food a community-driven initiative."

Looking ahead, Eat Real Certified plans to expand its reach, engage more states, and potentially extend its efforts to colleges and other institutions. The overarching goal is to ensure that all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, have access to nutritious and delicious meals that support their growth and learning.

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Conclusion and Call to Action

The episode concludes with a heartfelt call to action, urging listeners to support policy changes, advocate for healthier school meals, and participate in the real food movement. Nora invites listeners to visit EatRealCertified.org to learn more, sign up for newsletters, and find resources to help their schools transition to real food.

Notable Quote:

[67:22] Nora Latour: "They can donate... Every dollar means so much to us and really helps us reach as many schools as possible."

Courtney echoes the importance of collective effort, expressing deep gratitude for Nora's leadership and the impactful work of Eat Real Certified in fostering a healthier future for America's children.

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Key Takeaways

• Public Schools as a Leverage Point: With their vast reach, public schools present an unparalleled opportunity to improve children's nutrition on a national scale.

• Health and Academic Benefits: Transitioning to real food enhances student health, reduces behavioral issues, and boosts academic performance.

• Economic Viability: Implementing real food standards can be cost-neutral or even profitable for schools by increasing participation and reducing waste.

• Community and Policy Support: Success relies on community involvement, supportive policies like AB 1264, and ongoing advocacy to sustain and expand the movement.

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How to Get Involved

• For Parents: Visit EatRealCertified.org to access resources, sign up for newsletters, and find template emails to advocate for healthier school meals.

• Support Legislation: Advocate for policies like AB 1264 by signing petitions, sending letters to lawmakers, and participating in advocacy events.

• Donate: Contribute to Eat Real Certified to support their mission of transforming school food systems across the nation.

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By championing the cause of real food in schools, both Courtney Swan and Nora Latour illuminate a path toward a healthier, more vibrant future for children nationwide. This episode underscores the profound impact that nutritious, delicious meals can have on the lives and futures of young students.

Transcript

[Courtney Swan]

On today's episode of the Real Foodology.

[Nora Latour]

Podcast, how do we just help kids and families relearn nutrition and make it easy for them and then make it really simple and turnkey? And that's why we focus on schools, because it's such a natural place for kids to learn.

[Courtney Swan]

Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Swan. As always, and today's guest is Nora Latour, who is the CEO of a company called Eat Real Certified. You may not know this, but public schools are the largest restaurant chain in America. And I think it's no secret that America's school cafeterias are not serving healthy, nutritious foods. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Not only are many of these kiddos just getting ultra processed foods all day in their school lunches, but a lot of these school cafeterias also have McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway's. They have a lot of fast foods in there as well. What Nora's doing with Eat Real is taking these school systems and their food systems and connecting them with real farmers and local food systems where they can actually provide real, whole foods for the kiddos. And it's so freaking cool what they're doing. And her excitement about all of this was so much fun to listen to also. It just made me so happy. So many of you all have over the years sent me DMs asking how can I get involved. I'm seeing what my kiddos are eating in the school lunches and it's atrocious and I want to be able to change it, I want to fix it and same. I've wanted to do this forever and I just felt like I didn't know where to start. I didn't know who to to send people to. And it's so freaking cool that now there's a company that's actually doing this. I don't wanna go into too many details because you'll hear all about it, but I just, I'm really, really excited about it because we finally have a solution. We finally have a company that's taking care of this. It's also really easy for the parents that wanna get involved and wanna get their school system involved. So listen to the episode. If you are one of those parents that's like, I really wanna change my kiddo school lunches and I don't know where to start. They have a who you can get your school lunches on board. And it's so cool. The kiddos are eating whole real foods. They're loving it and she kept going on and on about how good the food tasted and it's just, it's so exciting. So I don't want to give anything else away. I just want you to listen to the episode. As always, if you are loving this podcast, if you could take a moment to rate and review it. It takes you about two seconds and it really does mean a lot for the show and it helps the show grow. So I just want to say thank you for the support and if you're loving this episode and you want to tag me at Real Foodology, I try to get to all of your messages and your tags. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your support. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you love the episode. Thanks guys. Electrolyte imbalances are no joke and many popular sports drinks out there are packed with sugar and artificial ingredients. And that's why I'm excited to introduce to you Element, a zero sugar electrolyte drink mix designed to tackle these issues head on. 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Visit fromourplace.com real foodology and use code real foodology for 10% off site wide with a hundred day risk free trial free shipping and returns you can experience this game changing cookware with zero risk. Nora, thank you so much for coming on today.

[Nora Latour]

Thank you for having me.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah, so we were talking just a little bit before we started recording and I just was telling you that I'm so excited about what you're doing and it's so amazing because it's super action oriented and it's, it's really hitting an area that is not only very much needed but something that I'm super passionate about. I remember years ago, this was like 10 years ago, Jamie Oliver had a show about trying to clean up our food system. And I was so excited. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then by the end of the show he was like, well I tried.

[Nora Latour]

And I was like, no need to keep trying.

[Courtney Swan]

We need somebody to do this. So can you tell my listeners what you're doing with Eat Real and the food system?

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, and it's so perfect because Eat Real real food allergy, like just both really focus, I think on the power of real food. And at Eat Real we're leading children's health nonprofit where we believe every child deserves a healthy, delicious future on a livable planet. And we all are really focused helping kids unlock their full potential through real food and live out their dreams. And so the reason we exist is that we actually founded by some of the top doctors in the nation and they just saw how sick kids were getting and they were really alarmed. And this was 13 years ago and they said it's the food. And people aren't talking about how it's the food. And yes, there are other drivers. It was kind of before the rise of screens, but it was the food and they, they saw the rise of ultra processed food. You know, today 67% of kids calories are ultra processed. Calories is nuts.

[Courtney Swan]

I don't think people understand.

[Nora Latour]

It's like more than the majority. It's like just like they were Eating way more ultra processed food than real food at this point when for, you know, forever we survived off real food. And so they just, but they saw how it was affecting kids and they were trying to kind of ring the alarm bell. And then I joined a CEO, I was a new mom, and I learned about American health collapse. This phenomenon that kids are on track. And as a new mom, it's like really upsetting to me, but kids are on Track to experience 693 fewer sunsets than their parents or that's almost two years of life expectancy decline that we're handing to our kids. That means they're going to have shorter, less healthy and less happy lives than us. And this is like, you know, the decline of progress then because we always fight for giving our kids a better life. And so, and when I learned about that and I learned what these doctors were doing at Eat Real, I thought like, this is, this is the cause of my lifetime. This is, I want to get behind this, I want to help scale it, I want to do this work. And we went through an exercise just over five school years ago. I count my life in school years, not just as a mom, but now working at school food. But what we saw was that if food was the biggest problem and preventable ultra processed food diseases, related diseases and lifestyle diseases were driving this decline in life expectancy. They're the number one driver. Poor nutrition globally is the number one thing taking years away from people and healthy years away from people and from our kids. And so if food is the biggest issue, we're like, what is the biggest lever within our food system? And so we did a whole analysis. Week one, when I was brand new CEO, brand new mom, and we looked at all the different parts of our food system and we saw that the best leverage point was the largest restaurant chain in America, which is a US public school system.

[Courtney Swan]

Isn't that nuts?

[Nora Latour]

That's, yeah, they're bigger than schools. US public schools are bigger than Subway, Starbucks and McDonald's combined. They serve 7 billion meals a year to 30 million kids. So it's like when you just think about the sheer volume and that then you're affecting kids early in their lifetime and affecting their development and their ability to learn. We're like, this is could be game changing. And Eat Real has an award winning program where we actually stand next to schools and we help them overhaul the food system quickly. And we stand next to food service directors and heroes in towns across America and we help give them the playbook and the data and the Support to make school food and school restaurants the best restaurant in town. And it, and it works. And I was like five years ago I went and had school lunch and it was so delicious. And they were removing at that point 10 pounds of sugar per student per year. They were cutting toxic ingredients. They were sourcing local regenerative items. Food, grass fed beef, like organic chicken. They were sourcing just local vegetables. It was so delicious. And we were working with 50,000 kids. And then fast forward now we're working with half a million kids. And in the next year, by the end of this year we can reach a million kids in 20 states. It's happening fast, it's happening around the country and it can happen everywhere. Oh my gosh.

[Courtney Swan]

Wait. This is so cool. Okay, so I'm like, I have so many questions. Where do I want to take this first? Okay, I think first of all, let's start with like how bad they are. Like what were you seeing? What were these doctors seeing in the school lunches? Because I think the general person, especially if they don't have kids or if they don't understand enough about food, what are we seeing in school lunches that are so bad?

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, well, first of all, just like zooming out on kids food in general. Right. Like for the 67% of kids, calories are ultra processed calories. And then kids in America today eat a bathtub of added sugar a year.

[Courtney Swan]

A bathtub.

[Nora Latour]

Like you can't see that after you like after you hear I've like, like a bathtub. And it actually is more than that. So I want to like maybe at this point like one and a half bathtubs.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

And it's been going up and there's an everything.

[Courtney Swan]

It's not just candy and cookies. It's like literally in the salad dressings, it's in soup, it's in the sauces.

[Nora Latour]

And it's over 70% of products that has like an added sugar in it.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

And so. And they're over 262 names for just added sugar. Not even looking at free sugar or artificial sweeteners.

[Courtney Swan]

Yes.

[Nora Latour]

So it's just, it's hidden. It's like, it's hidden everywhere. It's ubiquitous. It's everywhere in our kids food especially. Right. And it's being pumped them. And so we just see like the state of food. And I think in food, like I'm from Minnesota and you're from Colorado. Right. Okay. So in Minnesota, like it was very beige growing up. Like it was just like, it was like chicken nuggets and white bread sandwiches and round pizza and like, I loved our lunch ladies and, but like, and I would actually like, volunteer checkout or like helping and whatnot. But maybe that's when my school food obsession started. But like, it was like in a lot of places, it hasn't changed much, but that was like, pretty new. Like ultra processed food really started to rise in the 70s and the 80s. And actually millennials, we missed a critical growth spurt in the 80s and we're shorter because of that, because of like, because of what we were eating in our, in our environment. So like it was starting to affect. Right. Our health span was starting to be impacted majorly. But what's happening with, for American kids is that it's just intensified for them. And so across the country, kids just don't have access to that real food that they need. And that's why we really think schools are this really powerful point where kids need real food to focus and to learn. There's so much research out there that shows that as you improve nutrition for kids, you improve their academic scores, you improve their performance. Like their kids health, their metabolic health, when they even just removing added sugar for 10 days, their metabolic health can improve. Like, kids are little and they can regenerate quickly too.

[Courtney Swan]

Wow.

[Nora Latour]

And so there's a lot of hope in that. Yes. Food and school food probably hasn't changed much from what I described or maybe what you grew up on too, but, or what you were, was in your, in your local school. But like, we can make changes quickly in schools and kids health can improve quickly. And for our littlest kids, we can make sure that they have learning food, like, food that really helps them. We call it growing food in my house.

[Courtney Swan]

But yeah, that's so cute. Well, that's a really big one. So I get a ton of messages, DMs all the time in my Instagram from teachers that will tell me. They'll say in the last like 10 years, I'll be like, I've been in this for, you know, 20 years. Or I just recently got a message and she was like, I've been in the school system for 10 years. And she goes, I have never seen behavioral issues like I'm seeing today compared to 10 years ago. And there's this, you know, there's some dissenting voices saying, oh, well, we're just getting better at diagnosing. And then the teachers are literally witnessing it and they're going, no, no, we're not. We're actually having more behavioral issues. And it's the sugar, it's the dyes, it's the fact that they're just not eating real food anymore. And I don't think people understand that. I was actually talking with my team before you got here is that like a lot of these schools now don't even actually have chefs or cooks anymore. They just literally have someone that tears open a bag, they dump something in a fryer. And so even if the kids partially thawed.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, that can happen.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah, exactly. Like partially thawed too. And so what, it may even look like they're like getting food. You know, it's like chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes or whatever. But the mashed potatoes were literally a powder that they added water to. And they have 30 ingredients when it should be three ingredients, you know, potatoes, butter, salt. And then, you know, they're getting chicken nuggets, which has a laundry list of ingredients. So it's like they're not actually eating food anymore. And you brought up such a great point about their development. Like they're in their most critical years of developing. Their brains are developing, their bodies are growing, their cells are, you know, doing everything that they're supposed to be doing and they're, they don't even have the building blocks to do everything they need to do.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, yeah, it's, it. The type 2 diabetes is up in kids, which is a preventable, ultra processed food related disease. It's up 67% in kids since the pandemic. So it's soaring obesity. If, you know, if you imagine back on recess and there you're holding hands with five of your friends. Three of those friends will be obese by the time they're 35 now. So in eight years, we'll have three out of five 35 year olds being obese at the time. When you're thinking about preconception, conception, childbirth, et cetera. And so we like the, you know, our obesity is soaring. Fatty liver disease.

[Courtney Swan]

This is crazy.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, people don't know much about that one. Yeah.

[Courtney Swan]

Non alcoholic fatty liver disease.

[Nora Latour]

Thank you for calling it that.

[Courtney Swan]

Yes. This actually blew my mind when I figured this out, because this is a disease that largely did not even exist. Like, absorb that for a second. This disease didn't even exist like 50 years ago. And before it was just called fatty liver disease because alcoholics were getting it, because we were only seeing it out in alcoholics.

[Nora Latour]

But now they actually call it alcoholic fatty liver disease. Yes.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

So now, because it's showing up in. Kids are calling it non alcoholic fatty liver disease. It only they saw it in alcoholics and kids aren't having alcohol exactly. But they're adding, added in free sugar and other ultra processed foods. And then now we're seeing fatty, non alcoholic, fatty liver disease showing up in kids. It's crazy and it's increasing a lot. Chronic kidney disease, autism, adhd. We're learning a lot more about the brain, gut, microbiome and how over 95% of our serotonin is made in our guts. And it's like we can either feed our kids their happiness and mental health and help feed that happiness hormone and have them having good microbiomes, or we can be feeding them sickness and then they're in the doctor's office and not on the playground or not learning and focusing. And I do talk to a lot of teachers, especially as we help schools make the changes and move towards more real food and get out those ultra processed foods and make swaps. And they're like, I just interviewed, I just walked with one after school breakfast and it was like delicious, protein rich. It was like egg bites they had, you know, all different, you know, even like a really protein rich breakfast burrito. And so I was talking with one of the teachers and I went back to her classroom and I said, you know, what does real food breakfast mean to you? And she said, you know what, Nora? It means that my kids are focusing better in math. Wow. And like, and that's huge. And we're about to have some really good research coming out on this, which I would love to share with you when it's out. But yeah, but we hear from teachers who are on the front lines every day that it is helping their kids focus. Or I just heard from another teacher that during mat time when the kids are sitting down listening to books on the mat, that her kids are actually able to sit still now and focus and listen to story time. And so, and then one of their teachers said like real food breakfast meant that she hadn't heard one. I'm hungry. And like that just breaks my heart. But like, if your tummy's grumbling, if you, if you're hungry, you can't learn. It's like you've, like, how can you even focus? So the fact that then they're feeling nourished enough to really, you know, be thinking about learning and not thinking about food.

[Courtney Swan]

Well, and if you're just having like, let's say Froot Loops for breakfast, I mean, that's quite, that's quick, fast carbohydrates that are not going to last you longer Than like an hour. Like if I had a bowl of cereal and then tried to podcast all day, I would be starving.

[Nora Latour]

I'm bouncing. Like, how do you sit still? Like you can't be like, spike a kid. And then like, I'm a mom. You can't spike a kid. You can't give kids sugar and then expect them to like sit still. Like you just can't. But just, yeah, thinking about that. So we did a quick analysis and we found that in the standard American breakfast and there was standard American diet, the sad diet, just by breakfast alone, kids, American kids typically have like, they can have, if they have a standard breakfast like that, four times the amount of added sugar they should have the entire day. So like, and if you're talking like, you know, adults, females having 25 grams and kids having 12, maybe 13 grams of sugar by just breakfast, they can be way beyond the daily max amount. And so, you know, and then, then we want them to sit still and learn. So but that's like, that's just like a, that's like a, you know, a muffin with a ton of added sugar which you can, you can do swaps and muffins and still have a delicious muffin. Like our schools are doing it. They're having like amazing local fresh fruit instead inside the muffin. And it can be like delicious still with, but then also like a flavored yogurt and then an orange juice. And we're just not setting our kids up in the morning. We're setting them up on a cycle of highs and lows then throughout the day. And so we're just, that's. We really have to get kids real food throughout the day and especially in the morning. You're pointing to breakfast because it sets up their entire day.

[Courtney Swan]

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[Nora Latour]

Yeah, you know, kids depend on school meals for 30 to 100% of their calories and for low income kids, like it's upwards of 100% of their calories. Because if you look at school, breakfast, school lunch, and then in certain communities there's also like dinner that's provided. So kids really need real food at school in order. And that's why we believe that if we can get kids real food at school, then that's how we start to restore health in America upstream and stop disease before it starts. Like we can stop these, we can reverse and reverse some of these diseases in kids. Like we don't need to be testing Ozempic on 6 year olds. Like let's get kids real food as the first, as the first try and then, and then we can. So we can reverse disease and we can prevent it.

[Courtney Swan]

Exactly. Okay, so what are you sourcing for the kiddos? Like where are you getting the food sourcing? And then also too, what are your stipulations around it like pesticide free or dye free or what are the little like boundaries you have around it?

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, yeah. So we don't cook the food for the schools. We're literally teaching them to fish. So we stand next to these local food heroes over multiple years and we do an assessment on our science based standards which leverage the best science out there. We're actually doing a standards review right now. And so looking at everything from Nova, one of the processing kind of spectrums that goes from minimally processed to ultra processed. We look at, we have a sugar standard, a protein standard. We're looking at healthy fats. So that's like looking at those really, really healthy fats getting more local and seasonal sourcing, organic, regenerative sourcing. So we look at everything from nutrition to local and sustainability on, on across their whole food system. So that's like, that's looking at a school's menus, their recipes, their purchasing. And so we work, you know, it's, it's really about trust with those local heroes. They're opening up their, their books, they're looking, they're showing us their database, they're showing us all like my team is like, was just in Georgia and they were like in their freezer looking at, you know, what boxes, what was on the ingredients labels, et cetera. So people are really open to wanting to understand and get a baseline for what's happening in their school district and have an independent baseline. And so we give that to them and we give them this 14 page report. We're like, you're rocking it in these ways and here's some top opportunities. And then to get Eat Real certified, which we actually will certify a school. And we have green level, silver, gold, platinum. And so it kind of gamifies and has this range that schools can work towards year over year of reaching this higher level. Kind of like Michelin star meets lead, but for a school restaurant.

[Courtney Swan]

Awesome.

[Nora Latour]

And it's like, yeah, so we really help the school do that. And so we have these rigorous and also harmful, getting harmful ingredients out, these rigorous standards that we look at their food, but it's not a one size fits all in that every school food System and our 90,000 public schools are organized into just about 13,000 school districts. And every one of those districts then has tons of schools under them. And so every single one is set up differently. Some have central kitchens, some the kitchens have been taken out, some, some of the schools have kitchens, some don't. So the infrastructure is all over the place.

[Courtney Swan]

So how does Some not have kitchens. Are they just living?

[Nora Latour]

No.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

Or they'll have a food service company that just like trucks in the food.

[Courtney Swan]

Whoa. Whoa.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah. So we have a lot of work to do, but we can do it and we can do it fast and it can happen fast. And it works. It really works.

[Courtney Swan]

It works.

[Nora Latour]

And we measure it right. So we can see this is the baseline before. And then we help the schools make the changes. We're not actually sourcing it, but we're like, okay, here's one of the biggest regenerative organic protein suppliers. And like we work with this amazing company, Cream Co. And they're getting like grass fed ranches from my friend Carrie Richard from her ranch up in Nevada City to tons of schools and a bunch of other ranches. And they're actually having to get more ranchers to go and, and convert to like grass fed. And then those cows are grazing on 100 types of native grasses. They're getting tons of omegas. They're like, it's like the happiest farms and farming families you've seen. I love being on those ranches. And so we'll. Then we'll connect them with different supplier options. We'll get all the school districts in our program. They call themselves Eat Reallys. Oh. And they like, they get together on calls and they'll trade like, who, who are you using for this? Like how. Who are you using for satsumas or like whatever it is that they're sourcing or. I was just having school breakfast or school lunch last week. So good. In Sacramento before I went to the Capitol. And they were having. They work with a local food hubs, Spark food hub. And they're sourcing from one food hub and it's farmer owned from 70 local farms. Organic, like largely organic. It's like organic, local, delicious. They had sunchokes, which I did not have until recently. It was like, yeah, same. They had artichokes that they were giving to their kids. And this is a pretty big district.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

And their kids were getting. They like had designed it into like just a beautiful array of vegetables and they had like a taco bar with the big heaps of guacamole, healthy fats. And like it was just like, it was so, so scrumptious. I wanted seconds. It was so good. It was so good. But that's just an example of how then we'll work with a school to work with local suppliers and we'll help kind of like make connections. But we're not actually sourcing it or Buying it for them.

[Courtney Swan]

Okay, yeah. So that was what I was trying to understand. So does a school reach out to you or do you guys go to a school and say, hey, we'd love to revamp it? Or maybe do parents reach out to you and say, hey, we want to, we want to change our school?

[Nora Latour]

All three. All three, Whatever that is.

[Courtney Swan]

All three.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, yeah. So our eat really is recruit other eat really. So they tell their friends about like how. And what's powerful about our program is that it's really helping drive up participation because the kids actually prefer the food and they eat it and they love it and the parents are happier. Like, if you know that there's not going to be a side of pesticides or tons of toxic ingredients or you know, a real. A real delicious burger that a kid can have that you. That from ingredients that you can recognize and that you trust, you're going to say yes to having your kid have school lunch. And the kid is going to want to have school lunch. So that's what our schools are seeing. They're actually increasing the number of kids eating school lunch and they're increasing their revenue. So some of our schools have gone from in the red to in the black, which is wild. And they're just, they're like, really? It's a really effective program for the schools and for the communities. And so sometimes it's those school districts that are like, this really works for a school food. It's a better school food business model and other school districts should try this. And it's really helping me engage my community and source for my community and keep those dollars local. Like, everybody's happier. And so they start to tell their friends about it. And so when we launch cohorts that we launch now, we're. Because of all the momentum, we're launching two cohorts a year, which is really cool. So what's happening is that you really are encouraging other school districts to get involved, which is cool, because it's like, we're making school food cool. It's a club. Like, these people are leaders. They have huge jobs. They're sourcing for the biggest restaurant. Like, it's a really job. You have to feed, you know, a thousand kids in an hour and through. Like, it's hard, but they're getting their friends involved. Then my team has done a research project where we've analyzed all the school districts in the country and we've kind of picked 200 that are in red, blue, purple states, winter states, all throughout the country. The south, like Small districts, big, huge districts to show that we can do this anywhere. And so we're starting to do outreach strategically or ask our e really for introductions or, you know, just starting our community organizations and leaders and people on podcasts, whoever wants to get involved. We're like, there are certain states that we're looking at. And then we also. Parents do reach out. And so this one parent, Lynn Choi, she reached out and she said, nora, I'm really tired of I'm driving my kids school lunch right now, and I'm happy to do this, but I would love for him to have a healthy school lunch and I would love for his friends to. And within 12 hours, she had her school district signed up. She reached out to them and she emailed. She reached out. I sent her a template email. And people can go to our website and reach. Follow us on social media and ask for the template. But she reached out and she just said, you know, to the food service director, the nutrition director, that's who's the key decision maker, the hero. And so she said, you're doing an amazing job. Thank you for, you know, really, it's about celebrating them and honoring how big their jobs are and important. And she said, I have this free resource, Eat Real. Can I introduce you? She introduced us. We got on the phone, and then they're involved. And that was actually Capistrano. And Kristin at Capistrano Unified is just rocking. And she's such a. And she has the prettiest food map I've ever seen. It's just like she's totally gone from, like, you know, school, like, maybe more typical school lunch. And now she's sourcing from local farms all around her. And it is delicious. I had had school there not too long ago, and Lynn was there. The parent was there with us, and we were handing her her Eat Rail green certificate. And it was so cool. So parents can move mountains and we' start to reach out and build the movement with us. And it's. It's really helpful, especially if we. We go from a place of positivity. Like, we're here to help and we want to support them in the journey. We want to celebrate, et cetera, so parents can. And like, sometimes it's a local doctor or. We just had a student in Virginia say that she wants to help get more Eat Real districts across the whole state. Oh, my God. Super cool.

[Courtney Swan]

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[Nora Latour]

It's possible.

[Courtney Swan]

Exactly. That's the thing. And I'm so glad we're doing this interview because I hope that parents out There, I mean, this is one of the top messages I actually get from parents is I want to change my kids school lunches and I don't know how. And so now we're giving them a resource where they can reach out to you guys and get this started. And something that I've heard you say a couple times that I'm just so taken back by, that I really want to take note of, is that you keep talking about how good these school lunches taste. That to me blows my mind because I remember when I was in school, we were like, ugh. What. I mean, who was. Adam Sandler literally has like a song about the lunch ladies and the slop that we would get. And I mean, if that did not describe school lunch is better, I don't know what did. And so how cool is it that that now we're. We're not only feeding kids like healthy, nutritious food, but it actually tastes good. And I think this is what, what so many don't understand is that so much of our food in the traditional food system sense is so like dead and devoid of nutrients and it's disgusting.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, yeah.

[Courtney Swan]

Like real food.

[Nora Latour]

And then you taste, start tasting real food.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

And it tastes delicious.

[Courtney Swan]

And it tastes delicious. And this is also. I wanted. I was going to ask you about this so. Because I was curious if it was harder to get kids to eat healthier. Because I know there was a lot of criticism after Michelle Obama's rollout of those. The nutrition program, the school lunch program. And look, every time I mention her name and I say that the school lunch program is not great. After everyone comes after me, I'm like, just y'all, like, we can, we can hold two things at once and it can be objective. Just point blank, a lot of the criticism after they started changing it under her, they were saying that kiddos were throwing away their lunch and that there was so much food waste happening because all the kids were like, ugh, I don't like this because they, I think they took like the sodium out and like they, it was still like ultra processed foods. So my question is, are you seeing kids throwing out the food or are they loving it now?

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, so. And some of those higher standards did reduce obesity for children living in poverty, like 47%. So when we upgrade our systems, it works like so that that does happen. And it's key to make it delicious and it's key to make it hyper local and to really support that school food hero at the district level, at the have the state. But Then also the districts really who know their students, who know what food trends are trending, who talk to their students every day. So it's a really critical moment for us to double down on the power of school lunch and invest in school lunch. It's about getting those school districts more resources, more support, like eat real, more community. Like we're kind of a nonprofit community partner. Like they need, they need more grants, like farm to school grants, so that they can not only, you know, that there are high standards, but also that there are some Kickstarter grants, if you will, where they can, you know, we've seen it where, like with some of the farm to school funding that's coming from the USDA or historically came from the usda, those grants are game changing for getting this moving and getting it local and extra delicious in a way that kids really love it, that's relevant to the community and to the students and that's engaging them. And so those grants can help them, you know, that school district, that, and buy from a local mountain farmer or from the family ranch and their kids go to the school too. And then that's on the menu. And it's not just a random item, but it's from, you know, Johnson family farms up the street, et cetera. And so it's really important to have a multi pronged approach as we make these changes and to really support our school districts in serving delicious meals. And that's through a combination of investment, of support, of celebration. Like, it's really important to celebrate it and to, you know, our schools are doing student taste tests all the time. Like I get, I mean, I could go on about like, school lunch is so good and it's happening. I'm going to school lunch next week in Georgia. We, I had it in Sacramento last week. Like, I was just up in one of the biggest islands in the United States. But off of Seattle, I took a ferry to Coupeville Unified. And that's a thousand students, three schools. And they had, they were, had a school farm and they were growing lettuce. And then they had kimchi on the salad bar and it was so good. And pickled jalapenos. And the kids were eating that. And so it was like a huge variety that's also a part of it. It's like you have to give kids a variety. And so a lot of time, that's when we work with a school district, don't just serve them that one thing, but give them three options that then they choose and then they're not, you know, Throwing out the food that they've been handed. They're getting empowered to pick and try. Yeah, I do want to try that pickled jalapeno. I don't want to try the kimchi today. I want to try the frozen raspberries from the school farm. I like, want to try the. Oh, my gosh. They had this broccoli that had garlic and salt and pepper. It was so good, you could, like, smell it walking in the school. It was the brightest green. Brightest green broccoli I've ever seen. But, you know, this is happening throughout the country, and it's really about supporting that hyper local school food hero.

[Courtney Swan]

Amazing. Okay. The only reason that I brought that up is because I do see criticism sometimes where they say, oh, well, she already tried it, and the kids were throwing all the lunches. And so I just really wanted to emphasize that real food works.

[Nora Latour]

Real food in school works. And kids love it. And it's delicious.

[Courtney Swan]

Yes. Okay, great.

[Nora Latour]

Improving their outcomes, and it's helping reverse American health collapse.

[Courtney Swan]

Oh, that's so amazing.

[Nora Latour]

So is that our best chance? I think it's our best chance right now to reverse the childhood disease epidemic.

[Courtney Swan]

Absolutely. There's no question to that, because we know that it's being largely driven by. Yes, people can argue that kids aren't moving as much, but it's absolutely the food. Because you look at, you know, you can just look at photos from, like, the 70s and our society, and people did not look the way that we look now. And we also were not dealing with all the chronic diseases that we are now. It's being driven by our food. You can't out exercise a bad diet.

[Nora Latour]

Exactly.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

So it's the food and it's the ultra processed food.

[Courtney Swan]

Exactly. Is there any part of your program that gets kids involved at all? Because I was curious if there's anything where, like, maybe kids have like a garden at school and they teach them. They. Maybe they have cooking classes. I don't know. Is there anything.

[Nora Latour]

I love your questions. Yeah, because it takes. It's like. And we're not a one size. We're like not a. Like a magic wand where we. We fix everything. Right. It's not like, oh, it's all of a sudden overnight perfect. When people work with Eat Real or they become Eat Real certified. It means that they're on a journey and that they're working hard to serve their kids the best food. And so we do encourage and help our school districts again, because we're about helping them help the students. So. And so that we encourage them to do a lot of nutrition education. We think that it's really critical, even on the menu with the different icons of what things mean and educating kids about that this is local, that this is organic, regenerative, et cetera. They put up a ton of. We really want them to help the lunchroom become one of the best classrooms. And so you start to see that in our schools. And then doing a lot of different initiatives. They do a lot of taste testing. They have, some of them have school farmers now they've gotten like one school has farmer Max and he was like a graduate and he's like teaching the kids about cucumbers versus tomatoes. What's seasonal right now. And so different things like that. And then we partner our program next to a school garden program. Amazing. There are some amazing school garden non profits out there, plus a curriculum partner where and then we connect our schools with different curriculum, research or partners. And so really we, we schools have a comprehensive nutrition education approach and take action to get their kids that nutrition education. We're not, we're not doing. Our team's not doing it, but we're helping them do it.

[Courtney Swan]

That's so cool. I really hope that that is.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah.

[Courtney Swan]

That that's going to be happening more in schools because, you know, I brought up Jamie Oliver's show, but I will never forget that there was a day that he filmed in a kindergarten with kiddos and I don't know, did you ever watch that show?

[Nora Latour]

I don't think I saw that one.

[Courtney Swan]

But yeah, so basically, if people don't know, because this show was like pretty old. But Jamie Oliver, if you remember him, he's a British chef and he got wind of how bad American school system was with the food a long time ago. And he did a TV show. I mean, it had to have been at least 10 years ago. And this was right when I was starting to really go through like I had just created real foodology. It was when I was like really getting passionate about our food systems.

[Nora Latour]

He inspired so many, so many people like you. And I love that.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah, yeah. He's amazing. And it really.

[Nora Latour]

He's his dad and he's like a really sweet guy and he's an amazing chef.

[Courtney Swan]

So yeah. And you can tell he really cares. And there was an episode that he filmed where he sat down in front of kindergarteners and he was just showing them simple things like here's a cucumber, here's a tomato. And he would ask the little kiddos, you know, and granted they're like five. But I was horrified watching this because the class didn't know what anything was. Like he was holding up various things like, you know, and they didn't know. Like, he's like, what is this? And they're like, no, we've, we've been.

[Nora Latour]

Disconnected from our food system. I think it's like we even grew up in Minnesota and my, my, my dad like planted an apple orchard in our front yard at one point. But like, so like, I was definitely exposed to some more real food than, than the average kid maybe. But I mean, I don't, I probably wouldn't have passed that test in some ways. You know what I mean? I maybe had a cut up tomato, but like, had I seen when my parents did have a little garden. But early on, I don't know how. I mean, that's still the case is like, we've been really disconnected. We go in the grocery store and we go to packaged food aisles and that's what we see. And we have to reteach ourselves what real food is. And I think for me, I had to reteach myself about nutrition and learn so much. And I think, how do we just help kids and families relearn nutrition and make it easy for them and then make it really simple and turnkey? And that's why we focus on schools, because it's such a natural place for kids to learn.

[Courtney Swan]

Yes, absolutely. And I say this all the time on the podcast. I just think if my mom did a great job with cooking and she cooked everything from scratch at the home, but again, even in the home and also at school, nobody ever made the connection for me. Like, hey, the things that you're eating and putting in your body quite literally build the cells of your body. They grow your hair, your nails. It's like what you eat is what you end up becoming is layman terms for it.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah. You are what you actually become, what you eat. Yeah. Your body is what?

[Courtney Swan]

Yes.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah.

[Courtney Swan]

And no food.

[Nora Latour]

When food becomes you, like, that's like, it's crazy.

[Courtney Swan]

But. And it's so when I finally figured that out, I had this like light bulb moment. I read this book when I was like 21, and quite frankly, when I first learned it, I was mad that no one had made that connection for me before. And I also was like, this is literally the simplest thing on the planet. Why. Why didn't I make this connection before? And why are we not making this connection for kiddos? Because it could have saved me so much grief with my body, with my relationship with food. Like, just, like there just was so many things, you know, and so I.

[Nora Latour]

Think we could help it. Our kids could be feeling better, you know, we could have felt better. And then. And then like, yeah, you're just like, yeah, yeah, exactly. How do we. And that's why I love what you do, because you break it down for people and you're trying to, you know, as you learn, you're trying to share it, and we're all trying to figure this out. And nutrition science is changing pretty quickly. But, like, there are some just, you know, known things that we can do that and we can make it simple. And it is as simple as, you know, enjoy and learn to love real food. And when you do that, you are setting your kids up for success. You can be healthy, you can be vibrant. And so it's just, how do we make it easy for people and then how do we do systemic shifts and change the whole game so that it's easier for people?

[Courtney Swan]

Yes. Oh, it's so cool. I just love so much what y'all are doing. So do you have a specific story of a transformation of a school that just like, just was really cool and that you want to share?

[Nora Latour]

So many. This is so fun. Is that. And I can't wait to share some news that we have coming up. But we have gone from 50,000 kids to half a million, and then we're about to reach a million. So we're gonna, we're gonna have a thousand examples across the country of this and thousand schools that we're working with, plus, and as parents get involved and I like, like, I just can't wait. Determined moms make things happen very fast. So I'm like, we're gonna. Well, I think it'll. We'll. I'll have a lot more examples soon. One example just sign of a good. Just what's kind of a good. Before and after Morgan Hill Unified. And I was just with Michael, he was just. We're helping introduce the highest standard ever in America's history that would protect kids from the worst forms of ultra Processed Foods. AB 1264. Maybe talk about that later. But Michael is just with me and I have had school lunch at his district quite a bit. And we. He removed 34 pounds of sugar per student per year.

[Courtney Swan]

That's nuts.

[Nora Latour]

He had to bring in a wheelbarrow to the school board meeting when we were giving him a zero green and we stacked it up and it was, it was taller than my, My three year old at the time. No, my little guy's four. But it was so tall, I couldn't. I tried to like lift it 34 pounds. I mean, I can lift 34 pounds, but like, it was heavy, you know, it was like. And it's a huge stack. And so. And he did that in a way with delicious swaps. So swapping the yogurt, flavored yogurt for Greek yogurt with local cut fruit and just like reducing frequency of certain items. Or working with his bakery, local bakery, to get that better muffin with the real fruit in it and not the like three types of sugar, et cetera. So that's just one of the changes. Then he started. He went from five local farms that he was sourcing from to I think like almost 11. He's sourcing grass fed organic burgers. He's sourcing Strauss organic bulk milk.

[Courtney Swan]

Oh my God, that is my favorite ever. Everything that Strauss makes so good, it's.

[Nora Latour]

Like, oh, they're all the happiest cows. They're like. And like the, the. The milk is amazing and the kids are loving it. And that was actually a cost neutral for him. I think it actually saved him a little bit, bit money to make that swap because he went to bulk and he has like a sourdough focaccia with kale and grass fed beef crumble that is so good. He cut toxic ingredients. He swapped out a ton of plastic. He removed like half a million plastic water bottles and just went to reusables. He has hydroponic lettuce farm. He has a. He's starting. Then he's. Then he went, then he started a greenhouse. Now he has a farm.

[Courtney Swan]

And he's like, this is so cool.

[Nora Latour]

Gonna have a pumpkin patch. He's like, he's like, he's like, he's next level. And like, these are our eat really. I have examples of eat really like this around the country that are making this happen. And so. And it's absolutely delicious. And then he just got a chef with this really cool company, Breguet, that former head chef of Noma is placing chefs in schools. And so now they're like cooking up all these test recipes and stuff and working with the kids. So it is ab. His salads are so, so, so good. And one of the football players walked in and was. Only salads were left. And he's like, I have a big game tonight. I don't want a salad. And Michael's like, it's what we have right now. You know, we served a lot of kids today. They're really liking the school lunch. He's like, no, no, no. And he's like, Michael, the food service director, is like, just try it. And so he tried it, and that night he rocked his game. And he came back the next day, and he's like, I guess I'm a salad guy. And he, like, loved his salad. And he was just, like, could get, like, really good fuel, like, from the chicken salad. And so. And that part of that salad was local, and then part of it was grown on site from the school farm, harvested within 24 hours, and served to the kids. So, like, that's just one example. But. And I have more examples from that. They have a cauliflower tikki masala that's so good. Like, it is delicious. And they're just letting kids try all sorts of different types of foods.

[Courtney Swan]

Yes. And that's also huge, too, is the variety component of it, which is so important for kiddos.

[Nora Latour]

And, like, they're looking at, like, what's trending on TikTok.

[Courtney Swan]

Yes.

[Nora Latour]

What are kids liking? Oh, let's do KBQ tacos. Or, like, let's try that spice. Or I had curried carrots that were the best carrots I've ever had last week. So, like, and just trying different things. And yeah, maybe the kid's not gonna like it day one, but you can, you know, 15 times of exposure, and a kid's palate can expand. And so now we have parents writing in, like, what was that recipe that you served at school lunch? Or I wish I could buy school lunch on Monday night and then have it to serve to my kids from our schools. Like, it's that good. Like, it is so good.

[Courtney Swan]

So what does it look like from a. Is it mostly private schools? Is it mostly public schools? Is it both? Both? How are the schools getting funding for this? Because I would imagine if I was the listener right now, and I'm thinking this too. Is this just, like, super wealthy private schools that are able to afford this? Or how do, like, we get this into public schools?

[Nora Latour]

This is only public schools.

[Courtney Swan]

Wow.

[Nora Latour]

A thousand examples of only public schools. We'll be working with charter and private soon, but today we only work with public schools. So these are all public school examples. And Michael. What's powerful about Michael's story is Michael's school food business was with which they actually have to operate as profit centers. They can't pull from, like, the teachers, budgets, et cetera. They were in the red. $700,000. They were losing money. They were losing $700,000. Now he has $3 million in the bank. So he's making. It's like a better business model because now the kids trust it. And Morgan Hill Unified. That school lunch is amazing. They're eating more of it. And so if you have 10,000 kids that come, I think he has nine. But 10,000 kids that come to your school lunch and, or come to school and come to your school, but only 5,000 are eating lunch. If you can get that up to 8,000, then you can make more revenue. And so some of his changes, he's saving money. And then he can invest in some higher quality ingredients too. And even if he increases his food cost 5 to 10%, which he isn't, he's able to make these swaps and these changes in a very cost effective way. He can make more revenue. So it's actually a better business model for school. And then with that revenue, he can upgrade a kitchen. He can get a better combi oven or they get tilts to tilt skillets, or they can. Then they can also work with local government to get grants to get that central kitchen or to get another delivery truck or whatever it is that they need. And so it is possible quickly to shift the food, make the menu better, make it a better restaurant, increase participation, increase revenue, and then reinvest and continue the journey.

[Courtney Swan]

Oh, my gosh, that makes me so happy because that was my biggest thing is I was like, okay, how are. Yeah, how are they affording this?

[Nora Latour]

It's cost effective, it's feasible, and kids like it better.

[Courtney Swan]

Wow. Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

In public schools.

[Courtney Swan]

This is so cool. Is there a point that y'all will ever go to colleges too?

[Nora Latour]

We could, we get asked, you know, or we get asked about hospitals, nursing homes. We are just launching a school district where there's a prison right next door where a lot of the kids. There's a kind of a school to prison pipeline. And we're working on, you know, could.

[Courtney Swan]

Have been better explain that really fast because school to prison pipeline sounds like.

[Nora Latour]

Kiddos are going to know a lot of that. That means that those a lot of.

[Courtney Swan]

You mean literally, like end up in.

[Nora Latour]

Prison and they end up at the local prison. It's like a high risk community. It's heartbreaking. And so, like, how do we stop that from happening? And can, if they feel more nourished, can it improve behavior, can improve student performance, get them a better shot at, you know, advanced. Advanced either education or career track, et cetera. And so, you know, we're, we are, and we're launching a bunch of research projects with different top academics. And we want to be Studying this, this extensively. Like how does it, how does it impact that? How does it impact mental health? How does it impact sick days and truancy and all of it.

[Courtney Swan]

So you know, it's interesting. There was a study that I just read about briefly recently that they found that when they started feeding prison inmates better food, the violence went down.

[Nora Latour]

Yep, yep.

[Courtney Swan]

Which does not shock me at all.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah.

[Courtney Swan]

But probably shocked a lot of people.

[Nora Latour]

Study, if we're talking about the same study, it was just some. Sometimes just nutrients, like just vitamins. Like if people just get more nutri then it can decrease your antisocial and behavior and other incidences. So yeah, there's a lot to research, but it like early. Like there's enough research that shows that it's, it's game. It can be game changing for people and especially for kids.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean this is so, this is so cool.

[Nora Latour]

It's fun too. It's like. And it's, and it works. And it's like, it really, it is. I think it is our best chance. I think it is like, like our greatest hope is helping and supporting schools. And our schools can do it and districts can do it, but they do need additional support. So we, this is the moment where we need to double down on farm to school grants, where we need to double down on school infrastructure, on cutting complications like, and doubling down on programs like community eligibility provision which allows for low income communities to help kids have access, access to school meals. So there we definitely need to be. This is the moment where we have to invest in the power of school meals. So we at Eat Real can work with these districts, but the change happens so much faster when we work with them in tandem with additional support. And that's at the state and the national level.

[Courtney Swan]

I was literally just going to ask you that. Okay. So I was like, is it local or federal? So is it.

[Nora Latour]

States can do it. States can definitely lead. California, where we are right now, has invested over a billion dollars in school meal infrastructure. Like, like trainings, grants, local farming, sourcing grants. Like, and we're seeing a lot of states start to do that. When I was up in Washington, they're starting to do more. Virginia, like there are a bunch of states that are starting to do it more, which is really cool. So state leadership and governors can really take action for sure. And it's, you know, with this health epidemic, we spend 12.9% of our GDP on sick care. And we, I know we both have talked about that, but, but it's trillions of dollars a year like over $3 trillion a year is spent on preventable ultra processed food related diseases. Like 3 trillion. And then it's not just the money that it's like people's lives and they're dying a painful, expensive death.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

And I was just interviewing a doctor and he's like cirrhosis is like the most painful way to die and it costs like a million dollars a patient. Like we just people and people. And this is, this is affecting families. Like I think everyone can think of a family member that has, you know, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer. Like this is affecting American families throughout our entire country. I want to see a stat like every, every family can think of someone that's going through this and, and we, we can prevent it and it doesn't need to be this way. And so we spend all that, we spend trillions of dollars a year on sick care costs and we have to spend some billions to stop the trillions. And so I think it's like we got to spend a few bill to save a few trillion like if we're really honest. And we're already spending billions of dollars a year on our food system at the federal level. So through the farm bill, through subsidies, through different programs. And there's a way that we can take those billions that we're already spending and optimize them and encourage real food. There are great programs like double bucks box programs which gives people, you know, if you buy, if you could buy this product, food product or you can buy a real food product or a real food item, real food, you can just buy a product, a food, food like product or you can buy real food and if you buy the real food, you can get double the, double the dollars or whatnot. So there's some really powerful programs that we already have. We're already spending billions and billions of dollars, hundreds of, we're spending so much money on food already at the, at the federal level. So we could just be spending that money and putting it towards more real food. And we need to then also invest in spending a few billion on getting real food to kids and especially through schools. It's worth the investment because we, it is our best chance of saving trillions of dollars. That's why I'm like we, and we have to think, we have to, we have to make the investments and then quickly we'll start to see that the gains. But it is a longer term play.

[Courtney Swan]

Absolutely. But we just have to, we have to be focused on what the return is, which is a healthier, thriving population and Also, we'll see our GDT go. Or our healthcare costs go down and we'll see so much that we're suffering from right now go down. And this is what we need to focus on because I think for so long we've been. And I get it, because it's hard to be able to zoom out and see like the long game of all this. But it's like we've just been seeing this. Like, I don't. We just see. Keep growing, right? And then we're not actually, like, seeing that these real solutions may be harder to implement in the beginning, but over time, and they may take a little bit longer to like, turn this around. But once we start getting that momentum and we see it actually happening and make changes, then we'll be like, okay, this is worth it.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, but like, this is worth it. And you'll start to see your. Your family feel better. You start to see your kids feel better fast. Like it's. Yeah, you start to feel you. We're hearing so many stories and people come back to us and tell some. Tell us so many stories about how it's improving their kids mental health, how it's improving their family's mental health, their own stress. Like it is life changing and it.

[Courtney Swan]

Can happen really fast too. I've told this story before, but I. Before I started my podcast and everything, I was working on the road as a nutritionist for a pop star. And the band that I was touring with, one of the reasons that they had brought me on was because their tour manager, so they were actually from Sweden, and their tour manager, after a year of touring with them, reached out to me. He was a friend of mine and he was like, hey, I know you do nutrition. And he's like, you know, my band's kind of struggling, especially the singer, because, you know, they feel like they're eating the same foods that they ate when they lived in Sweden. But you know, when they're touring around the US and they think they're eating healthy and, you know, their pants aren't really fitting anymore, everything, like, they're feeling bloated and inflamed and they're just like not feeling great and we want to have somebody come in and like kind of revamp everything. So I come in and I just go on one tour with them. One tour is like two months, right? And I clean up their rider, which was like, this is something that we've. We give the venue ahead of time so that by the time you show up, it's a list of Foods that they'll have in the green room for us, and then they'll put some stuff on there that we put on the bus. And on top of that, we get cash from every venue to then order food somewhere. And so what I did is I would find these, like, really healthy, clean, organic places to order from whenever we were in a different city. And then on days off, I would plan dinners at these, like, really amazing restaurants. And what's cool is that now I have this whole, like, resource of restaurant restaurants from around the world because we traveled everywhere. But the coolest thing about all this is that the first two months I was with her, so I was with her for four years. But the first two months is after that first tour, her parents came up to me and said, oh, my God, what did you do to them? Are they not partying anymore? Because, like, let's be real, man. Everybody's drinking every night and, like, everything. They were like, they all look amazing. And, like, she keeps talking about how much more energy she has, and she feels amazing. And my point is that, like, it doesn't even take that long. And her band after that first tour was like, please don't ever leave us, because we feel so much better. Like, we feel less inflamed, we feel less bloated. Our pants are fitting again. And it just, like, I felt. I felt like, to me, I didn't even do that much right. I just came in and was like, okay, we're gonna eat at this healthy, organic place, and, like, we're gonna get the Doritos off, and we're gonna get you, like, healthier snacks in the green room. And that's all I did. And in two months, so it doesn't even have to be that long.

[Nora Latour]

That's so cool. And you. That. You. You. You feel the difference? You see the difference?

[Courtney Swan]

Yes.

[Nora Latour]

Their family saw the difference. That's so cool.

[Courtney Swan]

It was really fun.

[Nora Latour]

And then they were like, you have to stay for four years. What a cool chapter of your life. That must have been so much fun.

[Courtney Swan]

It was so much fun. It was honestly amazing. Yeah, I got to, like, travel the world, and. And then I got to be in charge of the food for everything. And it just was.

[Nora Latour]

I want your restaurant list. Are you gonna. Are you gonna put out your international restaurant list?

[Courtney Swan]

I have a portion of. Actually, I do. I have it all on my website, but to be honest, it needs to be updated because it hasn't been updated in a while, and I just have not had the time and capacity to, like, go through it all I need to just hire someone to do it.

[Nora Latour]

But hanging in south by southwest London on Vitality and so I'm gonna need your London list at least. Oh yeah, okay.

[Courtney Swan]

Oh, I just was in London recently, so I have, I have a whole list I can send you for sure. Is there anything else people really need to know? Like maybe you kind of mentioned it, but for, let's say there's a parent listening and they're just like, oh my God, I, I want this for my school system. How do they get involved?

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, so they can go to eatreal.org, which is our nonprofit's website. They can sign up for our newsletter, which in that we, we share tons of resources, we give updates, we give different toolkits. So that's one way we're going to be updating our website right now. So it should be pretty easy to like in the next month to find in our toolkit. That is actually the email template. And they can actually follow us @eatraalcertified on Instagram and in social platforms. And so they can DM my team and say, hey, can you send me, you know, Courtney mentioned Unreal Foodology, that there's a toolkit and a template that I can use to get my district involved. And so they can send us a message or check out the website and get a turnkey way to reach out or they can just send a really positive email to their food service director, their nutrition director, and say a little bit about them. Like, keep it short email is best. They're very busy people. They get a lot of emails. So short email, introduce yourself, make it personal, say thank you and we're all about gratitude. And then say, I heard about Eat Real. Can I introduce you to their team? And then just. You can introduce them to who am I? Which person? Obviously my team is so busy over because we're launching in 20 states. Yeah. But you could have them email sue s u ereal.org and then she can, you know, then she'll follow up with them right away. She'll be on it. So yeah, that's. It's that easy. Thank you. Here, I want to introduce you real and then. And ask them if you can introduce them to erail and then introduce to.

[Courtney Swan]

Sue real.org this is so amazing. I mean, I know I've said this so many times, but I just, like you said you were all about gratitude and I just want to express so much gratitude for what you're doing because this is so needed, you know, this. But this is so needed. And it's something that I have been so concerned about for so long and never. It just felt like for so long like everybody just didn't really know what to do about it. Right. Like I get messages all the time from people saying, you know, I want to clean up my kids food system. What do I do? How do I get involved? And forever I was like, I don't know, like I'm trying to figure it out myself. And it just felt like such a behemoth. And so finally, thank God you guys are addressing this.

[Nora Latour]

We're helping you figuring it out. We're figuring it out. We'll figure it all out together. And it's going to take all of us working on it. So thank you for your passion for it. I will say there's one other way that people get involved that's a little bit timely. I might ask for your help personally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's a new build bill called AB 1264 and we just helped introduce it two weeks ago in California. Assembly member Jesse Gabriel was a champion of it. But it has cross the aisle support. We have incredible lawmakers that are backing it. There are a few that I think have been influenced by big food and we need people's help. And so we're going to be doing a lobby day. So if you want to come, it would be really, really helpful.

[Courtney Swan]

Here in California.

[Nora Latour]

This one is in California. Yeah.

[Courtney Swan]

As long as it's not around my wedding, I'm here.

[Nora Latour]

Yeah. No, I think it's before.

[Courtney Swan]

So perfect.

[Nora Latour]

Might be a little bit hectic, but we'll see if it works. Or we can get you a letter that you can send, etc. But we really need people to raise their voices and, and raise their voices with erael. So if people sign up for our newsletter, they'll see calls to action about it and they'll get updates on how AB 1264 is going. But it's not a slam dunk yet. And even though we have incredible support and we've seen a title shift and people are getting on board and what AB 1264 does is it's the highest standard ever introduced and it would block the worst forms of ultra processed food from kids foods in schools. So it would allow over 5 million kids in California to benefit. And the idea is that then we could also run this in other states and help other states do this. And around the world there's already interest in it. So we think that this could be a huge national and global movement to make this move. And so. So I think that that would be really helpful if we can get people's eyes on this one. And it's really timely. It's important. We think it'll be replicable and it will take people raising their voices. So there will be a call for support for letters and then we're going to be doing a small lobby day too.

[Courtney Swan]

And is this something that people outside of California can still show support for? Like can they send in letters? Can they sign a petition?

[Nora Latour]

Can they show. It'll be for California mostly. And then. But we'll be asking for other ways of supporting relevant advocacy. People can definitely. We'll make that really clear. That's a good point.

[Courtney Swan]

Okay. Yeah. Because that's another big message. DMs I get all the time from people. I'm so passionate about this. I want to get involved. How can I get involved? You know, from. Sometimes it's from a political level. Sometimes it's literally to work with your company or whatever it is. You know. And so I always want to give people resources on how they can help with that kind of stuff. Is this something that. Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

And states start like just what we saw with the food dye bill. So we helped pass the first food dye bill first. It actually happened in school. Food first in California.

[Courtney Swan]

Y.

[Nora Latour]

And then we helped testify in West Virginia. And then it's been going state by state, which is amazing. And then the FDA took part of it. We'll get them. Hopefully they'll. Hopefully they'll be starting to do more.

[Courtney Swan]

Marty.

[Nora Latour]

Marty's on. And so like we can't. We're hopeful that then this can be similar. And so other people. There'll be lots of ways for them to get involved.

[Courtney Swan]

And is there a hope that once this one. Because it's going to get passed. Once this one gets passed, then will other states. States hopefully follow.

[Nora Latour]

Okay. So this is why. And then it's replicable nationally. So it's actually going to define what are the worst of the worst. Ultra processed food. Which hasn't been done before.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah.

[Nora Latour]

And then it's also going to hold. It's not going to put the responsibility on the school district. Rather it's going to hold vendors accountable saying don't sell that into our schools. Which is really powerful because it's just the most harmful ones that are really toxic for kids.

[Courtney Swan]

And I can see those large. I can already see those large companies trying to lobby their way into not getting it passed. Yeah. Which is this exact same thing has. Is happening right now with the immunity bill with the glyphosate. And it's a whole thing right now.

[Nora Latour]

But kids want it, parents want it. It works for school districts. It's better for our kids, and it's better for our future, and it's better for our country. And so. And it works when people stand up for it.

[Courtney Swan]

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think the. I think it's going to happen. And any way I can be involved and help you guys, we can make a video or something. I'm able to do that, too.

[Nora Latour]

So.

[Courtney Swan]

Great.

[Nora Latour]

Thank you. Yeah. But just thank you and thank you for your leadership and thank you for being. Being such a vibrant champion of real food. Like, you glow and then. And you share so much about and make it so easy for people to learn about real food and the why behind real food. So just thank you for your leadership, too.

[Courtney Swan]

Thank you. That means a lot. I'm just so passionate about it. I mean, at the end of the day, I just want to see humans thrive. You know, I've seen what it can be like, and I've seen. I've been through the whole process of feeling like. And eating like, and then I've gone to the other side and I'm like, come here. It's so much better on this side. And I just want. I just want to see humans thrive.

[Nora Latour]

How do we. How do we give our kids more sunsets and then how do we give them not just a longer life, but healthier life and a happier life and, like, help them just thrive today? Right. This is about thriving and feeling better immediately and then also a lifetime of thriving. So, yeah, I totally agree with you and just thank you.

[Courtney Swan]

Yes. Thank you so much. Okay, one more time because I know you've dropped it before, but where can people find you? What's the website?

[Nora Latour]

Yeah, so we'[e-mail] nonprofit. They can also donate if they want to. We're a small and mighty nonprofit, and we're trying to reach a million kids in 20 states so they could give once or give a monthly donation. And every dollar means so much to us and really helps us say yes. As many schools as possible this fall. They can find us at Eat RealCertified. I'm nourished with Nora on Instagram or I'm Nora Latore on LinkedIn. And yeah, that's how they can connect. Amazing.

[Courtney Swan]

Thank you so much.

[Nora Latour]

Yes, thank you.

[Courtney Swan]

This is awesome. Yay. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com see you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first.