New rules would limit sugar in school meals for first time

By Jonel Aleccia AP Health Writer

U.S. agriculture officials on Friday proposed new nutrition standards for school meals, including the first limits on added sugars, with a focus on sweetened foods such as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk and breakfast pastries. The plan announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also seeks to significantly decrease sodium in the meals served to the nation’s schoolkids by 2029, while making the rules for foods made with whole grains more flexible.

The goal is to improve nutrition and align with U.S. dietary guidelines in the program that serves breakfast to more than 15 million children and lunch to nearly 30 million children every day, Vilsack said.

“School meals happen to be the meals with the highest nutritional value of any meal that children can get outside the home,” Vilsack said in an interview. The first limits on added sugars would be required in the 2025-2026 school year, starting with high-sugar foods such as sweetened cereals, yogurts and flavored milks.

Under the plan, for instance, an 8-ounce container of chocolate milk could contain no more than 10 grams of sugar. Some popular flavored milks now contain twice that amount. The plan also limits sugary grain desserts, such as muffins or doughnuts, to no more than twice a week at breakfast.

By the fall of 2027, added sugars in school meals would be limited to less than 10% of the total calories per week for breakfasts and lunches.

The proposal also would reduce sodium in school meals by 30% by the fall of 2029. They would gradually be reduced to align with federal guidelines, which recommend Americans aged 14 and older limit sodium to about 2,300 milligrams a day, with less for younger children.

Levels would drop, for instance, from an average of about 1,280 milligrams of sodium allowed now per lunch for kids in grades 9 to 12 to about 935 milligrams. For comparison, a typical turkey sandwich with mustard and cheese might contain 1,500 milligrams of sodium.

Health experts say cutting back on sugar and salt can help decrease the risk of disease in kids, including humanity. I see us as people, subject to the same desires and emotions as others…That is the way I see Negroes, and that is the way I write about them.” ~Zora

Neale Hurston, Belle Glade, FL

1951

Carolina, and reading Hurston’s Mules and Men out loud to the driver to break the monotony.

Mules and Men Book Cover, First edition (publ. Lippincott) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Mules_and_Men )

When we stopped in Tuskegee, AL to visit Tuskegee University, to see the Booker T. Washington statute made notorious by Ralph Ellison in his novel, Invisible Man, I felt that the people in ZNH’s ethnography had stepped off the pages and landed on the road we traveled. I will always remember asking for directions and the response we received.

Us: Sir can you tell us if there is a motel nearby.

Old man: Yep. Up the street, but I don’t know, the bedbugs there wear headlights!

That answer reminded me of the signifying and everyday conversations on Joe Starks porch documented in the pages of Zora’s Mules and Men.

By the way, we avoided the motel and ended up staying in a Tuskegee University dormitory—which had its own Mules and Men charm.

Zora as Anthropologist “I think that you will discover that my viewpoint is that I do not consider Negroes as special oddities among

By the time I began my anthropological journey at the ripe young age of 35, finishing at age 41, folklore no longer resided in most anthropology departments. It had been relocated to English departments, and was viewed more as “literature” than anthropology. At first, I thought that was the reason Zora could not be found on any required reading lists for anthropology. Only when I joined the ABA-Association of Black Anthropologist (https://aba. americananthro.org/) did I learn about the breadth of her contributions to anthropology

It was Zora who first declared herself a “native” anthropologist—maybe not in those exact terms, but she was very clearly studying her own people. And, her influence was felt by the senior members of the ABA—the very first publication was called “Notes from the Natives.” photo/MichaelDeLeon obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other problems that often continue into adulthood.

As for me, one of my comprehensive exams for the PhD was writing a paper theorizing about what it meant to be a “Native” Anthropologist. Zora was clearly a source of inspiration for me and for other non-white anthropologists who had chosen to “go back home” and study their own folk.

By the fall of 2027, added sugars in school meals would be limited to less than 10% of the total calories per week for breakfasts and lunches.

The plan, detailed in a 280-page document, drew mixed reactions. Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, said the changes are “necessary to help America’s children lead healthier lives.”

But Diane PrattHeavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, a trade group, said school meals are already healthier

But it was really in the experimentation with writing styles that Zora’s presence was evident in anthropology. She had translated her field research into plays well before Marjorie Shostak before Marjorie Shostak wrote the play Nisa, based on her ethnography of the same name. The book, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, was first published by Harvard in 1981 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Marjorie_Shostak#Selected_ works ). What makes Shostak interesting is that she had no formal degree in anthropology, unlike Zora who had a BA in anthropology from Barnard, but she was embraced and supported. In a recent interview

I did with Ms Magazine Editor, Janell Hobbs, “‘Why We Still Love Zora’:Irma McClaurin on PBS Documentary ‘Claiming a Space’ and Zora Neale Hurston’s Legacy” (https://msmagazine. com/2023/01/17/zora-nealehurston/ ), she observed, “I don’t think people have really considered how much […Zora Neale Hurston] has shaped the field of anthropology.”

My Response: She really is at the forefront. She’s on the cutting edge. She actually anticipates a kind of anthropology, native anthropology, that really doesn’t have a name until decades later. No one’s talking about native anthropology. No one. People are telling her: You really aren’t supposed to be doing that. But she is very determined in that sense. I also would say what she contributes is a Diaspora lens. Zora understood the connection between the American South, the Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica and she also did fieldwork in Honduras. She understands that. And the Crow Dance, the one that she shows, she knows the song from the American South, the Black folk culture, that Negro folk culture that she’s studying. But then she finds it in the Bahamas, and she makes the connection between the two. That’s the Diaspora.

“Claiming Her Space” in New PBS American Experience Documentary

The new PBS American Experience documentary, “Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming Her Space, the teaser (https://to.pbs. org/3Q5V6jF), and supporting digital shorts on materials that didn’t make it into the film (https://to.pbs.org/3XFf0ES), all shed light on ZNH’s versatility and contributions to the theories and methods of anthropology: she was a folklorist, ethnographer, visual anthropologist, and public anthropologist. She understood the need to translate the “science” of anthropology into everyday vernacular like plays and novels. Zora was also a novelist, playwright, producer, and sometimes journalist.

In the 1980s, the late Robert E. Hemenway published the first biography of ZNH, Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography; it focused primarily on her literary contributions, and he closed it than they were a decade ago and that increased regulations are a burden, especially for small and rural school districts. “School meal programs are at a breaking point,” she said. “These programs are simply not equipped to meet additional rules.” Vilsack emphasized that the plan phases changes in over the next six years to allow schools and food manufacturers time to adjust to the new standards.

“Our hope is that with the prediction that it take a Black woman to write the “definitive biography” of Zora Neale Hurston. Two decades later, armed with materials Hemenway generously shared, the late Valerie Boyd published Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston in 2003. Similar to Hemenway, in the back of my mind, I also believed that it would take a Black woman filmmaker (not Ken Burns) to give us a documentary that could reveal the complexities of Zora Neale Hurston, especially her work as anthropologist. Enter Tracy Heather Strain.

Tracy Heather Strain, Visionary Director of ZNH: Claiming Her Space The lens through which we get to view Zora Neale Hurston as an anthropologist in the new PBS American Experience documentary, “Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space” (https://to.pbs. org/40f1cmH) is that of the Director, Tracy Heather Strain, and a host of primarily Black scholars, including myself. Tracy is a Black woman film creative who also was involved in the 2018 American Master’s documentary on Lorraine Hansberry, “Sighted Eye/Feeling “ Heart(https://www.pbs.org/ wnet/americanmasters/lorrainehansberry-sighted-eyesfeelingheart-documentary/9846/#).

In addition to being a productive filmmaker and Peabody Award winner, Tracy is also faculty member at Wesleyan University. Her bio reveals someone who understands intersectionality, and would be able to shape a documentary narrative to capture the complexities of being Zora:

[She is the] …cofounder of The Film Posse and an award-winning director, producer, and writer committed to using film, video and interactive technology to reveal the ways that race, ethnicity, gender, and class work to shape lives.

Since 1986, Tracy has worked on numerous documentaries for PBS as well as videos for museums, schools and nonprofits. A Professor of the Practice in the College of Film and the Moving Image at Wesleyan University, Tracy also teaches documentary production, storytelling, and history while directing and producing non-fiction projects for screens large and small (:(https://thefilmposse.com/ about/tracy-heather-strain/ )

Three Decades of ZNH Research Vindicated I remember the initial email and subsequent phone conversation with Tracy, Director and Producer, Randall MacLowry, about their idea for this documentary on Zora Neale Hurston, the anthropologist, in early spring of 2022.

They shared that they had read all my articles (see list at end); listened to radio interviews I had done on Zora over the years on NPR (Spunk on WAMU in 2001: (https://thekojonnamdishow. org/shows/2001-08-09/spunk/ many school districts and food providers accelerate the timeline on their own,” he said.

Courtney Gaines, president of the Sugar Association, said the proposal ignores the “many functional roles” sugar plays in food beyond sweetness and encourages the use of sugar substitutes, which have not been fully studied in children. Sugar substitutes are allowed under the new standards, Vilsack said.

As part of the plan, agriculture officials are seeking

) and the Florida Humanities Council in 2002: (https:// digitalcommons.usf.edu/ fhc_audio/33/ ) and again on NPR in also in 2002 (https:// thekojonnamdishow.org/ shows/2002-04-26/zora-nealehurston/).

Most recently, I was the zoom keynote speaker for the University of Kansas virtual mini conference entitled “Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present and Future” (https:// youtu.be/hU1m-pra94k).

It was a National Endowment for the Humanities funded program through the University of Kansas’ The History of Black Writing Project (https://hbw.ku.edu/about-hbw)

. I chose to speak on “Channeling

Zora Neale Hurston and Why She Speaks to Me as a Creative and Anthropologist”

Lifting Zora Neale Hurston from the Shadows of Anthropology

To watch Zora being lifted up in a two-hour excavation that many have written to tell me revealed so much about her that they didn’t know, suggests there is still work to be done.

And, I am ready; many of my works on ZNH appeared in non-academic spaces (alumni mag

Now, it’s time to for me to help Zora show up and show out by giving her due and contributing to ZNH “claiming her own space.” This documentary, and my contributions, according to Dr. Marcyliena Morgan, Harvard professor and Founding Director of the Hip Hop Archive and Research Center, does a number of things: [It]…includes the true and critical story of anthropology and included so many important theories. … Zora]… unveiled the truths that others couldn’t see or believe. So many aspects of her life, words and work continue to mean so much!

To bring my own love affair with Zora to completion, I am working on a book-length manuscript entitled “Lifting Zora Neale Hurston from the Shadows of Anthropology.”

As I stated in a recent Ms. Magazine Interview (https:// bit.ly/zorainms ) with Ms. Editor, Dr. Janell Hobson, my main goal is to position Zora “…as an innovator and groundbreaker in the areas of interpretive anthropology, writing culture, and native anthropology.” I want her to truly jump at the sun in the canons of anthropology and receive long overdue recognition.

Final Words

It is ironic that for decades, the grave of Zora Neale Hurston laid without notice or recognition in Fort Pierce, FL until Alice Walker gave her a long overdue headstone years after her death.

The irony is that in 1945, Zora wrote to W.E. B. DuBois and proposed “…a cemetery for the illustrious Negro dead.” She explained:

Let no Negro celebrity, no matter what financial condition they might feedback about a proposal that would continue to require that 80% of all grains offered in a week must be whole grains. But it would allow schools to serve non-whole grain foods, such as white-flour tortillas, one day a week to vary their menus. Another option suggests serving unflavored nonfat and lowfat milk to the youngest children and reserving chocolate and other flavored milks for high school kids. A 60-day public comment period on the plan opens Feb. 7. Shiriki Kumanyika, a community health expert at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health said if they’re done right some of the changes will be hard for kids to notice: “They’ll see things that they like to eat, but those foods will be healthier,” she said. AP Videojournalist Shelby Lum and AP Science Writer Maddie Burakoff contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. be in death, lie in inconspicuous forgetfulness. We must assume the responsibility of their graves being known and honored. You must see what a rallying spot that would be for all that we want to accomplish and do.”

(Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters, Collected and Edited by Carla Kaplan: Doubleday, 2002). When it is all said and done, to me, Zora Neale Hurston, anointed by Alice Walker as a “genius of the South,” embodied in her practice what the late Eric Wolf, characterized as anthropology’s uniqueness—“…[it is] the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences.”

She Will Be Remembered and Recognized So if we look at it squarely, the Negro is a very original being. While he lives and moves in the midst of a white civilization, everything that he touches is re-interpreted for his own use. ~Zora Neale Hurston, “Characteristics of Negro Expression.” In Negro: An Anthology, Collected and Edited by Nancy Cunard, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, New York, 1934. Zora’s contributions of ethnographic practices, ethnographies, theatrical performances and plays, folklore, films, novels, short stories, and newspaper articles cannot be erased or continue to be relegated to the shadows of anthropology. Her work illustrates not only her creativity and tenacity as she navigated “white civilization. It is fitting that this film ensures that Zora will no longer be relegated to “inconspicuous forgetfulness” as an anthropologist. And the historic town of Eatonville has not forgotten its notorious prodigal daughter; each year the Association to Preserve Eatonville, Inc. remembers and honors her with the “Zora! Festival” (https:// zorafestival.org/ ) held in January, the month she was born. © 2023 Irma McClaurin Irma McClaurin (https://linktr.ee/dr.irma ) is the Culture and Education Editor and a columnist for Insight News; she is also a guest commentator on “The Conversation with Al McFarlane) (https://bit.ly/ TCWAM), and was named “Best in the Nation Columnist” by the Black Press of America in 2015. McClaurin is an activist anthropologist and academic entrepreneur. She is a recipient of the 2021 American Anthropological Association’s Engaged Anthropology Award and is an award-winning writer, Ms. Magazine author, as well as a former Fulbright Specialist. Her collection of essays, JustSpeak: Reflections on Race, Culture & Politics in America, is forthcoming in 2023 and she is working on a booklength manuscript on Zora Neale Hurston entitled “Lifting Zora Neale Hurston from the Shadow of Anthropology.”