By Andrea Ginacola, MPH RD

Looking for someone who will look out for your kid’s health during the school day? Look no further than the registered dietitian (RD). As food service directors and nutrition specialists, RDs across the country are doing great things to ensure kids eat healthful meals at school. Although new meal standards, set forth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, went into effect July 1, 2012 requiring more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and less sodium, school based RDs were already employing innovative techniques (from salad and taco bars to fruit-and-yogurt parfaits) to entice kids to eat right.

Look to an RD for Expertise

RDs are crucial to school meal programs because they have the nutrition expertise and “vision to create a healthy food climate in the cafeteria that engages students not only in eating healthy, but in developing healthy behaviors,” says Dona Richwine, MS, RD, Nutrition Specialist for Santa Monica Malibu (Calif.) Unified School District. Debbi Beauvais, RD, SNS, Director of School Nutrition for Gates Chili & East Rochester Schools (New York) and Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics concurs, “Schools are a good venue to model good eating behaviors for kids.”

Healthier Menu Options

Beauvais’ mission is to provide healthy menu items for the 75 percent of her students who choose the school cafeteria over brown-bagging it. But, Beauvais says, “It’s not nutrition unless they eat it.” Beauvais finds that students make healthier choices with her “made fresh for you” and taco bar programs. “Children tend to consume more vegetables when they can add them. They pick more variety.”

Richwine agrees; for over 10 years she’s been getting kids excited about produce with a farmers’ market salad bar. Richwine says the favorite part of her job is to watch students walk away with their plates piled high with fruits and veggies. Schools are now also providing healthier versions of some of kids’ favorites. In Beauvais’ schools, chicken nuggets are baked with whole grain breading, and are lower in fat and sodium than typical restaurant versions. A healthier pizza comes with low- fat mozzarella and a whole grain crust. Leaner versions of hamburgers and hot dogs are served on whole grain buns.

Andrea Giancola is a Registered Dietitian with a Masters of Public Health. To learn more about her, click here. 

This article was published as part of the Kids Eat Right campaign. For more information visit www.eatright.org/kids.

Free ice cream at Pittsburg/Bay Point Station on Saturday, October 27

BART is celebrating 40 years of service by giving back to the Bay Area in a variety of ways, thanks to some generous donations by corporate sponsors. The givebacks will include 1,000 free $40 BART tickets and, perhaps most exciting, free BART rides for field trips to make sure teachers and students are able to visit dozens of fun and educational spots near BART stations.

“BART may be middle aged, but we still have a soft spot in our hearts for our youngest riders,” said Board President John McPartland. “These free field trips will give thousands of kids an opportunity to learn outside the classroom that they might not otherwise have. Of course, we hope they learn about BART along the way too.”

BART is giving away rides for educational field trips to 40,000 students (up to age 18), teachers and chaperones on a first-come, first-served basis. More info is at www.bart.gov/fieldtrips.

We’re also hosting ice cream giveaways as a fun way to get to know our riders better and spread the word about our free field trip program.  The ice cream giveaways will be held at six stations – at least one in each of the four counties BART serves– featuring Dreyer’s Ice Cream and cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes. The one at the Pittsburg/Bay Point station will be on Saturday, October 27 from 1 to 4 p.m.

Finally, BART will be distributing its popular 2012 BART art poster series “Journeys in Literature” to public libraries and schools in the Bay Area.

“We’ve carried 2.7 billion passengers since the day we opened for service four decades ago,” said BART General Manager Grace Crunican.  “This is all part of our expression of gratitude to the Bay Area for helping BART achieve 40 years of reliable service.”

Look for more ways BART is celebrating their 40 years of service:

• Decals on BART train cars: Look for commemorative decals featuring the BART 40th anniversary logo on the outside of trains.

• Online photo gallery: We’ve created a Pinterest pinboard featuring historical photos and memorabilia from BART and shared by riders, which we will update as we receive new material. You can send your photos or other suggestions for the pinboard to bart40th@bart.gov.

• Complete history: Read a narrative BART history with photos.

• 40 Achievements: Check out a list of 40 key BART achievements (.pdf)

• Historical videos: Watch a sampling of construction films that give a window into the early history of BART as it was being built.

• BART Times: Read a special edition of the BART Times newsletter focusing on 40th anniversary events.

• Anniversary video: A new video recapping the first 40 years of BART.

The programs would not be possible without generous donations from Titan Outdoor, Bombardier Transportation and Dreyer’s Ice Cream.

Complete details about these events and how BART is celebrating 40 years of service, along with fun retro pictures and a commemorative video highlighting riders can be found on our website at: www.bart.gov/40years.

Stockton, Calif. – Congressman Jerry McNerney, who is running for reelection in the 9^th Congressional District, has received the endorsement of Vice-Chair of the Port of Stockton, Stephen Griffen, a longshoreman and business owner.

“This area has faced a lot of struggles: unemployment, the foreclosure crisis, a high crime rate, and more. Jerry McNerney has been standing with us every step of the way in addressing these challenges, and I am proud to endorse him in this year’s election. He will continue to stand with us and work on the biggest challenges we are facing,” said Griffen.

According to the Port’s website, “Mr. Griffen has worked as a longshoreman since 1977. A lifelong resident of Stockton,

Griffen

Mr. Griffen is the owner of Country Club Service and Bob’s Lube since 1984 and also owner of Country Club Smog. Appointed by the Stockton City Council in 2009.”

“I welcome the support of Stephen Griffen from the Port of Stockton.  We have tremendous potential at the Port of Stockton, and I have been proud to partner with them over the last six years.  We have been able to create local jobs and invest in our infrastructure – both key to getting our economy back on track.  I look forward to continuing my work to benefit local infrastructure and the Port,” said McNerney.

This adds to a growing list of local public figures and elected Democrat officials who have endorsed Congressman Jerry McNerney, also a Democrat. To view the entire list click here.

The new 9^th district is significantly Democratic, with a voter registration that is D+10.  The new 9^th includes the majority of San Joaquin County and portions of Contra Costa County.  The district voted decidedly in favor of President Obama in 2008.

Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton) was first inspired to run for office by his son, Michael, who volunteered for the armed services after 9/11.  He has served the area for nearly six years, getting to know the people and issues of the region. He is the Ranking Member of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, a post he has used to champion veterans’ issues, bringing back a brand new veterans’ medical facility that is creating 900 local jobs.  He authored the bill to help veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries and has fought tirelessly to create local jobs, prevent American jobs from being sent overseas, and to restore fiscal responsibility to our government while protecting Medicare and Social Security. He is facing challenger Ricky Gill, a Republican from Lodi.

Tomatoes grow in abundance with the help of the Tower Garden.

On your patio or balcony

By Gwen O’Neill

Ask experienced gardeners about their secrets to success and they will tell you about the soil. Is it fertile, does it hold water and what is its structure? These are critical factors to succeed for traditional gardeners everywhere. Now take the soil out of the equation and you have another way of growing plants. Hydroponic and aeroponic gardening uses water and mineral solutions but no soil.

Hydroponics has been around for hundreds of years, but recent breakthroughs in technology have yielded new options for the home gardener. Many challenges such as busy home life, jobs, family commitments and other influences like weather and wildlife make what was at first enjoyable, a now backbreaking chore.

No more digging in the dirt.

Digging holes and tilling soil is not fun or easy. Protecting the plants from squirrels and other pests adds another level of

Tower garden

challenge.

A new system of gardening that anyone can do, virtually anywhere is a combination of container gardening and hydroponic gardening. This single unit holds a promise of success for the home gardener with less time involved, is an affordable investment and is moved easily.

Single unit portable system

The plant tower combines aeration technology with the flexibility and convenience of a container garden in a single unit. If you are tired of battling gophers and snails, digging in clay and hauling bags of compost and soil amendments into the garden only to have them break down over time and disappear, this advanced form of hydroponic gardening may be your new gardening passion!

Imagine a lightweight plant tower that assembles like a fountain with a reservoir and pump at the bottom, small enough to sit on a deck or porch, with castors to facilitate easy movement to take advantage of changing sun patterns as the seasons change. The tower garden® is a high quality unit made of food grade plastic with steel hardware for long-lasting durability, which uses closed system technology to recycle 90% of water and nutrients. Taking soil born pests and diseases out of your garden and growing your garden gets easier with the tower garden®.

Produce in Half the Time

This use of technology not only saves backs and pocketbooks, but it produces meals from seeds in half the time of conventional growing techniques. This system delivers the produce for only the cost of seeds and a modest amount of electricity to run the pump, producing a bountiful harvest that any professional farmer could be proud of!

Do you remember sprouting an avocado pit or Lima beans in a glass of water as a child? Do you remember how exciting it was to see that first bit of root emerge, and then a tiny sprout? That miracle of life emerges quickly through this unit in the form of lettuce, tomatoes, chard, herbs, beans, berries and more. The units can be stacked to create taller towers to maximize crop yield in a small area.

The seeds germinate in a day or two, and the seedlings harden off in a week or two, which makes this system easy to be a successful grower. The roots of your seedlings are continually bathed in nutrient solution in a highly oxygenated environment, which allows the plants to grow at an accelerated rate.

The uses for this system are wide and varied. Use them in a greenhouse, on a roof or a deck, for schools, food banks and shelters, restaurants, for commercial or for home use. Good health begins with good organic foods. You no longer need to rely on expensive commercially produced fruits and vegetables to support the needs of your family.

The towers were introduced to the market in April of 2012 and are available for purchase with an interest-free payment plan.

For information, contact Gwen O’Neill at 925-777-9780 or visit her blog at www.gwenoneillgarden.com. Additional information can be found at http://gwenoneill.towergarden.com.

By Allen Payton, Publisher

The Antioch police cost too much. There, I said it. (Actually I wrote it). But, someone needed to and for a long time. We must face facts.

The reality is, after the hiring of five officers through additional revenue in the city’s budget and another five officers with the $1.5 million federal grant for three years, and the loss of one more police officer, according to Chief Allan Cantando, Antioch will still be down 25 officers.

The largest budget item in the city’s General Fund is police.

While I advocated for placing a police tax on the November ballot – a 4 to 6 year parcel tax of no more than $100 per year, dedicated to only paying to hire more police – and complaining that the council blew their opportunity to make that happen, but let pettiness and politics get in the way – I’m not so sure one would have passed anyway.

At least not after I learned that the new police contract included 13% in pay raises over the next three years. Yes, the police agreed to pay 9% of the 39% toward their retirement which I applaud. But 6% of that was back-filled immediately with a pay raise, this year.

That may have been the best this current council could have achieved, in order to buy out the cops’ previous six-year, overly generous contract approved by a previous city council – led by a Mayor who lost in 2008 and is running and wants to be Mayor of our city, again (go figure), and which included two of the current council members, one of whom isn’t running again.

Because had the council not bought out that previous contract, the city would have been faced with two, multimillion dollar balloon payments at the end of this year, due to the two pay raises in the previous contract that the police agreed to postpone.

One problem with that is the cops called that postponement a “sacrifice.”

Since before the 1/2 cent sales tax measure was on the ballot in 2010, I’ve been telling my friends on the police force that they have to join with the rest of us – who have lost jobs, lost our homes, etc. – and make a sacrifice, first.

Do they deserve to be paid well? Yes. Do they earn it? No doubt. Can we afford it? No way. Not when we have 25 fewer officers than we need.

So rather than just complain, I offer a three-part solution:

1. The Antioch police must give up the pay raises in their new contract and make a real financial sacrifice.

2. The Council must find a revenue stream to pay for the 25 needed police officers, the additional Community Service Officers and more Code Enforcement Officers – whether it be a dedicated, temporary parcel tax or another approach – and if it requires a vote of the people, we pass it.

3. Once our city is safer, we must grow our local economy by attracting business – retail and employers – which will create more revenue for the city to pay for more cops without the tax.

We’re all in this together. Our Antioch police offiers need those additional 25 officers, as do we. But we need their help to pay for them and now.

Stockton, Calif. – Congressman Jerry McNerney has received the endorsement of Jim Frazier, former Mayor and current City Council Member, City of Oakley and the Democrat candidate in the race for the 11^th State Assembly District.

“I know Jerry personally, and it gives me great satisfaction to say that I can also support him in his re-election. Jerry McNerney understands East Contra Costa County, and has shown over the last six years that he will be an independent voice representing us in Congress. We’re facing some tough times, and we need Jerry McNerney to continue fighting for us,” said Jim Frazier, former Mayor and Current City Council Member, City of Oakley.

“I am proud to have the support of Jim Frazier.  He has been serving our community for a long time and understands what we need to accomplish here.  I look forward to continuing to work with him and everyone in our region to create a better future and get our economy back on track,” said Congressman McNerney.

Earlier this year, McNerney received the endorsement of the Contra Costa Times.  The paper noted that Congressman McNerney “focuses on policy issues and…has proved to be a centrist who thoughtfully discusses the nuances of the country’s complex problems.”

This adds to a growing list of local elected Democrat officials who have endorsed Congressman Jerry McNerney, also a Democrat:

-Susan Eggman, City Council Member, City of Stockton, and Candidate for State Assembly

-Mark DeSaulnier, State Senator, 7^th District

-Susan Bonilla, Assemblymember, 11^th District

-Ann Johnston, Mayor, City of Stockton

-Cathleen Galgiani, Assemblymember, 17^th District

-Federal Glover, Supervisor, Contra Costa County

-George Neely, Board Member, Lodi Unified School District

The new 9^th district is significantly Democratic, with a voter registration that is D+10.  The new 9^th includes the majority of San Joaquin County and portions of Contra Costa County.  The district voted decidedly in favor of President Obama in 2008.

Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton) was first inspired to run for office by his son, Michael, who volunteered in the armed services after 9/11.  He has served the area for nearly six years, getting to know the people and issues of the region. He is the Chair of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, a post he has used to champion veterans’ issues, bringing back a brand new veterans’ medical facility that is creating 900 local jobs.  He authored the bill to help veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries and has fought tirelessly to create local jobs, prevent American jobs from being sent overseas, and to restore fiscal responsibility to our government while protecting Medicare and Social Security.

By David Pfeiffer

The County Airport Advisory Commission is having its October meeting at the Byron Airport on Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 10:00AM. . We only hold meetings there once or twice a year. Historically we have had no attendance by anyone from Antiochm while Brentwood, Discovery Bay, and Byron always have someone there.

County Supervisor Mary Piepho has been pushing to have the airport area changed to a free trade zone, with necessary improvements.

It would be good to have leaders and residents from Antioch in attendance and share their ideas and visions for improvement, during public comment.

Pfeiffer is a member of the Contra Costa County Airport Land Use Commission and an Antioch resident. For more information about the Commission click here.

By Ron Parish

Do I have your attention? Quite a funny title for a golf article but in simplicity, a great tip for the golf motion. So how is your belly button? Generally speaking, new golfers are successful with their hands and arms. Innately, these are the parts of our bodies that we know how to use the best when it comes to athletic activities so it isn’t too hard to get them engaged or focus on them. But new players often have a challenge getting there core and lower body involved in the swing.

This becomes particularly evident on the follow through when the hands and arms swing through to a finish on their own becoming somewhat discombobulated with the torso; resulting in an off balanced finish. So let’s think about a few other sports to help create a correlation that may help.

·Forehand in tennis. The tennis player swings the racket back not only with the hands and arms but the turn of the torso (belly button); the weight is on the back foot and then on the forward swing the lower body transfers the weight forward, followed by the turning of the core, followed by the hands and arms swinging forward; the torso doesn’t just stop it keeps turning towards target ala Andre Agassi as the eyes stay focused on the ball and the hands and arms then accelerate through.

·Knockout punch in boxing (Not the jab). Again we see a turning of the core that creates a slight transfer to the rear leg, then the lower body followed by the core lead on the forward swing; and then the arms and hand come through but all while the core is turning and leading over to the front foot.

·My favorite analogy, Baseball pitch from pitchers mound (or football pass deep). Shoulders are turning on the windup along with the core (shoulders about 90 degrees, core about 45 degrees), the lower body balances and stores the energy of the windup (particularly in the right hip….a really good golf association here) and then lower body transfers energy forward off the rubber; the core or belly button follow towards home plate leading ahead of the hands and arms.

So to keep things simple try these two drills:

·Take your back hand (the hand farthest from the target; for a right handed player his right hand) and hold a seven iron with just your thumb and first two fingers. Slowly swing the club with your one arm back and forth, increasing the length of the swing with each motion. Keep swinging back and forth until you go to full length motion. Notice how your arms swing and work with your core and belly button, and also how your legs balance things going back and forth. This is the golf motion.

·Hit balls and just finish with the belly button facing the target. Try hitting a bucket of balls and just see what happens with this one swing thought. There is a really good chance that the arms will sink up with the core, and the legs will sink up with the core and you will find yourself swinging with everything working together.

If you are interested in reviewing other articles from Coach Ron go to www.lonetreegolfcourse.com under “The Course” tab. Thanks for playing this great game and be sure to share it with someone else.