It's time for kids to go back to school, but what are they eating? The foods children consume now can adversely affect their future health, particularly their risk of developing obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Join the September edition of Health Dialogues as we examine childhood nutrition -- in the busy home, in the lunchroom and in the lunchbox.

Listen to the program
Watch an audio slideshow of Balboa High School's Healthy Food Plan.
View a chart showing what some San Francisco elementary students are eating on a daily basis.
Watch a Sports4Kids Video
Join the Dialogue: Many schools in California ban junk food and sodas from campus. Is it wrong for schools to be enforcing eating habits? Or should they be doing more?

HOST: Scott Shafer

GUESTS:
Dana Woldow, Co-chair of the student nutrition and physical activity committee for the San Francisco Unified School District
Patricia Gray, Principal of Balboa High School, San Francisco
Round table of students from Balboa High School: Kristal Davila, Gisell Jimenez, Corrie Fong, Sylvia Brookback, Nancy Doan
Dr. Francine Kaufman, MD, Director of the Center for Diabetes at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles
Matt Sharp, Senior Advocate at California Food Policy Advocates
Jill Violet, President and Founder of Sports4kids

KQED Public Radio 88.5FM premiere broadcast:
Thursday, September 18, 8:00 PM

Repeat broadcasts:
Friday, September 19, 2:00 AM
Saturday, September 20, 2:00 PM

Listen to The California Report: Health Dialogues -- Junk Food
Reporter: Sarah Varney
It's been a year since California's first-in-the-nation bans on soda and junk food have been phasing in on school campuses. Combating childhood obesity with these prohibitions is proving harder than advocates thought. But how well have the bans worked? Los Angeles was the first district in the state to go soda and junk food-free and provides a glimpse of the challenges other school districts will likely face.

Health Dialogues, a special series from The California Report, engages listeners in an ongoing discussion of California health care issues that are important to the underserved: children, low-income residents, minorities, people with disabilities, immigrants, and rural and migrant worker communities in particular. The series seeks to generate and facilitate dialogue between communities, health care providers and policy-makers.

Over the past several years, I'd wandered past Hellenic American Imports on Mission Street many, many times, never bothering to go in. Mental notes were made and promptly filed away. If I ever had the need for a Greek flag or an evil eye charm, I thought, I'd know just where to go.

After lunching with a friend in the neighborhood a few months ago, I found myself in front of the store. As I peered through the plate glass windows and past the statuary, I saw something that caught my attention-- food for sale. A sucker for interesting markets, I found myself compelled to enter.

After browsing the cheeses in the refrigerated case at the back of the store, a young woman descended a little staircase to the right to welcome me.

"Let me know if you need anything," she offered, "My name is Greece." Was she serious? About the name, not the offer of help, I mean.

"Your name is Greece?" I asked, thinking how fortunate she was to have found just the right occupation for her name.

"It's actually Griselda, but they call me Greece here."

And why not? I continued to browse, working my way over to the wines.

As I wandered a bit more, grabbing a box of Dumplings with Yeast (Loukoumades. It sounds better in Greek.) here and a can of giant beans (Gigantes) there, I recognized a man I had waited on before coming down the staircase from the office that looks down upon the store. I said hello. He introduced himself as Savas Deligiorgis, the owner of the store.

After chatting for a few minutes, he mentioned that he had some work to do for his radio program. Radio program? Savas, it turns out, has been producing the Hellenic American Broadcast-- the only Greek radio hour west of Chicago-- for the past 43 years, which is as long as he has owned the store. Journalism is a passion of his. It's what he studied in school. He then excused himself and went back upstairs into the office.

I was intrigued. I made my purchases, thumbed through some Greek VHS tapes for amusement, and left, quite glad I had decided to wander in.

When in Greece last month, I got rather hooked on taramosalata, a spread made of fish roe, oil, and bread. I remembered Savas carried the stuff, so I made a pilgrimage back to his store.

He was there, up in the office. I waved hello and was invited up. As I sat at his desk drinking Amita brand peach juice surrounded by office walls lined with photos of Savas posing with the likes of Jerry Brown, Anthony Quinn, and several Greek dignitaries, we talked about the changing demographics of the Mission. When he bought the store 43 years ago, there were still many Greek and Italian families living in the neighborhood. Now that most of them have moved away, he still serves to hold the community together through his Monday-to-Friday radio hour. Greek-relevant interviews, news, commentaries and music are all on offer. While we talked, the other half of his radio team, Tonia Demitriadis, arrived and we all chatted a bit more.

Back downstairs with Savas, I noticed some cookies dusted with powdered sugar. "Hey! What are these called again? The lady I stayed with in Santorini would make these for me." I said, excitedly, but not very gracefully.

"Kourabiethes. Take some. The one's in the box are better." I took some home and had them with my coffee, powdered sugar blown like talcum over the front of my shirt and in my beard. But they were good and worth the wiping for.

Again, I thanked him for his time and wandered the store while Greece busied herself arranging merchandise. A bin of ouzo candy wrapped in shiny metallic blue paper caught my eye. I plunged my hand in as if it were a barrel of pinto beans and hoped no one would notice. I did not purchase any candy.

I went back to the cheeses. Manouri, feta, myzithra. The back walls were lined with products I'd seen in markets on the Greek islands I'd so recently wandered. Cookies, dakos, calamari, Nescafe, and frappe shakers. It's all there. I was glad to know it.

I moved on to the non-food-related areas, contemplated buying a book or a video. I wondered how funny I might find a Greek comedy. If the phrases "thank you" or "I'm sorry" or "where is the toilet, please?" were said in a particularly hilarious fashion, it might be well worth it. Otherwise, it would be a purchase entirely lost on me. I took my cod roe, cookies, a little wine, and left.

I'll be back as soon as the roe runs out.

Hellenic American Imports
2365 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Tel: (415) 282-2237

Open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm

The Hellenic American Broadcast airs at 8 pm Monday through Friday on KTVO- AM 1400

On Friday, March 23, The California Report discussed the Farm Bill.

Go listen to the stories at the CA Report website!

Host: Scott Shafer

Farm Bill Changes To Be a Lesson in Cascading Consequences
Every few years Congress tinkers with the Farm Bill, which determines how much federal money farmers get to subsidize their crops -- and a whole lot more. Host Scott Shafer talks to with author Dan Imhoff about his new book "Food Fight: A Citizen's Guide to the Food and Farm Bill."

Organic Farmers Want a Place at the Farm Bill Table
California farmers grow more fruit and vegetables than growers in any other state, but when it comes to the Farm Bill, they're pretty much left out in the cold. Legislation introduced this week by Central Valley Congressman Dennis Cardoza aims to change that by redirecting federal dollars to marketing and research for fresh produce. But some of the state's organic farmers are saying "what about us?"

Reporter: Sasha Khokha