Site urges healthy school lunches

School lunch menus need to change, according to Chef Ann Cooper, the nation's "Renegade Lunch Lady" and Whole Foods Market.

The two entities have teamed up to offer free advice at www.thelunchbox.org to help food service directors make healthy, tangible changes in their cafeteria menus.

Schools offer processed foods high in fat, junk food and soft drinks loaded with sugar that are a public health time bomb, Cooper said. She hopes the Web site will help lunch room managers switch to fresh, natural, made-from-scratch foods. It includes recipes, resources for natural foods, training videos, educational tools and community activism tips.

Whole Foods, which has a supermarket in Mount Pleasant, will donate to the cause and sponsor a School Lunch Revolution donation drive at check-out stands in its stores and on its Web site through September. Cooper and a supermarket representative will lobby Washington for stronger nutritional requirements, and Cooper will go to several major U.S. cities to tout the importance of healthy lunches.

'Ahhh!'

Massage Envy recently opened a third shop in the Charleston area.

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based therapeutic massage specialist company can now be found at 975 Savannah Highway, Suite 115, in the newly refurbished St. Andrews Center in West Ashley. The chain's other shops are in Mount Pleasant and Summerville.

Caitlin Daly, franchise owner of both the new St. Andrews Center shop and the Summerville location, said she had been trying for some time to enter the West Ashley market but was waiting for shopping center renovations to be finished.

"It completes the triangle," she said. "It gets the whole market of Charleston."

The shop is open seven days a week with special introductory massage rates.

On Sept. 15, all 600 Massage Envy sites across the nation will offer an hour-long massage for $35 with $10 going to the Susan G. Komen For the Cure breast cancer research foundation. The company hopes to raise half a million dollars.

Stringing along

Shem Creek Music will offer a guitar restringing clinic noon-5 p.m. Aug. 22 at its Mount Pleasant store, 423-A W. Coleman Blvd. Sponsored by Sierra Guitars, the clinic will offer a guitar giveaway along with special promotions such as free guitar strings and rebates.

Customers can have guitars restrung for free dur-ing the clinic, and the first 25 customers will receive a set of free guitar strings. A Sierra Guitars representa-tive will be on hand to assist in restringing. Guitarist Chris Holly, co-owner of Music Unlimited, will perform.

Lunch line

Citadel Mall now offers a taste of Greece. Little Athens Gyros is now part of the Food Court in the West Ashley shopping center. Its Greek fare will include salads and platters, gyros, souvlaki, falafel, grape leaves and baklava.

Inked deal

Allegra Print and Imaging in Mount Pleasant now owns American Speedy Printing of North Charleston, Allegra owners Jennifer and Rick Van Brunt announced. Allegra bought American last month and merged the two companies, which will operate out of Mount Pleasant at 899-A Houston Northcutt Blvd.

In the know? Do you know of a business that is opening, closing or expanding? Reach Warren Wise at 937-5524 or wwise@postandcourier.com.