This year marks the 10th anniversary of the E. coli infection traced back to the Jack-in-the-Box restaurant chain in the western United States that killed four children and sickened 700 others.

For Patricia Buck of Pine Township and her family, this anniversary hits close to home. This year will also mark the second anniversary of the day Kevin Kowalcyk, Mrs. Buck's grandson, died from an E. coli infection.

Since Kevin's death in August 2001, the Bucks and the Kowalcyks have been working to encourage food safety. Kevin's mother started a campaign last year called "Kids Want Safe Food," a school lesson plan that teaches kids food safety, and Mrs. Buck has visited Washington, D.C., numerous times to encourage members of Congress to co-sponsor the Meat and Poultry Pathogen Reduction Act of 2002, which was named "Kevin's Law" last August.

The bill would authorize the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to develop and publish a list of foodborne pathogens such as E. coli, set standards for harmful bacteria like E. coli and test raw meat and poultry for those hazards. It would also mandate the USDA to shut down plants that consistently fail to meet government food-safety standards.

On Feb. 11, Mrs. Kowalcyk, of Mount Horeb, Wis., spoke at a Safe Tables Our Priority, or STOP, press conference in Washington, D.C., which was held to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Jack-in-the-Box contamination. STOP recently put out the report, "Ten Years After the Jack-in-the-Box Outbreak, Why are People Still Dying from Contaminated Food?" The report is available on the STOP Web site.

"Since Kevin's death, our lives have changed tremendously," said Mrs. Kowalcyk in her speech. "Our daughter, Megan, has lost that feeling of security. Our new baby, Lara, will never meet her big brother, and my husband and I have been thrust into the world of food-safety advocacy."

"To lose a child is a terrible ordeal," Mrs. Kowalcyk continued. "But, trust me, to lose a child to an extremely painful death that could have been prevented makes that death even harder to accept."

The Kowalcyks still do not know where Kevin contracted the E. coli infection. After their local public health department closed the investigation into the source of the infection, they hired a lawyer, who found out there had been six other E. coli cases in Wisconsin from the same strain of bacteria that killed Kevin.

Even before the press conference, Mrs. Buck was hard at work in Washington, visiting congressman's offices to encourage them to co-sponsor the food-safety bill. She hopes the bill, first introduced last March by Sen. Thomas Harkin, Iowa, will be re-introduced this spring, but it may be held up because of the war effort.

Mrs. Buck and her 17-year-old daughter, Nancy, who did a project on food safety for Make a Difference Day, traveled to Washington in October and in January.

Shortly after their first visit, U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart co-sponsored the bill, she said. Mrs. Buck also said she is pleased by U.S. Rep. Phil English and Sen. Arlen Specter's support of the food-safety bill.

During the January visit they took lunchboxes with pictures of Kevin inside and gave presentations on the need for "Lunchbox Laws." Inside the lunchboxes, along with the pictures, were information about the bill, facts on foodborne illness and statistics.