Ronni Litz Julien, Summer Nutrition

PROMISE MAGAZINE December 2005
LET’S HEAR IT FOR IMPROVING
THE SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAMS!
by Ronni Litz Julien, MS, RD/LRN

Do your children take home-packed lunches to school, or are they sent out into the wild to hunt for something healthy in the school cafeteria, where in most schools, the healthy items are scarce. I am unsure of how the children’s school lunch programs work in Israel or in other countries throughout the world, however, I can tell you from a lifetime of experience that the school lunch programs in the United States are certainly a major contributor to our unhealthy/overweight childhood epidemic in America. And do they ever need a massive overhaul.

For as long as I can remember, anytime I walked into a school cafeteria, whether it was myself as a school-age child, or now a generation later with my own children, the smell is and was enough to turn my stomach. Not to mention that as you approached the buffet line, it was a surprise what would be offered to us, and now, to our growing healthy children. Here were some constants: fried chicken patties (I’m not 100% it was real chicken or just parts and fillers), chicken fingers, “sloppy Joe”, French fries, fish sticks, pizza, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, ravioli, macaroni and cheese, potato chips and fruit juice. Things have improved somewhat. The kids can now get lowfat chocolate milk and low-fat white milk, and bottles of water and fresh fruit.

Fairly recently, school districts are popping up around the country finally ad-dressing the issue that school food service needs upgrading and a healthy makeover, to help revamp the incredibly unhealthy diets our children consume. For some children, breakfast and lunch can be eaten every day at school. Isn’t that a scary thought - two of those types of meals five days a week? We are working slowly—however, there are some pilot programs going on in some of the private schools that bring in a private food company, and offer children much healthier items like cold cut wraps and sandwiches, sushi, grilled chicken sandwiches and fresh fruit salads. These programs have apparently been very well received by the students. In the public school arena, some districts are not only removing the vending machines (containing regular sodas, Gatorade, fried chips and cookies), but they are finally offering salad bars, tuna, hard boiled eggs, and whole wheat breads. It is about time! Why is it taking so long to get the message across to school administrations that they are a big part of our children’s health (or poor health, for that matter)? They receive a resounding “F” when it comes to providing better choices to the children.

Enter a school district in the state of Georgia, who impressively just took sugar out of their schools and became one of the first “sugar-free school districts”. This means that all of their snacks and cookies are sugar-free, their sodas are sugar-free, and they are on their way to making one of the greatest plunges into teaching children healthier ways, healthier choices, and a way to understand that eating healthy will not only nourish their bodies better, but can also taste just fine—they can even like what they are eating. They also require an enhanced physical education program, provided daily. Good job. Little by little, please help these children. And maybe this new trend will catch on around the rest of America—look around at the children in your neighborhood—wouldn’t this be a great start?

This article originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Promise Magazine

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