School lunch, or garbage on a tray?

From what I saw today, it's the latter and the kids think so too!

I joined my daughter for lunch today at school because it's her birthday. It had been a long time since I sat through a school lunch and really looked around at what kids were eating. What a saw was a total lack of color and nutrients on trays laden with processed garbage. And the sad thing was, the kids were all saying it was gross too, and the many tossed their entire lunch in the trash.

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I saw not a single vegetable. Not one! Nothing green, yellow or red. Wait, I did see one apple. The girl bit into it and spit it back out on her tray. It was mushy and bruised. On the rest of her tray … a bread stick, a giant roll, about 3 nasty-looking dried chicken nuggets, and mashed potatoes. The girl next to her picked some sort of 'ham' thing from the line. She dug around and finally unearthed a thin, floppy, greasy slice of ham. She ate it. I tried not to gag. Her little box did have a slice of cheese and now that I think about it, I saw some grapes alongside a hard breadstick. She ignored all of this. Down the row, I saw a girl eating a hotdog bun filled with shredded cheese. Are you grossed out yet?

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I know there are efforts to improve school lunches. Thank goodness! But we need to work harder. The obesity epidemic in our country is out of control and it breaks my hearts to see school age children having to battle this problem. And it isn't just the schools at fault. I know they sometimes have a salad option (even if it's nutritionally devoid iceberg!). But the kids choose nachos instead!

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Eating healthy should be the normal routine! And it shouldn't be too hard or too expensive to eat well. (I know sometimes it is and that's a whole other post.) The best thing you can do for your children is to teach them to love healthy food. To enjoy how it makes them feel energetic and strong. That's a gift that will benefit them their whole life!