School lunches
June 17, 2009
Have you ever stopped to think about the lack of options available at school lunch programs? I remember when I was in school, and the best days were peanut butter and honey sandwiches, because I knew what I was eating. I’ve never been fond of cafeteria food (especially since I’m vegan), and as a kid, I remember the surprising lack of healthy options. I thought that I was perhaps one of the weird kids who would rather have an apple than cookies (and yes, I ate my fair share of cookies, too). I think my parents were very smart in making sweets a TREAT, rather than an expectation. Nowadays, I see what’s being served in school cafeterias and it makes me downright angry! There are virtually no healthy options (sorry iceberg lettuce!) and NO vegetarian options…I don’t think corn can be called a well-rounded meal. Sorry. So, I was really excited to see that an amazing new movie coming out is calling attention to the problem. Food, Inc. has started a petition to increase healthy options in our schools and get rid of junk like candy, soda and sweets (which have no business parading as real food anyway!). If you want to go a step further, you can buy the World Food Programme Feed Bag, the proceeds of which will help to feed a child in school for an entire year. Pretty cool, huh?
Here’s the Food, Inc. trailer (if you’re interested!).
Tagged as:
health
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Schools are also starting to call ketchup a vegetable, so they can serve burgers and fries! I went to a christian school so we had good lunches and all different options. I agree though we definently need to do something about school lunches. In florida the florida hospital system is strict vegetarian all healthy options we need to learn from them!
I know! It’s terrible, isn’t it?!
Thats crazy!! Im truly shocked..!! Here in Norway the kids bring their lunches up until college where theres cafeteria, but no unhealthy options. And even then many bring their own.
Being a teacher and eating lunch at the school…it’s pretty gross. My school even had “prepackaged lunch” where the food is in a plastic container and kept warm–not even cafeteria style.And there’s so much WASTE with this kind of lunch.
Watching the students go through the lunch line, SO many of the kids pass up the fresh fruit. It stems from parental involvement (which also bleeds over to behavior) and the kids would refuse to eat real food, because that’s the kind of junk many of their parents feed them.
My school tries….wheat rolls instead of white, lower-fat food. But man, a hamburger is still a hamburger.