In a previous post we looked at how fast food is possibly far more safe than USDA provided school lunches. Neither are too healthy, but fast food at least has more rigorous testing in its favor. Still, even if you ignore the fact that meat in school lunches is questionable, there are tons of other reasons (pdf) why we need to provide better, greener, healthier school lunches for kids. Following are ways you can make sure your kids and other kids are getting the best school lunch possible.
If you have the means don’t purchase USDA provided lunches (at least until they improve) – pack a healthy green lunch instead. Many parents don’t have the means to do this though. In fact more than 30.5 million children are participants in the national free lunch program, and so some kids and parents have no other choice which means we still all need to advocate for healthy lunches.
- Join the School Lunch Revolution, a program designed by Whole Foods that offers comprehensive FREE resources for healthy school lunch recipes that work for schools of all size, resources for finding real, natural foods, regionally and locally, , training videos covering cooking techniques to food safety, educational tools for parents, community activism resources that can help you learn how to initiate healthy and nutritious change in a school system.
- Organic Consumers is urging everyone to get involved with the 2009 Reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. The act is a good opportunity to create positive change. We can help change where the food comes from, how nutritious is it, and how healthy our kids will be.
- Discourage fast food companies and soda machines. Both of these things, fast food, and especially soda are making our kids fat and unhealthy.
- Read: How to Change School Food Policy: An Organizing Kit
- Write to Congress about the changes you’d like to see for school lunches. I’ll say it again, write to congress! In order to provide healthy and safe school lunches, school lunch programs need more money, which congress will need to see fit to offer.
- Send an action alert about school lunches to Congress.
- For updated news about school lunches read School Lunch Talk, an excellent blog all about, you guessed it, school lunches.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: start at home. Your kids, even when they’re away from you can learn to make smart choices, if you get them on board with healthy eating at an early age. Talk to your kids about healthy foods vs. empty calories. Discuss organics. Tell them they don’t have to choose junk food and raise them with both food freedom and plentiful healthy choices around the house.
How you raise your kids does matter. I raised my son with food freedom and surrounded him with healthy options and he’s a very smart eater for an eight year old. When he’s with other people and I’m not around, he’ll still ask the adults for healthy foods like broccoli, water and organic apples. He’s primarily a vegetarian by choice and will happily choose veggies or fruits over candy or sweets on most occasions. I didn’t trick or force him to be like this, I just made sure he was raised with fresh healthy food choices around and made sure that I ate them too. It took very little doing on my part to raise a crazy veggie lover – and you can raise your kids this way too.
[image via stock.xchng]
Post from: Blisstree