7-30 FB Healthier Teens

 In view of the obesity epidemic with our children, one wonders if kids are getting the message about  making good choices concerning what they eat. Part of it begins in the lunchroom as we will find out in a minute.

 The argument is as old as time. School lunches have been vilified for years because there is so much unhealthy food served to our kids. Heavy on the macaroni and cheese, pizza, french fries and the list goes on. When you talk to school authorities, they claim that if they don’t serve these types of foods the kids won’t eat anything. Well all of those arguments aside, Leah Clark, manager of the Idaho Preferred program at the Idaho State Department of Agriculture and Idaho lead for the National Farm-to-School Network says that school lunches are changing and so are the choices made by students. “We believe that there is an interest when you talk about high school especially that junior high school and high school students are becoming more aware of nutrition, they are becoming a little bit more aware of the whole locavore movement, a lot of food movement started in the 20 somethings but now it goes both directions as far as age and we see a lot of high school students very interested in local foods. You will see younger people at farmers markets so school lunch has really come a long way and has become more nutritious.”