10-11 IAN Healthy Lunch

 School lunch programs. Childhood obesity. Are they related?

 As I look at the staggering number of children who are obese, I have always been quick to point the finger at fast food restaurants. Double cheeseburgers with an unconscionable number of calories, shakes that are filled with fat, deep-fried chicken that is capable of clogging the arteries of even a child. One would think that a point of reason would be found in the school system. Surely schools wouldn’t be feeding junk to our children, would they? However having had my own children and knowing that school lunches were often, in my mind, totally unacceptable because of their high calorie count and high fat count. The school systems defense has always been that if you offer healthy food, as in lots of fruits and vegetables, the kids won’t eat it. Well now they may not have a choice. Apparently, more fresh fruits and vegetables is going to be a federal mandate. Yup. There are going to be more foods coming off of local farms in the form of fresh produce to feed our kids. Here’s Heidi Martin, Registered and licensed dietitian: “It’s an initiative that comes from the USDA because all of our school lunch programs are from the USDA. We at the Department of Education and child nutrition programs partner with the ISDA to implement the farm to school program around the state.” That sounds like a win-win for the kids and local farmers and ranchers.