10-18 IAN Menu Pushback

 I thought this would happen. You can lead a horse to water… Make that,  lead a child to good nutrition but you can’t make them eat. That’s the problem that confronts the school lunch program nationwide.

 I raised 2 kids and they participated in the school lunch program for a number of years until I couldn’t stand it any longer. When I heard what they were eating at school, lots of french fries, macaroni and cheese, chicken McNuggets, pastries… never heard much about fresh fruits and vegetables. That resulted in my packing lunch for them every day with an attempt to include healthy foods. I’m not telling you they liked that solution but there was no alternative.  Well there has been an initiative developed by the USDA to do a farm to school program in which more healthy and nutritional menus are put together. Here is state school registered dietitian and nutrition expert Heidi Martin describes farm to school items that are being incorporated into the school lunch program: “We work with school food service to get locally grown food into the schools. That might be fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain items such as whole wheat tortillas, local proteins such as trout from the Hagerman area or fresh ground beef.” Last week we reported on this whole program and to no one’s surprise, specifically mine, there was a headline in the paper reporting that there was a lot of resistance and push back by school kids who want to go back to the old menus. 1/3 to 1/2 of our students are obese. Now you know why.