Disturbed About What Your Kids Are Eating In School?

Almost one year after the beginning of our quest to improve school lunches and children’s health, we are ramping up for our meeting with the school district in our city (Boise, Idaho on June 17th, 2009). We want to bring the school lunch initiative to the forefront of our citizens’ consciousness, both locally and to the wider communities. This initiative seeks to do what other communities have already brought to their districts – notably led by pioneers in this movement such as Chef Ann Cooper, Alice Waters, Amy Kalafa, and Dr. Susan Rubin of Better School Food.

Last year, we brought the film ‘Two Angry Moms‘ to our city in the hopes of delivering an important message to parents, food growers, school district employees, and the community at large – the foods we are serving to children in the school environment and the attitudes we foster about nutrition are contributing to the following health disorders – obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, decreased test scores, learning issues, depression, and cardiovascular disease. We still have a long way to go to implement our desired program goals – but we’re on our way to showing our district and our city just how important a change like this will be and what it will mean to our children’s future.

This Huffington Post article from 2008 by Amy Kalafa discusses some of the many reasons why changes need to be made – the massive meat recall of February 2008 and Mad Cow Disease, farming practices which focus on profit not health, contamination in the food supply, and agencies that fail to take accountability for their production practices.

To make a difference in your community, start by talking to fellow parents, food growers, health experts who understand the critical importance of this issue, and school board officials. Generate an interest to bring Two Angry Moms to your community and encourage a panel of speakers involved and interested in food issues to attend. Get in communication with members of the local legislature – representatives and senate – and partner with them to create legislation which will make it mandatory that children are eating healthy food in school.

For another informative article about school lunches and why they are unhealthy to consume,  read Meals for Children – Restaurants and School Lunches are Lacking in Nutrition. Also, check out our Do You Feed Your Kids Junk Food Archive for an important bulletin about hormones in milk and another school lunch article.