Five Steps to Healthy School Lunches for Your Kids

Healthy meals are the foundation for a successful school year. Nutritious meals and snacks fuel learning and attention in the classroom.

While school lunches are often nutritionally deficient, processed, and high in salt and fat, there is good news. When parents are willing to advocate for change, they can and do have an impact. Parents can encourage the inclusion of healthy whole foods, including fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts, in school foods.

Barbara Cole Gates, Executive Director of the nonprofit Lean and Green Kids, offers five simple steps to make a difference for children.

• You can start by writing a letter to the Nutrition Director and Superintendent for your child's school district. Request that the school lunch menu include more healthy, plant-based meal options. If you live in California, point out this change is consistent with the 2003 CA Healthy School Lunch Resolution, ACR 16.
• Join the PTA and start a Health Committee. The timing is good because of mounting concern about childhood obesity. Teaming up with other parents can multiply your results. Plus, being a part of the PTA carries a lot of weight.
• Join the wellness committee in your school district. If there isn't one, initiate one with school officials. All districts are federally mandated to have a wellness policy and an entity to implement the policy, but this just isn't always the case. Work with the committee to improve and implement the policy.
• Start a file with nutrition articles and book excerpts, so you can easily provide them to those who might have questions about whole foods. The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., is an excellent place to start getting solid research. So much information in popular media is based on harmful myths about health and nutrition.
• Submit articles for the school newsletter or district website on how important fruit, vegetables, potatoes, whole grains, beans, and nuts are for kids' health. This may inspire parents to feed their kids more whole foods at home, which is where the change begins.

School food improvements are possible, and little changes add up over time. The important thing is to keep the faith and stay focused on how much is at stake. You are planting the seeds of change. You can make this school year a turning point for your family.

Janice Stanger, Ph.D., is the author of The Perfect Formula Diet, a nutrition and weight loss book based on six kinds of whole, sustainable foods. You can read chapter excerpts, find recipe resources, and learn about permanent, hunger-free weight loss on http://perfectformuladiet.com. Janice would enjoy connecting with you on Facebook and Twitter.