A lot of attention has been given to school lunch programs. I think reform is long overdue. I learned my eating habits from my parents and from school. I hope that improving school lunches will allow kids to make better choices than I did.
My family criticized my eating habits my entire childhood. But you know what? I'm not the one who did the grocery shopping. If you don't buy or provide garbage to children then they can't eat it! Same goes for schools. In elementary school, we were provided with rectangular pizza on Styrofoam. In junior high, we had nachos with powder cheese mixed with milk, chocolate chip cookies and deep fried chicken sandwiches. In high school, we had the greasiest pizza you can imagine, a snack line and fries served to us everyday. Kids can't make healthy choices when there are no choices. Why not throw a handful of salad or carrots on the tray instead of fries? Kids will eat it if its given to them and all the junk food is gone.
Some schools are allowing kids to grow their own gardens at school as part of the curriculum. This is neat because it teaches kids about gardening, feeding themselves and it saves the school money. What I think is super cool is that some CPS students are demanding better lunches and making suggestions at to what they want to be served. Even though high school students have been doing this for decades, these kids finally got someone to listen to them.
Better school lunches will help with the childhood obesity epidemic and encourage kids to make smarter life decisions. Schools need to educate students on all aspects of life, including nutrition.
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