Title: The Problem with Your Child's School Lunch and What To Do About It | Parents
Headings: The Problem with Your Child's School Lunch
The Problem with Your Child's School Lunch
Is your child's cafeteria failing to provide healthy, nutritious food?
Meals Gone Bad -- and Good
Lunch Lessons
Paying the Tab
Moms Make a Move
Don't Just Get Angry ... Do Something
Be Realistic
Say No to Junk
Say Yes to Tastings
Get Kids Growing
Recess Before Lunch
Go to the Cafeteria
Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Campaign
Learn How to Improve School Lunches

Content: I'm normally not subversive in any way," Mrs. Q. says of her unexpected though anonymous celebrity status -- we promised not to reveal her identity when we interviewed her. " But if you're a parent you may not have a clue about what your kids are really eating. Lunches at my school are like overly packaged TV dinners gone bad." It doesn't have to be this way. At Galtier Magnet Elementary School, in St. Paul, Minnesota, menus include whole-grain bread and pasta, along with unsweetened applesauce for dessert. There's also a salad bar stocked with greens, carrots, peas, and grape tomatoes. A sauce station offers seasonings -- low-fat ranch dressing, soy sauce, Louisiana hot sauce. Many of the kids in St. Paul still eat tacos and macaroni and cheese, but the cafeteria makes lower-fat versions of both. They also get edamame and chicken stew, which add vital nutrients into their diet. While even detractors acknowledge that the quality of most American school lunches has steadily improved over the past 15 years, everyone from nutritionists and public-health experts to the First Lady -- not to mention a growing number of extremely frustrated parents -- believes that our children's school lunches are still overprocessed affairs laden with unhealthy preservatives, sodium, sugar, and trans fat.