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: Provided through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to children who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and breakfasts (and also offered to students who can pay full price), it meets the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. While NSLP meals -- eaten by more than 31 million children, over half of all American students -- need to be improved, the worst food lurks in what's called à la carte service. That's where any kid can buy anything from cake to pizza or brand-name junk food. These heavily marketed choices are essentially unregulated. ( Hard candy and gum are not allowed to be sold but chocolate bars are, for example.) " We offer many choices in the school library but no pornography," says Janet Poppendieck, Ph.D., author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. " We should offer an array of meals in school, but nothing unhealthy." healthy school lunch
Credit: Paula Hible
Meals Gone Bad -- and Good
That disconnect shocked Lolli Leeson, a wellness educator and parent, when she volunteered in her kids' lunchroom in Marble-head, Massachusetts.