Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and Michelle Obama’s fight against childhood obesity have brought attention to the National School Lunch Program. Since Oliver’s reality show aired, some parents have been calling their child’s school to complain about the food. But I encourage every parent to take a step back first and educate themselves about School Lunch.
A good place to start is my previous article, What Nobody Tells Parents about School Lunch. I explain the challenges school nutrition professionals face including limited resources, meeting nutrition requirements and pleasing kids.
I believe more can be accomplished if we work together to make schools a healthier place for our children. So with that in mind, here are three important things parents can do to improve their child’s school food environment.
1. Support Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR): Every 5 years lawmakers take a fresh look at federal nutrition programs to evaluate what’s working, what’s not working and how to redistribute funds. One key aspect being revisited is the amount the government will reimburse for school meals. The current reimbursement rate for free lunches is $2.68 per meal.
The Obama administration proposed an additional $1 Billion for school nutrition programs in their fiscal budget for 2011. The additional money would help food service professionals provide more fresh produce and get up-to-date equipment. More money would also help them rely less on snack sales for revenue. It’s a win-win.
The first Child Nutrition re-authorization bill, The Healthy, Hunger-Free Act of 2010, recently passed the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. The bill now goes to the Senate floor for consideration. This legislation invests $4.5 Billion in new nutrition programs over ten years including stricter nutrition standards and increased meal reimbursements.
So contact your senators and tell them you support The Healthy, Hunger-Free Act of 2010. You can reach your senators’ offices by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
This is an important way parents can “cast their vote” for healthy school lunches.
2. Look at School Nutrition Professionals as Partners: Food service directors are not climbing the corporate ladder or getting bonuses for feeding children unhealthy foods. Instead, most are educated individuals working hard to provide nutritious meals for growing kids. And many of them have been fighting for improvements way before it was popular.
“We were pointing out flaws in the system over 30 years ago,” says Beverly Girard, MBA, MS, RD, Food Service Director at Sarasota County. “We have been fighting for lower fat meals, stopping sodas when they started in 2000 and have been gunning for competitive foods sold to have the same nutrition regulations that we have.”
Girard explains how the School Nutrition Association was at the historic 1969 White House Conference of Food, Nutrition and Health pushing for more resources to feed kids right. Part of the problem, she adds, is the decrease in net funding over the last few decades which has really hurt school nutrition programs.
So if you are upset with what’s going on at your child’s school, talk to the food service director (FSD). Remember that they want what’s best for kids too. Listen to their explanations, challenges and then give them your ideas for improvement. Many FSDs will keep a list of parental concerns to tackle at a later date. And if you have time, you can always volunteer to help.
3. Get involved with your child’s school lunch: Once you do what you can to increase resources and get your complaints out of the way, take an active role in what your child eats at school. How? Utilize SchoolMenu.com, a free web site program. To find out if your school is signed up email menu@schoolmenu.com for more information.
This user friendly site allows parents to see what’s on the menu at their child’s school and it often includes the nutritional information. You also get nutrition and wellness articles and factual information about the school lunch program. As an advisor to SchoolMenu.com, I contribute articles and feel it’s a great way for parents to get involved (Full Disclosure: I receive no compensation from schoolmenu.com or any of its affiliates).
While everyone may not get exactly what they want in terms of change, fighting for better funds, partnering with school nutrition professionals and becoming aware of what’s being served at your child’s school can help tremendously.
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Great post. But when you ask the Senate to support the CNR bill, we should also ask for full funding of the bill, not 45% funding like they have currently. Schools are resouce limited and an additional 6 cents to the school food program (which is what this would provide) isn’t enough.