School lunch or sack lunch... What's worse?

Well, I’m not sure where to go at the moment in my quest for healthy lunches.

There were so many points in the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution that we can take to our own schools. The food vendors that supply our school food service providers certainly need to be accountable and make the most healthful foods available at reasonable cost for our children. The food service providers need to make a commitment to serving fresh, less processed meals.

BUT, one major point from the show, which I have personally witnessed as well as many others, is the food brought from home. This picture is of sack lunches brought by three students on a recent field trip. The red water bottle had some kind of flavored water in it (The student “Can’t drink plain water”), at least 8 bags of chips or cookies……. I think there was a smashed PBJ that got tossed. Should I continue?

I wonder what they had for breakfast, if they had anything at all?

In school, students are a captive audience, where messages may be taught or caught. Maybe there needs to be an effort by schools to encourage the students to bring healthy lunches that will in turn encourage students to pressure parents or guardians to provide more healthful foods.

Obviously, we can make efforts within each of our own family, which is great, but also as obvious is the need for many many others to jump on board. From what I can tell in recent months, there seems to be an honest (granted slow) effort by food service providers to improve the quality of foods available. Hurray!

What are you doing to ensure healthful school meals for your children? Is your school doing anything to encourage healthful sack lunches? I would love to read and share your comments. Please sign up as a follower and also share this with others who are concerned for our children’s nutrition.

The other dilemma is that summer break is fast approaching. We'll need to be sure to keep our own momentum going and continue into next school year.  My plan for this blog over the summer is to discuss some creative lunch ideas for each food group that we may be able to share with our friends and schools when the next school year starts.

Here’s to a rainbow plate of fresh foods! Lauri