Kids are just getting back into the school groove and you may have noticed that you have started to slack on your intentions to send your child off to school with a healthy and nutritious lunch every day. Maybe the chips were on sale or it was faster to hand your kids lunch money instead of a sack lunch.
So before your well-intentioned efforts of healthy school lunches resemble more and more like your New Year’s resolutions in mid-February, the School Nutrition Association has declared the week of October 12-16 as National School Lunch Week. The organization is dedicated to supporting schools in creating healthy, nutritious and affordable school lunches.
Guest Blogger Terra Wellington is an actress and the author of The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home (St. Martin’s Press). In her book, she outlines a Green School Action Blueprint for making greener and healthier changes at your child’s school. 
For many years I’ve been concerned about the quality of the school lunches fed to my children.
A charter school was my children’s home away from home for several years, and that school didn’t have a cafeteria, so all kids had to bring a lunch from home – one of the best options for most families if you want to improve your child’s lunch diet.
But now that my children are in the regular public school system, it has brought back lots of childhood cafeteria memories … praying my milk wasn’t sour in second grade, shamelessly wishing for tater tots seven days a week as a fourth grader, and watching friends mop up oil off the top of pizza slices with an extra napkin in high school.
The week of August 10 is Healthy Back to School Week at DietsInReview.com.
Guest blogger Jill Knapp from “Get up and Get Moving” has some wonderful tips to get your kids eating right and exercising to prevent obesity and other health risks. Jill is from Idaho, where she lost 100 pounds after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Today, she manages her diabetes with diet and exercise and without medication.
Childhood obesity is one of our nation’s leading health threats. Today about 25 million kids (ages 2-19) in the United States are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. That’s nearly one of every three kids. Overweight kids are more likely to become overweight adults.
You can’t lose by using this rule in your family life: Get in one hour or more of physical activity each day! The wonderful news is that your kids’ 60 minutes of exercise does not need to happen at once. You just need to help them get active 10 or 15 minutes at a time, a few times a day.
The week of August 10 is Healthy Back to School Week at DietsInReview.com.
Chef Ann Cooper, also known as the Renegade Lunch Lady, has she’s made it her life’s mission to reform the way our children eat, and are fed, at school. Which is why we’re thrilled she’s a part of this special series. At ChefAnn.com, they say “She works to transform cafeterias into culinary classrooms for students — one school lunch at a time.”
Yesterday, Chef Ann spoke about the National School Lunch Program Needing a Makeover. Her commentary continues now.
As for my team and I, we’d like to be spending all of our time and money feeding children delicious healthy food and educating them on where their food comes from and how it’s produced. To make this happen, the NSLP truly needs a makeover!
I believe that the following guidelines, if put into place, would help us focus on feeding children “real,” healthy and delicious food.
- Make meals, both breakfast and lunch, a system where every child is fed every day. This would alleviate the need for free and reduced applications and tracking.
The week of August 10 is Healthy Back to School Week at DietsInReview.com.
Even at my age, I can’t help but get the back to school butterflies. I have always loved this time of year. I no longer have a need for fresh packs of pencils, new backpacks or new notebooks, but that doesn’t stop me from wandering down the aisles.
One thing that I don’t miss about back to school are the lunches. That food is still just as terrible as it was 20 years ago. I have a little girl who I mentor, and I’m just shocked every time I walk in to that cafeteria at the trays full of Crustables, corn dogs and football stadium nachos. Thankfully people like Chef Ann and millions of moms across the country are taking steps to ensure our kids are eating more filling, more nutritious foods to power them through their days.
If you are one of those moms responsible for packing school lunches, then consider these easy lunch box swaps this school year.
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