Opinion: Why is it so hard to serve healthy food in schools?
By Katie Arnold, Outside
The other morning my 5-year-old daughter begged me to let her buy lunch at school. I typically pack her and her 7-year-old sister an almond-butter sandwich, carrot sticks, and a sliced apple, but we’d gotten a late start to the day and my husband and I were chasing them around with hairbrushes and reminding them for the eighth time to put on their socks and shoes. I looked at the clock and did the math: I could hustle and make the five-year-old lunch, or we could bike to school. Easy choice: we rode bikes, and she got beef tostadas at school.
Our mornings would certainly be smoother without making lunch everyday.
It’s not a question of cost—at $2.50 a pop, the lunches at our public elementary school are affordable. It’s matter of nutrition.
Every time I look at the menu, I have to wonder: If food is fuel for our bodies and brains, and kids are in school to exercise both, why aren’t school lunches healthier?