Should We Worry About School Lunches?

In the past few weeks I have sent emails to our local school district asking for an ingredient list in the school lunches. I have suspected that the lunches are full of processed food-like substances rather than real ingredients as there is no kitchen or cafeteria at my son's school.

This afternoon I finally received an response to my inquiry to the North Thurston School District. This is what it said:

Hi Jennifer,

We use many different products in our school meal program, and in those products are probably thousands of ingredients.  We keep product specification on all items serve in schools and you are welcome to come to our office (located on the same campus as Lakes Elementary) and review them if you’d like.  Please let us know and we’d be happy to set up an appointment for you to view them.

Sincerely,

Alicia Neal, RD

Director of Food and Nutrition Services

North Thurston Public Schools

 
You can bet that I am going to make and appointment to further investigate this issue. Our children's health is more than at risk. If kids are not given healthy lunches their health with most definitely suffer, as will their I.Q. and their ability to concentrate.

Those who have seen the new movie, "Fed Up," may not be surprised by this email. If you haven't seen the movie yet I highly recommend it. In the meantime here are a few of the relevant points from the film:

• there are 600,000 food items in America, 80% of them have added sugar
• we are raising the first generation expected to live shorter lives than their parents
• by 2015 one out of every three Americans will have diabetes
• tomato paste is a vegetable according to those who control school lunch quality