National School Lunch Week Takes on the Unhealthy Cafeteria

Tator tots, corn dogs and burgers. That's the stereotypical fare offered on a school lunch menu, a brown and beige mixture that provides kids with calories, and not much else. But National School Lunch Week (NSLW), which runs from October 11-15, is challenging American schools to improve nutrition and add some color to the otherwise unhealthy grub.

A main theme with this year's NSLW is the Obama administration's efforts to encourage school's to participate in USDA's HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC), which gives recognition for excellence in nutrition and physical activity. It was started in 2004, but now under the purview of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign, it offers monetary rewards to schools that take on the campaign's goal of ending childhood obesity in one generation. Schools that participate in the HUSSC agree to voluntarily adopt USDA standards for their food, provide nutrition education and give kids opportunities for physical education.

It seems schools shouldn't need a reward for meeting these most basic health criteria, but they do.

The National School Lunch Program, the federally assisted food program that serves over 30 million meals per day, sets the guidelines for food served in schools. No more than 30 percent of a meal's calories can come from total fat and only 10 percent can come from saturated fat.  According to the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment (SNDA), only a quarter of elementary schools served lunches that met the fat standard and only about one-third met the standard for saturated fat.

In addition, these criteria can be averaged over an entire week, meaning that high fat meals can be made up with a day of low fat ones. The guidelines don't say much about added sugar, vending offerings that are basically junk food or a la carte menu items, which don't have to meet the federal guidelines.

Since so many unhealthy options are offered to kids throughout the day, without many appealing healthful foods, improved nutrition is a tall order. Although the theme of this year's NSLW, "School Lunch--What's On Your Tray," aims to encourage kids to opt for healthier choices, the big idea is to actually provide them with better options to choose from.

This goes beyond the token Washington Red apple and syrupy fruit cup. It means a continued focus on school gardens and farm-to-table eating. This week, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass celebrated NSLW by visiting Savoy Elementary School and kicking off the 2nd annual D.C. Farm to School Week. In a USDA press release, Kass noted that "This week schools in Washington D.C. will serve healthy, locally-grown foods in school meals, and coordinate farm field trips and chef demonstrations to help kids connect with where their food comes from."

It's a grand idea, but how long will these good intentions last? It'll certainly take more than a week to encourage schools and the USDA to put kids' health as a top priority, but at least there's an effort to put some green amidst the brown fried foods.

Photo credit: IntangibleArts