Comments on: Video: The Role of Michelle Obama and Nutrition in Our Schools

By: Floyd Casasola

Floyd Casasola — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 02:38:12 +0000

Health to Michelle Obama constitutes of both internal and physical, both diet and the mental and emotional state. They are all interrelated in a way. Throughout her life, she had been privileged of making the perfect choices for herself, and she considers herself fortunate for this. Even her husband encouraged her everytime to figure out what she actually wanted to do, as they both understood the simple fact that physical happiness is connected to all the components of a healthy lifestyle, and hence she wants to pass on these concepts to her daughters. ;”;..

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 16 May 2013 07:55:37 +0000

Liz, how exciting and promising to read your post. It sounds like your school has really figured out how to get kids to eat more healthily. Good point that kids who see other kids trying veggies are more likely to want to try them. Quite an achievement! Thank you for sharing!

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:30:39 +0000

We are SO lucky at our school The Country School in Southern CA. We have a hot lunch program that is packed full of organic fruits and vegetables, vegetable dishes and a variety of vegetarian meals – we don’t serve dessert.

To top it off, our hot lunch is served by Fred (one of the owners of the company we contracted) who wouldn’t let a child go by without having them try a fruit or vegetable! His question is never “DO you want a carrot?” his question is “Would you like a carrot or a slice of green pepper?” They HAVE to choose one! We now have REQUESTS for vegetables! We have kids eating fruit they would never touch at the beginning of the year sitting outside with their friends chomping down cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries and apples! This is one of the keys to our success! Kids seeing other kids eating carrots- are much more likely to try them!
Serve kids good fresh food, encourage them every day to try a little taste of something new and you will have improved healthy eating overall! We are so Lucky! Thank you!

By: Kate

Kate — Sun, 05 May 2013 10:42:11 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and insight, Aileen. Yes, very important point that the children must like the food, and this might be a process, but it will obviously be an unsuccessful process if the food really doesn’t taste good. I am surprised by how many meat dishes are on your school’s lunch menu! And very unfortunate to think about how much of the food is being thrown away – that absolutely should be taken into account as the current changes are assessed. You’re also so correct that parents need education. One’s relationship with food and the foods one is exposed to starts primarily in the home.

While school-provided meals are not the cause of obesity problems, they certainly can be a part of the solution, and the quality of school-provided food does need to improve — not just in school lunches, but for all meals (breakfast, after-school snacks) — especially for the children who are not getting adequate nutrition at home (and we have to remember that one can be both obese and malnourished).

By: Aileen

Aileen — Fri, 03 May 2013 04:23:47 +0000

I can’t see any improvement in my local school’s lunch program. This is what is on the menu for one week in May: Mon., Chicken nuggets or spicy chicken chef salad (do both choices have to be chicken?); Tues., turkey sandwich or peanut butter and jelly; Wed., BBQ pork on bun or tuna sandwich; Thurs., mini corn dogs or Italian chef salad; Fri., Bosco Bostixs (cheese-filled bun) or turkey chef salad with croutons. Maybe a better proposal for Mrs. Obama would be to teach these cooks how to cook and offer more appetizing meals. She should see how much food is thrown away. Parents should actually see what their child is eating or throwing in the trash every day. The parents are not getting a good value for what they pay for. Students need to be required to take what they eat or their meals should be priced by weight (taken after they get their tray filled and before they throw away what they did not eat). The students are told to take a certain number of fruits and/or vegetables off the salad bar, but are not made to eat them or even taste them. Often the vegetables that were hot when they were put out on the salad bar/table, are no longer even warm by the time half of the children have gone through the line. The children do not like the taste of the whole wheat pastas and will not eat them. I don’t believe that children are becoming obese because of school lunches. Most of them are more anxious about missing recess than overeating. Parents are the ones who need to be educated. What kinds of foods are being fed to them at home?