What are we really feeding our kids?

As you might remember, my kids are involved in Lego Robotics, and this year their theme is Food Safety.  As a result, I've seen some programs which highlight the views of some of the activists in our country that are concerned about the food that we have access to in this country.  Of particular interest, I have been astounded by some of the food that is being served to our kids in our school system.

I started learning a bit more about the quality of the food in our county, which is Fairfax, last year. I had learned about their initiative to try and offer healthier food choices for our kids, when they pulled chocolate milk off the menu.  I was livid that they pulled this item off of the menu, leaving white milk, juice and water as the alternatives.  I had heard from my kids that many were taking the white milk and just tossing it into the trash, barely touched or even unopened.  My one son who actually does like white milk, says it tasted funny.  Who knows why he thinks that, but it seems as though other kids feel the same way. The county was waiting on their vendor to come up with a good tasting healthier alternative to the one that was being served, which was very high in high fructose syrup.

I applaud that they were working to find a better solution, but don't see why they didn't just keep it on the menu, until they could switch it out with a better alternative. For as much as the chocolate milk did have a lot of high fructose corn syrup, it also had protein, and many vitamins and minerals that are definitely a plus. I was concerned that the kids who normally opted for chocolate milk might switch to juice, and once it returned eventually to the menu, they would continue to opt for the juice out of habit.  They did eventually get it back onto the menu after a few months hiatus, but I wonder at what cost.

At the time, I didn't have a real issue with high fructose syrup, because all of the information I had read up until that point was, that sugar was sugar and it was a carbohydrate that is processed in your body as such.  I have since found out that one of the unfortunate by products that is often found in high fructose corn syrup is mercury.  Nice.  Who knew that the additive that is in a large majority of foods that we find on the shelves of our grocery stores could have such an unhealthy by product and wow, what kind of effect will this by product have on our bodies over time? Supposedly they are working to correct this issue, but how do you know which of the products have it, and which do not?

I had recently run into an old PTA friend and she had mentioned that she had gotten involved in an initiative to get better foods into our schools.  I had heard about Jamie Oliver's quest in some areas to get people moving in this direction, but had not yet heard that there was a movement in my local area to support this venture. She had mentioned a gathering to gain awareness about what is going on in our schools, and I was intrigued.  She invited me to attend an event that would hope to foster excitement about serving healthier foods in our schools.  The organization that is lobbying to make some real changes is called Real Food For Kids:  http://www.realfoodforkids.org/.  I was shocked at some of the information that I learned that day.

I knew the food was iffy in our school system, and I knew it probably was getting mixed results in real life.  One of my sons regularly eats food from the cafeteria.   I know I may be rationalizing, but he's a skinny kid, and I theorize that more than likely what is being offered in school probably has more calories than anything that I'd pack him for him, so I don't generally make lunch for him if he finds something he likes on the school menu that day.  I have heard him gripe that many of the changes that they've made aren't good tasting ones--he won't eat pizza anymore because he says it "tastes like crap". I'd say he probably takes his own lunch 1 or 2 days a week, depending on what they are serving.  My other child flat out won't eat anything at all from school because he says none of the food tastes good.  I've also seen first hand on occasion when I am in the cafeteria how much food gets tossed into the trash barely touched and uneaten.  I am anal about food waste, so this really hits a nerve, and I really try hard to ignore when I see it as it makes me crazy.

The shocking tidbit that I learned:  the astounding sheer number of ingredients that are in some of the foods that you would think are pretty straightforward: 40 ingredients in a hamburger and a shocking 67 in a quesadilla! I was blown away.  I have been trying very hard in my own family to practice eating as much minimally processed food as possible, hoping that in the long run we will all be healthier as a result, so I was particularly floored by what my son is probably eating.

I hope to become more involved in helping this initiative move forward, and have signedthe petition that is pushing for better foods in our schools.  The Fairfax County Council of PTAs has already passed a resolution to support this change, but they are hoping that every school's PTA will pass it too. I hope that more parents become interested in this movement as I'd have to hope that better foods, which hopefully will taste better as well will ultimately benefit all of our kids.

I know that there are logistical issues that are involved in making such changes, which mostly revolve around the kitchens' capacity to staff, prepare, store and serve real food. I also know that one of the very real problems that some of the schools are faced with is that for some of the kids, school lunch may be their only meal of the day and you want them to like the taste of it and actually eat it.  By solely focusing on making the choices healthier and not researching well how the new items might taste to the kids, serving healthier options that get tossed uneaten into the trash defeats the whole purpose of offering healthy items in the first place. I'd love to know the stands of some of the school board candidates on this issue and how we can continue to push for better offerings to all of our kids.

Barb Welsh has lived in Herndon for about 12 years and has two sons aged 9 and 11. She is a member of the Herndon Patch Mom's Council and regularly blogs at www.obsessmuch.com.