School Lunch & Nutrition: Are your kids eating healthily at school?

Increased rates of obesity and diabetes among young children have heightened parents' concerns about the quality of food available to their children through school breakfast and lunch programs. Parents have also expressed concerns about snack foods sold in vending machines, and candies and other "junk foods" sold as fund-raisers. A number of school communities are exploring how they can strengthen school policies related to breakfast, lunch and snacks on campus.

Here are some questions and activities that can get you started in assessing nutrition programs and policies at your school:

[Download free checklist -- PDF format]

Questions to ask your principal or school board member:

• Who makes decisions about "what's for lunch"?
• Who makes decisions about school policy on vending machines, and snacks and sodas in the cafeteria or student store?
• Who makes decisions about what foods can be sold as part of student activity fund-raisers?
• Does your school have a Local Wellness Policy, as required by the US Department of Agriculture School Food Program that sets goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and school foods?
  
• How can parents participate in the policy-making process?
• Does the school or school district post its lunch menus for the week and do the menus provide information about nutrition facts?

Questions to ask your child:

• What do the kids bring for lunch from home? What do they purchase from the cafeteria or snack stand?
• How do they rate the food? What do the wish they had more of?

Resources

Local Wellness Policy Requirements
http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/healthy/wellness_policyrequirements.html

California Project LEAN: A Program of the CA Department of Health Services and the Public Health Institute. Taking the Fizz Out of Soda Contracts: A Guide to Community Action.
www.phi.org/pdf-library/sodareport.pdf

Centers for Disease Control.
Guidelines to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eatings.
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00042446.htm

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools.
Parents' Resource Center. Nutrition and Food Safety.
www.healthinschools.org/Educators-and-Families/Parents/Learn-Now/Nutrition-and-Food-Safety.aspx

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Making It Happen: School Nutrition Success Stories.
www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/nutrition/Making-It-Happen/