Day 225- School Lunches for a Whole Year?

Would you in the name of "research," voluntarily eat school lunches for an entire school year? You remember what school lunches consisted of right? A paper serving dish, containing the USDA's recommended daily nutrients. "Mrs. Q" did just that, and lived to write about it. Known anonymously as "Mrs. Q," a teacher and a mother, who one day forgot her lunch, and had to instead purchase a school lunch. Reminded what it was like to purchase a lunch from school and decipher what was on the tray, she decided to share the experience through blogging, pictures, twitter, and a book that was just released this month, entitled, "Fed Up With Lunch."

Mrs Q has been featured in the media in several places such as "Good Morning America," abcnews.com. AOL health, USA Today and several others. Although she has finished her journey of purchasing school luches every day, she has continued to blog about issues regarding children lunches and health and has earned a following amongst parents, teachers, nutritionist, and other's involved in the health of our children.

Her blogs are a great resource for ideas on homemade school lunches, governmental issues, school issues, and feature many great guest bloggers. One of the favorites I read was an interview with a student who was finishing their dietetic internship in order to become a Registered Dietitian; although I don't normally see eye to eye with dietitians, I really enjoyed what he had to say. For his internship he spent much time in cafeterias in order to possibly brainstorm an idea on how to implement salad bars into elementary schools. During the time that he spent observing students during lunch he was able to note certain changes that he saw fit. Elementary students were forced to place a milk on their tray, whether it be chocolate or regular. He felt that instead of forcing children to take a milk that majority of the time ended up in the trash full, water should be presented as an option to teach children that this is a healthy option as well. If you are interested in reading more about this guest blog, click here.

Thanks to Mrs. Q, Jamie Oliver, and Michelle Obama's "Let's Move," initiative school lunches have been brought into the spotlight, which hopefully will bring about the needed change. While schools can give the students the option to eat pizza, chicken nuggets, and hamburgers, they should not have the option to eat these foods 5 days a week for the entire school year.

I recommend reading more about these issues and Mrs. Q's journey of eating school lunches with her blog, "Fed Up With Lunch."

Pura Vida!

Alica Ryan, NTP