As noted in my last Friday Buffet, hearings have begun on the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 (H.R. 5504), which is the House version of the Child Nutrition Bill. Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio gave impassioned tesitmony in support of the bill, in which he cited his experience as a business owner, a parent of two children and the son of a “lunch lady.” You can read his full testimony here.
A passage that particularly resonated with me as I work with my district’s Parent Advisory Committee to improve school lunch menus was this one:
My kids, like kids everywhere, are more than happy to slurp down junk food and empty calories –pizza, sodas, candy and deep-fried anything. But the fact that they would eat this whenever doesn’t give me permission to shrug my shoulders and say, ‘well, that’s what they want!’ It’s my job as a parent to make sure they have a variety of real, nutritious foods served to them at every meal so that they grow into robust, healthy kids capable of meeting their full potential in life. And yet, I hear people say, “we’d like to improve school lunch, but all the kids want to eat are pizzas and burgers. If we give them good food they won’t eat it” Come on, people! We’re the adults. It’s up to us to do better. My kids would also happily live in front of the Xbox and never take another shower as long as they live. Not gonna happen. When I give them healthy, delicious food they eat it, with gusto.
Hat tip: Serious Eats.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Bettina Elias Siegel
Mary Lawton says
I have always said that if you give a kid a choice between an apple and a donut, they will take a donut. One of the answers to the obesity crisis could be to offer just one nutritious, balanced, delicious meal at school each day. No a la carte, no carnival food. The pizza offerings in our schools has to stop. Pizza should not be something kids can eat every day, or even three times a week.
When did we start falling for the line that kids won’t eat anything good? It’s time to stop blaming them for the bad food choices they have.