Why School Cafeteria Food Keeps Getting Worse

Why are your kids being served highly processed chicken nuggets, green beans from a can and canned fruit with the cheapest milk the district can find? If you think it's because the Federal Governments Lunch Reimbursement Program doesn't give them enough money to feed kids fresh healthy food, think again! As my partner and I set out on a mission to improve the way children in our community eat we're shocked to discover that money given to schools to help keep the next generation of Americans healthy and strong is instead being diverted to keep the lights on. Financially strapped schools all over the country are using a loophole in the USDA school lunch program to fund general services.

The Federal government gives districts $2.28 to $2.68 to cover each lunch for students from low income families with some families getting free meals and others only paying ,40 cents. The USDA gives the district a quarter for each meal purchased at the full price. Rather than spend that small amount on the best possible food for kids the districts are finding the cheapest foods possible and pocketing the savings sometimes up to a dollar or more per lunch. Meanwhile childhood obesity is on the rise and incidents of diabetes among children is threatening the health and life expectancy of an entire generation. There are many medical experts that predict that this will be the first generation of children who will not out live their parents.

The USDA school lunch program was created because too many young adults in America were malnourished and our army depended on healthy young men to fight our wars. It was and is a national security issue. Interestingly enough the military just this past year expressed concerns that the childhood obesity rates are making it difficult to find enough young soldiers who meet the physical criteria for service.

I'm not saying that the so called food schools are serving do not meet the nutritional guidelines set by the government. I'm sure they do. But if you're trying to eat fresh and stay healthy then you likely all ready know that meeting a government guideline does not make a food healthy. Meals with so few live fruits and vegetables contain little to no enzymes which are an essential part f our diets.

The scary thing is the worse the quality of the food gets the more money the schools can squeeze out of an already insanely low meal reimbursement. Schools are actually making money from endangering the health of our children. Cheaper foods tend to be higher in preservatives, artificial colorings, sweeteners, and a host of chemicals you can hardly pronounce. The amount of sodium that turns up in processed foods should alarm each of us and can be easily eliminated from your children's diet.

Cheap oils are not healthy fats and cheap produce is likely not organic. The cheapest milk is not organic or hormone free but the government reimburses enough per student for every student to be able to have organic hormone free milk.

In dreaming up Freshateria Mike and I found a model where we could create organic, fresh, enzyme rich, nutrient dense, healthy meals for kids for only slightly more than the existing school lunch. To keep the price this low we have to closely watch out labor expenses and be willing to dramatically reduce our profits. It can be done, we can make enough that with enough lunches sold every day we do earn a profit. Some local schools have caught the vision and we're working closely with them to bring our service into their schools but others due to the disastrous budget crisis in California are only looking to lower the quality of the food so they can divert the money to other vital services.

The Federal Government is debating a $1 increase in the reimbursement but so far law makers have trimmed that adjustment down to six cents and without closing the loophole many schools would simply take any extra money and use it on other programs.

What can parents do? School Boards are an elected office and parents and community members have the ability to influence policies. We don't have to wait for law makers to close the loophole. School Boards can direct school administers to make feeding their students healthier foods a higher priority. Parents can let the schools and the school boards know that nutrition is important. Meanwhile, take a good look at what your school is offering your children. Think of food like you do health care. When it comes to your kids, do you really want to take them in for bargain treatments? If you're on a low income, use your food stamps wisely... buy fresh, your child's school may not make healthy eating a priority but you can.

Meanwhile we'll continue to do what we can to show schools that our model works, that children who eat better foods spend more time in schools generating more revenue for the school. Healthy students perform better on tests raising test scores drawing more students into public education and with them more money. Paying more attention to the food we put in these young bodies is just as important as the attention we put on the skills and knowledge we're feeding them in the classroom.