Does your child buy lunch at school?
Creatas/Thinkstock
It's clear from the lack of sound policy when it comes to school food—and from such statistics as 38.8% of kids who eat school lunch are overweight or obese compared with 24.4% who bring lunch—that a revolution is needed in school cafeterias across the U.S.
Other statistics from a study that Grist highlighted earlier this year: children who eat school food are twice as likely than other kids to drink soda, and 16.3 percent eat fruits and vegetables regularly, while that number in the kids-eating-homemade-food category is a whopping 91.2 percent.
Don't blame the kids: they aren't taught much about nutrition, but that's kind of irrelevant anyway if they can't apply any lessons about food to their choices in the cafeteria. When there's only French fries, chicken nuggets and pizza to choose from, it's kind of a losing battle.
That's not to say no one is doing anything to change this. Here are five cool examples of programs around the country that are working in or with schools to improve the food that's available to children when they hit the cafeteria.
