When I talk with parents about school food, many are so disappointed in the options their schools provide that they’ve simply opted out. They pack their children’s lunches every day, giving up on their school’s nutrition program as a lost cause.
I understand and support parents who insist their children eat healthfully and responsibly. My dream is a nation in which all food — especially school food — is nourishing, safe and sustainably produced. And I strongly believe that parents should be engaged in their children’s diets, helping them learn to love fresh, delicious, nutrient-rich foods. But when a parent’s solution is to opt out of school food and not look back, I feel the loss keenly. There goes one potential change-maker who can make a real difference in his or her community.
Many of these same parents acknowledge the necessity of school food programs for children who would otherwise go hungry. But I think they’re missing something important. To implicitly state that school lunch is necessary for poor children, but a terrible choice for families that can afford better is emblematic of the social justice issues surrounding school food.
Of the over 30 million children who eat school lunch every day, more than 71.5 percent come from disadvantaged families. Many of these children come from the 14.3 percent of households that experienced food insecurity in 2013.
All children, regardless of their circumstances, deserve safe, nourishing and delicious school meals. When we abandon school food, we abandon children who could benefit from our powerful voices, our influence,and our strength: three things that children — especially poor ones — lack.
And what many parents may not know is that — thanks to hardworking school food advocates and progressive federal policies instituted by the Obama administration and championed by the First Lady — delicious and nutritious school food is well within the reach of districts across the country. Many schools are now making healthy meals that parents across the country are proud to feed their children.
One of the best ways to help district nutrition programs as they transition to healthier food is to buy school lunch for your children. When your school offers a new, healthy menu item, let them know you support their efforts by sending your child to school with lunch money, not a lunch box. When more children buy school lunch, wonderful things happen:
1. School districts can achieve economies of scale, which means they can buy better quality food at lower prices because they buy more of it.
2. You bring more federal funding to your district because every school meal is reimbursed by the federal government.
3. Any stigma along the lines of “only poor kids eat school lunch” will disappear because school lunch will be so good, all kids (and their parents) will want it.
Registered dietitian and parent Dale Hayes recently wrote about ways disappointed parents and advocates can be agents of change in their communities, and I encourage you to read it: “10 Ways that School Lunch Haters Can Get Off Their Soapboxes and Support #RealSchoolFood.”
More importantly, if you are unhappy with your school’s food, I urge you to explore ways that you can help make it better. Opting out isn’t a viable option for any parent. Not if you want your school community to thrive.
I invite every parent who has given up on school food to Do One Thing to improve their school nutrition programs. For more in-depth guidance for parent advocates, check out my Parent Advocacy Toolkit. Advocates like Hayes show us what’s possible; parent activists can help make it possible in their children’s schools.
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School Lunch: Opting Out is Not an Option originally appeared on usnews.com
