This summer’s new school lunch guidelines that accompanied the updated federal food icon–MyPlate–push for larger portions of fruit and vegetables. Sounds great, right?
There’s only one problem: fruit and vegetables are already the most wasted items in school lunches. Serving more of them to each student will only mean more food in the trash. Cue the video.
One other problem–the fruit and vegetables many schools (and this YMCA) serve aren’t the best. They’re often canned or frozen, which won’t help avoid waste.
Along with the changed guidelines of MyPlate, The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 is supposed to be more money allotted for buying fresh (hopefully local) produce and starting school garden programs. With the latter, the more connection kids have to their food, the more they eat. Even healthy foods…
I wonder whether there is a general lag in implementation, the funding only applies to schools, or if there’s another explanation. Any ideas?
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P.S. Check out this neat history of USDA food guides.
One Comment
I think they should invest in better recipes. If I had to eat canned veggies all day, I would probably waste them too. They should look at things that are healthy AND kids will like – things such as sweet potato french fries come to mind – that they might actually eat.