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How to improve your school's lunch program

Tired of seeing chicken nuggets, tater tots, and chocolate milk on the school lunch menu? Here are seven simple steps to give your school cafeteria a healthy makeover.

By Sarah Henry

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See for yourself

It might sound obvious, but do what Stern did: Go see the lunch offered in your child's school cafeteria. You may be shocked. What is that wobbling brown mass? Or you may be pleasantly surprised – look, fresh fruit! But you won't know until you go. It's not enough to rely on the school menus sent home or what your child tells you.

An anonymous elementary school teacher in the Midwest ate school lunch for a year, and lived to blog about it, in all its packaged, processed glory over at Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project. At the site Simple, Good, and Tasty, Lee Zukor served up a school lunch challenge to his readers. Parents across the country ate, snapped pics, and got all fired up over the muck that passes for a meal in their schools. Before you hit the school cafeteria, read this handy checklist on what to look for at lunch, courtesy of the non-profit Better School Food.
 

 

Photo credit: Ellie Strikes Weird

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Sarah Henry is a Bay Area-based freelance food writer and the voice behind the blog Lettuce Eat Kale.