Chico, Sustainable

A big thanks to the ER's Chris Gullick for continuing to report on the challenges of bringing healthy food into local school cafeterias. As one who has eaten his fair share of crappy school and summer camp cafeteria food (I can recall nuclear green jello cubes that sat next to the warming lamps by the hamburgers. . .and didn't melt), this morning's article hits especially close to home.

The highlights of the article are pretty straightforward. It turns out that ever since healthier foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, have begun being served in the Orland and Paradise school cafeterias, students have been eating more of it. Apparently the kids like the food better than the offerings of previous years.

But surprise, better quality food costs more money.

Also preparing the food from scratch, rather than removing them from plastic wrappers and placing them in a food warmer, is more time intensive, which increases labor costs.

Yep.

But the big thing is, despite these challenges, the schools are indeed doing their best to make changes that benefit our childrens' health.

If you wanted to make a list of the most important issues in Chico (or nationally, for that matter), I would place this one towards the top.

While these changes do indeed cost more money, it should be pointed out the costs of NOT making these changes:

--Unhealthy or unappetizing food in school cafeterias leads to an unhealthy diet which in turn leads to malnutrition (if the child decides that not eating is a better option) or obesity, if the foods are especially fatty (think shiny, greasy slices of pepperoni pizza on a pale white crust). On an open campus, students might be more inclined to go elsewhere for lunch (McDonalds, etc.). The end result, which we are already seeing, is a population afflicted with obesity and early-onset diabetes in children, the costs of which must be absorbed by society.

--High sugar/fat diets in young children are one of the biggest contributers to behavior problems in school. Schools who have switched to having healthier food in their cafeterias report fewer discipline problems. Believe it or not, dealing with discipline issues costs time and money.

--Students who have a poor diet preform worse in school as compared to those who have healthy diets. They have trouble focusing, concentrating, working as team, etc. As a classroom teacher, I have seen this first hand. I will also tell you that in junior high schools across the country, November 1 is a video day--imagine trying to teach a new lesson to students when your entire class is on a Halloween candy sugar high. The sad part is that nowadays a substantial portion of students partake of the Halloween diet every day of the year.

The bottom line is that we rely on our schools to provide lunch (and often breakfast) to our children. Healthy food programs need our support now and in the future. If the schools say they need more money to do this, we should listen. And we should act.

And for those of you diligent parents that pack healthy lunches for your children at home, I say, great! But remember that your son or daughter shares a classroom, school, and community with other kids who aren't so fortunate. And if one of those kids is bouncing off the walls because they are on a greasy pizza high, it is everybody's problem.