Healthy Chic: School Lunches

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by Amy Cates, Associate Editor

School lunch can be good, bad, or somewhere in between. Some schools will have a high quality program with tasty, attractive food and others will not. However, federal regulations assure that all schools at least have nutritious foods.

The National School Lunch Program is designed to provide a nutritious lunch at a reasonable cost to school age children. A nutritious lunch is one that provides one third of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for children.

School lunches can be a positive thing because children can be exposed to new foods. The more foods your child learns to handle, the more comfortable they will be in the world. He or she won't always be home with your good cooking.
Schools also provide other foods at lunchtime that is not part of the daily school lunch, for example, a la cart items. Here students can buy high calorie, low nutrition foods such as fried foods, desserts and sugary beverages.

Knowing what your child is spending their lunch money on will help you to know what kind of nutrition your he or she is receiving.

Home packed meals, on the average, are less nutritious and have less variety. If you have finicky eaters this may be a problem.

It is important to talk with your child to get an idea of what he or she has been eating at school, what their friends do for lunch and what your child wants to eat for lunch. If you have been talking about it, he or she will know what the issues and concerns are and they will be able to make up their own minds.