COMMENTARY | Ever wonder what your kids are eating at school? Trading lunchbox items around the table may seem like nothing to worry about these days; it turns out, today's school kids are facing "competitive venues," and it has nothing to do with what their classmate may pull out of their lunch sack. Replacing yester-year's metal Scooby Doo lunch pails with eco-friendly green cloth bags and reusable water bottles may be the trend, but what's being consumed by our school children is not quite as progressive.
In an article in the Sacramento Bee, a recent study released in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine finds that in order to increase revenues, schools are offering junk food for sale on campuses around the country. From 2006 to 2010, students were easily able to buy salty or sweet foods, but healthy foods were less readily available.
I see several problems with this. First, with childhood obesity at epidemic proportions, why are we tempting children with fatty foods? Establishing healthy eating habits may be the responsibility of the home, but I don't know too many kids and teens that are able to resist salty fries, ice cream, or chicken strips. As a teacher I see all kinds of snacks and lunches brought to school - some healthy, many not. I know that not all kids are completely truthful about what they consume outside the home, but to offer junk food for sale without restriction seems equivalent to sending a kid into a candy store and tell them to just look with their eyes. Fat chance - pun intended.
Secondly, why force schools to create revenue streams in the first place? Schools are not in the business of making money; they are in the business of education. So unless the sales of Twinkies, pizza and tater tots is a finance lesson plan in disguise, shouldn't we find another income avenue? When I tried to hold a bake sale last year to raise money for my yearbook program, I had to sell my home baked cupcakes on the sidewalk off school grounds in order not to compete with food sales. And this was after school!
Take a good look at the message we're sending our youth: it's OK to get fat and unhealthy as long as we're making money. I'm sure that's not why we send our kids to school every day. Come on, America. Our kids deserve better than this. Let's supersize their brains, not their bodies.
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