School Lunches: Healthy or Popular?

As parents, many of us know about the constant struggle to provide healthy food for our kids and get them to eat it.  We struggle to plan meals, balance our budgets, avoid sodas and expand our children's choices. (I remember a long period when my children ate macaroni and cheese and peas for every meal.  And I'm not sure they always ate enough peas!)  Parents do our best, but it isn't always easy.  All of this becomes even harder when there isn't enough money to buy healthy food.  In families experiencing poverty, 32.8% experience food insecurity.

How our children eat impacts how well they can learn in school.  A hungry child can be tired, have difficulty concentrating, and have trouble remembering things.  Long term hunger can lead to delays in the mind's development -- leading to lower standardized test scores.  It is crucial that our children have enough food -- and healthy food -- to get the most they can out of their schooling.

The federal government takes these issues seriously.  The Obama administration changed the regulations for school lunches, mandating more whole grains, more fruits and vegetables, less sodium, and nonfat milk.  The regulations put in place by the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act in 2010 set high standards for nutritious food for our kids.

So, what can be wrong with these regulations?  All I have to think about is that seemingly endless period of time when my kids would only eat macaroni and cheese.  I can't imagine them stretching their palates to accept whole grain pasta in that macaroni and cheese.  What happens if the school offers healthy food -- but the kids won't eat it?

This is the concern raised by the School Nutrition Association.  In 2014, Lyman Graham, SNA's Director, pointed out that "with sky-high produce costs, we simply cannot afford to feed our trash cans."  The new administration is sympathetic to those concerns.  Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has halted the phasing in of some of the new regulations.  Some school districts, including C. W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville and Manlius Pebble Hill School in Syracuse, have already opted out of the federal regulations, giving up on federal funding for free and reduced meals, because students have resisted the healthier food.

What do you do when your kids want pizza or soda?  How do you balance the demands of making sure your children eat and making sure they eat well?  Do your kids complain about or praise school lunches?  And what do you think the school should serve?  Whole grain healthy food -- with hopes kids will get used to it?  Or not as healthy food, which we know they will eat?  Please post your opinions below.