Healthy School Meals Healthy Kids

Ensuring that the food provided to children in schools is consistent with current dietary recommendations is an important national focus. Various laws and regulations govern the operation of school meal programs. In 1995, Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements were put in place to ensure that all meals offered would be high in nutritional quality. School Meals reviews and provides recommendations to update the nutrition standard and the meal requirements for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs. The recommendations reflect new developments in nutrition science, increase the availability of key food groups in the school meal programs, and allow these programs to better meet the nutritional needs of children, foster healthy eating habits, and safeguard children's health. School Meals sets standards for menu planning that focus on food groups, calories, saturated fat, and sodium and that incorporate Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Reference Intakes. This book will be used as a guide for school food authorities, food producers, policy leaders, state/local governments, and parents.

"Team Nutrition USDA; Let's Move!"--Cover.

There's a battle going on in school lunchrooms around the country...and it's a battle our children can't afford for us to lose. The average kid will eat 4,000 school lunches between kindergarten and twelfth grade. But what exactly are kids eating in school lunchrooms around the country? Many parents don't quite know what their children are eating-or where it came from. As award-winning filmmaker and nutritionist Amy Kalafa discovered in researching her documentary film Two Angry Moms: Fighting for the Health of America's Children, these days it's pretty rare to find a piece of fresh fruit in your average school lunchroom amid all the chips, french fries, Pop-Tarts, chicken nuggets, and soda that's being served. But what, if anything, can parents do about it? Written in response to the onslaught of requests she received from parents who saw her film and asked, "If I want to attempt to change the food culture in my kid's school, how on earth should I get started?!" this empowering book arms parents with the specific information and tools they need to get unhealthy-even dangerous-food out of their children's school cafeteria and to hold their schools and local and national governments accountable for ensuring that their growing children are served healthy meals at school. In Lunch Wars, Kalafa explains all the complicated issues surrounding school food; how to work with your school's "Wellness Policy"; the basics of self- operated vs. outsourced cafeterias; how to get funding for a school garden, and much more. Lunch Wars also features the inspiring stories of parents around the country who have fought for better school food and have won, as well as details Amy's quest to spark a revolution in her own school district. For the future health and well-being of our children, the time has come for a school food revolution.

Ensuring that the food provided to children in schools is consistent with current dietary recommendations is an important national focus. Various laws and regulations govern the operation of school meal programs. In 1995, Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements were put in place to ensure that all meals offered would be high in nutritional quality. School Meals reviews and provides recommendations to update the nutrition standard and the meal requirements for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs. The recommendations reflect new developments in nutrition science, increase the availability of key food groups in the school meal programs, and allow these programs to better meet the nutritional needs of children, foster healthy eating habits, and safeguard children's health. School Meals sets standards for menu planning that focus on food groups, calories, saturated fat, and sodium and that incorporate Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Reference Intakes. This book will be used as a guide for school food authorities, food producers, policy leaders, state/local governments, and parents.

Exciting Whole-Food Lunches You’ll Be Proud to Pack and That Kids Will Love to Eat! *60 Recipes and 60 Photographs Plus a Bonus Chapter of Homemade Healthy Staples!* Pack your child a healthy, tasty lunch the easy way! Each lunchbox focuses on just one nutrient-dense homemade component that can be prepped ahead of time for easy grab-and-go options on busy days. Prep a big batch of Carnival Copycat Corn Dogs and stick them in the freezer— they’ll defrost just in time for lunch. Make The Best Chinese Takeout Copycat for dinner one night and you can pack the leftovers in the kids’ thermoses later that week. And what could be easier than letting your child assemble their own lunch with a chapter full of healthy Lunchables ® copycats? From Pizza Lunchables ® Copycat featuring whole-food pizza crust and customizable toppings, to Easy Homemade Cracker Stackers Lunchables ® Copycat, you’ll find tons of ideas to make lunchbox prep fun, nourishing, and practical. Renee Kohley, author of Nourished Beginnings Baby Food, has compiled this delicious, allergen-friendly collection of gluten-free lunches to make sure every child has the energy they need to power through the busy school day. Fill a lunchbox with no-fuss sides like seeds, crackers, and fresh fruits with a single from-scratch item for a balanced meal that your kids will be excited to eat. With so many great choices, you’ll never have to wonder what you should pack for lunch again. *All recipes are gluten-free and allergen-friendly!*

In Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat, historian A. R. Ruis explores the origins of American school meal initiatives to explain why it was (and, to some extent, has continued to be) so difficult to establish meal programs that satisfy the often competing interests of children, parents, schools, health authorities, politicians, and the food industry. Through careful studies of several key contexts and detailed analysis of the policies and politics that governed the creation of school meal programs, Ruis demonstrates how the early history of school meal program development helps us understand contemporary debates over changes to school lunch policies.

DIVThe 150+ complete lunchbox recipes in this book are adorable and inspiring, and just as much a joy to make as they are to eat! /div