EDITORIAL: Go for school nutrition
Despite the U.S. House of Representatives’ stall in taking up a school nutrition funding bill, we are nevertheless heartened that many schools in Central Texas have already taken up this cause and are fighting childhood obesity through healthier meals, with or without additional federal money.
The U.S. Senate on Aug. 5 approved the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which sets new and stricter nutritional standards and would allocate $4.5 billion during the next 10 years for child nutrition programs, which include healthier school meals.
The House version of that bill — which would allocate $7.5 billion for nutrition programs over that same time period — doesn’t seem to be making its way through the great halls of Congress. Although there was talk of scheduling a vote late last week, it never panned out.
We hope the House acts soon in favor of promoting healthy nutrition. As a nation, we should be fighting to trim children’s waistlines and institute a healthier standard of living for the next generation.
Many local schools are joining in on this fight and have increased the number of hours that children participate in physical education per week.
This year, Midway ISD is offering new lean and healthier lunches and color-coded elementary school menus. These brochures tout vegetables and salads (marked green for “go” foods); warn to go “slow” (marked yellow) with foods like turkey hot dogs; and say “whoa” (or red for not too many) to foods like meatloaf and chicken nachos.
“Locally, it’s something that people care about: eating healthier,” Midway spokeswoman Traci Marlin said. “And we want to ensure that what is going into our kids’ mouths is top-notch.”
Waco’s Brook Avenue Elementary offers a program to introduce students to new fruits and vegetables, and Waco school food provider Sodexo Inc. occasionally offers special salad bars at campuses with healthy fruits and veggies starting with letters A through Z to entice tots to give the leaner eats a try.
We think that’s all in good taste.
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