It’s no secret that school lunches are mostly unhealthy. Many of us grew up eating school lunches with menus such as pizza, corn, cookie, and whole milk. That, folks, is not healthy. Stinky jello, bloody chicken, and cardboard mashed potatoes was another one that I remember and thinking of that smell makes me want to puke. It’s no wonder that I rarely ate school lunches.

I’ve been reading “Lunch Lessons: Changing The Way We Feed Our Children” and it’s another eye-opener book for me.

Fortunately, my children are not in school yet and actually may be homeschooled so this is not currently an issue for my family personally but it could be in the future. However, I am still very concerned about the state of public schools in general and their lunch programs.

According to Lunch Lessons, “Seventy-eight percent of American school lunch programs do not meet USDA nutritional guidelines”. Now that is a big percentage. School lunch menus definitely need some major change. Reformation needs to take place for the health our kids. Not only are the school lunch programs already unhealthy, many schools allow fast food chains to come in and serve meals. Who else agrees that this is ridiculous?

Lunch Lessons focuses on the importance of healthy eating habits in children and ways you can get involved to change school lunch. Lunch lessons also has several kid friendly recipes for you to try out and include in your child’s lunch box.

What are you doing to make sure your child has a healthy lunch? Do your children eat school lunch or take their own healthy food in a lunch box?

*Also, go to Chef Ann Cooper’s Lunch Lesson’s website for more healthy school lunch sample menus and to be a part of the National School Food Challenge.