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I know this is a bad time to bring up peanut butter, but the terrible actions of American Peanut Corporation reflect one incident of an unmonitored company gone bad. Peanut butter is a great food and most kids like it. One platform of the school lunch program is that it use USDA surplus commodities. Peanut butter has already been made available under this program, and it should be relatively easy to have it distributed in individual serving size packets (2-2.5 ounces--think generic Jif-To-Go).
Children would also like soynuts (dry roasted soybeans). These are available whole or in halves (halves are good if you worry about choking). They are relatively expensive in the gourmet section of your grocery store, but you can get them in bulk for less than 20 cents a serving. The USDA should be able to include these in the program because they are made of U.S. soybeans. Soynuts can easily be packaged in individual serving size packets.
What is needed are vegan offerings that kids like, that have a very high protein counts, that are comparatively inexpensive, that have long shelf lives, and that are easy to package and distribute. Peanut butter and soynuts are two of these offerings.
Suggested by C W on 03/17/2009 @ 02:43PM PT
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I agree with the vegan lunch option for our children as suggested by most of the people here. Vegan diet is excellent for health and also a great help to the environment because most of the greenhouse gas emissions are generated from the livestock industry. Our school system should have a positive influence on our children to stay on a healthy and envionmentally friendly diet.
Suggested by Yichuan Pan on 03/17/2009 @ 01:19PM PT
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There is a wonderful plan already in effect instituted by the mayor of Cincinatti.Here is the link to their website:
http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cmgr/pages/-17659-/
Look to download the Green Cincinatti plan on the right side of their website.
Overall it is a plan to reduce global warming -but surpise they found out the easiest way is with your fork.By going vegan you not only have a healthy planet but a healthy body .
So look in their table of contents for great ideas how they are implementing this in their school cafeterias
Suggested by judith huczko-cohen on 03/17/2009 @ 01:17PM PT
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I just happened to have this page open, when I found this post on another blog. It relates.
http://thefriendlyveg.blogspot.com/2009/01/nyt-obamas-new-chef-skewers-school.html
Suggested by Sue G. on 03/14/2009 @ 04:36PM PT
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Chef Ann Cooper has lots of great info in her book Lunch Lessons (with Lisa Holmes) and on her Web site at www.lunchlessons.org. The Berkeley Unified School District could serve as a model for other programs across the country. The key to success is in educating not only children but their parents as well.
Suggested by Amy Hemmert on 01/27/2009 @ 09:23PM PT
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Sugar is in everything ! Sugar is poison to our health. If that alone was taken out of school lunches, we'd see healthier and brighter students.
Jean Keller
Suggested by Jean Keller on 01/27/2009 @ 12:53PM PT
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About fifteen years ago for snacks for our daughter in elementary school, we started sending sliced carrots, steamed broccoli, sliced apples and so on instead of cakes or pies. Soon other parents did the same; the teachers began to take note and now even school lunches are more healthier. It is up to the parents to make sure schools provide healthy foods at their cafeteriaa.
Suggested by Otto VonAuchvetter on 01/24/2009 @ 06:34PM PT
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Vegan foods are cleaner, safer, often cheaper, and really better tasting than the mainstream offerings of sludge, grease, fat, salt, sugar, that wreck the health of so many and create so much illness and obesity. Offering one or more vegan options will not impact those who wish to continue eating as they do; and it will offer those who are curious, or positive about changing their health and the health of the planet, something. Great idea!
Suggested by Jamaka Petzak on 01/24/2009 @ 04:03PM PT
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I LOVE THIS SUGGESTION! WE NEED TO DO THIS!!!
Suggested by Amanda Cosgrove on 01/20/2009 @ 11:52AM PT
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People everywhere are doing what they can to help the environment, but people don't think about how our over-consumption of animal products affect it. According to a study by the UN, factory farming contributes more to greenhouse gases than all SUV's, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined. It's also shown that adopting a vegan diet is more effective in reducing individual carbon emissions than switching to a hybrid car. I think this is a great way, not only to stop animal cruelty and to help the obesity epidemic, but to do our part in stopping global warming in every way we can.
Suggested by morgan guider on 01/20/2009 @ 11:11AM PT
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