We would like the Loudoun County Public School system to remove the following ingredients from all school menus; high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, added sugars, artificial preservatives, antibiotic and hormone laden meats and dairy and bleached flour. These above mentioned ingredients have been shown to increase childhood obesity, contribute to hyperactivity and behavior disorders in children, allergies and allergic reactions, asthma, digestive issues and potentially cancer.

We recognize that Loudoun County has started to make positive changes by removing blue dyes and transfats from their menu items, but there is still a tremendous amount of work to be accomplished. What our children eat is directly correlated to their performance in school.

Ideally, we should be providing our children with the best foods available, including not only those free from the ingredients listed above but sourced from local farms whenever possible.

We understand that removing these potentially toxic ingredients and chemicals from the school menu will be a huge undertaking, but we owe it to our children and our community to at least begin the process of improving the quality of foods we offer our children. The county should be purchasing from food manufacturers that can comply with our requests.

Jenny Hein 

Cynthia Thurlow