I know crap isn't a polite word but how else do you describe the stuff that is marketed and sold to kids as food? I'm not just referring to what they see in the supermarkets and on TV but also in school. You would expect schools to offer kids the most nutritious, healthy food choices possible, right?
No, instead they're being offered high-fat, low-nutrition foods that are helping to fuel an obesity epidemic amongst kids. And, to top it off, the "snacks" offered in school vending machines are primarily junk foods and soda that are high in fat, calories and sugar. Can you imagine trying to sit through an entire day of multiplication, division and cursive on a diet of candy bars and sodas (and your PE class has probably been canceled due to budget cuts)?
Some sobering statistics:
However, parents have had enough. They know their kids deserve and need nutritious, fresh ingredients that encourage healthy growth and fuel their minds. This means, out with the soda, junk foods and meals that are laden in salt, fats and sugars; in with more fresh produce and less salt, fat and sugar.
To achieve such not-so-lofty goals, moms and dads are supporting the efforts of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a national nutrition advocacy organization that has been fighting for years to remove soda and junk food from all federally-funded nutrition programs. If this sounds outlandish, wait. Don't be too cynical of our politicians yet because here in California, the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, led successful efforts to ban soda and junk foods from public schools here.
The moms are part of the Healthy School Lunch Brigade, inspired by the film Food, Inc., that will be storming Capitol Hill tomorrow to demand healthy school lunches as part of the massive Child Nutrition Reauthorization that determines all federally-funded nutrition programs for the next five years. CSPI and Moms Rising are sending moms from across the country to join soap opera star Deidre Hall and her teenage son, along with Desperate Housewives star Andrea Bowen and her mom. These moms will be meeting with Congressional and White House staff to to tell them our schools need better nutrition standards now. And, they'll be lugging binders with signatures from over 50,000 concerned citizens nationwide.
If you can't be there in person, join the virtual Brigade. Whether or not you're a mom, tell Congress that you're concerned about our children's health and demand that soda and junk food be banned from all federally-funded nutrition programs. Let's cut the crap and bring healthy, real food back to schools today!
Sarah's Social Action Snapshot originally appeared on Takepart.com