Edclicking Keyword Cloud
By Dr. Harry Tennant
Thursday, November 17, 2011 Trash In, Trash Out? Would You Like A Pizza With That Vegetable? This country is so near-sighted. There are plenty of examples...but one that troubles me most is school nutrition. Two-thirds of young people get the majority of their calories from school food, CNN reports. Many in the other-third eat this food too. Educators know well--->it is the only "nutritional" food many of their students eat. Nonetheless, recent legislation in Washington to improve the nutritional quality of food served in schools is facing great opposition. Why? Money. (vested interests) French fries, pizza, and other low-cost (less healthy) alternatives seem to be surviving efforts to replace them with fresh fruit, vegetables, and grains. Consider that our military spending has more than doubled since 9/11, to over $750 billion a year. Improving school nutrition for 21 million students would cost one billion a year. What if our country could save over a billion dollars a year in future medical costs by investing in the nutritional training/experience of young people during their most impressionable years? What if we could better educate young people by feeding them a higher quality fuel for learning, thereby increasing our nation's productivity for decades to come? We can! Instead, Washington is leaning toward continuing to fuel our most needy students with the equivalent of 75-octane fuel. Those students are learning habits for a lifetime! Sputter, sputter. Today's update of this long-running story is embedded below.
Posted at 10:35 AM Keywords: EdClick , Child Nutrition , Parent Involvement , School Lunches 0 Comments |