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Friday, August 8, 2008
Will collards and okra fly on school lunch menus?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I went to meet-and-greet at my twins’ elementary school yesterday, and got a look at the lunch menu for the next two weeks.
Along with the usual suspects — teriyaki chicken nuggets with rice and a breadstick, fish sticks with macaroni, side salads and fruit cups — were a few surprising newcomers.
Collard greens. Sweet potatoes. Baked, breaded okra. Tomato and zucchini casserole. Although school nutrition programs aren’t required yet to match menus to federal dietary guidelines that were revamped in 2005, more are starting to do so, including Cobb County schools, where my children are enrolled. I’m noticing more of the heavy-duty vegetables on some other districts’ menus, too.
The dietary guidelines call for more dark green, leafy vegetables like collards, orange ones like sweet potatoes and carrots, and legumes. I’m seeing beans in many forms on school menus, from the red beans and rice served in Gwinnett to the seasoned black-eyed peas on Cobb high school menus.
(Other metro district links: DeKalb breakfast and lunch menus; Clayton menus; city of Atlanta.)
But serving the vegetables is only part of the struggle. Getting kids to eat them is the other.
If your children buy a school lunch, do they usually choose and eat the vegetables served? As schools move away from Tater Tots and iceberg lettuce to vegetables with a greater nutritional punch, do you think your children will embrace collards, okra and sweet potato pancakes? Are these foods that they eat at home? If you’re a teacher or lunchroom worker, how do you think students will react?
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