New York Coalition for Healthy School Lunches

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Take Action Now
Resources and information on how to create change in your school

Advocate for National School Food reform:

Learn about national legislation and contact your elected officials at http://www.schoolfoods.org

Scary Facts that result from GOBBLIN up too many TREATS:

50% of our kids (ages 2 – 15) already have fatty streaks in their arteries – the beginning stages of heart disease
33% of all US children, and 40 – 53% of African American and Latino children, will get type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives, resulting in blindness, amputations, kidney dialysis, heart disease, suffering, and early death.
35% of cancer deaths are caused by diet. 33% are caused by tobacco. We have the answers for preventing 68% of cancer deaths.
66% of US adults are overweight (33%) or obese (33%)
19% of US children are overweight or obese, and less than 2% eat according to the US Dietary Guidelines

How to Create Change in Schools:

Speak out. If you don’t say anything, if you don’t act, then no one will have a reason to change.
Join your Local Wellness Policy Committee. Each school district must have a local wellness policy in place and this policy should not be just a piece of paper collecting dust. Get involved to be sure the policy is being implemented, and updated each year to make it more meaningful.
It’s not just about lunches, it’s the whole school food environment: breakfast, lunch, cafeteria snack line, vending machines, fund raising (sales of candy bars, bake sales, etc.), the use of foods as rewards in the classroom, class parties, and school stores.
Make all foods healthy choices. Remember healthy can be delicious.
1. a. Eliminate unhealthy refined and processed foods
2. b. Offer meatless (plant-based) entrees as a healthy, no cholesterol, low-saturated fat, high fiber option.
3. c. Get a salad bar. Offer dark green vegetables, bean, lentil, and vegetable based soups, bean, vegetable and whole grain salads, and whole grain breads. Use homemade healthy salad dressings, not the manufactured kinds with many artificial ingredients.
4. d. Offer plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Present them beautifully.
Advocate for increased funding for school meals. The average cost of a school lunch is 90 cents just for the food itself (not the labor or overhead), and 20 cents of that 90 cents is in the form of commodity foods (foods supplied to schools for free compliments of our federal tax dollars – with the top four in NYS being ground beef, chicken, cheese, and white potato products – most of which end of up deep fried.) The entrees very much depend on the “free” commodity foods, and five components must be offered: milk, entrée, grain, and two from the fruits and vegetables group.
Become friends with your School Food Service Director. Let them know you’d like to help and you know they have a nearly impossible job based on their extremely limited funding and regulations.
Implement Wellness Wakeup in your school. Wellness Wakeup is a program that delivers nutrition education via sound bites read over the morning announcements in school, with two versions: k-5 and 6-12 that can be printed out and sent home with younger children – and includes a healthy recipe on the back.
Work to implement Farm to School Programs, where local produce is brought into schools to benefit children's health and local farms.
Start a school garden. If there is no land available, try container gardening, and if that is not possible, try sprouting.
Implement healthy food curriculums, such as "Food is Elementary" or if in NYC, "School Food Plus".
Work with Home and Careers teachers to teach healthy recipes in the cooking section of classes.
Work with NYCHSF to bring speakers to your school to educate students, parents, and staff. Contact information is below.