The fight goes on to get kids eating more healthily, which is good for them, their future health and welfare and is ultimately a money saver on health costs.
This piece by Mark Bittman from The New York Times addresses the fight over ensuring school children get healthy school lunches and speaks to the heart of the problem of child and adult obesity that besets populations worldwide.
British cooking guru and author Jamie Oliver comes up against the same difficulties–and fights on.
…We are in a public health crisis largely brought about by the consumption of sugar and hyperprocessed carbs. It’s fine to scream “don’t eat as many of them,” but that message can’t possibly match the power of the billions of dollars spent annually by an industry ($400 million a year on marketing soda to teens alone) encouraging us to consume more. Government’s proper role is to protect us, and this would be a fine way to start.
…Healthy food initiatives threaten profits and are therefore fought or deflected or co-opted at all costs by the producers of hyperprocessed food. This is true even when those costs include producing an increasingly sick population — and a disproportionate number of defenseless children — and an ever-growing portion of our budget spent on paying for diet-related illness. Big Food will continue to pursue profit at the expense of health as long as we let them.
At Jean Jaures College in our local town, a glance at the lunch menu seems to confirm that an effort is being made–though the day we visited we were not invited to sample for ourselves!
Robin Ellis 
yes that’s a thing in Holland too. There is a campaign which will make football canteens more healthier. A sport tv host Wilfred Genee travels to lot’s of football clubs to realise a healthy choice in food. He and his wife wrote a cookbook too, which is called:” vullen of voeden”(= fill or feed). He recently met Jamie Oliver….. so they are soulmates!
Love Caroline
The United States public school cafeterias are HORRIFIC. I know, I’m a retired teacher. I saw what children were given each day, sugar, salt and fat!! It’s been a source of shamefull behavior and has been a major contributor to the obesity crisis here in America. The Obamas have made things a bit better, but we have a long way to go.
In my line of work, I’ve noticed (sadly) the change in waistlines of students and teenagers over the years…and have been amazed at all the junk food SOME kids consume at snack time–and especially on field trips, for some reason! But then the Healthy Kids Initiative came along, providing free fruit twice a week, more coverage in the media, etc, and I’ve seen at least a better “awareness” on the kids’ part. But it’s still frustrating: on one hand, we frown on cupcakes on kids’ birthdays (a bit of a bummer for them), while we still offer pizza & soda EVERY SINGLE DAY in the lunchroom! I think the latter is a lot worse….! And even some years ago when we had the BEST cook, making these delicious homemade meals (which ran the lunch program over-budget, ironically!), all the kids would want to eat was McNuggets, factory-shaped riblets (of unknown origin), and French-fried potatoes shaped into smiley faces! Now THAT’S marketing!! Perhaps if we cut and shaped more of our fruits & vegetables into dinosaur shapes & rocket ships—?
I have had to cut out everything that I like eating I am now a vegetarian. Also have noticed lost weight coz I am lactose intolerant suffer from IBS and have a fatty Liver You have to work around It. It isn’t easy but I am getting there.