Concern #1: The school food program lacks the money and/or resources to make any changes, to get rid of junk food sales, to incorporate fresh fruit, to buy more equipment, etc.

• Response: There are grants available from Chef Ann Foundation, the USDA, and other non-governmental organizations that can help fund healthier school food, like the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Grant and salad bar equipment grants.

• Response: Junk food sales do more harm than good. Encouraging kids to develop poor eating habits has negative effects on academic performance, physical health, and development. School stores, vending machines, and group/athletic fundraisers can switch to healthy snacks, or they can sell fun items that promote school spirit, like t-shirts, pom-poms, and wristbands.

Concern #2: Kids don’t want to eat healthier food, so participation will go down and food waste will go up if we incorporate healthy food into the menus.

• Response: I’ve read some studies that show that while there is usually an initial drop in participation following a change in menus, it goes up again over time when the quality of the food improves.

Concern #3: Schools can’t affect a child’s eating habits if they’re eating junk outside of school.

• Response: School is the place where children learn not just math and reading, but also social norms and eating habits, whether they are healthy or unhealthy. If kids are served pizza every day, they’ll learn that it’s okay to eat pizza every day. When children eat healthy food at school, they bring their knowledge home and into their future food choices.

Concern #4: The school food facilities aren’t equipped to handle changes.

• Response: Some changes don’t require renovation. Things like placing healthier options in front of less-healthy options on the lunch line, or purchasing healthier options of the same foods, are easy to implement. For example, school food staff can place unflavored milk within hand’s reach and chocolate milk further away (or better yet, get rid of chocolate milk altogether).

Concern #5: Salad bars or breakfast-in-the-classroom (BIC) programs aren’t sanitary.

• Response: Thousands of schools across the country have shown that even kindergarteners can learn basic salad bar hygiene practices, such as only handling the food with tongs, with some initial guidance from school food staff and volunteers. Sneeze guards have also proven effective in ensuring sanitation.

• Response: Sanitation practices can be built into BIC, and students can help by removing the trash or wiping down their desks after eating.

Concern #6: Nutrition education activities, school gardens, and BIC take away from learning time.

• Response: Nutrition education, school gardens, and BIC can be incorporated into math, science, social science, language-arts lesson plans and the core curriculum. Many school superintendents have issued memos declaring that breakfast in the classroom can be incorporated into instructional time.

Concern #7: Everyone expects school food to be bad. Parents who are concerned should pack lunches for their kids instead.

• Response: At its heart, school lunch is a social justice issue. Not all families have the ability to pack a healthy school lunch every day for their children. In addition, one-third of our country’s children are overweight or obese, and another third face food insecurity. By providing a nutritious lunch for all students, you can help with health issues and food insecurity for many students.