Healthy School Menu Guidelines

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School Food

School meals have often been criticized for years. Too many days with fast, convenience foods like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, hamburgers, corn dogs, pizza, french fries, tater tots, chips, cookies, and cake on the menu. While many of today’s school food manufacturers make some convenience foods that have been modified to be lower in fat, salt, and sugar, the words on the menus remain the same.

Nutrition Education Challenge

With “pizza”, “chicken nuggets”, and “hot dogs” still listed on the menu, it’s difficult to be confident that these foods are better for our children. It also creates a challenge when teaching young students which foods are ”healthy” and which foods are “less healthy”. The hot dog continues to be a commonly desired and eaten food, while hope is held out that it’s the “healthy” kind.

Healthy Diets

Even though these foods can be lower in fat, salt, and sugar --- they are still highly processed, heat-and-serve, convenience foods. A healthy diet needs to include much more fresh, wholesome, scratch-cooked, nutrient-rich food --- and much less convenience food.

Our Children

Students are in school almost half their daily lives. A typical school serves two meals each day. So, if students eat both meals, the majority of their nutritional intake comes from school food during the school year. If averaged out over an entire year, about one-third of a student’s nutritional intake comes from school food. 

That’s alot of meals. It’s clear that schools meals are a critical part of the diet of today’s children. So as much as possible, meals at school need to consist of healthy food, as well as teach a healthy message for the rest of their lives.

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