Nutrition education can ease transition to healthier school lunches

As LA Unified School District works hard to revamp its school lunch menu with healthier fare, it must face a hard-to-swallow fact: Just because the new dishes the district is serving up are innovative, culturally diverse, and more “gourmet” than ever before, does not mean kids will necessarily like them at first.

With 700,000 students, LAUSD is the second largest school district in the nation and is leading the way when it comes to improving the nutritional value of school meals. In fact, according to an article published yesterday in The Daily Breeze, LAUSD is spending $20 million on fruits and vegetables this year, up from just $2 million in 2006.

But it’s unclear whether all those extra fruits and vegetables will be accepted by students, or if they’ll end up in the trash. In The Daily Breeze article, LAUSD Chef Mark Baida conceded, “Not everyone is going to be happy… It’s going to take at least 10 years for kids to get used to it.”

ShapeUp students building peanut butter banana wraps

Here at SOSMentor, we believe that nutrition education should be a key component in the transition to healthier school meals. Children who are educated about good nutrition and motivated to desire healthy food will be much more open to trying and accepting new items on the lunch menu.

We’ve seen firsthand in our programs that when students begin to understand the connection between the food they eat and their health, their eating habits often change. We strive to reach more students with our programs, so that we can support LAUSD’s efforts to improve student health and continue to make progress in the classroom and in the cafeteria year after year.  

Kids, Meet Your Mentors!

The children at Gledhill Elementary School huddle around their new high school mentors in small groups, listening intently to their advice about healthy eating and exercise. The mentors are from Monroe High School and they have completed 5 weeks of nutrition education and physical activity workshops in the ShapeUp program. After being mentored by adult volunteers from the community, now it’s their turn to be positive role models for the elementary school students.

One of the high school students talks to his group of younger kids about the importance of drinking water, and another asks her group, “What are the three components of cardio respiration?” An eager young boy shoots his hand in the air and thinks through the answer, while his classmates help him fill in the missing information. “There we go, the heart, lungs, and the blood vessels,” the mentor reaffirms.

In the second half of the ShapeUp program, the children at Gledhill Elementary School will receive personal attention and encouragement from their Monroe High mentors, which helps them soak up information that many of them are learning for the very first time. The high school students are placed in a leadership position that boosts their self-esteem and allows them to make an impact on the younger generation. It’s a rewarding relationship that helps ensure the students are learning and applying the knowledge they need to stay healthy.