by Pamela Sigler Taylor

Created on: July 28, 2008   Last Updated: August 17, 2008

Obesity is in our schools. It is also everywhere else in America. But, it is the wrong message to assume that it is all the schools fault. It is not.

School comprises about seven or eight hours of a child's day when it is open. It is only open about nine months out of the year. The remainder of the time the children are home or at caregivers. So then why are people blaming the schools? With parents and caregivers children are given options. They may eat food out of a well stocked refrigerator filled with nutritional choices or they might munch on cookies and drink pop. They may also choose to play outside or sit in front of the television. Choices are all around them at home. It is the family's responsibility to provide good choices while they are at home. The school's responsibilities are only within the parameter of the school day.

It is the schools responsibility to provide good choices for the children while at school. Nutritious, good choices should be plentiful in our cafeterias. Yet, even when offered, children do not want to choose those wholesome foods. Instead they would rather eat salty snacks or sugar laden treats. Many schools are now serving better foods. Yet, as I stand on cafeteria duty and watch the children eat many of the wholesome foods end up in the trash. They eat what they like. They trash the rest. Should we police that? Should parents simply pack good foods that they have taught them to eat?

Pack lunches are an option. Many families do pack their child's lunch. Many of these sacks or lunch boxes contain prepackaged foods. Parents do not always choose to take the time to cut up carrots or to even buy the veggies in a bag. Instead, there are a lot of foods with high calories that contain little nutritional value. Juice boxes and sippy type bags are everywhere in the lunchroom. We also see a lot of sugary and salty snacks. We see very few vegetables, fruits and lean meats.

We all have choices to make. Stop pointing fingers and do the right thing. The schools are trying to change what they serve but they also need to get the kids to eat! They hate seeing the food go in the trash. But, they also hate to see the pack lunches that the majority of the children bring in.

We cannot control what others do. We must begin to make changes where we can. I cannot pack the kids lunches. I do not write the menus. But I do know how to stand up for what I believe in. I do know how to serve wholesome snacks in my classroom. I do know how to vote for the people

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