School Lunches a la Francais - It should be like this here!
This video shows the care of the schools in France to have fresh food, not processed food fed to the school children. Please watch it and compare it with what your children or their friends eat.
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France's Gourmet School Lunches
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Interestingly enough the first thing you think is this would just be too expensive, but in fact it isn't. In the video they say the average cost of these meals is $2.50. When we subsidize free lunches the U.S. Government pays $2.77 per lunch and $1.55 for breakfasts. It seems like its all a matter of intending to feed our children healthy foods, prepared in a way that keeps the food and the children healthy.
In contrast with that I visited a special school in Toledo for kids with behavior problems. I walked the hallways with the principal in the morning and he said, "It's very quiet today." I asked him why and he didn't know but was impressed with the question. No one else had asked that kind of question before.
Lunch was trucked in from too-far-of-a-distance (in my opinion) and served. It was not something I would eat and this was in 1999 before I ate organic food! The behavior problems started promptly. The two police officers who were always on staff became very busy whereas before lunch, they we bored. Fights broke out and angry yelling filled the halls. Kids spilled outside of the classroom and tears dripped down cheeks. It was like a soap opera, chick flick and carnival ride all at once. If it wasn't the corn dogs that caused it (sugar, gluten, MSG, coloring, corn, etc.), I'm sure it was the salad dressing (MSG and food coloring) on the iceberg lettuce. At the end of lunch hour, two kids came down to the principal's office to complain about their stomach ache caused by the food. The principal reached under his desk and pulled out two big boxes of candy bars and said, "Here, eat these. In the meantime, I'll send someone out to get Burger King for you." So, what can we do? The first thing you can do is: Come to Dr. Shannon's lecture on Thursday August 25th here at the center at 7:00pm. Its called Healthy Food for Healthy Kids. Bring a friend and get some guidelines and tips about what to buy, what not to buy and even how to transition your kids into eating healthier. There are also a number of groups pusing for healthier food in our schools. Maybe you've heard of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. You may think his tactics are a bit brash, but he is creating a pretty big impact. You can sign his petition to help fix school lunches here. It's almost up to 3/4 of a million signatures. There are also dozens of other organizations moving in the real food direction like Farm to School and The Lunch Box. Yours in Health, Dr. Schmidt | 
