Healthy Snacking At School

A Healthy Education

"Serving healthy snacks to children is important to providing good nutrition, supporting lifelong healthy eating habits, and helping to prevent costly and potentially-disabling diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity."[1]  Teaching kids to snack healthy is equally as important as teaching them to read and write.  Helping children find tasty and nutritious snacks at a young age will help them to live a better quality of life in the years to come.  KIND bars balance taste with nutrition, and offer a wholesome snack perfect for any lunch box.

Cafeteria food has been under the magnifying glass in recent years, as studies show "junk food" being served at schools around the country.  Federal regulations enforce regulations on calories and nutrients, and the USDA provides 20 percent of school lunch food.  The problem lies not in the lack of federal enforcement in the cafeteria, but in the choices children are making in the lunch line.  Children are opting for cheeseburgers and pizza rather that more nutritious alternatives nationwide.  When presented with the options, children are simply not making healthy decisions.  The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in over 100,000 public and non-profit private schools and residential child care institutions nationwide.  In 1998, the program was expanded to cover the cost of snacks at many afterschool programs.  Healthy snacking habits are best learned at a young age, and what better place to learn them than school?

 

Sources

1. Wootan, Margo PhD. Healthy School Snacks. The Center For Science in the Public Interest.