What is a parent to do? After all the hemming and hawing about the inadequate and unhealthy diet of most school age children and the role that school lunch plays in the equation; at the end of the day it is the parent that ultimately has to shoulder the burden if they want their children to eat a nutritious lunch. I know of what I speak. I would arise a half hour earlier every day to pack a wholesome lunch for my youngest sister just so she would not have to consume the milk, mashed potatoes, and beef tips over white pasta that her school offered.

While I do not resent packing my sister a lunch (I viewed it as an investment in her long term health and an expression of love), I did resent the school system that forced me to wake up early if I wanted my sister to have a decent lunch. Many parents feel the same way. Not only do they feel mild annoyance; the lack of veg*n options in school cafeterias is seen as a form of discrimination. Two of the most prominent crusaders in the healthy school lunch cause are PCRM (Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine) and Project Healthy Beginnings.

PCRM desires to see low fat, hot vegan entrées served at every school cafeteria. They want schools to implement menus based on veggies, fruits, and whole grains instead of cheese and white flour products. PCRM also has an interesting take on the great milk debate. They see a school's failure to provide calcium fortified juices/plant milks as a form of discrimination against minority students. This is due to the fact that many African-American and Latino individuals are lactose intolerant. PCRM is one of the most active voices in the campaign to include soy milk in the National School Lunch Program. PCRM's doctors and dietitians constantly lobby congress, spearhead campaigns, and generate press releases all aimed at raising the public's awareness of the necessity of making balanced vegan lunches available to all school children.

Project Healthy Beginnings is a group that has lobbied tirelessly to make it mandatory for California public school cafeterias to provide a vegan meal option every day and implement nutritional education that would highlight the benefits of a plant based diet. It was started by a group of vegan and vegetarian mothers who were dismayed that their children would never be able to eat the school lunch. Concerns about the nutritional quality of the school lunch and its role in disease prevention in all children were also a motivating factor in the formation of the group. They are now sponsoring such a resolution in the California legislature with the help of Joe Nation, an assemblyman from Marion County.

It is heartening to note that a similar resolution passed unanimously in the Hawaii State legislature. It is now considered imperative for Hawaiian public school cafeterias to provide balanced vegetarian lunch options for students.

With the number of vegan/vegetarian children growing it is imperative that activists like PCRM, Project Healthy Beginnings, and others continue to press the federal government to overhaul it's outdated school lunch program. Omnivore children would benefit drastically from a change in the emphasis of certain foods as well. Childhood diabetes, obesity, and heart health are all issues that should not be shrugged off by the Federal Government.

Until then, you can visit www.healthyschoollunches.org to read about how parents and students can effect change in their local school cafeterias, courtesy of the folks at PCRM. If the change is a little slow in happening there are always phony baloney slices, PB&J, and baby carrots to pack. And don't forget the little cartons of soy milk. Better set the alarm early again…z z z z