I've always felt that one of the biggest mistakes was the invention of the school lunch. When I went through school my parents made a bag lunch for me and was far more nutritious and tasty than what a cafeteria throws together.

While I would agree that healthier options should be included in the school lunch, rather than focus on accommodating the handful of Vegans, a better focus would be the removal of junk food and soda machines from school property. Schools get paid by Coke, etc.. for them to park their soda machines where children can get hooked at an early age.

Oh yeah, and I really don't care to hear how a 14 year old child is going to solve my problems with her extensive knowledge of the health foods industry.

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In these days of decreased school funding, do I want schools to offer vegan lunches or to hire more teachers? Nobody is required to buy food at school. Students with special food requirements should bring their own food from home. If school districts have the resources to experiment with their food options that's fine, but it shouldn't be a requirement.

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LinC, BernieB, please. "No one is forced to buy school lunch"? What about all the kids for whom school lunch is the only food they'll get in a day? And really, I was packing my own lunch in 5th grade, my parents never had time to make me lunch, and I knew many people who ate utter crap because they didn't have any idea about what should go in their lunch.

School lunches are provided by the lowest bidder, I believe that the current rate is $0.75 per child. It's no wonder that kids are being served crap and would rather eat from a vending machine.

Providing vegetarian options, heck, any fruit, is not only about accommodating a few students. This is about teaching about healthy eating for a lifetime!

I don't know if she'll be successful, but I sure hope someone *tries*. Children deserve at least that.

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While I doubt that Miss Williams' agenda will go through at this time, I'm glad to see that she's raising awareness for increasing the food choices in cafeterias to include those on restricted diets. I'd be willing to bet that it's just a matter of time before this does become mandatory.

This sort of discussion is just the thing that North Americans need to have to become educated about things like vegetarian/vegan diets, Diabetes, lactose intolerance and a variety of religious dietary restrictions. It can't hurt to develop a better understanding of the various reasons that cause people to eat restricted diets.

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Here are the healthy lunch box ideas :
http://kidslunchbox.blogspot.com/

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