Apparently they will get junk food at school, according to a new study by the United States Government Accounting Office.  Many schools have exclusive contracts with soft drink companies, and 9 out of 10 middle schools offer “competitive foods” in vending machines.  Maybe this isn’t such a big deal---in fact, I remember my own mother packing my lunch for many years with healthy food that I would then trade off for something more tasty.  At least I was learning the fine art of bartering in the process, and some other kid was getting healthy food.  In the social sense, it all worked out for the best I suppose.  But how do we teach kids to choose healthy foods if there is no real choice?  Or, what if they will be the dork eating an apple while all their friends eat chips?  There is no good answer for everyone, but understanding the trends and economics involved with school food supply is a good start.

Teaching kids to make good choices is tough task.  From drugs to sex and worse, it seems that we parents have our work cut out for us.  It seems that we should just be grateful if our kids are on the right track in life, but how do we teach them habits to optimize their health?  Understanding the statistics of what they see at schools is a very good idea, and also making sure that we know what foods are served in our kids’ own schools can help tremendously.  This article can give parents a place to start asking questions.  For instance, how many of us had vending machines in our schools?  I certainly didn’t.  If you were hungry, you were out of luck until you got home, so you learned to make sure you had snacks along which Mom had a hand in choosing.  I saw a woman the other day in a doctor’s office tell her six year old son that he had eaten enough snacks that day, so he really didn’t need a candy from a vending machine.  Many of the other patients looked at her in amazement, but somehow I respected her stance that dinner was coming, and she was going to influence the choice.  We have a tough job as parents, and it gets tougher all the time.  Perhaps knowing the statistics will help us in our quest to raise healthy, happy kids.