It’s National School Lunch Week, and many articles I’ve read in the news deserve a nod in my newly instated link-round up “Around the Lunch Table“. I’ll be posting links to stories across the web which deal with all aspects of healthy lunches – politics, how-to tips, recipes and more.

While packing a healthy lunch is an important part of keeping a balanced diet, saving money, and eating well, the national school lunch program is a vital government effort that needs an overhaul. As a nation, we are experiencing a failing education system, rising childhood obesity, and the food that our kids are being fed is pitiful, to say the least. It’s no coincidence that these are all integrally linked.

Let’s hope that making this a national issue will lead to active changes in  schools across the country.

Healthy Lunch Links:

Berkeley’s New School Food Study: A Victory for Alice Waters :: Author Sarah Henry lives in Berkeley, California, where she volunteers weekly at Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard, and writes about school food, urban eats, kids and food. Check out her blog Lettuce Eat Kale (The Atlantic).

Schools Struggle to Feed Kids Healthy Food :: (Article and Short Video) Dana Waldow is a mom and advocate for healthier school lunches, not just for nutrition, but to save the school money and help the cafeteria turn a profit. (CNN).

School lunchboxes: How to make them eco-friendly :: Several eco-friendly options for your children’s lunchboxes, including PlanetBox, Laptop Lunches, and Lunchbots Duo. (LA Times)

Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project :: Mrs. Q is an educator who writes the ever enlightening blog Fed Up With Lunch, where she documents the school lunch she eats every day with the students in her school.

Rethinking School Lunch (PDF) :: The Center for Eco-Literacy has provided an updated version of their step by step guide to improving school lunch. A useful planning framework for helping your child’s school make real changes.

What lunch topics are on your mind this week?

Technorati Tags: Around the Lunch Table, Healthy School Lunch, kids, Lunch, National School Lunch Week, School, School Lunch

Some of the best ways of getting kids to eat healthy food you pack in their lunch box is to make it look exciting! Try using a rainbow of foods to brighten their day. Here are some easy suggestions for rainbow colored fruits, vegetables, and other tid-bits you can use to make a fulfilling and colorful lunch for the little ones.

White: white rice, mushrooms, cauliflower, potatoes, butter beans, cheese cubes
Black: black beans, olives, black rice
Pink: pink grapefruit
Red: beets, cherries, red peppers, strawberries, tomatoes
Orange: apricots, carrots, oranges, orange peppers, peaches, pumpkin
Yellow: yellow peppers, bananas, summer squash, pineapple
Green: broccoli, green peppers, spinach, green grapes, lettuce, cucumber, peas
Blue: blueberries, blackberries
Purple: plums, grapes, eggplant, purple potatoes, purple cabbage
Brown: almonds, walnuts, chocolate chips (in small quantity!)

Don’t forget the dipping sauce – yogurt for fruits, or a simple vinaigrette for vegetables. You can either use a small separate tupperware for the sauce, or use a silicone muffin cup right in the container with the rest of the food.

But wait a second – rainbow lunches aren’t just for kids – eating a variety of different colored fruits and vegetables provides essential nutrients and enhances any diet – and let’s face it – wouldn’t it be kind of exciting to open up your own rainbow lunch after a hard morning of work?

What other tricks do you use to get your kids to eat their lunch?

Photo: Jewelmaker

Technorati Tags: fruits, Lunches for Kids, rainbow foods, vegetables