Sack Lunches Get the 'Sack' in Chicago School

Sack Lunches Get the 'Sack' in Chicago School

First Lady Obama's "Let's Move" campaign has inspired communities, families and schools to lead healthier lifestyles by exercising and choosing better foods. However, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side went a step further by banning sack lunches. Parents were packing their kids' lunches with chips, cookies and sodas. Under the new policy, students can either eat the $2.25-per day cafeteria meal or go hungry.

Is this extreme? Though the $45 monthly school meals contain colorful fruits, vegetables and healthy entrees, parents are angry. In light of today's economic environment, this may break family budgets already strained. Generally, it costs more to eat healthier but buying groceries you can stretch out as opposed to purchasing daily meals is not cost-effective. Sack lunches by themselves are not the problem. Educating families on what items go into the sack lunch is an approach for harvesting more seeds of success and personal responsibility.

Highlighted Clip for Monday, April 18, 2011:

"Chicago school bans packed lunches"

By: Jenn Savedge

A small school in Chicago is making big news on the lunch line these days. Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side no longer allows students to bring food from home to eat for lunch. So it's either eat the cafeteria food or go hungry. As you might expect, the policy has parents all around the nation in an uproar.

Let’s Eradicate Childhood Obesity!

Let’s Eradicate Childhood Obesity!

Three cheers for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recognition that childhood obesity can begin long before school age. In a statement released yesterday, AAP said, “Feeding babies solid food before four months of age increases the babies' chances for becoming obese toddlers.”  The report also found that babies who are breast fed for at least the first four months of their lives are less likely than their formula fed counterparts to become obese.  This month,  the AAP joined First Lady Michelle Obama in support of her Let's Move! initiative to end childhood obesity within a generation!  It is so important for parents to begin the process of healthy eating while their children are infants and commit  to healthy living for the entire family.

Highlighted Clip for Tuesday, February 8, 2011:

Solid Foods and Infants, New Research From the AAP

Feeding babies solid food before four months of age increases the babies' chances for becoming obese toddlers, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.