The Good

The director of food services for our school system was kind enough to provide me with fairly detailed nutritional information on all of the food served in the elementary school for the month of April. I truly appreciated it! After skimming through the massive amount of information, I was pleasantly surprised to find some pretty good stuff in the mix. I'm going to focus on that first. Tomorrow, I'll talk about the stuff that could be easily/cheaply improved upon. Then I'll go into the stuff that isn't as bad as I thought it would and end with the ugly.

The good stuff:

• Whole grain white sandwich buns
• Fresh bananas
• Skim white milk
• Several varities of 100% juice (served with breakfast only I think)
• 100% whole wheat bread 
• Veggie pizza toppings appear to be fresh 
• Unsweetened apple sauce
• 100% whole grain waffles and pancakes
• Eggs 
• Raw broccoli
• Raw carrots
• Pineapple in unsweetened juice
• Fresh veggies for burger/sandwich toppings
• Raw celery
• Yogurt (real sugar, no artificial colors)
• Raw cucumbers
• Brown rice pilaf
• Oranges
• Vegetarian baked beans (didn't list ingredients, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt)
• Steamed broccoli & cauliflower
• Grits
• Pinto beans (canned, but I lump canned beans in the good category)
• Baked Tostitos Scoops

The good list is encouraging! One suggestion I plan to make is to let parents know when something is whole grain. I personally wouldn't assume it. I will admit, this was more good than I expected...a pleasant surprise!