Are Your Kids Armed? - Lunch Wars Book Review

Remembering school lunches often means a crinkled nose or a guilty conscience about copious amounts of canned lemonade and peanut butter and wafer cookies.

Amy Kalafa’s Lunch Wars challenges us to rethink school lunches.  She calls on us to advocate for our children, to bring fresh, seasonal produce to schools, to limit our dependence on non-organic animal products and genetically-modified foods.

My emotions went through an entire spectrum while reading Lunch Wars, from ire over our school lunch system and anger about our country’s food culture in general, to slight annoyance and, later, to feeling like there are some great tips for any diet, not just the lunches prepared at school.

I was shocked to read certain facts, like how schools need to order their food eighteen months in advance to take full advantage of government subsidies, a vital source of funding for many school lunch programs.

I was disheartened to read others, such as the dangers of “anything ultra-pasteurized,” since all of the organic milk choices at the grocery stores I frequent are ultra-pasteurized.

That shift, between shocked and disheartened, may cause some readers to dismiss the message Kalafa is sending as too alarmist or unrealistic.  Yet, if you move past the laundry list of foods Kalafa holds up to an unforgiving microscope, you will find a wealth of information about adding whole, naturally grown, local foods to a menu.

Even if you are not interested in school lunch reform, Lunch Wars is worth reading, particularly if you are interested in making conscious, healthy food choices.

What do you think about the food in schools?  Are your kids eating what you ate?  Come over and talk about it at BlogHer!

Nan and Abbey are reading a Tinkerbell book

she's counting on me to make healthy decisions about what she eats

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club.  I received a copy of Amy Kalafa's Lunch Wars and compensation for participation in the review campaign, but all opinions expressed are my own.