nutrition and physical activity in our schools - Environment & Human ...

The State of Nutrition and Physical Activity in Our SchoolsII.Recommendations■Food service directors and cafeteria managers should meetwith student councils and other student groups to involvethem in the school lunch program, and to learn from thestudents about food items that they might like to have forlunch.■■Food service directors and cafeteria managers should makefruit and vegetable choices as appealing as possible. Offeringa variety of whole or pre-cut fresh fruits and vegetables is oneway to encourage more students to eat these foods.Food service directors and cafeteria managers should limitofferings of higher fat vegetables, such as oil-fried Frenchfries, not only because of fat content, but also becauseoffering them may decrease consumption of other, morenutritious foods.The federalgovernment shouldcontinue to work toinclude fresh fruitsand vegetables in thefederal NSLPcommodities program.■The federal government should continue to work to includefresh fruits and vegetables in the federal NSLP commoditiesprogram.■Food service directors should take advantage of state andfederal programs designed to increase fresh fruits andvegetable offerings in school lunches. District participationin local “Farm-to-School” programs is one way to do this.37