Support healthy lunches

Once again, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers says she wants schoolchildren to have access to healthy options, but she votes to delay implementation and to ease school lunch nutrition standards. Because fresh fruits and vegetables are sometimes more expensive, I fail to see how reducing standards or delaying implementation solves the problem.

School nutrition programs need more money as implementation begins. Many new schools have even been built without cooking facilities in the “kitchens.”

As a teacher, I remember when “cooks” cooked. Then we added the school breakfast program (because kids can’t learn when they are hungry), but the breakfast funds mostly came out of the school lunch program. Sugary cereal, and heating and microwaving mostly white and yellow foods, became the norm.

Next, new schools were built without cooking facilities. I remember once a school cook offered me a big beautiful red strawberry. When I ate it, my lips and tongue burned. If kids don’t eat the fresh foods and are dumping them in the garbage, maybe it’s because they are tasteless or laden with pesticides from agribusiness.

Kids benefit from fresh, organic and locally grown foods. We all do.

Carol Bryan

Spokane