I just watched a fascinating lecture by Ann Cooper, the “renegade lunch lady.” Cooper is the director of nutrition services for the Berkeley Unified School District in California, and she is trying to change the way we feed kids in school in America.

She has seen first-hand the terrible foods we feed our kids at school. When she arrived at Berkeley, everything came in a can or a box, and the lunches consisted of things like Extremo Burritos, corn dogs, pizza pockets, grilled cheese sandwiches, pink Danish, cupcakes, chicken nuggets, Tater Tots, chocolate milk with high fructose, and canned fruit cocktail.

This is what the government thinks is okay to serve to kids, and it is a big part of the reason why kids are becoming obese and getting sicker and sicker. In fact, she says we are feeding our children to death with these unhealthy foods.

Here are just some of the frightening statistics she shares:

“¢       We live in a country where 10 big agribusinesses control much of what is in our grocery stores, much of what people eat, and that is really a problem.

“¢       Big companies spend about $20 billion a year marketing “anti-nutrition” to kids.

“¢       We spend $35,000 on average a year keeping a prisoner in prison, while school districts spend only $500 a year feeding a child.

“¢       The CDC (Center for Disease Control) says that of the children born in the year 2000, one out of every three Caucasians and one out of every two African-Americans and Hispanics are going to have diabetes in their lifetime. And most of them will have it before they graduate high school.

“¢       The government allocates only $2.49 for lunch. Most school districts spend two-thirds of that on payroll and overhead. That means we spend less than $1 a day on food for kids in schools. In Los Angeles, it’s 56 cents. Compare that to the cost of a single Venti latte from Starbucks, which costs about $5. We spend more on one gourmet coffee than we are spending to feed kids for an entire week in our schools.

“¢       The foods we feed our children are chock full of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and hormones. When kids eat chemicals every day, they can’t think, and they won’t be as smart as they could be.

Cooper has completely overhauled the Berkeley school lunch program to include locally grown, sustainable, organic foods. And she advocates that other school districts can “” and need to “” make similar changes.

I wholeheartedly agree with Cooper. Feeding children nutrient-rich foods is essential for good health and optimal brain function. Remember though that good nutrition starts at home. As parents, we need to do a much better job of feeding our children good foods and teaching them eating habits that will keep their brains and bodies healthy throughout their lives.

You can see Cooper’s lecture in its entirety by clicking the following link: http://www.ted.com/talks/ann_cooper_talks_school_lunches.html