Schools are underfunded and meals are taking a major hit because of that. With so many schools in the red, they are requiring their food programs to be – at minimum – revenue neutral. This is a huge obstacle. We should be funding school food as if it’s a priority, not as if it need to be in competition with education dollars. As long as we see food vs. education as a zero sum game, we’re going to all loose.

Remember, schools get reimbursed only $2.57 per school lunch and on average they loose $0.35 each meal served. And in large urban districts, they may loose double that amount. Without the funding to bridge and exceed this gap, schools will still be struggling to consistently provide healthful meals.

With the reauthorization coming up, there is a real opportunity for change. And the priority needs to be more money for better food. Because then schools can then make many of the changes that advocates are calling for above.

http://www.healthyschoolscampaign.org/getinvolved/action/childnutrition/

I just published a pseudo-response to this post on my food blog. The post can be found at http://www.goodhoot.com/2009/06/why-not-schools-to-farm/ . Perhaps the post is really a response. It is more like an extension of this post… “great idea but we could do more”