My Kids Went Hungry Rather Than Eat School Lunch: How Is Your School District Failing Your Children?

Nineteen countries and 81 cities. That was 13 months in a nutshell for our family of four.? I left my job as a pediatrician to embark on this adventure and have time to bond with my family. Manu, the kids, and I had a long time to talk about a lot of things. We talked about the things that brought us passion and joy. Manu talked about AI. Neal talked about Pokemon. Maya talked about - well, everything. If you have ever met her then you know that she can pick up a conversation with anyone about anything. I talked about nutrition and wellness.

The kids and I decided that we should start a health podcast during our travels, where we took our conversations online for others to experience. We discussed extensively about what foods will make us healthier and what foods will make us sicker. How do we make good choices about our health now so that we could have longevity? I would not say that we became vegan, but we definitely committed to eating a whole food diet while minimizing any animal products like eggs and dairy during our trip. I had been telling Manu and the kids for years about the detrimental health effects of dairy, but somehow there was always milk, butter, yogurt, and cheese in our house. When we were in London, the kids watched the Netflix Documentary “What the Health,” and the kids immediately decided that they were done with dairy after seeing how much pus finds its way into the dairy that we drink. Yes - PUS! For me, yes, the thought of drinking pus was gross. Moreover, I was focused on the role of dairy as a promoter of reproductive cancers. My mom had been diagnosed with reproductive cancer a few years earlier and had suffered through the side effects of chemotherapy. She has never been the same. I didn’t want that for myself, and I certainly didn’t want that for my family.

By the time we returned from our trip we were all fully whole foods/plant based. I admit that it was difficult to do while we traveled, but I think we pulled it off as well as we could have. We had discussed the differences among unprocessed, processed, and ultraprocessed foods (what I like to call non-food foods) and what that means in terms of our own health, well-being, and longevity. The kids were armed with knowledge, and they had been enjoying meals made of healthy, fresh produce for the better part of a year. Then we returned home to the US, and things just went sideways.

While we were traveling, our home was under an extensive remodel. The construction was supposed to be completed by the time we returned, but we all know how construction goes. The biggest challenge was our lack of a kitchen for 2 months, forcing us to eat outside food. We told the kids to have school lunch, which is provided by an outside vendor. The kids would come home and attack all the leftovers from our own lunch. For a while,? I thought that the kids were learning to indulge in the American habit of overeating. Little did I know that for two months they refused to eat the lunch provided by the school. For two months, they quietly went hungry because they didn’t want us to worry about making sure that they were well-nourished. In addition to the fact that most kids merely tolerate the taste, the food items are deep fried and full of ultraprocessed ingredients and hidden sugars. By this point, my kids knew that. They made a conscious choice not to eat those foods, which effectively are no better than McDonalds, but because the items on the school menu were non-food foods and unhealthy, there was nothing they wanted to eat. So they didn’t.

The lack of healthy food at school triggered me to join my children’s school district’s wellness committee, Every school is required by law to have a Wellness Policy. As a part of that law , any school participating? in a federal nutrition program must develop, implement, and consistently re-evaluate their wellness policy. In my quest for learning more, I discovered that many school districts are not even aware of the existence of their own wellness policies, and even the schools that have them often do not implement them. I found this to be the case with our own district’s policy, which among other things, was revised 6 years ago but never enforced.

One of the stipulations in the law is that the children be provided with nutrition education at every grade level in Grades K-6. The school district was not even aware if it is being taught. Per my two very outspoken children, they have never received any nutrition instruction other than what I have personally taught as a parent volunteer in their school.

This brings me to our Wellness Committee meeting, which is made up of school board members, teachers, counselors, and 3 involved parents.? At the first meeting, our group leader was surprised to hear that foods like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat burger both are chock full of ultraprocessed ingredients. He admitted to me that he had always thought of these plant based meat alternatives as health foods. Despite my initial surprise, I was glad that he was open to learning more, and leaving that meeting I felt very optimistic of all the possibilities of all the potential changes that could be made within the school meeting.

At the second meeting, an elementary school teacher spoke up that she took it upon herself to teach nutrition concepts in her Kindergarten class but now feels apprehensive about what she can teach. She had mentioned to her students some foods that were unhealthy due to all the forms of extra sugar.? Children started shaming each other for having those items in their lunch bags, resulting in some backlash from parents. She added that she doesn't want to offend anyone’s culture, religious beliefs, or socioeconomic background in the process of discussing nutrition. I get it - food is a very personal and sensitive topic. Moreover, many groups end up consuming non-food foods and are in no position to eat better because of their socioeconomic status. And yet - as a physician, I recognize that THESE are the kids who are at greatest risk of suffering from diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. So the greatest influences in their lives, the doctors and teachers, cannot approach the sensitive topic of food exactly for the children who NEED the most guidance, help, and change for a healthier future. What a CATCH22!

This is my struggle. My dream is to reverse this train wreck that we, as a society, have created for ourselves. I want so badly to be the kind of doctor who prescribes LESS medication, not more. I am tired of having conversations with families about their 10 year old children having prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, or sky high cholesterol while they are slurping down their venti Starbucks frappuccino. I want them to not have all these problems AT ALL.? I do not want to have another visit with a preteen about her back and knee problems that I KNOW are related to her morbid obesity while I see her mother walk in with the same problem. I want for all of us to be healthier together and for each other, but this requires for us all to work together as a society, take these steps and commit to a healthier lifestyle for ourselves.