You have probably heard of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. She’s made it her personal mission to combat obesity and end it within a generation.
It’s actually scary to think about the fact that our kids generation will be the first to live shorter lives than their parents’ generation, all because they aren’t as healthy. This is not a just political cause, even thought it was started by the First Lady.
Whether you are Democrat, Republican or Independent, I think you will agree this is an important issue. After all, the latest statistics show 17% of children are obese, and obese children become obese adults, which cost our health care system millions and billions of unnecessary dollars.
“Let’s Move” involves making changes in exercise and food choices. The fresh produce industry has formed a support campaign called Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools (LMSB2S) and our mission is to raise money to help put salad bars in public and private schools.
We know that if school aged children get in the habit of eating fresh fruits and vegetables for lunch, they will continue to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables at home and in the future. Since the LMSB2S campaign started a few years ago, more than 1400 salad bars have been funded and placed in schools in 45 states as of June 1, 2012.
Even though my children are grown, I have joined industry colleagues to help raise money to fund 350 salad bars in California schools by May 2013, which is the amount of California schools that have requested a salad bar.
I am sure there are schools in your state that have applied for salad bars. If you are interested in finding out more about putting salad bars in schools in your area, check out this website.
And whether you have school aged kids, grandkids or have friends that do, I hope you’ll join me in helping change the way kids eat. Wouldn’t it be a perfect world if the ideal party snacks were grapes, slices of melon, carrots, celery and cucumber with fresh guacamole or hummus? I think so!
Karen
