Cuts are about to be made to First Lady Michelle Obama’s healthy lunch program in hopes of getting kids to eat lunch again, but in Hillsborough County, getting kids to eat school lunch was never a problem.
Building a nutritious, healthy lunch that students will actually eat is no easy task. Just ask Mary Kate Harrison.
“We hired an executive chef three and a half years ago," said Harrison, General Manager of Student Nutrition at Hillsborough County Schools. "We’ve done a tremendous amount culinary training and preparation with our staff."
While school districts across the country are losing customers left and right, Harrison said the kids in her district like the food and they’re eating more of it.
“We had already done some of it so it wasn’t so sudden,” she said.
The “it” Harrison is talking about is phasing in healthy, better quality lunch options. That practice is now a nationwide requirement instead of a choice.
It’s the gist of the First Lady’s healthy lunch program which started in 2010.
It’s something nutritionists like Sarah Krieger at All Children’s Hospital pushed for.
“Every time we eat we get a choice and so whatever foods are available to us it’s our job as parents to choose the healthiest options possible for our kids,” Krieger said.
This week, though, when that trillion-dollar spending bill passes, the First Lady's program will be chopped a bit.
Districts are going to be able to add a little more salt and take away some of the whole grains.
But Harrison said it’s important for districts to stay true to the overall goal.
“We aren’t serving something we aren’t 100 percent sure on,” said Harrison.
Harrison said if the food is low quality, unhealthy, or if she herself wouldn’t eat it, she’s not going to give it to her students.
While Hillsborough County is having success with Michelle Obama’s program other Tampa Bay area districts are having problems. Manatee and Pasco both say food costs are up and sales are down.