Welcome to s'Cool Food
What did you eat for lunch today?
If you are a student in the United States, your answer is likely "Chicken nuggets, french fries, and chocolate milk." Today, the average student's lunch tray is filled with pre-packaged, highly processed foods that were prepared thousands of miles away from their school, frozen, and then reheated on-site. If the school has a salad bar, it is likely filled with iceberg lettuce and canned vegetables. School meals in America have certainly seen better days.
Why do school meals matter?
Our nation's children have not been eating well. One third of all children born after 2000 can expect to live a shorter life than that of their parents due to diet-related illness. Over-consumption of foods that are laden with sugar and fat makes focusing difficult during class time. Simply stated, unhealthy food can lead to both immediate and long term health complications and, ultimately, premature death.
What can we do to change the way that children eat?
We send our children to school with the hope that each day, they will gain the skills needed to become active members in our society. School is a place of learning, not only from books but from experience and exposure. In this sense, we are teaching children how to eat for the rest of their lives through the meals that we serve them during their school day. With this in mind, the s'Cool Food Initiative works to empower school districts in Santa Barbara County to implement and sustain nourishing cook-from-scratch food programs so that our children have access to the healthy food that they deserve.