Posted on: Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

As a mom who homeschools you would think that providing healthy eats for breakfast, lunch and snack time would be a breeze. It may be for some, but not for me. I admit it, I struggle. After a full day of balancing teaching, Love2Bloom business and general day-to-day housekeeping duties, I really don’t have the energy to plan a healthy school day’s menu. No joke when I share that our typical school day begins at 8:45 a.m. and doesn’t end until 3 :00 p.m. So much for those folks that think homeschool begins at mid morning and ends at noon. If I manage to throw in a berry or two and sub a tofu dog for a processed one, these days, I’m feeling pretty darn good about my efforts, unprepared as they may be.

I admit that although I try very hard to prepare healthy eats for my family and myself, sometimes on crazy, busy, cash-strapped days, I find myself reaching for Annie’s Bunny Mac n’ Cheese or that dreaded breakfast toaster pop. I often wave these actions away with justifications of a busy schedule, high cost of fresh food costs, my garden not growing, or some other lame excuse, I think of. And I was fine with my excuses, until I learned of “The California Endowment “Health Happens in Schools” Campaign and thankfully my commitment to healthy eating has been revived. Yay!

I guess it would have been easy for me to say, that the”healthy eats in schools” message is for public or private schools not for me, a homeschooler. But I think that would be missing out and I’m from the point of view that just because I choose to homeschool doesn’t mean my little schoolhouse doesn’t face some of the challenges traditional placed schools do. I think healthy eating and nutrition on a budget is a challenge, yet one that merits my attention, as much as the academic rigor of our curriculum.

Did you know that the School Nutrition Guidelines in the U.S. had not been updated in more than 15 years, until 2010 when the U.S. Congress and President Obama approved The Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act. These guidelines took effect July 1, 2012, in time for the 2012-2013 school year. Key changes include: serving more fruits and vegetable every day of the week; serving more whole grains; zero trans fats; less salt; milk that is fat-free or low-fat; and new guidelines for portion sizes and calorie limits based on grade level. For a really handy chart of the new standards, click HERE. This year, in addition to the fat-free and/or low-fat milk option, changes in breakfast standards were adopted. For example, the Fruit and Veggie requirement was boosted up to one cup from 1/2 cup and now at least 1/2 of the grains served must be whole grains. When I saw that, I thought I could do that. Maybe this eating healthy eating is not so complicated, after all.

My change in attitude and shedding of the “I’m too busy to serve healthy” cop-out I was taking on as my new mantra, is a good thing because these new guidelines really do matter. Not withstanding the truth behind the warnings about obese youths being more at risk for cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, these red flag warnings can get, I know, a bit grating for parents that are time and money short. We hear you, fast food is bad for our kids. We know. But what to do? Parents care what their kids are eating. Don’t tell me that they don’t, because I just won’t believe that. Rather, factors such as time, money, fresh food availability and well, money contribute to very real life choices of starting their kids day off with a buck fast food breakfast sandwich rather than a wholesome and nutritious breakfast meal. Thankfully schools are stepping in to help parents and children and The California Endowment is offering them the assistance to do so.

I am inspired by California districts that are embracing the new standards to provide healthy and tasty food that children want to eat. For example: the San Diego Unified School District has a Farm to School program that connects schools and local growers to serve fresh fruits and vegetables in school cafeterias; in Sacramento schools, salad bars are the standard at each school and in the Ventura Unified School District, the Harvest of the Month program teaches students about a new fruit or vegetable that also is featured on cafeteria salad bars.

As for me and my little schoolhouse, we’re going to start with a “Breakfast Shake-Up”. A literature review of 22 studies showed that when children have a healthy breakfast, they perform better at school. Moreover, eating breakfast may improve cognitive function, academic achievement, attendance rates, and mood. An analysis of California high schools that schools with high Academic Performance Index (API) scores had a higher percentage of students that ate breakfast on the day of the test than lower performing schools. Great incentives for me to “shake things up” in our schoolhouse kitchen.

Starting on Monday, September 10th, I will be posting wholesome, nutritious and tasty Breakfast options that you can whip up in a snap and won’t break the bank. I would love to learn from all of you on how you provide healthy eats for your school kiddies. In the meantime, feel free to check out my Food Blog, Still Eating Good for healthy eating options. And, please feel free to share your comments on this topic because there are no judgements here, just opportunities to learn from each other, feel more healthy, and live each day more vibrantly than ever before. x-o

-Mona