Eat your veggies

Recently all of my blogs have been full of motivation and I wanted to change up the articles and write about a different kind of problem facing schools in every town regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or gender; childhood obesity. The article I read was about a new system they are trying to implement into schools were parents can electronically monitor their child’s eating habits. 

“ Primero Food Service Solutions, developed by Houston-based Cybersoft Technologies, allows parents to set up prepaid lunch accounts so children don’t have to carry money”, said Ray Barger, Cybersoft’s director of sales and marketing. Now parents can log into the school system and set up a lunch account for their child. There are several benefits in using this new system. One kids no longer have to carry around cash, with this system parents can put money into the account up front. The main focus of this is for parents to regulate what their kids are eating. If a parent doesn’t want their kids not to eat dessert or they only want them eating chips once a week they can program that into the computer and it flags all of those items. The cashier is now aware of any food allergies or parent-set diet restrictions for his or her account, and the student is not allowed to buy an offending item. 

This system already is being used in schools in Arizona, Oklahoma, Michigan and Tennessee, and Texas. Several other companies have similar cafeteria monitoring programs at other schools. Schools have been using some form of this system for the last 10 years. This article was focused on a Houston school district, and they are spending an estimated 5.3 million dollars on this program. They felt like by implanting this system will shorten lines and allow parents to control money and diet without having to be there. 

There are some skeptics to this program. Karen Cullen, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, cautioned that this program will only work if parents and children continue communicating with one another. School lunch is an important tool for kids. This is the first time many kids are choosing on their own what to eat. “Kids need to be able to make healthy choices,” Cullen said. “Parents can’t be in charge. Children need some freedom.” If parents are still regulating what their child is eating how will the child be in college, or when they move out? 

To me this system is going to be a great addition to schools. Parents need to be respectful of their children and sit down and talk about healthy eating and what are appropriate eating habits. I think that childhood obesity is something that we as educators should really care about. If a child is filling themselves with junk at lunch what kind of student are they going to be in your classroom?