Teaming Up in the Challenge to Bring Healthier Meals to Schools
Ending childhood obesity within a generation is the central goal of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative. We know achieving this goal requires all of us to work together – parents, teachers, schools, chefs, community leaders, Federal, State and local elected officials and our children – there’s a role for each of us to play.
Today we are thrilled to launch the Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge along with First Lady Michelle Obama. Through this exciting effort, we will challenge teams of food service staff, chefs, students, and community members to develop creative, nutritious, tasty and kid-approved recipes that schools can easily incorporate into National School Lunch menus.
The Recipe Challenge draws on the talents of chefs, students, parents, and school nutrition professionals to develop tasty, nutritious, kid-approved foods. Chefs will provide culinary expertise, school nutrition professionals will share insight as to what can be accomplished in a school setting, and kids and parents will make sure that students will choose these nutritious items in school and beyond. Additionally, we encourage people in the community to submit recipes to the schools and support their local teams.
When I visited schools on a Nutrition Tour earlier this year, students everywhere showed interest and curiosity about foods, but they do not always enjoy foods that provide the greatest nutritional value.
Winning recipes will increase students’ intake of whole grains, dark green and orange vegetables, and dry beans and peas. Teams can form today and the challenge is open through December 30, 2010. Recipes must be taste tested by students and served on the school lunch menu. The top ten recipes for each healthy food category will be published in a Recipes for Healthy Kids Cookbook to share with others.
So start a team and join us in our move to bring healthier, and tasty foods to schools nationwide!
