Lowell Student Wants Healthier Lunches

5th grade student at Lowell

To the Editor:

I have been thinking, and shared with a few others about hot lunches. We do not think they are very good. They should be local as if it were ‘Harvest of the Month’ every day. I understand money is a hard and big problem for schools so I have done some thinking.

Bellingham schools are in a vicious cycle of buying poor quality, non-nutritious, cheap food for lack of funds to buy better quality food. But then nobody wants to eat or pay for bad food.

Therefore, Bellingham Elementary schools are wasting money. If you buy local food, more people would buy it and then our school district would be making a profit. Hot lunch is definitely not at all nutritious.

I have been taking surveys to see who does and does not like hot lunch. We surveyed 85 people. Fourteen out of these 85 like hot lunch. Nine out of the 85 kind of like hot lunch. Sixty-two out of the 85 do not like hot lunch. This is saying something.

There are other issues of Elementary Hot Lunches other than health concerns. These issues are the taste and quality. Also the way the food is stored and prepared make it stick together.

There should be a school garden and we could eat the local food it makes. I have gone around asking people if they want a salad bar. Basically everyone said, “Yes.”

According to http://www.whatcomfarmtoschool.org/learn-more/why-is-f2s-important local food helps improve children’s health. Also it encourages lifelong healthy eating habits.

To help prevent food waste an easy way is to give small portions and allow people to get more as they wish. Michelle Obama is also trying to get more local food, too.

As you can see, this is a big problem. I appreciate your time. Please make an effort to work on this subject.

Thank you in advance,

Anabel Magee

Lowell, 5th grade

P.S. Not shown electronically are the 71 signatures collected over two days by students, staff and concerned citizens.