Thats awesome!

That is great. Wish they did that back when I was in school.

That's great news!

Lots of people point out the high sugar concentration in many juices...hope they take that into account.

I have to say that I am having doubts. Getting rid of the junk is laudible, but it sounds to me like their low-fat approach is doomed to fail. Reginald Mayo's weight gain is an early, ominious sign of that.

I agree with you Gotbeer, but to me just getting rid of the soda is a huge improvement and should lead to some weight loss, especially in kids whose system isn't messed up by 40 years of bad eating. The replacing of fried items with baked items will be totally useless weight-wise, but we can hope that eating healthy will also involved more vegetables and that could have a positive effect as well.

It will definitely help health-wise, because Fried nowadays almost always means it was fried in Hydrogenated Oils. As for weight-wise, its value is minimal. If they were only changing to Baked, I would expect that most students would simply make up the extra Calories with Junk Food. But, if they get rid of the Junk Food, baking vs. frying would reduce the number of Calories they ate slightly. Since those Calories are from Crisco, they add NO nutritional value whatsoever. The students could make up those Calories with healthy foods like Fruits and Vegetables [not including Potatoes of course.] That would mean they'd be eating healthy foods, while still consuming a reasonable amount of Calories for their size.

Here's a video I recorded 10 years ago when I was in Elementary School. It was recorded one night after a Awards Ceremony. But, it underscores the problems with School Food. The first 3 foods I captured with the Camera were Junk Food: Bananas, Cookies, and Cake...Yet, thats some of what they were serving us, along with Bread of course, and Fried Mystery "Meat" and Fried Potatoes [Tater Tots.]

The Salad Bar part is interesting, because I thought they'd gotten rid of it. But, it appears what happened was they got a salad bar when I was in 5th Grade, and the Middle School had one when I was in 6th Grade, but they dropped it if I remember correctly after that first year. The Elementary School may have still had a Salad Bar, but per my description, it was not edible: Brown Lettuce, etc...

http://students.uwf.edu/ckc8/cafe.wmv

The public schools here were just announced that they will no longer serve desserts, and they taking out the soda machines. So it's a step in the right direction, but they have a long way to go.

Grade schools do not have salad bars, and all schools still serve breaded foods and white bread. They just started to change things, so hopefully it will continue.

The news report said that the biggest problem with changing things is the federal government. The schools receive food from the feds that is almost free (subsidized by our tax dollars - so I guess it's not really 'free'), and most of it is junk - breaded chicken, tater tots, etc., and they say the can't afford to operate the school lunch program without the subsidies.

So, if the government is so concerned about out children becoming obese, then maybe our representatives need to change a few things. The government needs to stop subsidizing the junk foods and replace them with healthy foods. They also need to make our playgrounds and streets safe so that kids can go outside and play ball, ride a bike, go for a walk, etc. after school instead of going home and locking themselves into an empty house and watching television or playing video games. How about someplace safe where they can go to get exercise? Often by the time parents get home from work and the family has dinner, it's nearly bedtime.

I agree Carmen, however considering they haven't budged from their lowfat position, those changes are likely to be simple changes to highly processed low-fat food.

i still say its a good thing... the less junk we can get the kids of the world to eat the better