EDITORIAL: Better food is a key at schools

If your school-age child thinks the four food groups are French fries, soft pretzels, chips and a soda, take heart. Now, several local school districts are making it possible for parents to monitor their kids' lunch choices online.

Some will regard this as another extreme of helicopter parenting, but it can be one positive way for parents to make sure their children are learning the ABCs of good nutrition. It makes sense for parents and schools to share information in order to reinforce the other's rules. Both are responsible for this lesson.

Simply put, school districts should be serving better food. Beyond setting out some healthy choices, school cafeterias should make these dishes appetizing and incorporate vegetables and whole grains, when possible, into recipes. Schools should be safe zones, off-limits to nutrition-free goodies.

A step in the right direction would be changing the funding incentives that require school cafeterias to pay for themselves or even turn a profit. Federal subsidies for free and reduced-price lunches - a growing need on Long Island - should increase to pay for nutritionally sound meals.

Parents, too, should be talking to their children about healthful choices. As kids mature, they should take on the responsibility for caring for their bodies. This is a fundamental lesson that too many schools and parents have apparently been leaving off the curriculum. hN