Expanding Menu Postings

The Aberdeen school district already posts monthly lunch menus on their district website. This is a positive feature and I want it to be taken a step further. I would like to see is the nutritional facts for each food item in the meal posted. Figures such as the amount of fat and saturated fat per slice of pizza served in the cafeteria will serve as a useful reference to parents. Knowing these facts would help to educate those who take a more active role in regards to their children’s food intake. If the more involved individuals are educated, it is more likely they will speak up about the facts they have learned and push for improvement.

The specific nutritional facts I would like to see in regards to each lunch menu include:

Fat
Saturated fat
Trans fat
Sugar
Cholesterol
Sodium
Protein
Carbohydrate
Percentage of daily vitamins

Incorporating this feature into the district website would be very simple. For each day’s menu a parent would have to only click the name of a specific food item in order to view its nutrition facts. This feature could also serve as an educational tool for students to help them better understand what they are putting into their bodies.