Healthy lunches can turn cafeterias into classrooms, while also influencing how kids and their parents eat at home. Here are four organizations making a difference.

Educational health problems are unique in that there is so much value to be found in the solutions, such that how we address them transcends the actual issues by becoming more than just healthier alternatives. They also become life lessons. A school bus running on biodiesel becomes a course in renewable energy. A recycling program can become a form of artistic expression. And healthy lunches can become lessons in both nutrition and sustainability. What’s more, as any parent knows, kids bring what they learn home with them, often educating their parents on things like recycling and energy efficiency.

Individuals and organizations are addressing the issue of healthy lunches in unique ways, from removing Coke machines and fried foods to robust school gardens. The Edible Schoolyard, founded by renowned chef Alice Waters, provides urban public school students with a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom. Using food systems as a unifying concept, students learn how to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce. Experiences in the kitchen and garden foster a better understanding of how the natural world sustains us, and promote the environmental and social well being of our school community.

In an interview with “The Wall Street Journal”, Ms. Waters had this to say: “Eating opens up your senses. You’re touching, tasting, smelling and looking. It opens up your mind; not just to the food, but to everything — to the world out there, and to nature. I am a Montessori teacher, and it’s really a Montessori philosophy: the education of the senses. I really believe that through this interactive pedagogy — this hands-on experience in the garden and kitchen — kids learn because it’s fun.”

In addition to the nutritional value of eating organic foods, programs like this can demonstrate the value of eating local, reducing food miles, and shopping at farmers markets. In many cases, children will take these lessons home and start to demand better of their parents. So the impact can be felt well beyond the cafeteria and schoolyard. The Center for Ecoliteracy (CEL) shares this same philosophy in its Rethinking School Lunch program:

“Rethinking School Lunch builds on the premise that hands-on experience growing and preparing food is a powerful way for children to discover that healthy food tastes good, and to learn about the cycles, seasons, other processes of nature, and the relationship between the health of natural and social systems. The program uses a systems approach to address the crisis in childhood obesity, provide nutrition education, and teach ecological knowledge. CEL spent five years researching the 10 interrelated dimensions, which are vital to achieving this vision: food policy, curriculum integration, food and health, finances, facilities design, the dining experience, procurement, waste management, and marketing.”

BetterSchoolFood.org provides practical assistance in improving the health of school cafeterias. This group of dedicated parents, educators and health professionals is committed to working with local communities to improve meals and increase awareness of the connection between good food, good health and a student’s ability to learn effectively.

The organization supports individuals, schools, and communities in their efforts to improve school food by providing a range of services. BSF helps schools address how to get started, create wellness policies, implement new food standards, and handle situations after the change is completed. It’s top-10 list includes many simple steps such as eliminating partially hydrogenated cooking oils and high fructose corn syrup, reducing portion sizes, and encouraging farm-to-school programs.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has the Healthy School Lunches program. This group conducts research and provides valuable data about the current state of affairs in America’s school cafeterias. It is “dedicated to improving the food served to children in schools by educating government and school officials, food service workers, parents, and others about the food choices best able to promote children’s current and long-term health.” The 2007 School Lunch Report Card analyzed the lunches served in 22 of the nation’s largest elementary school districts and evaluated the districts on their efforts to educate children about good nutrition.

There is clearly a broad and diverse effort to address the issue of health in school cafeterias, and there are plenty of resources available for parents to take the initiative. Let us know how you’re addressing school lunches, either in your home or with schools themselves.