Welcome back to a new school year! Students and parents will find that most things have changed - new grade, new room, new teachers, new subjects, new friends. There is also, in today's world, a new emphasis on healthy nutrition. So - will the lunches served in the school cafeteria and the lunches packed at home be the same old thing? Hopefully not. School lunches take many forms, those provided by the school district, those packed by an adult family member, and those packed by the student or another child in the family. Nutrition education needs to be available for a very diverse group.

There is help out there for people who are concerned with good nutrition. The United States Department of Agriculture has a Food and Nutrition information center online. A section of this is devoted to Child Nutrition and Health. Here you will find a link to a kid friendly page with games which teach about nutrition, also links to information for parents about the nutritional needs of children in different age groups. Another helpful website is KidsHealth from the Nemours Center for Children's Health Media. It provides helpful guides for things like browsing the school lunch menu for the week with your child and discussing healthful choices. There is also a guide for doing healthy makeovers of the typical bag lunch. If you are interested in browsing the school lunch menu with your child, the Nashua Telegraph publishes the weekly lunch menu for all of the area schools on each Thursday for the following week.

The library also has materials which could be helpful in lunch planning. Eat, Play and be Healthy is the Harvard Medical School guide to healthy eating for kids. In addition to chapters on nutrition for infants and toddlers and how to choose better food sources for good nutrition for all ages, there is a chapter called How to recognize a healthy (and unhealthy) school lunch. It provides parents with information on how the school lunch program works, and also gives a hierarchy of individuals and agencies to contact to, hopefully, become involved in improving their child's school lunch program if needed.

The Parenting Shelf in the Children's Room is home to a number of books dealing with healthy nutrition ideas for children. Many of these ideas would be very handy for healthy school lunches.

The sneaky chef : simple strategies for hiding healthy foods in kids favorite meals
Miracle foods for kids : 25 super-nutritious foods to keep your kids in great health
Gimme five! : kid-friendly recipes and tips for helping your child enjoy eating fruits and vegetables
Healthy food for kids : quick recipes for busy parents
Kid favorites made healthy

Healthy eating made simple! Just remember that, in addition to healthy eating, kids need lots of active playing at recess!