School Food and Our Children

This past week, an interview aired that grabbed our attention and that we think many of you might want to hear.

The title of the interview is: School Food Is the Key to Fixing Our Children’s Health Crisis. It puts forth the reality that to improve kids’ health, we need to start with the food they eat every day.

We learned a startling statistic: Public schools feed 30 million children, making them the largest “restaurant chain” in the US, bigger than Subway, McDonald's, and Starbucks combined! For many students, school meals provide half of their daily calories, and most of that food is highly processed.

In the interview with Dr. Mark Hyman, Nora LaTorre, CEO of Eat Real, explains why school cafeterias may be one of the most powerful tools we have to turn around the childhood health crisis ~ and how positive changes are already happening faster than we might think possible.

Eat Real works with school districts across the country to reduce ultra-processed meals and prioritize real, whole, nutrient-dense foods. The program now reaches over 1,700 schools and more than a million students nationwide. In Michigan, Montague Area Public Schools is the first to participate, bringing healthier meals to students while connecting them with local farms.

The interview spotlights one region of Northern California where schools have already purchased over $1 million worth of grass-fed beef, creating strong demand that is motivating ranchers to transition to regenerative practices. 

So, while supporting the health of schools, this program is also supporting healthier soils and animals, strengthening the local market, and building awareness of the powerful relationship between farms and communities.

Efforts like Eat Real are also influencing government policies around school meals. By showing that schools can serve healthier, minimally processed food while working with local producers, this program is helping to shape nutrition guidelines and rules around how food is sourced ~ as well as funding priorities that support real, nutrient-dense meals in more districts.

This is a fundamental shift! 

The interview resonated deeply with us here on our farm. Regenerative agriculture isn’t just about soil health ~ it’s about human health. Animals raised on healthy soils and pastures produce food that nourishes our bodies and minds, rather than depletes us as highly processed foods absolutely do.

This interview is a reminder that improving children’s health starts with the food on their plate ~ and that when schools and farms work together, it's a win-win for all!

Click here to listen to the full and inspiring interview!