At school, good food costs money

There were a couple of questions that seemed to be raised in a recent article that I would like to clarify related to the child nutrition program in the Oak Park schools.

Two years ago, with the help of a committee comprising parents, educators and pediatricians, Oak Park developed a policy related to student wellness. This policy set goals for us to move toward providing our students with natural, wholesome, home-cooked meals rather than highly processed, highly preserved, fat-laden "fast food" that has become the staple of most school meal programs.

The price increase this year was the first in two years and is mostly attributable to the inflation that we are all feeling right now and not to our change to better quality foods.

Every day we are finding that preparing food ourselves using wholesome ingredients offers a healthy alternative to the norm and presents a better value for our families. This has been recognized by our parents, as we see our lunch ticket sales on the rise this year. Healthy vending machines at our secondary schools are also highly popular and nearly impossible to keep stocked.

In Oak Park we offer quality, healthy food for our students while keeping costs in check. We also know that healthy kids learn better, especially when they aren't pumped full of junk food sold in most school cafeterias. In fact, the California School Boards Association has asked Oak Park to present at their annual state conference about this innovative program.

We are proud of our accomplishments in this area and our focus on caring for, nurturing and educating the whole child. Laurel Goins

Goins is the director of child nutrition for the Oak Park Unified School District.