School is now in full swing -- bring on the chicken nuggets, pizza dippers and hot dogs with tri tators! My son entered first grade this year and it's hard to shield him from the real world of school lunch junk.

Our district's new food service provider says they strive to provide a wholesome, nutritious lunch with 2 ozs of meat/meat alternative, 2 servings of fruit and/or vegetable, 1-2 servings of grains and 8 ozs of milk. After reviewing September's menu, I'm not that impressed:

• Only 8 out of 21 lunches offer a vegetable that isn't potatoes or corn.
  
• Only 7 out of 21 lunches offer a fresh fruit -- the rest offer sugar-filled juices/juice bars and packaged fruit cups. No fresh berries, grapes or melon either.
  
• Only 2 out of 21 lunches offer a fresh fruit and a vegetable -- that's pathetic!
• Processed meats abound -- hot dogs, burgers, corn dogs, chicken nuggets.
• Eight ozs of milk sounds good, but it turns out kids can choose between white milk or sugar-loaded chocolate milk. Which carton do you think most kids will grab?
• I was pleasantly surprised to see multigrain pretzels and whole grain bread/bun options.

So I'm now packing my son's lunch four days a week. It always includes a fresh vegetable, a fruit and a small treat. A rotating mix of half sandwiches on whole grain bread, yogurt, low-fat cheese sticks, hard-boiled eggs and baked chips or pretzels round out the rest. He's agreed to choose white milk. The remaining day? School lunch junk complete with chocolate milk.