Are Salad Bars in Schools Part of the Obesity Solution?

Does your child's school have sufficient vegetables in its cafeteria? Michelle Obama announced on Monday that a new public-private partnership, Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools, will provide 6,000 salad bars to U.S. school cafeterias.

In some of the poorest parts of the country, fresh fruits and vegetables are extremely scarce in cafeterias but soda, vending machines and french fries are plentiful. Mrs. Obama made her announcement at Riverside Elementary School in Miami, where the first salad bar was officially installed.

Whole Foods was behind the $1.4 million raised to back this initiative that three schools -- Philadelphia, Austin, Tex., and Montgomery County, Md., -- have already indicated they will not support for various reasons.

Would you like the First Lady to include your school in her campaign? Find out what our users think when it comes to the White House installing salad bars in U.S. schools.

Trisha S.
That would be fabulous for our country IF we weren't already so far beyond broke!!!!

Daniel D.
So now the oil companies and big business are going to try and control the lettuce patch... gotta be something in it for someone and certainly not the consumer.

Theresa I.
Eliminate any cakes or cookies and replace with salads. End of story.

Kristina L.
I had three cafeterias in my high school. One offered things like pizza, the second offered regular school lunch and the other one was subs and sandwiches.

Melissa J.
Great idea, but... many adults don't realize having a salad and loading it with regular ranch (or whatever kind) of dressing can be worse and higher in fat that just having a burger since you're not even getting protein or anything with all that fat. So don't know how most kids can distinguish...

Judea P.
Fat isn't the enemy, it's sugar.

Aubrea M.
Kids will be eating like 1/2 a cup of ranch dressing on it! I hope they have nutrition trained people to watch over the kids making the salads, I could see it getting pretty messy! :0)

Koko B.
My grandaughter would LOVE that!! Usually the lunches she describes are loaded with fat and starch... although there is usually 1 fruit offering and chocolate milk, which is better than no milk. She loves salad, can't get enough.

Jewls P.
I sure hope the salad IS NOT ICEBURG lettuce! How about mixed greens, spinach, Romaine, etc. Salads with a high nutrition content. I have my doubts however since our government is great at cutting corners at a high cost to us.

Theresa I.
Sugar turns to fat if not burned... which goes in to another topic of having more physical education in our schools... we NEED that more like it was back in the day.

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