Health overriding factor when it comes to school lunches

In Japan, most schools serve freshly prepared, nutritionally balanced lunches — often rice, fish or meat, soup and vegetables.

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French cafeterias typically offer multi-course meals that might include salad, a main dish, bread, cheese and dessert. By contrast, many Americans recall their own school lunches as far less appealing.

Some of us remember rectangular pizza with cheese the consistency of plastic, topped with tiny cubes of what was described as “pepperoni.” Wilted lettuce doused in watery dressing passed off as salads. Mashed potatoes out of a box and mystery meatloaf. It’s hard to imagine there was much nutritional value in any of the food we were fed, according to the Tribune News Service.

So why not make it better? Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched an initiative to improve the nutritional quality of school lunches — a move that, despite his controversial reputation on other issues, deserves serious consideration.