Cost is a barrier to a healthy school lunch

 
With “fresh” and “local” food all the rage in the Pacific Northwest and across the country, parents and others who know better still face an uphill battle in cracking the code to get wholesome food into public schools. Major obstacles include limited school budgets and the lure of commodity programs that can deliver lots of calories cheaply, even if they do have to travel 7,500 miles from farm to nacho plate.
 

But school districts coast to coast are learning creative ways around the status quo, including reigning in private dollars, and farm-to-school programs are sprouting up everywhere. Policymakers are also getting into the game and asking obvious questions like why there’s such a dearth of fresh, healthy food in schools that reside in agriculturally rich states.
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