Let's Get Rightsized™

Let's Help Our Kids Get Rightsized™ at School!

A child needs to be able to go to the school cafeteria and order the Rightsized™ Food Portion for them every time they eat. This will help to ensure that the child is getting the proper nutrition for their age and activity level.

To change how kids eat we must change how we serve their food! The average school lunch tray contains 2,000 to 3,500 calories. That's more than many adults need in an ENTIRE day! And we are feeding this to our kids every day at school. How can we expect the children to control their portion size once the food is served when we can't do it ourselves? How children are served food impacts their ability to Get Rightsized™ and stay Rightsized™.

Our world has changed and our kids are bearing the impact. We as adults have a difficult time making the right choices about the types of food we select and the right quantity of food for our bodies.

Yet when it comes to kids we expect them to act better than us. When we go out to eat as a family, we order an appetizer, main course, and dessert. We don’t consider that maybe we should just get one entrée for the entire family to share. By showing them that we need a three course meal at home they replicate this lifstyle at school. 

We all can work together, parents and schools to help our children develop into healthy and happy individuals. We must provide our children with the tools they need to Get Rightsized™. To know what portion sizes are appropriate for them and to make sure they are getting the right type of food for their bodies.

If you get a chance go to school to observe a school cafeteria feeding lunch to kids from kindergarten to fifth grade. A random amount of fried chicken nuggets and fries are dropped on their large tray. You and I would probably eat it all if we were there and it would have been a meal for an adult. A kindergartener and a fifth grader received the same Food Portion. How is that possible?

A child of kindergarten age needs about 1,000 to 1,400 calories A DAY. A fifth-grader needs about 1,600 calories. Yet they were both given the same size portion of food for lunch. We would never feed an adult the same size portion as we would a child, so why are we feeding our kids the same portions as adults?

When I was a child, we didn’t have a choice of what we wanted to eat for lunch. We ate what was served and whether we liked it or not. That was just the way it was. Today, kids have a choice of what they want to eat for lunch. They can choose from a variety of items such as pizza, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, cookies, cake, and soda. Is this the best nutritious meal we can provide for the kids? And if they don’t want any of those choices, they can always choose the salad bar. Really? How many kids are running to the salad bar? When we offer too many choices we make it harder for the kids to make the right ones.

 The typical cafeteria day, the server loads up the tray without any consideration of the child's needs. Some of the kids eat it all, way more than they should have. Many more dump unfinished food into the trash. The items they thought they would eat, are just tossed. A lot of money, time, and other resources are wasted because the kids are not eating the food that is served to them . We can change all this by giving the children tools to Get Rightsized™. To order the Rightsized Food Portion every time. What if the child would go up to the server and ask for a Meal Size that's right for them? They would know that if they eat Meal Size 6 at home that's the meal size they can order at the school cafeteria. A completely well-balanced Size 6 Meal that fits right into the Rightsized serving dish.

How can school cafeterias make changes to how they serve? We've designed the school day to work around the facilities and the staffing availability. Kids go to the Cafeteria at scheduled intervals that work for the cafeteria staff and availability of the room. As a result, some kids eat shortly after breakfast if they are scheduled first and will not have any food for 4 to 5 hours until they get home. They are famished when they get home so they overeat. Those who are scheduled later in the day come famished to the cafeteria and overeat. They should refuel their bodies with the right sized more frequent meals, especially the little ones. We are teaching them to snack instead of refuel and usually, these are in the form of unhealthy choices.

 Serving food in Rightsized™ containers and offering Rightsized™ meals that are nutritious and complete instead of having children who are too young to understand the impact of their choices make them on their own. A large plate makes your food appear smaller, imagine what a tray-sized plate does to the food portion!

 If we want our kids to Get Rightsized™, we need to provide our kids with the proper portion sizes for their age and activity level. We also need to make sure they are getting the right type of food for their bodies. We need to give them healthy options that they will eat.

 We also need to make sure they are getting enough movement. The key to success is to make these changes in a way that is fun and enjoyable for the kids. We need to find ways to get them moving so that they will want to do these activities.

 To change how kids move we must change how we structure their day! The average school day for a child is 8 hours. Of those 8 hours, the child is sitting for 6-7 hours. That leaves very little time for the child to move their bodies and get the exercise they need. How can we expect the children to be active at home when they are not allowed to move their bodies during the school day? We need to make sure that the child has at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

 Teaching kids to be active yet not allowing them to engage in movement or activity is counterproductive. We need to make sure that kids are moving their bodies every day and that they are allowed to do so in a fun way. We can do this by making changes to the school day, such as adding a daily recess and a gym class. This will help the children Get Rightsized™!

 The bottom line is that we need to make sure our kids are getting the proper nutrition and exercise they need to be healthy and Get Rightsized™. We can do this by making changes to how we serve food in schools and how we structure the school day. Let's make a change for the better and Get Rightsized™ kids!

 We have to do better. We can do better. Schools can make a huge difference by making changes to the way they serve food. They need to get back to serving food that is nutritious and satisfying, not just high in calories. School lunches should be made up of whole grains, lean proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables, and low-fat dairy. And we need to ditch the sugary drinks!

 We can do this! We can Get Rightsized™ Kids in our schools! It is time for a change and we can be the ones to make it happen!