Students at
San Diego
Public Schools
need balanced
menus - now
Sign the Petition!
Join the coalition of parents, students, and community members in asking that San Diego Unified School District serve healthier, balanced meals to all their students by signing the petition below.
It's simple:
Our children deserve to be served the healthiest possible meals at school.
And we know that the San Diego Unified School District can do better.
Our children are eating too much meat and eggs, too many over-processed products, and not enough fruits and vegetables. This kind of imbalanced diet contributes to 678,000 deaths in the US annually and causes 1 in 3 Americans to live with a preventable chronic illness.
And because food environment is the primary influence of food choice - especially in schools where the options are pre-decided for students, for up to 2 meals a day - SDUSD schools have a responsibility to create the healthiest possible menus for our children.
Nutrition science is clear. SDUSD menus can and must make these common sense changes.
That's why our coalition of concerned parents, students, and community members is asking SDUSD leadership to commit to reducing the amount of disease-promoting foods on their menus and replace them with the things we know make kids grow strong and healthy: fresh fruits and vegetables, lean plant proteins, and whole grains.
Eliminate processed meats like hot dogs, pepperoni pizza, sausage and egg sandwiches, chicken nuggets and fish sticks
Reduce the amount of foods high in cholesterol, saturated fats, and sodium like meat, egg, dairy, and other processed products
Replace unhealthy menu items with foods rich in nutrients and high in fiber like fruits, vegetables, plant proteins, and whole grains
San Diego is already suffering the consequences of imbalanced menus.
58% of children and 73% of teens in San Diego don't eat the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables every day
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Over 7% of adults in San Diego have been diagnosed with diabetes, while nearly 1 in 4 Americans is prediabetic
Cardiovascular disease kills nearly 12,000 people in San Diego every year
The top 4 causes of death in San Diego County—cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and strokes—are related to diet and poor nutrition
Too many products high in cholesterol, saturated fats, and sodium like meats, eggs, and full fat dairy products
1
Too many ultra-processed foods made with disease-promoting refined grains and processed meats
2
Too few health-promoting fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes
3
Imbalanced menus make it harder for students to get the nutrients they need to learn, grow, and excel. San Diego Unified serves more than 120,000 students from pre-school to 12th grade and is the second largest district in California.
Independent public health organization Balanced reviewed the healthfulness of SDUSD menus and gave it a "D" grade—nearly a failing grade, with huge consequences for our children's health. In their analysis, Balanced found that the San Diego Unified School District served:
The problem: SDUSD menus don't reflect a balanced diet.
The leading causes of preventable disease, chronic illness, and premature death in the United States are all related to diet and poor nutrition—diseases like diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and even some cancers. Children born today have a shorter predicted life expectancy than their parents as a result of skyrocketing diet-related diseases. We must do better for our children—but the time to act is now.
