School lunch makeover

with Hilary Boynton

It’s time to disrupt the trend of chronic illness in the next generation of kids. Hilary Boynton has a bright idea for achieving this goal. Hilary is the head of nutrition services at The Manzanita School in Topanga, California, and she is the author of the “Heal Your Gut Cookbook.” Her plan is to reinvent the “Lunch Lady” and the very lunch she serves up. Her mission is to truly nourish children and she is training up a new wave of lunch leaders to do just that. She talks to us about how she and her team approach the lunches they make at their own school, how they follow Wise Traditions guidelines for nutrient-dense meals, their relationship with the local farmers, how they inspire the kids to try the food they make and more. This conversation challenges all of us to become a part of the change we want to see in the world. Hilary reminds us of what’s at stake and the power of just one meal to turn things around.

Notes:

Highlights from the conversation include:

What most kids eat at camps and schools
How the high carb diet they are on is not serving them
How Hilary and her team feed the kids at the school in Manzanita
How it’s easier to feed a school of kids than to feed our own families
How explaining the “why” behind the foods is part of the process of introducing real food to the kids
Menu planning is key to preparation without stress
How starting as the “snack lady” at her school led her into her current role
By 2030, one in two kids will have chronic disease
Her passion to help people stop chasing health, and to empower families to prevent these conditions
How one lunch can change the health & behavior and kids
The impact of the lunch program at Manzanita on the teachers, students, and parents
Hilary’s connecting families & farmers and creating a community beyond the school
The lunch lady training “intensive” that Hilary and her team are running
A call to all food activists to roll up their sleeves and get involved