Majority of Alabama parents support healthier school lunches, poll finds

An overwhelming majority of Alabama parents believe that serving nutritious foods in school is important to prepare children for learning, according to a poll released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Most also support standards that require schools to serve fruits or vegetables with meals, to add more whole grains and even reduce salt, according to the survey. Here are the results among voters and parents of public school children:

In 2012, the USDA updated school nutrition standards for the first time in 15 years, in part to combat rising rates of childhood obesity. Obesity rates rise as school-age children get older. In 2011-2012, about 29 percent of Alabama kindergartners were overweight or obese, compared to 38 percent of third graders, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Childhood obesity rates are higher in Alabama than the national average, according to the department, particularly among low-income and minority students.

Despite the controversy that emerged after the new standards went into effect in 2012, parents do not dispute the need for healthier food, said Jessica Donze Black, director of the Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project at Pew.

"Almost everyone thinks it's important to serve a fruit and vegetable with meals," she said.

The poll results in Alabama mirror the results nationwide, Black said, with even greater support for requirements that schools serve fruits and vegetables with meals.

Hoover City Schools began adopting healthier standards for school meals in 2007, said Melinda Bonner, director of child nutrition for the district.

Most parents have supported efforts to improve the nutrition in school meals, Bonner said. Recently, some schools in the district began serving kale chips and snap peas with hummus.