Give us more broccoli!

French fries or salad? Mountain Dew or skim milk? It's easy to guess what today's elementary and secondary students would choose.\nIt's also easy to see why American kids are getting fatter. \nDavid Satcher, former surgeon general and assistant secretary of health, reported in 2001 that 13 percent of children ages 6 to 11 and 14 percent of those 12 to 19 are now obese, a 10 percent increase in the last 30 years.\nIn coming months, Congress will take up the issue of school lunches. Currently, the federal government spends $6.4 billion on the National School Lunch Program, which gives subsidies to schools for a free or reduced lunch, breakfast and snack programs for kids from low-income families.\nThough school lunches must meet nutrition requirements to get the money (less than 30 percent of the calories can come from fat, less than 10 percent of that saturated, the lunch must contain one-third of daily required amounts of vitamins) many kids are faced with so many options that they can easily avoid a healthy lunch. Many kids take the option of eating a bag of chips and a soda from the vending machines rather than pay an oftentimes higher price for the healthier stuff. Add to that the healthy food is often of poor preparation, and kids gravitate toward snack foods for lunch.\nMoney, or lack of it, drives the schools to sign contracts with vendors and contractors (such as Coca-Cola) to break even. These contracts can also provide money for band uniforms and athletic equipment. Nutritious foods, like fresh vegetables and fruit, don't come with such perks. \nThough it's more expensive to feed kids right, it's worth it. Satcher's same report counted 61 percent of the adult population as overweight or obese. Kids need to learn to eat right while young so they don't end up like their parents, as obesity contributes to a myriad of health problems. \nWhile school officials may feel like they don't have much of a choice, some districts have taken healthy eating into their own hands -- and out of the gardens of local farmers. Buying straight from the source not only guarantees quality, but it could also strengthen the local economy and assist oft-struggling farmers.\nCongress should make healthy eating one of its priorities. Amusingly enough, the National School Lunch program was formed in World War II because so many soldiers were malnourished when they signed up. Bush could therefore logically take money from the defense fund to feed the nation's children -- as he's all about war now. \n-- Jessica Halverson for the Editorial Board