Here at eMom, we like to discuss and help educate you on why healthy school lunch programs are so important for your students. Recently there were some photos taken of school lunch programs from around the world that were a striking contrast from what American children are eating every day at school in the U.S.

Even with the recent shift from government to get a better handle on school lunches being served to millions of children in the U.S., there are still roughly 32 million children eating unhealthy cafeteria style lunches every day. That number does not account for large number of students attending private schools or the children who bring lunches from home. Our nation is becoming more and more aware of the childhood obesity rate in our country that has truly become an epidemic.

eMom is a company that is looking at a fresh and unique way to not only battle this very problem in the schools with their unhealthy school lunch programs, but also to provide parents with an easier and healthier solution to the boring, brown bagged lunch alternatives. One of the biggest challenges eMom has solved is finding fresh ingredients and nutritious foods that students will actually eat. We have all seen the news in the last year of students around the nation taking to Twitter and other social media channels to refuse and boycott the first lady’s push for healthy meals. As the saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” eMom has created more than 60 different meal choices for students and parents to choose from, allowing even the pickiest of eaters to find something they will like.

It appears that eMom has taken notice of school lunch programs from around the world and put their own spin on some delicious kid favorites, while providing the nutrients they need. Take a look at the following countries school lunch programs meals being served to students:

Italy

Local caught fish served on top of a bed of arugula. freshly made pasta with a lite tomato sauce, crisp red seedless grapes, a child’s version of caprese salad, and a freshly baked baguette. Lot’s of great choices here for students, and of course since this is Italy, you would expect to have at least one pasta dish.

Finland

Freshly cooked pea soup, whole wheat roll, carrot salad, beet salad, and pannakkau (a thin dessert pancake) topped with some fresh berries. You will notice in this meal there are no meats being served, depending on how the pea soup is cooked of course.

France

Apple slices, Locally made cheese, fresh green beans with seasoning, kiwi slices, and seasoned cooked carrots. You will notice with this meal that is straight forward ingredients with some seasoning. Of course you can have a meal in france without some cheese.

Brazil

Black beans and rice, pork with some local veggies, whole grain roll, fresh green salad, and some baked plantains (similar to bananas). This meal is rich in local and nationally grown ingredients. This meal represents its home country very well, bright and full of life.

South Korea

Seasoned and cooked tofu over white rice, kimichi (traditionally a fermented side dish made of vegetables and a variety of seasoning), broccoli, red-yellow-green cooked peppers, and a fish soup. Notice that most of this meal is made up vegetables and grain.

Greece

Baked boneless skinless chicken breast laid atop cooked orzo (pasta that resembles rice), fresh small oranges, greek yogurt with some pomegranate seeds, cherry tomato and cucumber salad, and steamed stuffed grape leaves. This entire meal speaks to greece, especially the use of citrus and “greek” yogurt.

Ukraine

Cabbage salad, syrniki (a local dessert pancake), mashed potatoes with locally made sausage links, and borscht (a ukrainian soup that is usually made of beets). No doubt that this is a very simple meal, but made with locally grown and made foods.

Spain

Sauteed peeled shrimp on top of a bed of brown rice and vegetables, whole grain roll, fresh orange, fresh pepper salad, and gazpacho (this is a juice, often misidentified as a soup, made from fresh raw vegetables and served cold). Another meal made from raw and fresh ingredients.

USA

Fried processed “popcorn” chicken with processed and sugary sauce, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookie, canned green peas, and canned fruit cup in syrup.

eMom

eMom carries more than 60 different meal choices, providing parents and students a choice when it comes to picky eaters, while providing nutrients they need. For example, meals like, “Crunchy Oven Baked Fish Sticks,” provide a healthy alternative to regular fish sticks, this is made with firm and flaky cod fish in a seasoned mixture of low fat parmesan and whole grain breadcrumbs. Take a look at all of the options they have to offer.

It’s a bit shocking to to see so many other nations providing their school children nutritious and fresh school lunch programs, while American school students are still being served processed and sugary foods. eMom is hoping to change this for American families across the nation, however they believe it takes one community at a time to educate and teach parents on the quality and value that eMom’s school lunch program provides. To learn more about eMom, click here:

Photo’s provided by Distractify and Sweetgreen

For many busy parents the act of packing your kid’s lunch has changed from an act of love to a nagging morning chore. As parents, it is difficult not to see this daily activity as just another item on our long list of things to do. Every parent has the desire to provide their students with the most nutritious meals possible while also giving them meals that they are happy to eat. Fortunately, the crew at eMom has created a solution to keep students healthy and happy while also taking out the hassle for busy, overwhelmed parents.

eMom prepares food that is freshly made everyday. The very best ingredients are used in all meals so that a healthy school lunch delivery system is available to parents, their students, and schools. Local private schools in the Orange County area are partnering up with this popular startup because of its well-known reputation. Through its online service parents are able to make sure that food allergies, likes, and dislikes are taken into account when ordering the meals their students will eat throughout the week. Parents also have the ability to order food for the entire week or for any given number of days. It’s up to the parents to decide on the rate of food delivery to each child. eMom recently released a brand new app (on Android and iOS), allowing parents to order meals for their students anytime, anywhere. Forget to pack your kid’s lunch? Not a problem, pull out your phone or tablet and order your child a lunch on the go.

The owners of eMom, Jonathan and Aileen Bonuan, explain that there are benefits for all those that use eMom as a solution to school lunches; the parents, their children, and the schools. Parents are able to avoid the daily chore and hassle of preparing school lunches, children get to enjoy fresh and highly nutritious food that actually tastes good, and schools don’t have to deal with a typical lunch program.

According to Jonathan and Aileen, eMom relieves parents from the daily chore of creating school lunches or relying on school lunch programs to give their students what they need. This provides peace of mind to many parents who worry about whether or not their child is getting the nutrients they need. Schools also benefit from this program as it provides an easy and healthy school lunch delivery program on a daily basis. Jonathan and Aileen take it a step further by providing a percentage of the proceeds back to the schools, allowing a win-win-win for everyone.

eMom started with a love and passion for food and healthy eating. It began about two years ago when as a father to two growing toddlers, Jonathan, began noticing the challenges of putting together lunches for his children. In the beginning, he thought putting together lunches for his students was an easy chore that could be accomplished with little hassle. He quickly realized how monotonous the chore was and how much of a hassle it became to find and implement healthy lunches for his students on a daily basis. Jonathan recalls the struggle stating, “I was packing the same “vanilla” lunches every week. While my students weren’t directly complaining, I knew they were wanting more!” Jonathan became more and more concerned about his growing students and their nutritional needs. This led him and his wife on a mission to find more options and choices for healthy-conscious meals that his students would actually love to eat.

Aileen, a middle school math and science teacher, rallied with Jonathan to help find a solution to this daily struggle. She quickly worked with Jonathan, and together they were able to turn their idea for healthier and more delicious lunches into a business. The passion Jonathan has for the well being of his own children made it an easy decision to leave his 20 year long career in engineering to pursue and develop eMom. Jonathan and Aileen knew they weren’t the only parents struggling to provide their students with deliciously healthy meals while dealing with the everyday stresses of work and life. Eventually the idea of eMom came to life and it is beginning to positively affect the lives of parents, children, and schools.

eMom program allows parents, and more importantly students, to choose from many different varieties of healthy lunches. They say that even the pickiest eaters will certainly find something they love in this program. There are over 55 entree choices to choose from that are healthy and made daily with fresh ingredients. This provides students the freedom to choose from a wide variety of meals and gives parents the peace of mind that quality ingredients are being served to their children. eMom is quickly growing in the Orange County area and is becoming the healthy school lunch delivery program that private schools have been looking for.

Currently, eMom offers its services to daycares, camps, private, and parochial schools. Unfortunately, there are numerous schools that fail to offer healthy lunches to their students. This has become a common occurrence because many schools can not substantiate the expense and overhead involved with offering such a program.

It’s good to know that there is a healthy school lunch delivery program like eMom available for us busy parents. Programs like this give parents and their children the opportunity for a healthier and more satisfying lifestyle.

With Halloween lurking around the deserted street corner next to the shadowy castle on the hill, there are many fun, simple ways to channel the better spirits of All Hallow’s Eve while staying away from the ones that will rot your teeth. With the popular trend of schools taking charge in encouraging good eating with healthy school lunch programs provided by eMom, parents can maintain this sentiment through the inevitable candy hauntings and sugar scaring.

Tangerine Jack O’Lanterns

Jack O’Lanterns can get messy, time-consuming, and a bit frustrating to deal with. However, there’s a way to keep the amusement of those smiling pumpkins while simplifying matters by making them smaller. With a marker, you can make small jack o’lantern tangerines or oranges by drawing faces on the peel as a small surprise for your child and a bit of additional incentive for them to eat it.

“Boo” Nana Pops

In addition to vitamin C, healthy school lunch programs make sure to give a well-rounded nutritional basis for students to follow. Naturally, this would include potassium, and this aspect of your child’s diet can be filled with “boo”nana pops, created by Skinny Taste. Terrifying puns aside, you can fix this snack hassle-free by dipping bananas into liquid white chocolate, decorating to make them look like adorable ghosts, and freezing them overnight to be packed for tomorrow. They each only have half-an-ounce of chocolate per pop, making them much healthier than a standard chocolate bar from that shady haunted house next to the dim lamplight down the crooked street.

Pizza Fingers

Pizza doesn’t really grant a sense of healthy eating to many, but with new, innovative recipes and clever placement of vegetables, pizza can get as healthy as brussel sprouts doused in fish oil while actually being edible, and wonderfully so. With eMom’s healthy school lunch programs, you can find a cauliflower bread substitute. Turn this into a splendid Frankenstein pizza creation with tomato sauce and some toppings of choice, and it becomes a lunch your children will assume to be you spoiling them because it tastes so nice. Keeping in touch with Halloween, you can theme the meal by slicing them into finger-shaped portions and tagging the top with a fingernail-shaped tomato slice, turning your students into zombies that obtain 80% of their daily vitamin C with every serving.

Spooky Fruit Spider

Using a plum, three dozen grapes, and half-a-dozen toothpicks, you can spend some time connecting the fruits into a spider, with the plum sitting in the center and eight grape legs extending from the sides. The eyes can be made out of white chocolate with small raisins in the center, resulting in another harrowing snack, though this one might actually scare some people if they really don’t like spiders. Great idea from Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons

Cheesy Witch Brooms

Grains are an important part of healthy school lunch programs, and you can inspire a bit of Halloween spirit by turning pretzel sticks into witch brooms, created by Cocinanda Con Catman. Take a piece of cheese, cut it into a square, wrap it around the end of a pretzel stick, and keep it in place with chives as string. They look great as a party snack too, as you can lay them on a flat plate at a costume party.

Of course, it proves difficult to be creative with snacks and lunches with busy schedules and lots to do at home.eMom can help you keep your children healthy with artisan, tasty meals delivered every school day — put together from scratch using ingredients from local growers — and it’s sure to free up a bit of time for your clever ideas, regardless of the season.

Usually, parents find it difficult to prepare quick and easy snacks for students who attend school on a daily basis. Whether you’re a single parent, both of you work full time, or simply have a busy schedule, it’s understandable why parents often reach for and prepare the boring and dreaded old brown bagged lunch. For this reason we have come up with six fast, healthy, and simple snacks ideas that not only will provide the nutrients for the growing bodies and minds of your children, but also snacks ideas they will love! Put down the brown bags and let’s get started with helping put together some fresh school lunches for your students.

Six Great Snacks for students

It is time you should replace those unhealthy, mid-day snacks with healthy options for your students so they remain happy and active at all times. It is advised that every parent gives their children of any age fresh school lunches that have moderate amounts of calories in order to keep them healthy.

Whole Grain Cereal

Photo by Tina Rupp

The whole grain cereal meal incorporates essential nutrients such as, calcium, fiber, and vitamins. A bowl of improved whole grain with fruit and milk is an energy packed, healthy snack that will help the students start their day with an energized smile. For an appetizing fun twist, try combing whole grain cereal with yogurt and dried strawberries.

Cheese

Photo by Paula Hible

Cheese is a kid-friendly snack and contains the protein content that helps to boost energy and hold students over until dinner time. When preparing this yummy snack be sure to choose salt-free and low-fat cheese. Create some fun by cutting the cheese into your child’s favorite Disney character or possibly their beloved Super Hero with a shaped cookie cutter.

Smoothies

Photo by Parent.com

students go wild over these yummy treats that are packed with vital nutrients and nourishment that their growing bodies and minds need. Try non-fat vanilla yogurt, banana, and pure orange juice as the base of the smoothies. Then add a mixture of frozen or fresh fruits to give it a bit of a kick. Want to be a little sneaky? Add in frozen or fresh spinach. Be careful not to add too much of the veggies since most students have great taste buds and are able weed out any veggie push. Start with small amounts and build up overtime to get them familiar with the healthy tastes and they will begin to enjoy this combo even into their college and adult years. If they ask why it’s green, convince them it’s special HULK juice that only the strongest students on the block drink! This is a wonderful way to include more than two servings of fiber, fruits and veggies into your kid’s regimen.

Strawberries

Photo by Paula Hible

As parents we usually like grabbing the easy to handle and longer shelf life fruits, such as bananas and apples. Although these fruits have longer self life they do not compare to the rich vitamin C that students will receive from consuming strawberries. A cup of strawberries surprisingly contains more vitamin C than an equal portion of oranges. Strawberries also contain a healthy dose of folate and other nutrients that help students maintain a healthy heart. Another benefit to this super fruit is that it also has been known to naturally whiten teeth. Instead of the boring old Peanut Butter and Jelly, why not give a bit of flare to this old staple. Resist the urge to reach and grab the jelly next time and put fresh slices of strawberry in the sandwich instead. Fresh strawberries are a great substitute to jellies that contain too much sugar. Not only is this a great snack idea, but it can also be put into your students fresh school lunches.

Wholesome Baked Goods

Photo by Parents.com

Muffins are a great vehicle for parents to use as a way to sneak in some healthy veggies. The strong flavors of veggies can be masked by fruit and other ingredients such as in baked goods and your students never have to know the real ingredients. Carrot bars, banana bread, and zucchini muffins are among some of the top picks for students and baked goods with added veggies. If you really want to throw your students off the scent, why not give them Sweet Potato Brownie Bites? Not even adults will be able to tell the difference with this craft creation.

Chocolate Coconut Granola

Photo by eMom

Kick your boring old granola routine up a notch with this Chocolate Coconut Granola from eMom. Let’s face it, as parents we don’t always have time, even though we have the best intentions, to provide the healthy snack options for our students. That’s where eMom comes in, by providing fresh and daily made healthy options that students actually love! This version of the classic adult favorite has been converted for students of all ages to enjoy. Oats, shredded coconut, cocoa powder, ground flax seeds, extra virgin coconut oil, and mini chocolate chips. A protein and fiber-rich homemade snack that your students will love, while providing the nutrients they need to make it through their school day.

For more information and helpful tips on fresh school lunches for your school students, keep checking back as we will be posting more ideas in this series of healthy and nourishing snack ideas that your students will actually eat and love. To learn more about eMom and how they can help you do away with the boring and dreaded bagged lunches, visit their site at www.TheLunchMOB.co.

Photo’s by Parents.com & eMom

We’re officially live! Thank you to Geaux Web Services LLC & Light House Graphics.