Naturally, if you need to feed a family of six on a budget, the low-nutrient macaroni and cheese is going to go farther.

The Presidential Candidates and School Lunch 

One way for voters to help level the playing field - and to make healthy foods more affordable - is to find out if candidates support measures like the Farm Bill, and some of its key provisions, like The Community Food Project, a community-based program that connects residents in low-income communities with healthy, affordable food.

Since most kids eat one, if not two, meals at school, the government needs to find ways to overhaul the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), which has aimed to to provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children since 1946. The problem is that it falls woefully short: Most lunch programs across the country are way too high in saturated fat and cholesterol and way too low in nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. (To see how major school districts stacked up in the school lunch department, check out the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's School Lunch Report).

Companies like Brown Bag Naturals (www.brownbagnaturals.com) and Kid Fresh (www.kidfresh.com) cater to health-conscious parents by delivering healthy, organic, ready-made meals to more than 400 private schools. With prices that range from $4.99 to $7.99 a meal, kids can choose from a sandwich made with free-range chicken, with organic yogurt and a spring water, to broccoli trees with tomato dip and a fresh fruit salad. While the prices are a bit higher than the standard fare, couldn't the government offer tax breaks or other types of incentives to companies so menus like these could replace the nutrient-poor options we're feeding our kids? Surely buying meals in bulk without the flashy packaging would bring the cost down to an affordable price.

While more expensive initially, the benefits of feeding our kids well now will take a tremendous burden off of a health care system that is already stressed. With a generation of kids facing some serious health problems before they hit puberty, an ounce of prevention is not only worth a pound of cure, but billions of dollars for tax payers.