School Lunch Mystery

I do not understand the big issue of offering vegetables in lunch cafeterias. I just read that they are trying to market the vegetables to the kids. There are so many good cooks and chefs in this country. My question is: Are they not teaming up with the nutritionists? Am I blind thinking there is some kind of conspiracy going on here? This is not rocket science. There are so many ways to add vegetables to food for kids that they will love: use whole wheat flour, make zucchini bread, carrot cake, pumpkin bread, apple cake, use whole wheat pasta and make the meal appetizing. Cut out at least half of the sugar, add bran and flax to the recipe. Use WHOLE FOOD ingredients to make the recipes for the school lunches. I don't understand why this is such a huge issue. To introduce new foods to kids, maybe have a day of tasting at the school so that kids learn about the new healthy food offered to them so they can make good healthy choices. Take the mystery out of what to do by inviting the kids to taste the new healthy items offered, and use some of the budgeted marketing money for this. If it's good, they will like it and continue to eat it. It seems like there is too much of an issue here and it doesn't have to be that way. There are a lot of people in this country that love to cook. Planning lunch menus for a year is not that big of a deal. Give me a week and an industrial kitchen and I can prove it.