The average school lunch has 821 calories and 31 grams of fat. As of today one in three children is overweight and the Center for Disease Control estimates that one in three children will develop diabetes. School lunches are a main cause of these epidemics, but Palmetto has a solution: Palmetto’s application for the Whole Food Salad bar grant was accepted and Whole Foods will donate a salad bar to the lunch program.

Whole Foods, along with chef Ann Cooper, will install  salad bars in schools around the nation. To be eligible for the donation, the schools must be within a 25-mile radius of a Whole Foods Marketplace. Schools must have completed a formal application to be eligible to receive a salad bar. Senior Eliana Aklepi submitted the application for Palmetto with the help of Dee Jordan and Andrea Spivak.

“I mainly did it because everyone just eats pizza and its not healthy, but now students will have more energy and be healthier when good food is available,” Aklepi said.

Schools applied for the salad bars through a formal grant process, and salad bars were issued to schools based on their applications and on the school’s commitment and ability to sustain the salad bar.

The salad bar will be refreshed daily with products bought from Mac Edwards Produce and Company Inc.

The salad bar donations are designed to raise awareness of childhood obesity, improve the nutrition of school lunches and incorporate more of the main food groups into students’ everyday lunches.

“A lot of kids in the school eat junk food and it’s a good change of pace that kids now have a healthier option at lunch time,” sophomore Richard Mullin said.

Each salad bar will cost about $2,500. Paid for by customer donations, each school is responsible for maintaining and restocking their salad bar. If a school is not able to meet a minimal quota on salad bar usage, the bars will be recalled.

The salad bars should be operational for the second half of the 2010-2011 school year.

“A lot of kids nowadays only eat junk food,” Aklepi said. “It’s a good change of pace that now we have a better option at lunch time that’s low in calories and healthy for you.”