Talk about a hot button issue; that’d be the soda tax. Here’s another one, unhealthy school meals. Combine the two and what do you get: A novel approach to meet the message from First Lady Michelle Obama and her emphasis on healthy eating and getting our children out moving.

A DC Council member, Mary Cheh, has proposed a way to support her earlier proposal, the Healthy Schools Act of 2010. Her data is startling as DC’s adolescent population has the highest obesity rate in the nation. It seems there are plenty of categories of startlingly high obesity, remember Huntington, WVA?

Cheh’s proposal would get more money into the school lunch program, provide free breakfast and move that meal into the classrooms where the majority of students are at the poverty level. The list goes on: Improve the meals by adding a strong local food component, drop the reduced lunch budget (get rid of the co-payment) in favor of providing a healthy, free meal, and get the students into an exercise program of at least 60 minutes daily. School gardens would be encouraged. Actually the list of possibilities is almost endless in moving forward in this direction with its emphasis on low-calorie and low-fat foods.

How doable is all of this? Cost will be an issue, but Councilwoman Cheh plans to propose a penny an ounce tax for soda. That concept, of course, is controversial. Yet, necessity may make this strategy a natural, driving force. As DC schools continue to improve in terms of academic performance, they need to focus on the individual student who is suffering from health issues and struggling to have a healthy lifestyle. Of course, they are not the only school system with a lunch program that needs a major overhaul. This proposal may move them to the forefront of strong, positive action in driving healthy results. The Council has approved the bill and it goes to a final vote this week with enactment scheduled for this coming August.

Stalling on such a concept does no one any good. When we speak of the lives of our children, such moves at this particular Act should be applauded. The current path leads us nowhere.

Maybe DC’s actions will move them into the win column for the HealthierUS School Challenge. Let’s go for the Gold!