More Local, Healthy Food Needed In Schools, FL State Panel Says

TAMPA — The menu was to die for: Latin-spiced chicken with an avocado sauce, yellow rice with corn and sweet peppers, a green bean and cabbage slaw with lime and cilantro and honey-glazed fruit.

And, of course, there were cartons of flavored milk packing 22 sugar grams into 8 ounces.

If only schoolchildren ate this well and were as fit as the dancers who performed for a state panel that met Wednesday at Orange Grove Middle Magnet School.

But, paradoxically, hunger and obesity abound in a state that's a leading provider of winter produce.

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