I pulled up to the park to pick up Georgia from her sweet little daycare group, and she came running once I walked close enough that she could pick me out among the other moms.

“Mommeeeee! I saved my zucchini for you and if you want it I will share my sandwich with you too!” She’s a very sweet and generous kid, who happens to hate zucchini. I walked with her over to her hand-me-down towel where her lunch was carefully lined up along the Buzz Lightyear lettering. She showed me her chocolate milk (rBST-free, and low fat), and I realized she and the other kids in her daycare had got the free lunch offered by the parks for the summer.

The last time she had one of the free lunches, it contained a lot of plastic, and a “weird and yucky” round disc of a prepackaged, crustless PB&J on white bread that still makes my tongue itch. Since I was seeing the current lunch half-eaten, I can’t be sure what originally was encased in plastic, but it looked like a much better offering than last year. There were sliced cucumbers in a thin paper cup (mistaken for zucchini, though Georgia wouldn’t have touched either), a simple bologna sandwich on a grainy wheat roll, a plastic baggie of watermelon and a pre-packaged graham cracker-apple-cinnamon cookie that had no hydrogenated oils or corn syrup. It had “Healthy!” splashed across it, and was a brand I’d never seen. It was all served on a Styrofoam tray, and presumably over-wrapped with plastic, but aside from the sanitary necessities of serving masses of children outdoors, this lunch was clearly healthier. Trading a whole grain “Healthy!” cookie for salty white flour Goldfish and a simple sandwich on whole wheat for that strange Uncrustables saucer sandwich were good moves.

The Federal Free Lunch program offers “free, nutritious lunches to children 2-18.” Last year I was shocked that the crustless saucer sandwich could be considered nutritious, and was distressed that this program, targeting underprivileged kids, was serving up a big helping of brand awareness. This year, at least this one lunch was nearly free from a corporate message, and the only splash of brand I came away with was “Healthy!”

We gathered up the rest of Georgia’s lunch, and I ate her cucumbers on the way to the car. I took a bite of the sandwich and was transported back to my childhood with a whiff of bologna. Georgia offered me some of her cookie, which was not too sweet and tasted like it really did have whole grain in it, and we drove away. She happily munched the rest of her meal as we drove home, and I felt relieved; that the free lunch wasn’t a billboard for bad eating, and that we are fortunate that we don’t have to worry about where her next meal is coming from.