Rachael Ray works to empower kids

Television personality Rachael Ray and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., right, visit 3rd graders at Payne Elementary School to promote healthy eating, and will lobby for more in child nutrition funding to combat childhood obesity on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ORG XMIT: DCEV102

Celebrities are always lending their names and donating money to good causes, but often it seems like it’s just a ploy for good PR. Well, that may be the case with Rachael Ray’s newest project,  but she deserves good PR for it. She’s putting her culinary skills to good use by teaching kids to grow and eat healthy foods.

Ray is helping to create menus for 1,600 New York public schools. She joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg last week at a press event at a Brooklyn school that has built a garden where she said she wants to “empower kids” to have a “healthier relationship with food.”  The program is supported by Ray’s Yum-o! organization, government and private funds. The New York school program teaches students cooking and nutrition.

That’s great, but kids are pretty limited in choosing what they eat. They rarely fix dinner for the family, and when is the last time you saw a kid choosing veggies at the grocery store? It’s their parents and school cafeteria cooks who choose and prepare their food.