I'm a preschool teacher that works with a class at a daycare. We feed them "healthy" breakfast and snacks, (healthy being in quotes because while some people may find non-sugary cereal served with cows milk and canned peaches "healthy", I most certainly don't) but they all bring their own lunches from home.

And its appalling.

There are 9 kids in my class.
I'd say 2 kids' parents make a concerted effort to have their children eat non-processed foods, but they still slip a bit.
4 kids' parents give their child some  "healthy" food  (again the quotes, because I don't believe a turkey sandwich is healthy, but its better than some things), but always include a few sugary/fattening/uber processed snacks
3 kids' parents simply don't care, they give them pure crap.

Sample lunch of one kid (NO JOKE)
Prepackaged chef boyardee spaghetti and meatballs
Doritos
Chocolate chip granola bar
Trix sugar filled yougurt
Juice Box (of course its only like 10% juice)
Gummy snacks

Whoa! I can't believe that a 4 year old eats so much junk! All the processed food and sugar! No wonder 1 in 3 kids will develop early onset diabetes.

Not to mention my fellow teacher is a horrible eater. She eats lunch with the kids and routinely eats Cheetos or chips or doughnuts with the kids. I swear, I've never seen her eat anything remotely healthy. She'd probably be in opposition to anything I suggested involving nutrition, since I suspect she thinks I'm a nut already when it comes to food.

I've been experimenting making healthy snacks for the kids for birthdays and such. I've made some fat-free whole wheat vegan, processed sugar-free cupcakes that had good reviews from my friends, but I've been hesitant on introducing them to the kids. What should I say about them when i give them to them? "Hey, these are probably the healthiest junk food you've ever had!"

So my question is: What could I do about this? I'm at a loss. I've considered implementing nutrition into our lesson plans, but my views are very "extreme" for 4 year old kids whose parents have meat and dairy in every single meal. But teaching kids conventional nutrition, ie: meat, dairy, fruits, veggies, whole grains- sweets to a minimum goes against what I believe also. And plus, how far could I get teaching nutrition when they have little control over what they eat?

I need a little guidance, I'm new at teaching and new with working with kids. Maybe somebodies been in this situation.