<p>Me either, but school lunches today mirror the fast foods that kids are used to with the difference that the combination is healthy. Instead of greasy pizza it’s breadsticks with tomato sauce and salad. What gets trashed are the fresh fruits and veggies…
Parents come to school just before their child’s lunch with bags and soft drinks from fast food outlets and hand it off to their child as the kids go to lunch. The kids are super-happy to see Mom; get a kiss, say “Hi”, eat the high-status lunch. “My Mom loves me, she brings me Wendy’s every day”.</p>
<p>I have worked in four schools in the past fourteen years and the school lunches are overall shocking. Many middle school students who get reduced lunch choose not to eat at all. I know school lunches have some standards they have to meet but those standards must be low. The fruit is always from a large can never fresh. The students can choose milk that is flavored with chocolate or strawberry. The menu is strange. How can pancakes and sausage be a healthy lunch, or chicken nuggets, or cheesy sticks as a main course? We have burgers, chips and other snacks sold at the lunch line. The food is all super processed and frozen. I have witnessed students being physically ill after eating the school lunch because they system couldn’t handle nachos dripping in canned cheese or soggy greasy pizza. I would never allow my first grader to buy a school lunch when I can pack fresh fruit and unprocessed home prepared lunches. This school is wrong to ban home packed lunches in my opinion. We do ban fast food parents bring in at lunch. On a daily basis the kids are sold junk food as a classroom fund raiser.</p>
<p>^dragonmom, I’m only 21. I am well aware of what cafeterias today serve-- our cafeterias were pizza, hot dogs, pasta, chicken, hamburgers, pbj, etc. I didn’t eat that kind of food as a kid, or pretty much anything but peanut butter or american cheese. My mother addressed my pickyness in the comfort and privacy of our own home, and in the meantime I wasn’t going hungry at school. </p>
<p>While I was in high school, they started charging extra for all of the junk food, so a lot of kids could only afford the healthier food-- which was not prepared as well, and there were substantially fewer choices, and kids just didn’t eat or brought from home. I don’t think anyones diet is anyone elses business besides their legal guardians and their doctors. I don’t think any adult would accept being stripped of their free will so far as their diet is concerned and I am not sure why any parent would be okay with having that stripped from their family for their children, either.</p>
<p>"Though Carmona says the Chartwells-Thompson options are healthy, others disagree.</p>
<p>“It’s rare that I see a school, especially a public school, that actually serves food that’s good,” Susan Rubin, a nutritionist and founder of the Better School Food program, told AOL News. “I get physically sick just looking at it, because it makes me sick that kids are eating this processed crap.”</p>
<p>(You can make school attendance compulsory, but you can’t make students learn crap; same holds for school lunches.)</p>
<p>What got me more than anything was the “blob” of “enchilada” dish that was served in the picture…
THAT is supposed to be more healthy than a home packed sandwich?!?!
It looks like someone already ate it once.
When my kids’ school dictates no lunches from home, I’ll homeschool. Problem solved.</p>
<p>Then there’s the problem of time: standing in line to get your lunch can take ten to fifteen minutes; if you only have 24 minutes, as my kids do, that’s not much time to eat. My daughter (who brings her lunch) can wolf it down, saving part of it for later, and go find a teacher for extra help, or talk to her friends, or finish her homework, rather than stand in line. And next year she actually has no lunch period, at all; her lunch will be consumed between classes. My son, who chooses to buy, gets a piece of pizza, milk, and an apple–every day. For $5. Now, that might not be as bad as Wendy’s, but it’s white flour and full-fat mozzarella cheese, and an apple that might be a baseball for all the flavor and texture it has. Oh, and 2% milk, which he doesn’t like because he’s used to skim at home. My daughter takes, every day (yes, I know, not adventurous eaters) a pb&j (on whole wheat), 1 or 2 pieces of fruit, a vegetable, and something crunchy for after school. The produce, by the way, is organic. It still doesn’t cost $5.</p>
<p>If the school is concerned about poor choices, educate the kids. Start at-school gardens, which have been shown again and again to make a very positive change in kids’ attitudes. It’s my daughter who set the menu for her lunch; I just make it. </p>
<p>Ban doritos, ban sodas (btw, the lunches for field trips are always much worse than the ones for the regular school day, because field trips are holidays–and the requirement is that the entire package must be disposable, and not kept cold, as they are in an insulated lunchbox). Ban fast food, ban cupcakes (my school did). But don’t tell me that since some parents don’t have a clue, no parent–or child!–should be “allowed” to choose her own food.</p>
<p>I wonder how much money Chartwells is making from this. Did they bribe the principal or something? I have never heard of anything more absurd. The kids won’t eat the school slop, they will go hungry anyway, and all this money will be wasted, but Chartwells will get its cut. The lack of respect for the parents and community shown by the school management is disheartening. I suppose if you live in a poor district, you have no choice but to defer to your self-appointed busybody betters. The parents in a middle-class neighborhood would never stand for this.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A turkey hotdog and most frankfuters and other smoked and chemically cured meats are in no way “generally healthy” (and yes, I have a weakness for franks, especially at the ballpark and at the 4th of July).</p></li>
<li><p>Justifying a school’s authority to dictate what foods pupils may bring by comparing the situation to uniforms is a weak proposition because at public schools the administration must offer an “opt-out” of the uniform policy, I believe.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I would not want to be the teacher on lunch duty or cafeteria employee who has to go around ripping banned Doritos and Cokes from the hands of 8 year olds. I think that “banning” certain foods, unless it is a potentially life-threatening situation, like a peanut allergy, is not realistic.</p>
<p>I know that it actually IS possible for schools to serve food that most kids actually like and that is reasonably healthy–like the turkey hotdog, carrot sticks, and milk served at my son’s elementary school, which I would maintain IS “generally healthy.” It’s not like the kids are being forcefed preserved meats every day, LakeWashington.</p>
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<p>In the first place, I wasn’t “justifying” it. In the second place, there is an opt out for the lunch program also. In the third place, I find dictating what a kid must wear at least as intrusive as requiring them to eat school lunch. I’m not in favor of EITHER thing.</p>
<p>“Shravas, it does say in the article that there are exceptions for religious reasons and for food allergies, so that isn’t the problem.”</p>
<p>No, it does not say that. It says that there can be a medical excuse. This principal may be clueless that there are religious or even ethical aspects to food. This school probably has no religious diversity. This would never fly at a school where cultural sensitivity to a diverse population exists.</p>
<p>I have two Aspie kids whose sensory issues include food. I suppose that theoretically I could get a medical person to write a note explaining that my kids needed to be excused from this program. But then my child would be stigmatized even further. </p>
<p>(By the way, I had one who basically only ate peanut butter sandwiches for a year or so. When the Florida case made the news, my husband and I both had the same thought - what about all the Aspie kids who drive their parents insane with their food and eating issues? Will they have to switch schools?)</p>
<p>Each family should have the right to decide how they will handle ethical eating issues (organic, nonorganic, vegan, vegetarian), religious eating issues (kosher, hallal, fish of Fridays, etc.) and sensory eating issues (no mushy foods!). </p>
<p>Really, people, this used to be a free country . . .</p>
<p>“is excessive grease/fat and sodium any better in the greater scheme of things?”</p>
<p>Yes. A McDonald’s hamburger/fried chicken nuggets/frozen pizza is a far better lunch for a kid than a bag of Skittles because it has protein. Even within the dessert/candy scheme of things, a Good Humor bar is better than a Popsicle as a main course for the same reason. The kid can at least form a little bone and muscle. We’re talking about a really, really low bar here. It’s a matter of including something, anything, of value amongst the crap.</p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t accept this system for my child unless I were very impressed with the school food. I’m the biggest proponent of home cooking you’ll find. But I’m sympathetic to schools that are trying to help the neediest kids get some modicum of supervision. I don’t think kids ought to be hung out to dry when their parents abdicate responsibility.</p>
<p>“kosher, organic, vegan, vegetarian”</p>
<p>Yeah, these are not issues of concern in this population.</p>
<p>I can see banning soda and candy, but living in NYC and sending my kids to public schools, I can say with certainty that I wouldn’t allow my kids to eat food prepared therein. The vast majority of schools are crawling with roaches and other vermin. My kids can eat their lunches from home and, you know what? My son who is in the 85th percentile in height and 22nd in weight (genetic) eats a hundred calorie bag of chips every day and heaven help anyone who tries to take it from him.</p>
<p>Our school banned soda in home brought lunches quite some time ago. “Behavior” problems commonly stem from poor eating habits. I think they are trying to balance that out. As far as I know, they haven’t banned anything else specific.</p>
<p>Our meals aren’t contracted out either - no businesses here to do that with. Our cooks come into the kitchen & prepare the meals. There are quite a few public government commodities, but a lot of our food is cooked ‘home made’. Most of it isn’t bad. Both of my kids grew up eating it & only took their lunch sometimes. They are not picky eaters. (They’ve been taught to eat what’s put in front of them. - If I’m going to work all day and still prepare a hot meal every night, then they’re going to eat it. Period.)</p>
<p>If you bring birthday treats…they have to be store bought. This is state wide and is because of the dirt/germs in the homes coming to school.</p>
<p>I have personally cooked in our public school cafeteria - not lunches, but meals for tailgate parties, fundraisers, etc. It is spotless. Even their storage area/pantry. Very clean.</p>
<p>There was a post on the first page…we have ALWAYS purchased our own school supplies. The lists are posted for each school in the newspapers and copies are available at the local Wal Marts, etc. It’s a tradition before school begins each fall to go ‘school supply and school clothes’ shopping. There is a small supply at school for the kids who cannot afford them.</p>
<p>My nephews go to public school and pay a yearly enrollment fee and textbook rental fees. For the most part, public school is suppose to be free, that always surprised me.</p>
<p>Looks like it may be a situation that is unique to each school & its students.</p>
<p>“kosher, organic, vegan, vegetarian Yeah, these are not issues of concern in this population.”</p>
<p>And - hallal, religious reasons for vegetarianism - our urban school has a large number of refugees that adhere to dietary laws and customs. Many urban schools have this. This is NOT only an issue of affluence. Obviously, this school must have no diversity and/or the principal is clueless about this issue. I actually once had to educate one of our top administrators of our urban district about how kids may not have applied for free or reduced lunch, used as an indicator, because they won’t eat this lunch for religious reasons, but still meet the criteria for low socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>In that case, I’d think a more productive non-antagonizing approach would be to provide dietary education programs for parents with kids and create school meals that are nutritious and palatable. With the current state of most school food, it is essentially the worst of both worlds…unhealthy and unpalatable. </p>
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<p>Saddest part was that most fast food places…including McDonalds serve food that’s not only tasty, but also far less greasy most people I knew and I grew up with. There are days during junior high and high school when I wondered if the school bureaucrats had some perverse need to pour on the grease and American cheese to make school food more greasy and disgusting.</p>