fed up: school lunch project

[fashionista311]

http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/

a teacher has committed to eating school lunches for a whole year, and is blogging about it. pretty interesting read....and scary to think about what our schools are serving our children!

[pjlla]

Thanks for posting that link. I'll be interested to keep up with reading the blog. But if it doesn't change what is being fed to the children, I wonder what the point is.

Our school lunches "appear" to be fresher and healthier then what is pictured on that blog... but I would need to compare the NI to know for sure. But our lunches are still OVERLOADED with fat, salt, sugar. And sometimes the portions seems SO tiny... especially for the older kids. To give my school's food service credit, they did start offering fresh salads almost every day as a lunch option (chef salads, chicken topped salads), plus they frequently have a fruit/yogurt parfait as one of the options. And most other days there is a sandwich option. And there is ALWAYS Pb&j available. But I am still horrified at how many white carbs the lunches are full of EVERY DAY.

Anyhow, thanks again for the link.................P

[redlight]

The food, if I can call it that, looks so unappetizing.

[disney_mommy]

Wow. No wonder my son likes me to pack his lunch for him. I don't remember eating this kind of food when I was going to school.

[FireDancer]

School lunches are just terrible. My aunt is a part time worker in a high school cafeteria up here and she tells me about the "food" all of the time. Nothing is actually made from scratch, as all of it should be. Most of it comes pre-packaged and just gets warmed up. The vegetables are over steamed and usually reheated with butter. Then, to sound healthy they don't allow the students to add salt to the already over-salted food. All of this while they have pop machines full of the garbage they are filled with in most cases.

There are cafeterias that offer great food out there, fresh vegetables and fruit, on site chefs. It might cost a little more but I would rather pay a bit more for lunch (or that of my child) then settle for cheap unhealthy mediocrity.

[LAinSEA]

Her posted pics make the food they serve at my high school nearly gourmet!

Frankly, I wouldn't purchase lunch at school even when I was attending school. When I first began teaching, I was told that I could skip the student line and get in and get out with whatever they were serving or just drop through the salad bar and wave my badge strip for payment. Somehow getting in and getting out didn't sound too appetising nor good to upset the 400-600 students standing in line.

Our high school does have a salad bar and does post the nutritional information for the items on the menu. Still, overwhelmingly, french fries are the best-selling choice for the minions. The vending machines dropped the sale of high-fat, high-sugar items, including anything but diet soda and "fruit" juices --that I like to point out don't have much fruit in them to my students. However, the student store still does a bang up business in candy, cup o'noodles, and Monster. DECA needs to pay the bills so to speak and teens will be teens.

Laurie

[DCPrincess]

Very interesting - thanks for posting. Several schools around here have gone with Revolution foods http://www.revfoods.com/browse/home. If you haven't heard of them they partner with Whole Foods and local farms to offer healthy and inexpensive meals to school kids. Hopefully more schools move in that direction!

[solotraveler]

That is frightening, actually.

I understand how difficult it must be to feed a large number of people on a small budget, but this can not possibly be the best we can do. For students from low-income households, this may be the only real "meal" they have a day.

I would love for the administrators and nutritionists who come up with these meals to try the same experiement this teacher is. Bet you'd see some changes then! ;)

:earsboy:

[Colleen27]

Wow, that is horrible. It actually makes me rethink the complementary things I've said in the past about the free breakfast/lunch program, if that's the crap they're feeding the kids in poor areas where the program is most needed/used.

Our school lunches look NOTHING like that, thankfully! They aren't spectacularly healthy; breakfasts are generally a waffle or muffin, fresh fruit, and yogurt or string cheese and lunches are kid-food staples made a little less unhealthy, like baked white-meat chicken nuggets, kosher hot dogs, or pancakes with turkey sausage. But at least there is a vegetable that's not drenched in butter/sauce and some type of fruit every day (usually fresh at least 2-3 days/week). And the food service company our school uses supports local farmers, so during the growing season the kids get really good stuff like fresh, locally grown strawberries, apples, etc.

[amyy]

Our high school has a real chef and the lunches are gourmet. I would eat all my meals there if I could. Whenever the lower grades have a training there the first thing everyone is wanting to know what is for lunch. I forget how lucky we are.