Wasting food at school~vent

How about the children just buy a milk?

Put the blame where it belongs.


Who are you saying is to blame? The child? The parent(s)?

As a former lunch lady, food waste is everyday whether it is eaten or not. You cannot avoid it.

The food would have been thrown away anyway.

Forcing the full meal is important even though it does not seem that way.


Why would it be thrown away anyway? In elementary school, teachers take a count each morning and give the number of children buying lunch and which choice (there are 2 to choose from) and if any of the children are getting "doubles". That is given to the kitchen staff so they can prepare accordingly.

Explain why forcing a full meal is so important if the child already has a lunch and just want milk.
 
I worked as a volunteer for 2-3 days a week at my son's and niece's school for five years. Some days I was in the office or resource room, but most days I was in the lunchroom and recess. I want to defend a few of these meals. Sorry, but not all of them are gross. Our kids always had two choices at least of a main course: chicken patty sandwich, turkey sandwich, hamburger, nice chef salad, grilled chicken, baked potato with choice of toppings, chicken tacos, etc. I think the kids favorite day was probably walking taco day. Most kids cleared their entire entree on those days.

The least popular that was ever made was some horrible looking Chinese suey. I doubt more than 10 kids ate it, but they had a choice of another option. The kids always had a good choice of fruit and vegetables. Carrots and celery, applesauce, green beans, fruit cups, orange slices etc.

If your school district is not providing choices that are appetizing, then you need to work with your school board and find out why. Just because they are following guidelines that does not mean the food has to be nasty.

Some of the packed lunches that parents did were incredible. Balanced and delicious looking. However, some parents deserve a lesson in what not to pack their kids in my opinion. At least once a day, a kid would crack open a Mountain Dew or a Coke and start chugging it. We would have to have the secretary send a note asking super parent not to send pop anymore which was never listened to. The amount of food that some kids had was almost revolting. Some kids would not have a sandwich or protein of any kind, but would be chomping away at a couple bags of chips, mini-candy bars and washed down with a couple of juices. Sorry, that child would have greatly benefited from our school lunches.

I had one kid that would only eat bacon all crumbled up in a giant pile in his baggy followed with chips and candy. I can't imagine how much sodium that kid had in his diet every day and he was always sick.

I do recognize that some of the kids would want more food on some days and I did feel sad for the kids that were active and nutritionally eating what they should. But, there were sometimes that I was so grateful that the foods were portioned out because those kids did not need additional calories.

None of the children were starving that is for sure. As last resort there was always the option of peanut butter or cheese sandwich. Not the best choices, but the kids were not leaving and starving.
 
Who are you saying is to blame? The child? The parent(s)?




Why would it be thrown away anyway? In elementary school, teachers take a count each morning and give the number of children buying lunch and which choice (there are 2 to choose from) and if any of the children are getting "doubles". That is given to the kitchen staff so they can prepare accordingly.

Explain why forcing a full meal is so important if the child already has a lunch and just want milk.

1) School is not to blame because child throws meal away. Not every kid throws the meal away. Some of the kids actually eat the meal and it is their FULL meal for the day. ETA....(Apologies to those with horrible cooks in your school or less than stellar vendors for your school supplier.)

It is a rule for the school lunch program across the board. You cannot "win" with this issue. I guess you can call it "equilibrium" or "necesary evil" or "casualities of war in the school lunch program" as far as the law goes. It does stink but there is no "winning" here.

ETA...Unless you recall the school in the news a couple of yrs ago that did not allow bagged lunch from home. Do you want to adopt that as a "way to win"? I would not.

When you are a kitchen manager you have to plan for how much is going to get eaten that day basically.

Yes in elementary there is a "count" taken and there is less food thrown out by the kitchen staff at the end of the day. Does make prep much easier.:thumbsup2

In middle and HS no "counts" are taken so it is a hit and miss effort.

2) If child wants a JUST A MILK then they NEED TO BUY A MILK. Do not blame the lunch program for that.

If the kids and parents "use" the "lunch program" just to get a milk then that is on them and not the school lunch program.


.
 
1) School is not to blame because child throws meal away. Not every kid throws the meal away. Some of the kids actually eat the meal and it is their FULL meal for the day.

It is a rule for the school lunch program across the board. You cannot "win" with this issue. I guess you can call it "equilibrium" as far as the law goes.

When you are a kitchen manager you have to plan for how much is going to get eaten that day basically.

Yes in elementary there is a "count" taken and there is less food thrown out by the kitchen staff at the end of the day. Does make prep much easier.:thumbsup2

In middle and HS no "counts" are taken so it is a hit and miss effort.

2) If child wants a JUST A MILK then they NEED TO BUY A MILK. Do not blame the lunch program for that.

If the kids and parents "use" the "lunch program" just to get a milk then that is on them and not the school lunch program.

agree :thumbsup2
 


1) School is not to blame because child throws meal away. Not every kid throws the meal away. Some of the kids actually eat the meal and it is their FULL meal for the day. ETA....(Apologies to those with horrible cooks in your school or less than stellar vendors for your school supplier.)

It is a rule for the school lunch program across the board. You cannot "win" with this issue. I guess you can call it "equilibrium" or "necesary evil" or "casualities of war in the school lunch program" as far as the law goes. It does stink but there is no "winning" here.

ETA...Unless you recall the school in the news a couple of yrs ago that did not allow bagged lunch from home. Do you want to adopt that as a "way to win"? I would not.

When you are a kitchen manager you have to plan for how much is going to get eaten that day basically.

Yes in elementary there is a "count" taken and there is less food thrown out by the kitchen staff at the end of the day. Does make prep much easier.:thumbsup2

In middle and HS no "counts" are taken so it is a hit and miss effort.

2) If child wants a JUST A MILK then they NEED TO BUY A MILK. Do not blame the lunch program for that.

If the kids and parents "use" the "lunch program" just to get a milk then that is on them and not the school lunch program.


.


While I agree those parents should just buy the milk, the program is designed so that they don't have to. It is also designed so that food and money are being wasted for no reason. There is always room for reform :confused3
 
While I agree those parents should just buy the milk, the program is designed so that they don't have to. It is also designed so that food and money are being wasted for no reason. There is always room for reform :confused3

How?

So ban bagged lunches?

Not allow a kid to get a free lunch that brings a bagged lunch?

Start a milk program?

I do not think you can "win" here.
 
How?

So ban bagged lunches?

Not allow a kid to get a free lunch that brings a bagged lunch?

Start a milk program?

I do not think you can "win" here.

Really, how about if you are on the free lunch program you are allowed to get just milk free if you bring in from home. Or OTOH, if you are on the free lunch program, and bring your lunch from home you are not allowed to get "free milk" that day, which means you aren't allowed to get free food to throw away either.
If they can regulate how many calories a child gets on their tray through reforn, they can certainly figure out a way to reform the free/reduced lunch program to reduce food and monetary waste. Like I said in my very first post in this thread, its just easier to waste and to complain there isn't enough money, but that doesn't mean that something can't actually be done about it ;)
 


1) School is not to blame because child throws meal away. Not every kid throws the meal away. Some of the kids actually eat the meal and it is their FULL meal for the day. ETA....(Apologies to those with horrible cooks in your school or less than stellar vendors for your school supplier.)

It is a rule for the school lunch program across the board. You cannot "win" with this issue. I guess you can call it "equilibrium" or "necesary evil" or "casualities of war in the school lunch program" as far as the law goes. It does stink but there is no "winning" here.

ETA...Unless you recall the school in the news a couple of yrs ago that did not allow bagged lunch from home. Do you want to adopt that as a "way to win"? I would not.

When you are a kitchen manager you have to plan for how much is going to get eaten that day basically.

Yes in elementary there is a "count" taken and there is less food thrown out by the kitchen staff at the end of the day. Does make prep much easier.:thumbsup2

In middle and HS no "counts" are taken so it is a hit and miss effort.

2) If child wants a JUST A MILK then they NEED TO BUY A MILK. Do not blame the lunch program for that.

If the kids and parents "use" the "lunch program" just to get a milk then that is on them and not the school lunch program.


.

There is a way to "win" as you call it. Change the lunch program to allow children that qualify for free/reduced lunch the option to just get milk.

Some of these children may have diet issues, sensory issues, allergies, or just not want to spend 1/2 of their lunch time waiting in line. If they qualify for free lunch they may not be able to afford to purchase milk. $12 a month per child to buy milk at school may not be a lot to you, but for some families it is.
 
There is a way to "win" as you call it. Change the lunch program to allow children that qualify for free/reduced lunch the option to just get milk.

Some of these children may have diet issues, sensory issues, allergies, or just not want to spend 1/2 of their lunch time waiting in line. If they qualify for free lunch they may not be able to afford to purchase milk. $12 a month per child to buy milk at school may not be a lot to you, but for some families it is.

That will not work. Food is frozen and needs to be thawed.

As a staff person you take food from the deep freeze and set it in the cooler to thaw. There is a lot of prep work that is done before serving day. Unless it is nuggets or something easy that you can make in 10 minutes. However kids are on a time schedule and it is your job to make sure you get the kids their food QUICKLY so they can eat.

How much do you take out? Well you base it on how much you are making and you get that number by how much you make vs how much you throw away.

Generally the staff is pretty good with working that out. You get to know the vibe of your school.

Bottom line.....

If you have kids that are supposed to get the FREE LUNCH do you have the obligation to make sure that meal is provided daily to the student? You have to plan that ahead of time.
 
That will not work. Food is frozen and needs to be thawed.

As a staff person you take food from the deep freeze and set it in the cooler to thaw. There is a lot of prep work that is done before serving day. Unless it is nuggets or something easy that you can make in 10 minutes. However kids are on a time schedule and it is your job to make sure you get the kids their food QUICKLY so they can eat.

How much do you take out? Well you base it on how much you are making and you get that number by how much you make vs how much you throw away.

Generally the staff is pretty good with working that out. You get to know the vibe of your school.

Bottom line.....

If you have kids that are supposed to get the FREE LUNCH do you have the obligation to make sure that meal is provided daily to the student? You have to plan that ahead of time.

Our school has a choice of entrees, things like sandwiches that are served every day that don't need to be frozen. I'm sure other schools could do the same so your argument about having to thaw things ahead of time won't win.
 
Our school has a choice of entrees, things like sandwiches that are served every day that don't need to be frozen. I'm sure other schools could do the same so your argument about having to thaw things ahead of time won't win.

So then you are saying get rid of "hot lunch"? Only serve sandwiches?

I don't think that is going to happen.
 
That will not work. Food is frozen and needs to be thawed.

As a staff person you take food from the deep freeze and set it in the cooler to thaw. There is a lot of prep work that is done before serving day. Unless it is nuggets or something easy that you can make in 10 minutes. However kids are on a time schedule and it is your job to make sure you get the kids their food QUICKLY so they can eat.

How much do you take out? Well you base it on how much you are making and you get that number by how much you make vs how much you throw away.

Generally the staff is pretty good with working that out. You get to know the vibe of your school.

Bottom line.....

If you have kids that are supposed to get the FREE LUNCH do you have the obligation to make sure that meal is provided daily to the student? You have to plan that ahead of time.

The school dd attended for k-8 takes a count every day. The homeroom teacher tells the kids the choices for that day and the kids that are planning to eat in the lunch room tell them which one they want. The numbers are then sent to the lunchroom to let them know an estimate of how much to cook. So a kid that normally gets free lunch; when he is eating that lunch would be included in that count; when he brings his lunch he would not.

No matter how you slice it, its stupid to give a kid that only wants milk a whole tray of food to be tossed in the trash.
 
That will not work. Food is frozen and needs to be thawed.

As a staff person you take food from the deep freeze and set it in the cooler to thaw. There is a lot of prep work that is done before serving day. Unless it is nuggets or something easy that you can make in 10 minutes. However kids are on a time schedule and it is your job to make sure you get the kids their food QUICKLY so they can eat.

How much do you take out? Well you base it on how much you are making and you get that number by how much you make vs how much you throw away.

Generally the staff is pretty good with working that out. You get to know the vibe of your school.

Bottom line.....

If you have kids that are supposed to get the FREE LUNCH do you have the obligation to make sure that meal is provided daily to the student? You have to plan that ahead of time.
This logic doesn't make sense to me. It shouldn't take long for teachers/workers to see how many full lunches are getting thrown out by the kids. So you make 100 lunches, say 10 get scrapped because no one buys them, and another 10 get thrown out by the kids. Fine, so make 95 lunches the next day. Rinse/repeat until you get an accurate count (and allow for some extra "just in case").
 
The school dd attended for k-8 takes a count every day. The homeroom teacher tells the kids the choices for that day and the kids that are planning to eat in the lunch room tell them which one they want. The numbers are then sent to the lunchroom to let them know an estimate of how much to cook. So a kid that normally gets free lunch; when he is eating that lunch would be included in that count; when he brings his lunch he would not.

No matter how you slice it, its stupid to give a kid that only wants milk a whole tray of food to be tossed in the trash.

That responsibility lies on the student and family, not the school.

You cannot blame the school lunch program for the child throwing away the lunch.:confused3

If the child only wants a milk they need to purchase the milk.
 
This logic doesn't make sense to me. It shouldn't take long for teachers/workers to see how many full lunches are getting thrown out by the kids. So you make 100 lunches, say 10 get scrapped because no one buys them, and another 10 get thrown out by the kids. Fine, so make 95 lunches the next day. Rinse/repeat until you get an accurate count (and allow for some extra "just in case").

Well we can't count what is thrown away buy a student but that is what is done for the other counts.

We cannot micro manage whether a kids eats the lunch or not. And we cannot base our counts on that fact. It would be impossible.
 
So then you are saying get rid of "hot lunch"? Only serve sandwiches?

I don't think that is going to happen.

That isn't what I said.
Your argument is weak.
There can be reform, period.

That responsibility lies on the student and family, not the school.

You cannot blame the school lunch program for the child throwing away the lunch.:confused3

If the child only wants a milk they need to purchase the milk.


No, you can't blame the school for the kid throwing food out. You can blame the way the school lunch program is set up, for the food and money that gets wasted though.
 
That will not work. Food is frozen and needs to be thawed.

As a staff person you take food from the deep freeze and set it in the cooler to thaw. There is a lot of prep work that is done before serving day. Unless it is nuggets or something easy that you can make in 10 minutes. However kids are on a time schedule and it is your job to make sure you get the kids their food QUICKLY so they can eat.

How much do you take out? Well you base it on how much you are making and you get that number by how much you make vs how much you throw away.

Generally the staff is pretty good with working that out. You get to know the vibe of your school.

Bottom line.....

If you have kids that are supposed to get the FREE LUNCH do you have the obligation to make sure that meal is provided daily to the student? You have to plan that ahead of time.

Why won't it work? If a child is just getting a milk, it has nothing to do with what is or isn't taken out of the freezer.

When the child goes through the line to get only a milk, the cashier rings it up as free and the child pays nothing.

Are you saying that the cafeteria plans a meal for every child that is free/reduced and assumes that they will be getting it and not bringing one from home or that they are not absent that day?

Our schools also have the choice between two entrees. So are you saying that the kitchen staff thaws one of each for each student that qualifies for free/reduced lunch not knowing which one the student will choose?

That responsibility lies on the student and family, not the school.

You cannot blame the school lunch program for the child throwing away the lunch.:confused3

If the child only wants a milk they need to purchase the milk.

And if they can't afford it, the child goes without?
 
I am going to stop repeating myself here.

The easiest solution is to have a kid pay for the milk or have a milk program if you do not want to waste food. They used to do that bak in my day. You brought your lunch and bought milk.

As it stands now the child has to take the whole tray for the "hot lunch" to get the milk. If they choose to throw away food, so be it. I don't like the "waste" either however I don't see how to "win" this.
 
I am going to stop repeating myself here.

The easiest solution is to have a kid pay for the milk or have a milk program if you do not want to waste food. They used to do that bak in my day. You brought your lunch and bought milk.

As it stands now the child has to take the whole tray for the "hot lunch" to get the milk. If they choose to throw away food, so be it. I don't like the "waste" either however I don't see how to "win" this.
So you post two solutions, but then say there is no solution? :confused3

That's the whole point... there ARE ways to not waste the food, you mention two of them... have the kids pay or have a milk program.
 
Why won't it work? If a child is just getting a milk, it has nothing to do with what is or isn't taken out of the freezer.

When the child goes through the line to get only a milk, the cashier rings it up as free and the child pays nothing.

Are you saying that the cafeteria plans a meal for every child that is free/reduced and assumes that they will be getting it and not bringing one from home or that they are not absent that day?

Our schools also have the choice between two entrees. So are you saying that the kitchen staff thaws one of each for each student that qualifies for free/reduced lunch not knowing which one the student will choose?



And if they can't afford it, the child goes without?

Bolding mine - I agree, and I don't see why this cannot be accomplished with a change. It doesn't seem that difficult to do. My kids are on the free/reduced price lunch program. They don't like the offerings everyday, so on those days I send them in with a lunch. Just this morning - I sent my kindergartener in with his lunch and a note saying 'milk from school please". Until this thread, I had no idea that an entire lunch was thrown away just because my child chooses a milk to go along with the PBJ I sent in.
For those of you who say the blame is on the parents - some of us have no idea that this happens. If not for this thread, I don't know that I'd ever know.
 

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