What do you think of your child's school lunch program?

[Alicia87]

I actually live in WV (neighbor of Huntington) AND work at an elementary school. Our lunch program is horrible! All of the foods are processed/frozen foods for convenience. The state says the foods that are being served are considered "healthy" foods. I say that's a crock of bull! There's nothing healthy about the "fake" meats they are serving these kids. Today's hamburger was actually questionable.

Our principal and I were actually discussing Jamie's show today at work (his brother-in-law is actually the principal featured on the program), and he said that as a result of the show, the county in which the show was taped has switched to "fresh" foods i.e., using real potatoes, fresh fruit, fresh salads, etc. He also told me that the state will be switching from offering regular milk, chocolate milk, and strawberry milk to no chocolate/strawberry milk next year. You would be amazed at how many kids eat their breakfast cereals with chocolate or strawberry milk and then drink an additional milk with the breakfast!

I think Jamie's influence may actually have started a new food revolution in WV....I hope it does the same for other states! We shall see.

 

[mum4jenn]

True.

And how do you buy the food, pay for the gas, the salaries, the substitutes & sick time and repairs on $1.75 a lunch????? You can't. Or at least I can't. It's why I'm in the red and now we have a District Manager to "save" us money. Yeah, by cutting hours and trying to put crap on the menu 'cause it's quicker.

Is your school a part of the National School Lunch Program? If you are not that could be part of the problem. The program does re-imburse the lunches depending on whether or not the lunch is a free, reduced or full-pay. The bookeeper tells me that several years ago they could not even afford to buy pencils for the managers but now we are always "in the black" and don't really have to worry too much.

I hope the changes at your school will work out. Give this new manager a chance though. It might work out afterall and if the participation drops a whole bunch because of the changes then maybe they will make some changes back to the previous way. Do you get any food from the USDA? We do get all of our cheese, frozen eggs, flour,several different meats, and the cost is much much lower than to buy regular purchased foods. THe quality is outstanding these days (same labels as what you would see in the grocery store)

 

[pat fan]

Is your school a part of the National School Lunch Program?

Yes, we are. We aren't in the hole much, but still, I'd like to run it in the black. Do you have to pay your own salaries etc....I just think that is wrong. We are a part of the school so why do we have to pay ourselves?

 

[kmwek]

I pack three lunches everyday because of how horrible our school's lunch program is. My 10 year old shudders as he tries to describe to me what the "taco stick" is. No, it is not a "crispito" it is breaded. Last week they served fish shaped nuggets. Are they fish or just fish shaped? Every day it is junk, no options, just reheated crap. About half the students are on Free/Reduced lunches. Get this, full price lunch is $0.55, full price breakfast is $0.30. Seriously what kind of junk do you expect to get for a price like that. It probably costs me 4-6 times that to pack their lunch everyday. For now the kids will continue to get a fresh packed lunch everyday.

 

[marcyinPA]

I pack three lunches everyday because of how horrible our school's lunch program is. My 10 year old shudders as he tries to describe to me what the "taco stick" is. No, it is not a "crispito" it is breaded. Last week they served fish shaped nuggets. Are they fish or just fish shaped? Every day it is junk, no options, just reheated crap. About half the students are on Free/Reduced lunches. Get this, full price lunch is $0.55, full price breakfast is $0.30. Seriously what kind of junk do you expect to get for a price like that. It probably costs me 4-6 times that to pack their lunch everyday. For now the kids will continue to get a fresh packed lunch everyday.

Our school district serves the same junk, but charges $2 a meal for it in Elementary! They call the fish shaped fish nuggets "trout treasures" here. My son actually likes them....

 

[Kath2003]

Not a kid but a teacher who eats school lunch every day. This week I've had:

• Baked potato with baked beans and salad
• Macaroni cheese and salad
• Chicken and leek pie with broccoli
• Vegetarian pasta bake with carrots and swede sides
• Wholemeal vegetable pizza with salad

I could have dessert if I wanted - fruit, yoghurt or one of the cakes made fresh each day - but it's plentiful without. All food is made in the kitchens each morning. It costs $3.

 

[marcyinPA]

Our April menu just came home:

main meal choices are

Week of April 6:
Nachos with beef and cheese
Chicken nuggets
meatball sub
trout treasures

Week of April 12:
hamburger
chicken fries
pizza
twin beef tacos
mac and cheese

Week of April 19:
chicken corn dog
crispito
popcorn chicken (w/ slice of bread )
Chicken patty sandwich
pizza

Week of April 26:
Chicken nuggets
toasted cheese sandwich (w/ peas...eeew!)
Roast Turkey w/ gravy & mashed potatoes
Pork Rib sandwich
pizza


Mostly garbage. They offer three weekly alternates, one other hot and two cold. One of the cold is usually a salad or a sandwich, and the other is 3D PB&J which is a triple decker! The hot alternate is junk as well: hot dog, hamburger, pizza, toasted cheese.

The high school offerings are a lot better, but my oldest never bought EVER until this past week. What did he choose? Pizza. Every day. And salad. Thank goodness for the salad!

 

[ZPT1022]

Are you happy with the food items served to your child at school lunch?
Are these similar to meals that you would serve to your child at home?
What changes would you like to see made to the school lunch program?

Nope, not at all happy about what is being served to the kids

These meals are rarely close to anything I would serve at home for a meal

I would love to see more real foods, more whole foods and less individually wrapped processed stuff. Things with fewer ingredients would be nice too. My kids attend a magnet school and breakfast and lunch are included at no charge (poor area), so it's my understanding that most, if not close to all kids eat at the school daily. I haven't been there for lunch but the kids tell me it is similar to breakfast- they grab a foam tray , individually wrapped packet with a spork and a napkin, and head down the line of individually wrapped items. THe amount of waste is just insane, not to mention what kinds of foods these are.

There is one hot lunch every day and there are supposed to be alternates- one sandwich per week, bagel & yogurt, or chef salad. The only problem there is that they are frequently out of the alternates and my kids have told me that the sandwiches seem nasty. I imagine they are all made at once and doled out all week so I guess that's not a surprise! I've been really sick, multiple hospital visits, etc... so I haven't been making their lunches lately and I feel really bad. I need to get back to it because what they eat is such junk (if they'll even eat it). Our usual policy is that I pack lunches from home and they will get school lunch occasionally if it is something they really like- french bread pizza for example. We want them to learn that foods like that are fine sometimes, just not for everyday!

I
Anyone who is dissatisfied with the lunch their school provides should just pack their child's lunch.

plenty of people have said that they do just that, it would just be nice if better options were offered, especially since our tax dollars subsidize this crap

How many of you have NEVER EVER bought food from Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, Zaxbys, Ruby Tuesday, Chilis, Red Lobster, etc.? If you have eaten at any place other than your own kitchen you are being served something with hidden fats, salt, carbs, processed foods. And even in your own kitchen sometime in your life you have cooked with and served something processed...unless of course you grow your own wheat and beat it on rocks, grow all your own vegetables and use no fertilizer, have your very own dairy cow that you milk yourself, etc.

Lay off the ones who are following the rules and get the rules changed. I have parents complain about the school food and yet I see those same parents at the fast food places after school, at night, on weekends and even sending that same food in lunchboxes or bringing it with them when the parents have a day to eat with their children.

There's a big difference between the occasional splurge and making that your daily diet. I fully admit that my kids have junk foods, but it doesn't need to be the majority of their diets! That right there is the difference. I understand that frequently the lunch ladies are trying their best within a rigid and predetermined system- my mom is the head of the caf at my old elementary school, so it's nothing personal but the system is broken! Potatoes counting as a veggie?? Come on now! We can do better than that for our kids!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I find it hard to imagine that ANY school in this country cooks school meals using a microwave. My school serves over 600 kids and I have never seen a microwave large enough to cook that much food!!
Our kitchen has a microwave but we use it mainly to melt margarine. Our cooking is done by using a huge tilt skillet, two Combi ovens, one convection oven, or a huge double boiler.
Our "scratch" way of cooking invloves more than just heating up a product. Yes it does involve cans but to you honestly expect a kitchen to make a batch of spaghetti by going out and picking our own tomatoes???? There is not enough room to have our own produce farm. It also would be way too expensive. We brown real 100% ground beef also.So we use canned (oooh the horror...) tomato products...(tomato paste, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes....which BY THE WAY is NOT cooked....you STILL have to cook canned tomato products) We add spices and let it simmer. Maybe YOU don't see that as scratch but in OUR land it is by scratch.

I wasn't intending to be a smart aleck--however in all the years I attended school, there was no way the stuff was made from scratch.

So those schools that do it....

Too many off colored dishes in the pass to convince me that it wasn't anything other than reheated or a box mix.

Not all schools are this lucky--if a hot dog is on the menu...he ain't from scratch.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Instead of coming here to gripe and complain (some of who have said you do not even have kids in school) contact your senators and congress reps. The schools that are following the federal lunch program ARE FOLLOWING THE RULES THAT THE GOVERNMENT SET UP!!! There are a certain number of servings per week that must contain specific vitamins, a certain number of fruit and vegetable servings, a certain number of bread servings, a certain amount of protein, etc. The foods we get from the companies must meet certain regulations for the child nutrition program or the county is NOT allowed to buy it.

How many of you have NEVER EVER bought food from Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, Zaxbys, Ruby Tuesday, Chilis, Red Lobster, etc.? If you have eaten at any place other than your own kitchen you are being served something with hidden fats, salt, carbs, processed foods. And even in your own kitchen sometime in your life you have cooked with and served something processed...unless of course you grow your own wheat and beat it on rocks, grow all your own vegetables and use no fertilizer, have your very own dairy cow that you milk yourself, etc.

Lay off the ones who are following the rules and get the rules changed. I have parents complain about the school food and yet I see those same parents at the fast food places after school, at night, on weekends and even sending that same food in lunchboxes or bringing it with them when the parents have a day to eat with their children.

Such animosity.

An opinion was solicited and while my kids do not attend the public school, the menu is posted and available for anyone to look at and yes, I can comment on it b/c at anytime, my kids could go to that school. So my opinion counts just as much as anyone elses.

Where people eat off campus is just as well none of your concern--but for a school that educates, serving crap is unacceptable regardless of where folks eat in their off time.

Complaining about other restaurants is no excuse either. You don't know what I order there.

 

[gymboqueenkaylee]

At my daughters private school, they have to bring there own lunch and I'm ok with that because at least I can control the healthy food she's eating. I also don't have to worry about her getting anything she's allergic too.

 

[happygirl]

How does what the schools fix now differ then what we all had growinig up? We all lived to tell the tales. There is no difference now

 

[barneynshorty]

At my daughter's school, they offer four choices everyday for lunch

1. Hot lunch (example- pizza with mixed salad and fruit)

2. Baked potato with mixed salad

3. Chef Salad (ham/turkey/eggs/cucumbers/cheese/tomato/lettuce)

4. PBJ, carrot sticks with ranch, apple

They do serve 2% milk in both white and chocolate.

And believe it or not, most days of the week, my daughter gets the baked potato plain with mixed salad, and white milk. The cost is $3.25

While I'm sure this could be better, I've been pretty pleased with it overall.

 

[marcyinPA]

How does what the schools fix now differ then what we all had growinig up? We all lived to tell the tales. There is no difference now

HUGE difference! When I was a kid (ahem, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth if you asked my kids!) in the 70's, we had REAL food. Real baked chicken (breasts too!), real potatoes, homemade lasagna, etc. I don't remember ever having anything in nugget form (well, I guess this might be due to the fact that the nugget craze hadn't started yet! ) The food at school was actually cooked at school, and it was GOOD! There is no way they served the crap that is served to my kids now....

 

[HelenePA]

How does what the schools fix now differ then what we all had growinig up? We all lived to tell the tales. There is no difference now

are you kidding? how many kids are over weight now compared to when we (I dont know how old you are but i'm 31) were growing up? None of my children are overweight but I can not say that for the rest of their classes... some of these kids weigh more than me and they are 9!

MarcyinPA that is about what my kids menu looks like. They will buy their lunch in school on Wed because its pizza but other than that they probably wont eat in school again til the end of the month when there is a hot dog on the menu. I gotta ask what are "trout treasures"

 

[DisneyBeagle]

Our school district serves the same junk, but charges $2 a meal for it in Elementary! They call the fish shaped fish nuggets "trout treasures" here. My son actually likes them....

Trout treasures????

 

[1stluvispooh]

What do I think of my kids school's lunch. They have a 5 weeks rotating menu. In 2 of the 5 weeks they have traveling taco's for lunch! I always thought that was something you had once a year at the fair and after 2 bites decided it wasn't good after all and throw it away!! What I find really amazing is our school system has awards for there "nutrition" program.

 

[ZPT1022]

What do I think of my kids school's lunch. They have a 5 weeks rotating menu. In 2 of the 5 weeks they have traveling taco's for lunch! I always thought that was something you had once a year at the fair and after 2 bites decided it wasn't good after all and throw it away!! What I find really amazing is our school system has awards for there "nutrition" program.

What is a traveling taco?

 

[tonilea]

What is a traveling taco?

I am glad you asked! I was afraid too!

 

[DisneyBeagle]

What is a traveling taco?

I am glad you asked! I was afraid too!

I just hope they don't decide to combine the traveling taco and the trout treasures into one meal...traveling trout taco treasures