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

[DisneyBeagle]

I finally got around to watching part of the Jamie Oliver show (thank you DVR). It's been too many years (way more than I want to admit ) since I have eaten school lunch. I remember the cooks making a lot of the food from scratch, but we also had our fair share of hotdogs, hamburgers, french fries, etc. I don't have any kids, but I was wondering what others thing of the school lunch programs at their local schools.

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?

 

[pyrxtc]

I like the foods they offer. One of my best friends is one of the cooks and they make most everything from scratch. it is great.

 

[DisneyBeagle]

I like the foods they offer. One of my best friends is one of the cooks and they make most everything from scratch. it is great.

Wow, isn't that quite rare these days?

 

[mykidsand_i]

Our school is great with food. I sub as a server at least once a week. In our school each child has a choice of two 'main' foods- choice 1 is usually things like pizza, burgers, chicken, tacos, BBQ's...things like that. Choice 2 is always some sort of hotdish, casserole, special salad, chili, fish, 'bagel basket', something of that nature.

Our pizzas come from a very well known company that makes great school pizza. The burgers are actually good...I've heard other schools have really nasty hamburgers. All of our chicken stuff (nuggets, burgers, strips) come from tyson.

All of our hotdish/casserole/chili type of stuff is home made. They really had GREAT 'potato bar' options this year. They'd give a baked potato and have about 5-6 options of stuff to top it with (sour cream, chopped bacon-which was REAL BACON!!!, cheese, chili- which they used the left over chili from the day before and it was a great idea!!!, butter...the kids LOVED the potato bar.

We also have a salad bar day once and a while. The kids each get a nice sized salad with either chunked up chicken or turkey, then they can choose what kind of toppings they want- eggs, olives, cucumbers, salad toppers, crutons, dressings, cheeses...there's lots of good choices.

We pay a little more per meal for each child, but I'd rather do that and get the good food options that we have than have the crummy, 100% processed foods that most schools get.

A lot of parents are very pleased with our lunch program here. Most of the kids like it to- on an average day we have over 70% of the kids eating...which is more than most schools.

 

[daisyduck123]

I have an 11th graders & a 6th grader.

Neither one has EVER bought a school lunch...their choice.

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

 

[pat fan]

I'm the manager of an elementary school cafeteria and most of what we make is from scratch. We do have the occasional "kid favorite" like hot dogs, burgers, chicken patty and fries, but none of it is deep fried. Everything is oven baked and the rest of the food is from scratch.

We also have a salad bar that comes with the lunch, not an alternate offering. So they get a choice of hot meal items and salad bar.

Example for today our lunch was spaghetti with plain or meat sauce, garlic bread and green beans, or p.b sandwich with milk & salad bar. They can have anything they want but have to have at least 3 items on their tray, but can have as many items as they want. For instance they could take spaghetti with sauce, beans, bread and still go get salad & cheese etc...off the salad bar.

 

[MushyMushy]

All I can say is:

Blech! Ptooey!

They have the occasional meal made from scratch (usually a pasta with meat sauce), and those are pretty good, but the rest are nasty.

 

[marcyinPA]

Ours is horrible. Pretty much nothing is made from scratch. Once or twice a month, they will have something like turkey and gravy, but mostly it's pizza, chicken nuggets, chicken fries, chicken patty, fish sticks, tacos, nachos, crispitos (sort of like a fried tube of tortilla with meat in it ).

They offer a bread basket and a fruit basket daily, but most kids will take bread even if the meal is served on bread (like a hamburger or a hot dog)

Our menu never has dessert, and always a canned fruit.

The HS menu is better, and more diverse, but still is pretty junky.

My kids didn't buy often until my DH got laid off. Now we qualify for free lunch, and they are getting it until we don't need it anymore. That shaves the lunch food off of my grocery budget. I cook and we eat healthy at home, so I'm not too worried about the crappy lunch choices. Hopefully it's short-term.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My 7th grade dd brings her lunch now. The lunch is expensive and she was throwing most of it away and starving all day. I kept telling her last yr., to bring her lunch. She finally started halfway thru last yr. when they changed the lunch menu and took away most of the "junk".

Let's see the hot menu.

Today was cheese sticks or salad or corn dogs.

Tommorow is salad or chicken strips or Grilled cheese pretzel roll with tomato soup.

 

[JimmyPicker]

Some days my kids pack. Others, they buy.

I don't feel like the school cafeteria has to provide what my kid likes or what I want for my kid. That's my job as a parent.

If they aren't offering it that day, we pack.

 

[DisneyBeagle]

Ours is horrible. Pretty much nothing is made from scratch. Once or twice a month, they will have something like turkey and gravy, but mostly it's pizza, chicken nuggets, chicken fries, chicken patty, fish sticks, tacos, nachos, crispitos (sort of like a fried tube of tortilla with meat in it ).

They offer a bread basket and a fruit basket daily, but most kids will take bread even if the meal is served on bread (like a hamburger or a hot dog)

Our menu never has dessert, and always a canned fruit.

The HS menu is better, and more diverse, but still is pretty junky.

My kids didn't buy often until my DH got laid off. Now we qualify for free lunch, and they are getting it until we don't need it anymore. That shaves the lunch food off of my grocery budget. I cook and we eat healthy at home, so I'm not too worried about the crappy lunch choices. Hopefully it's short-term.

It seems to me that a lot of school lunch menus are very bread heavy. I wonder if it's because bread is relatively inexpensive?

 

[kirstenb1]

Our schools have reasonable (not super-health food) lunches. Our older dd is SO picky, she doesn't even like a lot of "fun" foods like hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. If her school served pizza and nachos every day, she'd be in heaven!
I usually pack her lunch.

Our younger dd will eat almost anything. Trouble is, she's also young enough to be totally distracted by everything around her. So letting her buy school lunch is kind of a waste of money. I can pack for cheaper than $2.50, if she's not going to eat anyway!

 

[Magic Mom]

OUrs is pretty good but could be better. They offer lots of fruit and vegetable choices, whole wheat pasta and rolls, and cookies or cake only once a week. But the main courses are typical "kid food". Taco salad, spaghetti, hamburger, chicken rounds (who knows what those are made of), pizza, chicken sandwhich, etc.

 

[DisneyBeagle]

OUrs is pretty good but could be better. They offer lots of fruit and vegetable choices, whole wheat pasta and rolls, and cookies or cake only once a week. But the main courses are typical "kid food". Taco salad, spaghetti, hamburger, chicken rounds (who knows what those are made of), pizza, chicken sandwhich, etc.

Why is chicken always in some sort of shape (round, dino shape, etc)? Personally, I'm a little scared of food that is so processed that they are able to shape it into characters.

 

[Magic Mom]

Why is chicken always in some sort of shape (round, dino shape, etc)? Personally, I'm a little scared of food that is so processed that they are able to shape it into characters.

Ours are doughnut shaped. What part of the chicken is doughnut shaped????

 

[DisneyBeagle]

Ours are doughnut shaped. What part of the chicken is doughnut shaped????

That's a new one...I've never heard of donut shaped chicken before.

 

[traviesojmt]

Our current school has a really nice lunch program. Today the elementary had Sloppy Joes, Mashed Potatoes, Peas, Fruit Jello. Yesterday was Poppy Seed Chicken, Rice, Salad, Roll. The food is homemade and they do a good job of offering variety, except for Fridays which is always pizza day. The secondary students have more variety and a full salad bar is offered daily. In addition to what the elementary was offered today, the secondary could also choose from grilled chicken, veggies or baked potatoes. It is very pricey so my children are only allowed to pick two days a week to eat at school and then they pack their lunch the other three.

When we lived in CA 1 1/2 years ago, the lunch program was atrocious. They did not have an actual kitchen. They had warmers. The food offered was just like convenient store food. It came in individually wrapped plastic and was re-heated. It looked very gross. It was things liked burritos, pizza and burgers. My kids (along with the majority) took their lunch everyday at that school.

 

[golfgal]

Our pizzas come from a very well known company that makes great school pizza. The burgers are actually good...I've heard other schools have really nasty hamburgers. All of our chicken stuff (nuggets, burgers, strips) come from tyson.

.

Good old Schwan's institutional pizza

Our old school had lunches made from scratch but now it is more institutionalized. The kids bring their lunch more often than not now.

 

[iwrbnd]

My kids like it but I think it's too fattening.

 

[emma'smom]

What strikes me most is that even most of items that are considered "healthy" really aren't all that great and could be replaced with more healthy options. Spaghetti and sauce really should be whole wheat spaghetti, white bread could be whole wheat bread, etc.

I also think it should be a rule that anything ending "stick", "dog", "tot" or "nugget" should be eliminated from all menus!

My dd's take lunch because there isn't a cafeteria at their school and no lunch options are offered except for "Pizza Fridays". We can buy into the milk program. Otherwise they drink water at school or can bring their own drinks. We pay for Pizza Friday and it is a slice of cheese pizza and a piece of fruit delivered from a local pizza shop just in time for lunch.

Our school used to have a "healthy lunch" policy where they were required to bring all healthy things and leave the treats at home (so cookies and such were discouraged). In the past few years, that rule has been de-emphasized and the kids bring pretty much whatever they want. I wish they still had that old rule because it was nice that they all had good lunches and there was no "But Susie got to have chips in her lunch! Can I have chips too?"

Interestingly, my dd4 went to a preschool sports camp at the YMCA this past summer for a week and the Y served lunch from the school lunch program right after so the teacher would often invite the kids/parents to stay for lunch. I guess in the summer, anyone can participate in the school lunch program regardless of "qualifying". So we wandered in a few times so dd could eat with her teacher/camp friends. I have to say those lunches were atrocious!

I recall one was grilled cheese on white bread greasy with butter, tater tots, chocolate milk and canned peaches in syrup. Dd5 thought it was great and asked me if I knew how to make tater tots!?! Another day it was some sort of meat stick with french fries and a cup of apple juice. There was probably a bread, but I don't remember it. Oh yeah...and the ubiquitous chocolate milk!

I guess they did a breakfast program too that including (you guessed it!) chocolate milk, sugary juice, sugary cereal, some sort of greasy breakfast meat and more fruit in syrup!

Here's the thing--- none of this would be horrible occasionally. I'm not a food prude!

However, for a lot of the kids who rely on these food programs for their main sustenance---it seems like it is sugar/starch/fat over and over again....and, not only do they not have access to, they are not learning to enjoy anything that might be healthier. Then we hear "This is all they will eat!". Well, that's because that is what we have trained them to eat!