What has happened to kids school lunches?

[mistysue]

Gluten allergy is definitely more percentage wise in the US. Dairy is about the same as peanut. I think the big issue with peanut is that you can have anaphylaxis and need that epipen stat. Coming from experience with someone who had that reaction. It's a terrifying thing when you have a child with it and it's the first time you have that reaction.

I will say I knew no one until college who had a peanut allergy. Now I know quite a few people - not a ton, but not 2 either.

I know gluten is tough because you don't always know there is an issue until time passes and other issues pop up.

Every allergy has that anaphylaxis/need epi issue. It is not unique to peanut, nor is it more serious or quicker. I've had to see it many times to numerous different foods. There are plenty of people with peanut allergies who have mild reactions as well. Anaphylaxis to dairy kills more people than anaphylaxis to peanut in recent years but peanut has that reputation so people forget it happens to everyone. Wheat is also among the top 9, which are the 9 most common allergens that cause anaphylaxis - dairy, egg, wheat, soy, peanut, tree nuts, finned fish, shellfish, and sesame. Some countries recognize more than 9 as the "major" ones.

 

[nw6675]

It is on the dis.

true words

 

[mistysue]

So we've moved on from the quality of school lunches to which allergy is the worst? I didn't realize it was a competition.

FWIW, my daughter outgrew her peanut allergy at age 4. Thankfully.

The point wasn't which is worse- the point is that kids are allergic to things the schools require them to have. My comments about severity are pointing out that other allergens are as serious and prevalent as peanut, which is the one people think about. My kid had a dairy and soy allergy and was told he had to pick which one they were going to put on his tray every day. It's more a statement of how messed up school lunch issues can be. My son was and still is allergic to peanut as well, but nobody ever tried to tell him he would have to take the pbj and toss it out himself after he ate the other food. It's just treated differently - my point was made as soon as someone pointed out that with peanut allergies epi is needed right away... as if that's not the case with any other allergen.

 

[Lilsia]

So we've moved on from the quality of school lunches to which allergy is the worst? I didn't realize it was a competition.

FWIW, my daughter outgrew her peanut allergy at age 4. Thankfully.

There are no "worst" allergies IMO. You never know when a "safe" one all of sudden won't be. When I worked at a cafe, we baked our own bread and pastries. So many people got mad that we didn't offer gluten free bread, even after I explained to them the cross contamination was too high and we could not guarantee that it would be gluten free since we didn't have the separate facilities or equipment to make it. Flour goes everywhere. I took allergies seriously.

 

[PollyannaMom]

The point wasn't which is worse- the point is that kids are allergic to things the schools require them to have. My comments about severity are pointing out that other allergens are as serious and prevalent as peanut, which is the one people think about. My kid had a dairy and soy allergy and was told he had to pick which one they were going to put on his tray every day. It's more a statement of how messed up school lunch issues can be. My son was and still is allergic to peanut as well, but nobody ever tried to tell him he would have to take the pbj and toss it out himself after he ate the other food. It's just treated differently - my point was made as soon as someone pointed out that with peanut allergies epi is needed right away... as if that's not the case with any other allergen.

I think more people are familiar with an intolerance to dairy than an allergy to it, and get confused thinking they mean the same thing:

Lactose intolerance is different from milk or dairy allergy. With a dairy allergy, an immune reaction leads to swelling, breathing problems, and anaphylaxis. Lactose intolerance is an inability to digest the sugars in milk products. It causes intestinal symptoms, such as bloating and diarrhea. Sep 9, 2022 - Medical News Today

That's still no excuse for the school to require your son to take the carton and throw it out, though!! I'm seen as a rule-follower, but even I get so angry about the lack of common sense exceptions to some of this stuff.

 

[mistysue]

I think more people are familiar with an intolerance to dairy than an allergy to it, and get confused thinking they mean the same thing:

Lactose intolerance is different from milk or dairy allergy. With a dairy allergy, an immune reaction leads to swelling, breathing problems, and anaphylaxis. Lactose intolerance is an inability to digest the sugars in milk products. It causes intestinal symptoms, such as bloating and diarrhea. Sep 9, 2022 - Medical News Today

That's still no excuse for the school to require your son to take the carton and throw it out, though!! I'm seen as a rule-follower, but even I get so angry about the lack of common sense exceptions to some of this stuff.

Yes. I still believe that in spite of all of the letters from the allergist and them witnessing my son in anaphylaxis, most of those people in that school to this day think that we were making up his allergies or calling intolerances allergies because he was one of those kids with too many. It's sad, but at least we got him out of there alive.

 

[Lilsia]

Yes. I still believe that in spite of all of the letters from the allergist and them witnessing my son in anaphylaxis, most of those people in that school to this day think that we were making up his allergies or calling intolerances allergies because he was one of those kids with too many. It's sad, but at least we got him out of there alive.

Did they not allow him to bring his own lunch? No way would I trust them with what you said happened.

 

[dioxide45]

School meals suck because the big companies have contracted with the government to provide the nasty, over salted, processed garbage instead of having meals made from scratch.

Politics mainly ruined school lunches. I would say however that they aren't oversalted. There was a big push about 15 years ago for food manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in food. So now it is all just bland.

 

[mistysue]

Did they not allow him to bring his own lunch? No way would I trust them with what you said happened.

That was our solution.
We had wording in his 504 when school started that he was "only allowed to have food that was brought from home." Which was quickly revised to "Under no circumstances should he be given food from the school, other parents, or other students" - this last part because he made it all of a few months before a substitute teacher tried to talk him into accepting ice cream. He had the willpower to insist he did have an allergy and that he was not going to take food from her. I got a call about the substitute feeling he was disrespectful. The conversation about "his bad behavior" did not go well for the school secretary.

 

[Lilsia]

That was our solution.
We had wording in his 504 when school started that he was "only allowed to have food that was brought from home." Which was quickly revised to "Under no circumstances should he be given food from the school, other parents, or other students" - this last part because he made it all of a few months before a substitute teacher tried to talk him into accepting ice cream. He had the willpower to insist he did have an allergy and that he was not going to take food from her. I got a call about the substitute feeling he was disrespectful. The conversation about "his bad behavior" did not go well for the school secretary.

Unbelievable. I feel like so many people have just lost all common sense and decency. Even when I was in elementary school, way back in the 70s, there was a kid that had food allergies and the teacher took it very seriously and talked to the class about it explaining how serious it was. All of the adults at the school knew the kids that had allergies and made sure that he didn't eat what he was not supposed to. I remember it because it was rare back then, but it was taken seriously. I don't know what is wrong with people now.

 

[tvguy]

Politics mainly ruined school lunches. I would say however that they aren't oversalted. There was a big push about 15 years ago for food manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in food. So now it is all just bland.

I can't speak to school lunches, but other food is still way way way too salty. I can't tolerate potato chips unless I get the unsalted Kettle Chips. Amazingly, they taste like potatoes instead of salt.
And even Healthy Choice soup have over 400 mg of salt in it, way too much.

 

[unrequited23]

The quality of items served in school lunches where we live is pretty inconsistent. My kids did virtual school when free breakfasts & lunches were offered to all students. We would go once a week to pick up a box of meals and a gallon of milk. The locally sourced food items were delicious (seasonal produce, bakery bread, pierogies were the standouts) but the pre-packaged sliders, pizza, burritos, etc. were horrible. I understood why my kids preferred packing to buying lunch at school.

Our nutrition department does work hard to offer local items and a variety of produce to the students. They have tasting events during the school day where they offer things like oven roasted asparagus to the students and over the summer they offer free plants to grow your own vegetables.

I wish they sold milk cartons to the packers like they did when I was in school.

 

[DeeBee3]

Guys, I was just pointing out why some people may gravitate toward peanut/tree nut severity when talking about allergies. It does get a lot of media attention. Was just giving personal experience as to why I can empathize with food allergies. It's terrifying when someone develops one and starts having that swelling sensation.

There are plenty of allergies for us all to share. We don't need to compete. I don't think schools do enough for food allergies, no matter the type. If you have a nut allergy, they have you sit at a separate table where you may or may not be sitting with someone. You are ostracized. This is as an elementary student (no knowledge of high school yet).

And I wish we outgrew ours. The doctor tests every other year to see.

 

[kimmar067]

OP are you a troll? Odd comments... IMO... 1. poor school lunch so mom gets Burger King?? 2. Why now breakfast?? 3. Portion sizes too smalll ( we all know kids eat too much) 4. fruit / brownie cold packs are odd?

...interesting observations...I was thinking along the same lines.

 

[karen4546]

I can still smell what the halls and cafeterias smelled like. Paste, fruit cocktail, old milk, Fritos, and sweat.

I bet you smell it now, too.

I suppose I am older than most of you but I started school in 1974 at 5. I went to the same school until the middle of my senior year when we moved.

Our cafeteria had homemade rolls, real fried chicken, meat loaf, soups, lasagna, spaghetti, chicken and dumplings, sometimes pizza, the BEST mashed potatoes, burgers and of course fish on Fridays, and loads more I liked and a few things I didn't like (vegetable soup was not my favorite but we could always choose a ham and cheese sandwich if we didn't want the regular lunch). They started having breakfast when I was in 6th grade. It was .30 and could be breakfast pizza, cinnamon rolls, sausage biscuits, etc. We had breakfast at home most of the time.

There was always a protein, two vegetables at least, a fruit like oranges and apples and then dessert.

I did not drink milk and there was not other option but it never smelled bad.

When I was about 15 they added a salad bar and hamburgers were offered everyday.

We also had to tell the homeroom teacher in the morning if we wanted the regular lunch, hamburger, salad bar or NO lunch with roll call. The cost was $1 I think. My parents would send a check for the lunches for all four of us once a week.

This was a rural school that had maybe 350 students in K-12.

 

[jo-jo]

I can't speak to school lunches, but other food is still way way way too salty. I can't tolerate potato chips unless I get the unsalted Kettle Chips. Amazingly, they taste like potatoes instead of salt.
And even Healthy Choice soup have over 400 mg of salt in it, way too much.

We were big progresso soup people. I liked one type, DH about 20 types. Since he was told to lay off salt. I started making beef barly and chicken noodle /rice soup with no salt. At first it was awful. But you get used it it pretty quickly.

 

[disneyseniors]

We never had gym in elementary school. Only thing we did was those stupid Presidential Physical Fitness tests. Not sure how they expected us to do well with no practice.
Gym was everyday in Junior High School (Grade 7 and 8 here) and high school.
My kids had PE everyday Middle School (grade 6-8 ). And they had PE three days a week during high school because they were on a block schedule. You had three of your classes on Monday and Wednesday, your three other classes on Tuesday and Thursday and all your classes on Friday. So your classes on the three class day were all 2 hours long, so worked better for sports.

Ugh! I remember the Presidential Physical Fitness exercises. It was started when JFK was President and Jackie Kennedy started the fitness program. I was in grade school at the time and hated those classes!

 

[leahgoogle]

Dairy can also cause anaphylaxis. Actually any allergy can. They always say that just because you didn't have that severe of a reaction this time, doesn't mean that you won't next time. I have seen this with my own allergy to cigarette smoke. It started out just smelling really bad, then moved onto giving me headaches, then migraines, then having my eyes water, to my nose plugging, and now I can feel my throat start to itch. And most people don't take my allergy seriously. I would be rich if I got a dollar for every person that said "I have never heard of that, you are lying".
Dairy is in a lot more foods than people realize. Whey protein seems to be in everything now.

A few years ago, I did an elimination diet and dairy was by far the hardest to avoid!!

 

[Lilsia]

A few years ago, I did an elimination diet and dairy was by far the hardest to avoid!!

It is in everything. You don't realize it until you can't have it anymore. I have become lactose intolerant in my old age but can get away with taking a Lactaid. Cheese is in everything. LOL

 

[tvguy]

Ugh! I remember the Presidential Physical Fitness exercises. It was started when JFK was President and Jackie Kennedy started the fitness program. I was in grade school at the time and hated those classes!

My mom had many complaints about my public school experience, and felt my time at school was for academics not sports. My Little League and after school sports gave me plenty of exercise, she would have rather had me spend more time in a class, or study hall to get help with subjects where I needed it and maybe get my homework done.