School lunch programs

jcawelti

I’ve been looking at my child’s school lunch options and they are abysmal at best and my school system is considered one of the better ones in California. Does anyone have a school lunch program they are proud of and if not, why is this acceptable to all of us. How do we change it?

sollyn23l2

There's one company that basically has a chokehold on school lunches nationally. You can complain to your representatives but... to be perfectly honest, they likely don't care and will inform you that you are welcome to send lunch in with your child if you are unhappy with the food offered.

AnnPT77

Sadly, I think it's down to the usual options:

Run for the local school board, write to legislators and regulators, join or form advocacy organizations, and vote for the politicians who are least objectionable/most attuned when it comes to school nutrition programs.

No, it's not acceptable.

MargaretYakoda

My kid’s school lunch director once, in a contentious school board meeting where people were up in arms about the existence of soda vending machines in the high school, stated “if they gave us mars bars for free we would happily feed them to the kids!”

So…. Yeah….

Good luck.
🫣

Theoldguy1

Are you and the members of you community willing to pay more for lunches and/or more in taxes to support better lunches? If not it's a non-starter.

asnell1106

Not that the food was great before, but for two years all schools in the state had free lunch bc of covid, the quality went way down. They are no longer free for all ($3.75) but the quality stayed down. There are a couple decent looking options but a lot looks really gross. My kids bring lunch from home except my youngest he buys in Friday and breakfast for lunch days. But I feel for the kids who get the free lunch bc of income and that’s what is provided.