No more junk food in schools
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GREAT.... now would you mind not serving processed crap ?? my kids school last year , i kid you not, on the menu they brought home, Monday mini corn dogs, Tuesday pizza , Wednesday chicken burgers, Thursday hot dogs, Friday fish sticks..
umm... yeah , any wonder my kids brought food from home ???
and the kids at school laughed at my daughters spinach pickle and cheese sandwich ..
but they all wanted bites of the smoked shark ???0 -
I think the CA standards have been stricter than this for a long time now. You can't even send junk from home at a lot of schools. I tried to give my step-son a cookie for his snack, and he said they aren't allowed.
Wow! Now that's going a bit too far..
It's not that bad. You can give your child whatever he wants for lunch. You just can't bring cupcakes or cookies for a in class party or something. Or any treats teachers give students have to be sugar free. So basically carrot sticks.0 -
There has to be a happy medium here, as well as a realistic idea of what schools CAN actually serve in a way that's cost effective.
The reality is that serving fresh, healthy foods is more expensive and time consuming than pulling some crap out of the freezer or dumping out a can. Junk food in schools is actually sometimes subsidized by the junk food companies themselves (Coca Cola is particularly notorious for this) as a form of advertising to kids. This kind of cafeteria food allows for schools to hire cheaper unskilled labor, where if they actually had to do real cooking and fresh preparation, they'd have to pay more for people who are doing something more complicated than dunking fries in a fryer or heating up a can of something.
Where exactly is that money going to come from? Particularly in poorer districts? Who is going to pay for that? School budgets are being slashed and gutted all over the place. Districts in my area are consolidating and laying off teachers by the dozens while class sizes balloon and supplies get older and scarcer.
I think that it's important that there be healthy options in school, but somebody has to be willing to pay for them. I also think that students should be taught about health and nutrition, but again, health teachers cost money. Many students (the older ones, at least) will just leave the building and go out for pizza or McDonald's or whatever at lunch time anyway. It's also ridiculous to insist that students not be able to bring whatever they want from home. While the school should absolutely be providing healthy food and encouraging parents to do the same, the idea that a parent can't pack a cookie or a bag of chips with their kid's lunch is way overboard. The idea that parents can't send cupcakes or munchkins to celebrate their child's birthday is just sad. A healthy lifestyle includes treats in moderation - not a controlling nanny state that won't allow you within ten feet of temptation. That doesn't create a healthy relationship with food - it just sets kids up for failure in the future.0 -
A healthy lifestyle includes treats in moderation - not a controlling nanny state that won't allow you within ten feet of temptation. That doesn't create a healthy relationship with food - it just sets kids up for failure in the future.
THIS! THIS! THIS!!!0 -
The best thing this administration has ever done, imho.0
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The articles I have read state that kids can still bring in their own food from HOME. But schools cannot serve certain foods. What's the big deal? Pack your kids lunch with 5000 calories worth of junk food, the law still says you can.
I am saddened by the amount of heavy kids I see today.
No doubt, growing up I ate all the crap they ate BUT we had PE classes, chores, and we couldn't wait to play outside for hours a day. We didn't get to sit at the computer all day, we didn't get to sit in front of the TV all day or playing video games (hellllooooo I thought in the 80's we were pretty righteous for having a Nintendo, but my parents hid the controllers from us so we couldn't sit an play video games all day!)0 -
The healthy kids act has been in effect in the US since July of 2012. No one can profit from sales of "junk" food during the school day. As a high school teacher I see kids doing exactly --^-- this, or order pizza and have someone with a drivers license run and get it to bring it to the common area. The school lunch program manager hates it because she has a $$ budget to operate from> She can get FREE government commodities (cheese, corn syrup, white flour, beef) and could make the meals within her budget easily. Now she says the stuff she can't use is cheap and the new requirements are making her buy higher price goods (that are not government subsidized) to meet the new guidelines. She REALLY does not like it also because she has to put food on a kids plate and much of that food goes to the trash can. She also reported lower lunch sales since this act passed.
Personally I think there are better ways to handle this also.I don't know. When I went to school, the kids who had money just ran to the store across the street before school because they could get all their snacks for cheaper than the vending machine. I think the Whatchamacallits were all dusty by the end of a school year, because no one used the snack machines.
Teach the kids moderation in all things, and or they'll just eat junk elsewhere.0 -
It wasn't junk food in school that made me fat. I wasn't fat at all in high school and I had fried chicken tenders every day for lunch. However, I did play softball and my brother and I played a lot outside. My mother wouldn't let us eat a lot of crap at home either.
It was when I got into college and started to feed myself that was the problem :P0 -
Kids aren't getting fat at school. The gov't needs to mess something else up and leave the schools alone.0
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I think that it is a good start. banning Pepsi, and Hershies is probably good. limiting calories in children probably wont help them to learn. kids need nutrition and healthy meals that they eat. My daughter likes to bring food from home because the school lunch is "gross". Hopefully that can change too. They should mandate that nothing is processed. not that each thing has too be under a certain amount of calories.0
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The school my kids attend has really gotten on this bandwagon in the past two years. They, too, have outlawed any form of "sweets" - no treats for kid's birthdays, no candy at Halloween or Valentine's Day, etc. I think that part is going too far. As other posters have said, it doesn't teach kids about moderation.
However, this past year they hired a different head cook and I saw a big reduction in the processed meals the school served, both at breakfast and at lunch times. I was pleased to see the changes that they made in the lunchroom. There has also been talk of the school growing its own garden in the coming years (students will assist in its care and harvest) - I think that this is a great idea and hope it gets implemented. Granted it would only provided fresh fruits and veggies for a few months of the year (we're in Nebraska), but I think that kids would be more willing to try (and like) different vegetables/fruits if they helped to grow them.0 -
I'm not so sure. Kids' home environments determine their eating habits, and cutting junk food from school lunches will not make a difference to a kid who goes home to junk food and unhealthy meals. I think it would be more important and a better investment for schools to improve their health/physical education programs, and focus on educating the students on a healthy lifestyle, rather than recreating the lunch menu.0
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To me - the government has no business to decide what my child eats - EVER!
Eating healthy begins at home. I've been to the schools since the White House has stuck their nose into our business. Tons of "healthy food" is being dumped in the trash cans. Kids eat junk food at home and then you think they are going to want broccoli and carrots at school. Ain't happening.
Our children are at school a short time - they are busy at school but once they get home, it's what the parents feed them that matters. Then the kids sit in front of a TV or video game for hours - no activity.0 -
To me - the government has no business to decide what my child eats - EVER!
Eating healthy begins at home. I've been to the schools since the White House has stuck their nose into our business. Tons of "healthy food" is being dumped in the trash cans. Kids eat junk food at home and then you think they are going to want broccoli and carrots at school. Ain't happening.
Our children are at school a short time - they are busy at school but once they get home, it's what the parents feed them that matters. Then the kids sit in front of a TV or video game for hours - no activity.
Then pack your kid a lunch? Problem solved. If you want your child to eat junk and not the "health".food the school is providing then provide them their own school lunches and snacks. I don't see what the issue is.
With the amount of kids that are becoming overweight something needs to happen somewhere. I don't think this is the solution, but at least it is something since clearly the parents are doing nothing.0 -
I see where this could be plausible, but I agree with most posters here about the junk food not being a problem. I was very active in high school and I ate TONS of crap and I was the smallest I've ever been. I didn't start gaining weight until I wasn't as active anymore. It needs to be about activity AND diet. Parent's need to be involved in their children's eating decisions. Just as everyone here isn't a special snowflake, neither are the kids at school. Trying to force them to adopt the same standards is going to fail miserably.0
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^^ ThisIt wasn't junk food in school that made me fat. I wasn't fat at all in high school and I had fried chicken tenders every day for lunch. However, I did play softball and my brother and I played a lot outside. My mother wouldn't let us eat a lot of crap at home either.
It was when I got into college and started to feed myself that was the problem :P0 -
In high school, I ate Little Debbie snacks and ice cream for munch, then fast food or pizza after school. I was 110 pounds and size 3.
You know what was different then? Gym class and not spending all day in front of video games and computers.
Get rid of all the junk, but as long as they keep getting rid of recess and PE, kids will be overweight. They aren't addressing the real issue.
This^ Only I ate pizza, frito pie, and huge sandwiches. However, I also walked at least 2 miles a day every day.0 -
To me - the government has no business to decide what my child eats - EVER!
Eating healthy begins at home. I've been to the schools since the White House has stuck their nose into our business. Tons of "healthy food" is being dumped in the trash cans. Kids eat junk food at home and then you think they are going to want broccoli and carrots at school. Ain't happening.
Our children are at school a short time - they are busy at school but once they get home, it's what the parents feed them that matters. Then the kids sit in front of a TV or video game for hours - no activity.
Then pack your kid a lunch? Problem solved. If you want your child to eat junk and not the "health".food the school is providing then provide them their own school lunches and snacks. I don't see what the issue is.
With the amount of kids that are becoming overweight something needs to happen somewhere. I don't think this is the solution, but at least it is something since clearly the parents are doing nothing.
"I don't think this is a solution" "I don't see what the issue is"0
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