School menu ridiculousness

It's not the food that's making kids obese, it's the TV, and the Ipad, and the Xbox, and the overprotective parents who shelter their kids indoors. When you're a kid, you're supposed to be active, many of us just went until we crashed face down on the carpet, and as a result, what we ate was largely inconsequential. Not saying that kids don't benefit from real food, just that they don't suffer as much as adults from over processed food (assuming the kids are active.) Kids in school these days sit in class for hours on end, many schools have done away with PE programs, and recess, and when they get home they vedge in front of the boob tube. That's what's making them fat. When I was a kid I spent hours playing basketball, football, night games, or riding my bike. At that point I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain an ounce. Kids need to be kids, otherwise, they get fat.

By the way, I'm no fan of the school lunch program, or public schools in general, but it's become an easy scapegoat for parents who are largely vacant from their children's lives.

Rigger

1. Tax payer dollars in schools go towards repairs, equipment, teachers, maintenance, books, education - the stuff that the kids go to school for.

2. School Lunches are a convenience for parents that don't "have time" to make their kids lunches, and aren't provided directly by the school, but rather an outside food catering / prep company. The schools order what the kids eat, and frankly that's never the "good" stuff.

3. Breakfast?! Damn, I'm not old, but I remember we got one lunch, and we ran our *kitten* off during recess so the quality of food didn't matter unless kids chose to sit on the swing instead of playing with everyone else.

4. If you want the menus changed, go to board meetings and complain about it. Become more active and contact other parents with the same concerns and continue to voice your opinions at the board meetings. You may think they're a bunch of cheap stiffs, but what they really care about most is making sure the kids are getting the best education, and are happy. They'll listen to you if you voice your opinion

5. If they don't because it's not in the budget, make their lunch

Okay, first off, government regulations control everything a school is allowed to order for their cafeteria. I know that because I used to work in food distribution and some of my customers were very large school systems. You cannot sub any item at all without reviewing the entire nutritional info and making sure it falls with the government guidelines. The problem is the government was more worried about saving money when they set those guidelines than they were about nutrition. The schools order based on their set budget, and as we know, the school's budget is always the first budget to be cut by any government be it local, state or federal. As long as what they order is in their budget and in those horribly set nutritional guidelines they can order it. Most lunches are still provided by the school cafeteria, not by some catering company, although in high school they do offer some restaurant foods like pizza hut pizza and subway sandwiches.

I do agree with you that kids were much more active fifteen or twenty years ago, and that helped to keep the junk food from making them fat, however you can be thin and be unhealthy due to poor nutrition also. I agree that the ultimate responsibility falls on the parent and parents should pack healthy lunches for their kids.

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"For some children school's provide 2 meals a day. And for those living below the poverty level, sending homemade lunches when the school will provide them for free is just not a luxury they can afford.

I don't know if the OP's school is public or private, but when tax dollars are spent on public school lunches we ought to at least be outraged when it's spent on junk food lacking in nutrtition."
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Actually, if someone was providing FREE food to my child so they didn't have to be hungry, I don't think I'd complain at all. If you don't like the FREE food schools provide, buy your own food and send a lunch.

Not a coincidence that programs like the FREE lunch program provided by tax dollars are labeled "ENTITLEMENTS."

Edited because the quote box didn't appear -- quoting a previous comment.

Morgan Spurlock addressed both the nutrition and cost of school lunches in Supersize Me. He clearly shows that there ARE suppliers who will provide healthy food to students at the same cost as providing the pizza, french fries, and sloppy joes that they currently serve. It's really a matter of principals and school administrators doing their homework. Perhaps if the children were fed properly there would be fewer incidences of hyperactivity and distractions from the actual LEARNING that is supposed to be going on in the classroom. If a kid eats pizza and fries and soda for lunch of COURSE they're going to crash an hour later and be completely unable to focus in class. School adminstrators really just need to reprioritize and do a little research.

Whoa! Hold on a minute, the nutrition is not that simple. The school principle does not get to choose. Each county takes bids from food distributors and then the whole county is stuck with whatever distributor wins with the lowest bid.

Having said that, the federal government has set guidelines each state/ county/ individual school must meet. The problem is the guidelines are pathetic- actually being set up by the old food pyramid combined with meeting a certain minimum calorie count (there is no maximum calorie count enforced) because the program was primarily set up to feed impoverished children who lived in homes where the school meal was the only meal the child would get that day. There is the problem- it hasn't been reviewed or revised for many years, combined with budget cuts taking away workers who used to cook things from scratch and also locking the budgets at lower amounts, so the kids end up with processed re-heated garbage to eat.

My daughter is starting full day school for the first time Monday. It's $2.50 a meal. I think they get to chose between 3 options. They seem like good options to me.

Aug 19:
#1: Entree salad w/ dinner roll
#2: Hot dog
#3: Turkey sandwich

http://www.jeffcopublicschools.org/food_services/Elementary Lunch Aug.pdf

Not all the schools are the same... I am one the lunch ladies. I work at a High School in Ohio. We have pizza daily made fresh each day with whole grain crust. All our bread is whole grain, Pop tarts whole grain. I serve Breakfast sandwiches 3 days a week. Whole grain hamburger bun, egg patty, american cheese and turkey sausage patty. The students love them and they are getting a healthy breakfast. Have fresh fruit and veggies daily , they must take them, and less and less is getting thrown away. We have fresh subs and wraps daily, and real home cooked station daily. We have baked fries twice a week. Have staff that eat daily too. We have a lot of free and reduced students and this maybe the only healthy meal they get. The gov. foods are improving lower in sodium, fat, sugar. We slowly changed our menu items, so the students didn't notice the change.

I'm sorry but do the research. The Government and the industrial food machine work hand in hand and are pushing pop tarts and cheap manufactured foods down our throats every chance they get. There are a lot of parents who have their plates full and don't know about nutrition don't know about health and what is really in processed foods. Sure we can argue about how too many people rely on the government and I would agree but I also know there are better ways for schools to spend their money and nutrition needs to be a part of that discussion. Schools are meant to educate kids and if you want to sit there and say that feeding them a certain menu of crap consistantly isn't teaching them something which in most cases is bad eating habits you'd be dead wrong. We can improve school lunches and we need to because there are a lot of kids out there who get most of their meals at schools. Sad yes but true. I don't think good nutrition should be something that is that crazy to ask for.

My son goes to a public city school and his lunches are actually pretty balanced. A meat entree, a fruit, a veggie a starch and milk

They do have burgers and hot dogs but their sides are sweet potato fries and charra beans with those two meals..

About once a week they get whole grain cookies with lunch too.

My Mom works in a school cafeteria, and yes, it is government regulated if the school gets money from the government. Each child's plate has to meet certain criteria to be what is called a "reimbursable meal" meaning the federal government gives them so much money for each tray they sell. They get more money for children with free and reduced lunch. The way they calculate this is quite silly, for example they consider a grilled cheese sandwhich a meat because it has two slices of cheese. The system was originally set up after World War II, I believe because they army kept getting recruits that were undernourished. There is a new rule this year that every child has to pick up a fruit or a vegetable, and you can bet the lunch room workers will make sure they do because they can lose money if not. That does not mean the child actually eats it.

Although a lot of these options seem unhealthy, there are modifications that you don't see. For example, when I was in my third year of high school (this was only 5 years ago) all of our pizza crust was whole wheat. Also, on days they serve cheesy ravioli, Chef Boyardee makes a special whole grain pasta for the ravioli. I do agree it's not the healthiest, but there should always be healthy options. If you want your child to eat at school but are concerned about their nutrition, talk to the individual kitchen manager at your school. I know we always got the option of a salad, even if it wasn't on the menu. They can usually make special accomodations for those with dietary needs.

Wow, that's crazy. The kindergarten my daughter went to had awesome lunches. Anything bread was whole grain, including pizza. They had fresh fruit and cooked and raw veggies. They even put a limit on unhealthy condiments like ketchup and ranch dressing. We've just moved to a new state, so I guess I need to pay close attention the the lunch menu.