No wonder our kids grow up to make bad food choices...

I'm lucky...my son goes to private school so his lunches are usually pretty decent, and I'm lucky that he actually really likes fruits and veggies. He's better about eating them than I am sometimes.

Here is a link to 20 school lunches from around the world. The USA is horrible!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-school-lunches-look-like-in-20-countries-arou

You know parents have the option to make a lunch for their kids and have them bring it to school, right? So is it the school's fault or the parents fault?

I go to a small private university and the food the university serves is pretty good - but it's filled with sodium! The company (Sodexo) shows up in the MFP databases but every day I eat from the cafeteria I go over my sodium limit (I'm tracking it). I can only imagine how much sodium must be in school food. I can't imagine what my sodium would be like if I was still in high school and eating lunch from the cafeteria there everyday (it wasn't much different than what was in the pictures, just a few more choices - but they were mostly packaged things too, like candies). The high school's efforts towards making things healthy were pretty much just switching from normal to baked chips.

Parents can make food for their children but from my experience, 95% of students buy lunch from the cafeteria, at least in public schools. In high school it's worse because the students have the options to buy essentially anything - and many opt for things like ice cream, candy, etc. instead of the somewhat-balanced meals the school serves. So there's a point where parents really can't do much unless schools let them know how the students are spending their money.

However... I'd rather have these options than things like only rice or porridge, as some countries have.

My son's school offers unhealthy lunch options, so I pack him a healthy lunch everyday to take. Parents need to be accountable for making sure their children aren't eating so much crap! It would surely help if the schools did better, but as parents we need to be advocates for our kids first and foremost. At our school most kids bring their own lunch, I don't see that many getting school lunch. That being said, my husband was at my son's school for lunch last week and he said one little boy opened up his lunch and he had 2 bags of chips and a fruit roll-up. This is a 1st grader! Makes me sad for kids like that whose parents don't seem to care what they eat.

My school catered they're food every day. and we had a salad bar. so i had options.

Here is a link to 20 school lunches from around the world. The USA is horrible!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-school-lunches-look-like-in-20-countries-arou

You know parents have the option to make a lunch for their kids and have them bring it to school, right? So is it the school's fault or the parents fault?

There was a recent news release that featured a school district that had healthy lunches. What happened is that kids threw away their lunches and either bought fast foods from various "black market" sources (off campus) or brought their own fast foods from home.

So I agree, parents have made their choices clear.

Here is a link to 20 school lunches from around the world. The USA is horrible!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-school-lunches-look-like-in-20-countries-arou

You know parents have the option to make a lunch for their kids and have them bring it to school, right? So is it the school's fault or the parents fault?

While this is true and I completely agree that the parents should provide the lunch they want their kids to have if they don't like it, you know those little buggers are trading their Yogurt for someone else's Tatertots. Or using their own money if in high school to buy cookies etc.

Here is a link to 20 school lunches from around the world. The USA is horrible!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-school-lunches-look-like-in-20-countries-arou

You know parents have the option to make a lunch for their kids and have them bring it to school, right? So is it the school's fault or the parents fault?

My son is 4 and we have made his lunches for school. I can instill healthy habits in him, but eventually, when he is a teenager, bringing in lunch his mommy made might not be that cool, and then his only options are the crap school lunches. Don't throw ME under the bus. The school should provide healthier options. Or his friends should be more tolerant when it comes to momy packing his lunch:bigsmile:

I compromise with my 1st grader (age 6). We make her lunch 3 days a week and she gets to eat school lunches on Friday (pizza) and one other (she chose Wed for the chicken nuggets). That way she doesn't feel like a total outsider, but still eats mostly healthy foods. Due to her upbringing, if given the option between veggie and fries, she almost always chooses the veggie. She has never even tasted a soda. My sister offered her one a couple months ago, and my daughter told her no thanks, I don't drink soda. Do you have any water?

I go to a small private university and the food the university serves is pretty good - but it's filled with sodium! The company (Sodexo) shows up in the MFP databases but every day I eat from the cafeteria I go over my sodium limit (I'm tracking it). I can only imagine how much sodium must be in school food. I can't imagine what my sodium would be like if I was still in high school and eating lunch from the cafeteria there everyday (it wasn't much different than what was in the pictures, just a few more choices - but they were mostly packaged things too, like candies). The high school's efforts towards making things healthy were pretty much just switching from normal to baked chips.

Parents can make food for their children but from my experience, 95% of students buy lunch from the cafeteria, at least in public schools. In high school it's worse because the students have the options to buy essentially anything - and many opt for things like ice cream, candy, etc. instead of the somewhat-balanced meals the school serves. So there's a point where parents really can't do much unless schools let them know how the students are spending their money.

However... I'd rather have these options than things like only rice or porridge, as some countries have.

Sodexo also has the contract for catering in some British Army training facilities. I don't know if it is just because they're preparing foods for soldiers doing training but the food seems always to be calorie laden food like chips, breaded meat, lasagne etc.

i wouldn't even want to post what the school lunches at the school i work at look like. make me gag daily.

You know parents have the option to make a lunch for their kids and have them bring it to school, right? So is it the school's fault or the parents fault?

It doesn't mean that the school shouldn't be held responsible for not providing healthy choices. Is it the kid's fault that their parents don't make their lunch? No. So why should the kid's body have to suffer for it?

That being said, I'm really not surprised... the rest of the world has so much better, healthier food than America in general. Fruits and veggies are cheaper. It's ridiculous and no wonder why we have such an obesity problem here.

we have an obesity problem because people refuse to take responsiblity for themselves. Like when people sued McDonalds for making them fat,and parents that dont take the time to find out what kind of lunches their kids school provides.If more parents did that then started sending the kids to school with a lunch the schools would be forced to change because they wouldnt be making any money. But people are lazy

So...young children are supposed to be taking personal responsibility for the foods they eat? Are you serious? And are you aware that for some children, the ONLY meal they get ALL DAY is school lunch, because they qualify for the free lunch program?

Furthermore, schools are not making money on lunches. Do you even have a clue what a public school system's budget, expenditures, and income looks like?

You know parents have the option to make a lunch for their kids and have them bring it to school, right? So is it the school's fault or the parents fault?

I agree. If you don't want your child eating school lunches, make them yourself.

This is true, but not every parent can afford this. Most parents need to get their kids school lunches because they need the reduced lunch costs schools offer.