Parents: School Lunches

lucky me
I went to school in poland
and never ever had junk food for lunch
it was always:
soup,
main meal (meet/fish, starchy carbs, side of vegs - big side of vegs, at least same amount as meat)
kompota - not sure what the name is in English, it's juice obtained by boiling fruit untill all the juice goes int water, with sugar added)
fruit for dessert - i think it was always fruit for whole 8 years, no matter if it was friday, day before holiday... food (junk food) as a treat was not an option, we didn't have vending machines neither

Now I live in Spain, here they to serve junk food on Fridays in school cafeteria, but every other day, it's pretty healthy

REALLY starting to think I would be in much better shape if I lived in another country ^^^^ this is a perfect example

So between my bad diet and lack of good weather (I'm in the UK) which means your not inclinded to be out and about doing outdoor activities /sports and spend time trying to stay warm and cozy.

but i digress ....

One of my nephews has school dinners and the other packed lunch.

The school dinners nephew often tells us of combinations such as 'fish and yorkshire pudding', as well describing what he's had by colour and texture (the yellow gooey cake with crunchy soft stuff on top... lemon meringue?). At this school, it seems the really need to regulate combinations so the children are getting a healthy balance. Bear in mind they run around in the playground after lunch, so would something a bit more slow release than a yorkshire be better? And why is he not told what his meals are called?

The packed lunch nephew gets in trouble as my sister makes him tuna pastas etc, where the dinner ladies insist he needs something 'easier' to eat (i.e. they can't be bothered to help him clean up after) like a sandwich.

When I finished high school they changed the rules so you could only buy biscuits and cakes if you bought a dinner object (like a sandwich etc). They weren't turning over enough profit and sold biscuits on the sly anyway.

There's a girl just had her blog taken down, which showed ratings and pictures of her school dinners - some of the combinations there are scary!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18472795

As for cookies, my kids love Oreos. But they don't sell there here like in the US, in bulk, where the kids can open the package and eat many, many cookies in one sitting.

You basically buy them here by the box, with each box containing four packages of Oreos, each package with four cookies in them. Long story short, they get four Oreos at a time, and that's it. So they're happy they get cookies, but I know they can't eat any more than four. Win, win.

It's probably more expensive to buy them this way, but I strongly recommend it if it's available in the US. It really lets the parent manage the portion sizes, and trains the kids (I hope) that four cookies is a proper snack.

--Prahasaurus

I'm a teacher at the school my daughter attends and it's a struggle. Ours is probably middle of the road in terms of nutrition---we don't have a salad bar sadly but they do make nutritional information easily available, don't allow bags of chips, offer a premade salad and yogurt as options, and three hot lunches. But they're still nasty. Many kids at our school get free or reduced price lunch and so many kids buy lunches. My DD wants to at times to be like the other kids in her class. I usually give her the option to buy lunch once a week and the rest of the week pack a lunch (no microwave for her, although I could probably take the lunch down and microwave it myself but I don't want her to get a special exception because I'm there). I send pretty much the same stuff as everyone else but do try to liven it up with a fun note or something cool. We had a discussion this year about why I don't want her to buy lunch all the time and actually, all the other school employees got in on it too because they think it's nasty as well. I think it was the school secretary who finally clinched the deal when she pointed out to DD that we all know there were bugs at the school,right? DD nodded. Secretary leaned over and asked where did DD think the bugs came from? DD's eyes got big, she went pale, and clutched her lunchbox a bit tighter.

Bump for later

I rarely remember eating school lunch, I was always picky. My parents did something similar, we could have one "hot " lunch a week if we wanted it and a milk to go with our bag lunch. I ate PB&J and pretzels for probably 4 years straight. :laugh: Even in high school I brought my lunch. I usually packed a bagel with peanut butter and pretzels because that was the only thing the would keep me full from lunch time through the end of dance team practice at 430 or 5 pm. if I wanted to buy a lunch I would bring my own money and get one of those giant pretzels with cheese sauce. :noway: Looking back it was a wonder I didn't weigh 1,000 lbs but then again I was dancing 18 hours a week. lol

I don’t allow my children to eat school lunches either. I find it odd that your school would let her do that for a month. My daughter’s teacher knows why I don’t allow them to have school lunch and they make sure to call me if she forgets her lunch so I can bring her something if I am able. We have to fill out a form at school to preorder our children’s lunches and sign at the bottom if they have hot lunch. If we don’t get those forms filled out and signed then the children must call before they get a lunch. I guess this is the schools way of helping parents control what they eat. I have seen their lunches and it also brings the lunch price down. I do not let them eat the lunch because it is pre- packaged trash with very little nutritional value. I am 100% positive that it contributes to childhood obesity.

On a recent visit to my daughter’s school I made sure I said to my daughter in front of everyone very loud that the hot lunches that the other kids were eating looked gross. They all thought it was funny because the kids all think it is gross too. The girl that had the hot lunch had brought her own healthy lunch to school to eat despite the hot lunch her mom had already ordered. When I asked her mom why she got two lunches her mother told me that she is eligible for free lunch but won’t eat it so still brings and packs her own lunch. The mother seemed irritated about the fact that her daughter did that but I told her good for her daughter for wanting to eat something healthy.

I have found ways to pack hot lunch too but it does not include very many things. I will heat up the soup and put it in a really good thermos and the kids tell me it is still hot when lunch time comes. Make sure the thermos is plastic and one that can take a beating because otherwise it will break in their bag. I am not sure if this works with other hot meals.

Hello everyone! I'm a parent of an elementary school child and a middle schooler. Interestingly enough I was working in the school cafeteria as a lunch lady . I learned so much about the politics involved with our school lunch programs. It's very discouraging. The quality of the lunches is determined by state guidelines. Most likely the school contracts out their lunch programs to the lowest bidder every five years or so. And I mean the lowest bidder.
I learned that our program last year was based on a specific calorie goal. The children selected minimal of two of the following;
A protein, a whole grain or a fruit/vegetable. Sounds reasonable right. It actually worked like this. We would prepare a salad bar with fresh salad, individual servings of fruit, carrots, celery, cucumber, and broccoli. Would the kids go near the salad bar -no. I bribed them, those that made a nice salad I would give them croutons. If I put the croutons out on the salad bar, kids would fill their plates with 1-6 cups of croutons.
Now the terrible part is that with the state guidelines, the most cost effective items THAT Kids WILL eat are as follows; hamburger, cheeseburger, chicken nuggets, pizza, spaghetti of some sort, sub sandwiches, Bosco sticks (bread with mozzarella inside), French toast sticks, bagels with cream cheese, sub sandwiches and occasionally fish sticks (which most kids trashed).
Remember, this is cost effective. We have many children that are on a free lunch program, so our taxes are paying for thousands of kids to just get one meal in their belly. And the majority of kids will not eat what is healthy, because it doesn't taste as good. Therefore, they won't eat their lunch at all and then parents call me to complain.
I've seen it from both sides. I pack my kids lunch. Occasionally I'd let them buy. I have more control when I pack their lunches.

In regards to your son and the milk situation. I dealt with that all the time. We have two of us lunch ladies and 200-250 kids to serve. We constantly had kids "dine and dash". Not realizing that they had to pay for milk or their food. We have all our kids accounts on line. I'd tell the parents to check it out. Regularly, we had children whose parents packed them lunch, but the kids wanted pizza instead. The kids ditch their lunch and buy it instead. I get the angry phone call. I usually know the kids well so the next day I'd always ask the kid if their mom packed them a lunch. If they say yes I ask them '"shouldn't you eat what your mom packed"..they reply "but I don't like it.". I try to reason with them, but I can't say no to the child. If they are in my line, my job was to make sure they get something to eat. We had quite a few kids flagged because of these issues. I usually tried to work with the parents individually. Most of the time it worked nicely and parents, kids, we're happy. But some parents :huh: .

In this economy, it's going to get worse. So please pack your child's lunch, and remember that there are nice lunch ladies out there.:flowerforyou:

I am in Australia in a small regional town and so we don't have the issue of school provided meals. Our Primary school doesn't even have a canteen! Once a term the Parents & Friends team will have a 'food day' fundraiser which usually alternates between pizza, fancy fruit, hot dogs, pies or something similar. But this is one day out of about 50! There is also a 'breakfast club' which is cost free before school one day a week. They have toast with Vegemite, jam, nutella or cornflakes, weetbix and drinks are milk, milk & milo, water or juice

Thus it is packed lunches every day for us. My boys have a number of other students in their classes with food allergies & intolerances so nuts, seeds, eggs & fish are out. But the staple is one sandwich with vegemite & cheese or sliced meat & cheese. 2 peices of fruit a day - apples, pears, grapes, mandarines, bananas, watermelon, strawberries - whatever is in season! And then the treat which is mostly a small container of biscuits. Usually I try for homemade like anzacs, yo-yos but also peices of slice or a cake slice or muffin. It maybe a treat still but I feel better for going homemade!

The kids are encouraged to bring water with them and are allowed to have them at their desks so they may sip whenever they are thirsty. During the mid-morning between lessons they have a fruit time which is 10-15mins where all the students sit for some show & tell while eating a peice of fruit. Lunchtime is 10mins for sitting, eating & hopefully digesting properly then 40mins for playing!

Our school has also recently gone to waste-free so any rubbish (excepting compostable e.g. apple cores, banana skins etc.) is sent home... Not necessarily for me but this has changed the way some parents have packed lunches.