Parents: School Lunches

Our government changed the rules and schools here are now forced to serve healthier food. They were forced to get rid of their fryers and aren't even allowed to see regular pizza. They now serve a whole wheat veggie pizza. There are no hamburgers, hot dogs or nachos. Even the slushie machines have been switched into Crystal Light slushies or something like that.

And while it is a good idea to own up and take responsibility, what we are seeing now is kids eating nothing at all because they won't eat the healthier foods.

I am thinking something is better than nothing...is there no happy medium? Why not offer both types of food (while scaling back on the super high unhealthy foods) and offer the kids a choice. Then educating them to make healthier choice.

I pack my kids lunches and have decided not to partake in the hot lunches offered by the school mainly because my kids won't eat them and they were going hungry.

I make sure to keep the junk out of their lunches (for the most part) and try to make sure they are getting enough healthy food whenever they can.

(On a side note: I do not eat veggies, never have, never will and I think I turned out OK)

In the schools where I grew up, they don't serve you lunches. You HAVE to pack. I packed my own, usually two or three slices of dark bread with cheese, ham, cucumber or tomatoe.

A cold lunch doesn't do you any harm at all. It's good. It fills you up. Add an apple and a waterbottle and you're set. Nomnom

I just finished my long, **** 13 years of public school and the lunches have been terrible the whole time. They introduced a salad bar my senior year but even then, kids are getting salads claiming they are healthy yet have packed them with croutons and four of those containers of ranch. FOUR. Our school's food service is called 'Healthy Choice Meals' but I'll tell you what, they aren't healthy at all. Chicken nuggets, grade D beef cheeseburgers, only chocolate milk and/or a small bagged juice. You wanted to have a nice bottle of water with your lunch? Extra $.75. Any healthy food they had, with the exception of the salad if done properly, costs more and where I'm from, the majority of students just get free lunch so if they want these extra things such as a water or some extra fruit, it will cost them money that they don't have. If you've ever seen Supersize Me, he touches on how unhealthy school lunches are. The one place he showed with healthy lunch choices was a center for troubled teens. And everyone questions how kids are becoming so overweight. Starts in school.

Want more disturbing? I work at a title one school...meaning my students are poor. Most are on free lunches. Most will get their free lunch every day and free breakfast every day. Most will find .50 or more for chips and a powerade or some crap like that. Most will then not touch the lunch given to them and throw it away, totally uneaten.

Now the lunches are unhealthy Standard American Diet. Brown, gray, white foods. That's it. No real green. They started substituting sweet potato fries for the regular and they wouldn't eat them. They give them a tiny side salad (less than a 1/4 cup of iceburg lettuce is a salad to them) and it always gets tossed.

What gets eaten?

Calzones
Chicken Nuggets or fingers
sometimes the hamburgers (no veggies)

I hate being on lunch duty because I have to smell the nasty food and watch "poor needy" kids just throw it away when there are millions of truly starving people who would literally eat anything we give them.

I had to send a written letter to my kid's elementary school telling them NOT to allow my child to go through the line and purchase ice cream, chips, etc. I cc'd the principal and it worked pretty well. I did not put money at the time into an "account" and if they were fool enough to sell it to a kid then they deserve to end up short. Having said that I did give my kids a little lunch money from time to time because there is always the "I forgot" days.

We went to Academy and Walmart and I let both of my kids buy the thermos they wanted. They love them and take left over everything in them. I've even seen them chop up lasagna, heat it up, and stuff it in their thermos to take to school with veggies and applesauce. Neither of my kids like the cafeteria lunch. My daughter says their corn dogs are "green" on the inside. Yuk, yuk, yuk.

My son just graduated HS and my daughter is going into 8th grade so we've been at this a while. Check into a thermos. Even if you heat up canned spaghettio's or mac 'n cheese it's better than what they will get at school. So sad but true.

My high school actually had pretty decent school lunches. You could still choose things like chicken fingers, french fries, and pizza. However, the normal school lunch was cheaper and (to many a student's surprise) tasted pretty good. They made staple meals like spaghetti & meatballs, grilled chicken, hamburgers, etc... And always in good portions (not too much) with a vegetable (a real vegetable, not a pizza-vegetable) and fruit (almost always an apple).

I started having it every day after I matured a little. It was cheaper, better tasting, and more filling than getting the chicken fingers, french fries, and pizza that were also offered. These days I would love to be able to buy something like that for 4 bucks. Instead, when I want to buy a quick lunch I'm usually looking for the least-bad thing on the menu at Wendy's (I recommend the ultimate chicken grill /w no sauce and a plain baked potato, if you're not worried about carbs).

My son is in full time day care right now, (he's almost 3) and we pay for breakfast, lunch, and 2 snacks in our tuition.

He rarely eats anything there. We get a menu every week, and sometimes there may be 1-2 lunches I think he'll be okay with, the rest are gross.

All of the snacks are junk food, I always send him snacks from home, he'd rather have fruit than cheese puffs anyday.

The breakfasts are terrible.. he eats breakfast at home every day. Pop tarts? Muffins? Sugar Smacks cereal? Biscuit and jelly? No, thank you. My son would much rather have yogurt, fruit, oatmeal, or sometimes cereal (but NOT sugar smacks!)

I mean, he gets a little junk on occasion at home.. and maybe too often, but he doesn't need it 4 times a day, every day!! I let him have treats, but not multiple times a day!

In their defense, they do try to offer a meat, vegetable, fruit, and milk with every lunch.. but, I'm sorry, my son will not eat "Pork pot pie".. yuck!

Anything "pot pie" is yuk.

Now there's something we agree upon, Bruce!

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.

I'm sure that made the kids whose only choice is to eat the lunch provided by the school, feel really great. You do realize that there are parents who can't afford to pack their child's lunch, so the child has to eat the free lunch provided by the school? I know I would look forward to eating my lunch that someone just referred to as 'gross'. Maybe instead of acting like a toddler you could actually put some effort into getting healthier lunches into the school.

And just to note, my children take lunch from home.

I agree.. and it's not just a money thing.. some of them have parents that don't CARE what their kids eat, or even IF they eat. For some of them, that may be the only "real" meal they get.. and you just looked at it and called it "gross". Congrats.. you're big stuff.

I don't have kids so this may be slightly unrealistic, but 'some' people definitely need to teach their kids to be less picky eaters. If schools served what I (and probably many of you) eat they would have a riot on their hands. When I was younger my dad always made us finish our plates, whether we wanted to or not.

I think most kids become picky eaters because the parents are too lax. If your kid says he won't eat something, make him/her eat it anyways. They'll thank you when they grow up to be healthy people with an appreciation for a good diet.