Yes, both my kids eat at public schools and I agree that the food is not optimal, far from it. Just the fact that is carried in plastic bags it's not that comforting to me and seeing the menus I am under the impression that they were made to save money and not to give the kids what they need.
The food that kids eat at school is very bad for then, in addition do being generally bad quality. Calling it "not optimal" is a huge compliment I understand that schools need to cut costs, but I doubt that parents would mind paying a bit more if they knew that the money went into improving the quality of their kids' meals.
It's a cultural thing sometimes. My kid is in a free program from the city that takes them to the beach. They give them food in the middle of the morning and afternoon, guess what it is, bread and ice-tea. Yes, ice-tea twice per day during two weeks. What sense does this make?! What are they thinking?
The only way to stop this in it's tracks is to grow our own food. For years, people have been sold the idea that they are 'time poor' and that fast, cheap food is the perfect solution. At least growing your own vegetables gives you some control and it isn't that difficult. Hit these corporations in the pocket and you will start to win the war on corporate poisoning.
That would be a good solution budfox, but if we have full time jobs, kids and a life where do we find the time to grow our own food? I am not saying it's impossible, but it's certainly hard and most people won't do it.
When I was in elementary school, our lunches consisted of a cardboard pure cartilage hamburger, tator tots, hot dogs, pizza, milk that tasted like it wiped the floor and had cardboard blended in (I'm not really sure what they used for chocolate, dirt?), chicken nuggets.... The only alternative for a healthy lunch was PBJ which you had to make as a special request. Obviously, I brought my own lunch!
Meh, it's not like we don't know what's going into our foods, since its all there on the back of the packet. It's just that people are too lazy to ever check what they are.
Yeah, I remember this, turt. And then they always stuck a tiny little bit of a vegetable onto the tray so they could say they are serving nutritious vegetables with no thought to the grease-laden entree. I do think it's getting better with the schools and what they're offering now (some of the things *we* used to have make me cringe) but if it is not happening fast enough for parents, it really doesn't take a long time to put some peanut butter on whole wheat bread and grab some raisins and a banana for a child's carry-along lunch.
I think you're onto something there, Livvy... seems that complaining about the school's lunch choices instead of just sending along a healthy lunch is what way too many parents choose. Don't want them eating the fat-burgers and greasy faux pizza? Well then the choice is either send a lunch with them that's healthy (thus saving money, too) or complain about the fat-burgers and greasy pizza for the whole term while your child is EATING it. Some things are just head shakers. Oh, and that doesn't mean I think anyone should stop trying to change school menus... but we can be proactive at the same time and start changing what OUR children are putting into their bodies at the same time we're trying to get those menu changes.
I agree with what Kate has said. Instead of complaining about how unhealthy school lunches are, parents should instead start making their kids their own healthy lunches. The schools aren't going to start giving out healthy lunches because unhealthy ones are much cheaper. If parents want their kids to grow up healthy then they should start by making them a healthy nutritious lunch every morning.
