Today’s menu: pizza, carrots, orange, pretzels
Pizza again. It is basically once a week so it shouldn’t be a surprise. I was happy about the orange and the carrots. I did not use ranch on the pizza this time! I think the pizza looks really good in this picture…
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When I first started the blog project, I thought to myself, “I wish I had gotten this idea earlier because I would have started eating school lunch at the beginning of the school year…. it’s just more logical.” But even if I had gotten the idea then, late last year I was actively breastfeeding and was very careful with my diet. So it’s really a moot point.
BUT now that I’m almost halfway done eating school lunches, I do believe that I couldn’t have made it if I had to go September to June without a significant break. I feel so lucky to have summer coming up and a chance to eat my own food.
One cool thing about the project straddling two school years is that I’ll get to see firsthand if there are any big changes to the menu come the Fall. It’s probably wishful thinking, but I think that in September I will see changes (maybe I have to believe for my own sanity). I’d like to see more whole foods (less processed meat) and more whole fruit. I’m hopeful.
why is the pizza so shiny? it looks like it has a plastic film over the top of it.
I gotta tell you – I think that pizza looks scary. In the second photo, I can't tell if there is plastic wrap on it or not. No. Not good.
Your awesome for doing this! I think there has definitely need to be more awareness for school lunches for any grade really.
That's just how the cheese is. I can't say why it's so shiny! Hmmm…
It DEFINITELY seems like you are getting a lot more whole fruit now than in the beginning. No more frozen "fruit" cups. 🙂
It's really nice to think your project has already made positive changes in the school food. Way to go, Mrs. Q!
I have noticed fewer frozen fruit icees, too. And the broccoli and mystery greens were not around back in January. You have already induced changes, Mrs. Q! Good for you! And over the Summer, when contracts are renewed/terminated, maybe they will hire a dietician and come up with some new guidelines… one can only hope!
As it says in Ratatouille… "If you can muscle past the gag reflex….!"
Is that cheese pizza or is there meat in it? I can't tell.
I used to love the pizzas in our school cafeteria, but looking back now, they were nasty. Very little flavor to them (except salty), and there were days when we would have to wipe down the tops of them with napkins before we could eat them because there was so much grease.
What happens to the kids who depend on school meals for their food? Do they go hungry all summer?
I agree with the others, the pizza does not look good.
Does your School district offer lunches to the summer programs? I'd be interested to see what those are like. Ages ago I worked as an intern in West Seattle with kids below the poverty line. We lived at the center in ghetto trailers (our 2 bedroom double wide housed a dozen girls and had no hot water, nor enough electricity to run a full-sized fridge) and were fed on food bank food and illicit leftovers from the summer lunch program. The food was really awful, but we didn't get paid enough to really be able to afford to buy much food for ourselves. I ate a lot of $5 pizza and $1 rice from the gang-run Vietnamese place across the parking lot. Technically they weren't suppose to give us the leftovers, as the law states it is to be consumed by the kids or thrown away. But we were hungry enough that even the horrid food was gratefully consumed. Maybe that was the point.
I bet the camera's flas contributes to the pizza's shinyness.
One thing I always think about when I see your photos is that I probably would have been a lot less grossed out by your school's food than the food at my district when I was growing up.
All of our stuff came unwrapped and we were constantly finding hairs and sometimes even bugs in the food. Even though the food often tasted good, it made me gag just thinking about how dirty it really was. It would have been a lot nicer all sealed up with plastic likes yours is. Of course, the amount of waste your school must generate is tragic to fathom.
Always love your blog.
http://lesadventuresdulorax.blogspot.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100527/ap_on_he_me/lt_mexico_junk_food_ban;_ylt=AizuX9dNCQ0OLtJh6_ZPu4is0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFkYTBicWVuBHBvcwMxNTEEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9oZWFsdGgEc2xrA21leGljb3RvYmFuag– If they can do it why can't we!
The pizza looks like it has clear wrapping or something along those lines on it. Ick!
The pizza looks absolutely fake and disgusting…
Looks like there are little grease bubbles on the pizza, that is not good for kids.
The pizza looks like it is covered in cellophane. That "cheese" looks as plastic-y as the wrap on the pretzels and carrots. I am not sure how anyone can classify that as actual pizza. Gag.
What's been most interesting for me to watch is your changing perception of the food, Mrs. Q. Earlier in the year you had an almost identical pizza and talked about it's looks totally different. I also think this is the effect that we are having on the kids. Give it to them enough, make them eat it enough and they will learn to recognize it as real food.
Of course, I could totally be missing the sarcasm in the post? It's hard to tell online sometimes 🙂