Today’s menu: cheeseburger, corn, peach fruit cup, popcorn chips, milk
I’m feeling so yellow after this meal. Can you get over how everything is the same color? And then there’s two corn-based sides…
I love popcorn. It started because of my Grandma, who was a popcorn fanatic and ate it whenever she watched a movie. I’m not referring to movie theater popcorn, but popped on the stove, drizzled with real melted butter, and consumed while enjoying an old movie in her den. Good food is all about memories and family, no?
I’m trying to figure out why the popcorn had to be made into crisps?! Popcorn is good without being further processed! The last picture is a look inside the package at this strange food. It didn’t taste like popcorn to me.
BEING A CHEF FOR THE FOOD SERVICE AT A MAJOR UNIVERSITY THIS MAKES ME SICK OUR STUDENTS ENJOY FINE DINNING FOR NOT MUCH MORE THAN THESE POOR GRADE SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE PAYING FOR SCHOOL LUNCHES NO EXCUSE FOR POOR FOOD QUALITY IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS A HUNGRY CHILD CAN NOT FOCUS ON THE THINGS THEY NEED TO AT SCHOOL
One thing I have noticed, while glancing through your blog, is that all of the lunches seem to be from packaged items. When I was eating school lunches (not too terribly long ago) the cooks were there well before school started and the only thing that came in a package was in the ala carte' line which you couldn't go to until you had eaten at least half of your plate.
While most of the food was probably processed and in bulk, it tasted good and was always hot. It was never served as I see your food. We always had a small portion of meat, then one carb, one fruit, one veggie, and milk for our dairy. Always a well balanced meal.
I did not go to a private school, either. I went to a fairly good sized public school my entire education and I encountered the same type of meal as I described.
I am wondering what type of school it is you are at? I am not saying that low income schools have worse food than others, but I think that size of school, location of school, and other factors might play into the situation. Is there another public school nearby that is getting more funding and what is their food like?
Just some things to think about for future blogs 🙂
I am also a teacher but in the southeast area; I, too am disgusted with what they kids eat for lunch. After looking at these photos it makes it easier to understand why most kids are hungry or cranky after lunch because of the fact that they did not A) get enough time to eat B) have anything decent to eat C) have anything that appealed to them.
I can recall on several occasions when our lunch advisor sent us an email stating, "back by popular demand! Bar food snacks! Eggrolls, chicken fingers, mozarella sticks and more…" I wanted to throw up it sounded like a meal just waiting to cause a heart attack for someone.
Recently on my local radio station they are yacking about the buzz that I beleive PA wants to charge a higher tax for pizza and soda to help overweight people lose weight! I thought that was a joke considering WE usually are the ones that cause the poor diets in children by giving them food that is barely "real" let alone edible. Most of the items at our school are processed, then processed, then processed some more, more to the point where I can't tell what they sell!
My district is so focused on students meeting testing standards that they don't realizing they are forcing kids to Papa Johns Pizza, which we sell everyday, at a school that is 95% on free and reduced lunch! Ugh, I'm getting so mad just talking about it that I might actually explode.
Oddly, we were given a special thanksgiving luncheon that was made by out lunch staff that WAS real food with REAL taste and nutrition. I'm just curious as to why I can get REAL food, while the kids are eating pig slop.
Desperately wanting a resolution in my area as well; but no it will never happen
That is not food, How do you eat something that comes in a plastic tray that they probably just heated up an hour before serving? At my school we have food that is actually cooked by someone at the school and if you don't like what's on the menu then grab a salad/fruit tray or a cold sandwich tray from the fridge at the cafeteria.
Okay, I see the comments on here, Both from parents and teachers and Lunch "people". To the lunch people and parents, everyone needs to do there own research on what their school serves. You's can ask and have to be delivered the nutritional information on everything that is being served at the school for breakfast and lunch. Now at my children's school I have done that research and often find that a typical lunch has 700 to 800 calories, which often is almost half the daily requirement for calorie intake,along with a higher fat content than is recommeded. I have one chold that has health issues and special dietary needs, there are no options for her to eat school lunch until she gets into high school where they have a salad bar and other options. It does cost me more to pack her lunch, but everyday I do just that. Remember the schools do have to meet federal guide lines on calorie content and fat intake because this is the only food some kids get. I am a single mother, and would love for the school to have a healthier option, but at this point in time it is not possible. I buck it up and spend the extra money to solve the problem by sending lunch with my children, which in the long run is cheaper for me because they will have less health issues. the Lunch people have a tough job, ever try to feed 400 kids? It is tough to find stuff that meets all the requirements, that the kids like, that can be fixed in the amount of time they have available, and all within budget too. Maybe a better solution would be to contact the schools and see what you can do to help fix the problem, even volunteer for a day to see everyone's side of the issue. I work long hours myself, but have done all of the above, the cafeteria workers all worked with me to get the information I needed to make the decision for my children. Parents it is in your hands too, not just the schools or the teachers.
I am sorry that your school lunches are so poor. My kids eat lunch at school almost every day and I regularly join them. Each day they are served a well balanced meal. Almost every day there is a fresh fruit and or vegetable option. All of the meal makes sense too, no weird combos. Oh, and our cooks even make salads everyday for teachers/staff.
I just heard about the blog and think it is a wonderful idea! I am currently an education major and am interning at a local school. On more than one occasion, I have noticed the students being served NACHOS AND CHEESE as a meal for lunch. I cannot believe they would serve that as a healthy lunch to our children! Not to mention that many of them then buy chips and other junk food that is also offered a la carte! We definitely need a change!
So are these school lunches really any different that what most Americans feed their children at home? I don't think so. I've seen what everyone else at Kroger has in their shopping basket and it isn't fruits and vegetables and whole grains. What is happening in our schools is merely a reflection of what is happening in Americans' homes. Why are you so fired up about it?
–Vegan mom of two vegan kids who enjoy from-scratch whole food every day
That food looks like gourmet compared to the food at my school! At least three times a day there is a dish with melted cheese. The cheese looks obviously artificial and it's safe to assume they reuse it. The cheese develops a strange coating over. You can leave your finger print in it. There is also a chicken and rice dish that looks like a mixture of dog food and vomit. Even the salads look pretty wimpy with mostly iceberg lettuce. That salads always have meat on them. Being a vegetarian, I'm usually forced to buy a bag of chips because there are no options for me on certain days.
Wow….how did you eat that? Looks like they chewed the cheese for you and spit it onto the "patty" of whatever kind of meat that is.
I just discovered your blog tonight and I literally went through and read every entry. I totally agree with what you're doing and I think it's sad that it has taken this long for someone to care enough to do something.
I'm turning 21 this year and I graduated from high school in 2007 and let me tell you, our lunches were deplorable. I don't remember the exact days because it's been a while but this is exactly how our lunches worked.
Monday-Arby's Cheddar Melt sandwiches
Tuesday-Cheesey Bread from Domino's Pizza
Wednesday-Pizza from some shop that is a regional place[this was possibly the worst meal of the week. it tasted like they had gotten the pizza days before and just let it sit in their warmers]
Thursday-KFC container with a few soggy chicken strips, a biscuit, and either mac & cheese or mashed potatoes
Friday-A repeat of something from earlier in the week.
There were other options. We had coolers with gatorade/powerade. There were a few ice cream options[ice cream sandwiches, that chocolate covered vanilla ice cream on a stick, etc]. Sara Lee muffins[which were…gigantic to say the least], there used to be little packages of locally made beef jerky my first two years of high school but they eventually got rid of it. Occasionally there was fruit, but more often than not they were wrinkly and starting to get mushy.
That was just in the lunch line, in the cafeteria itself there were 5 vending machines. 1 was a tropicana juice machine, you could get a bottle of orange juice, apple juice, pink lemonade, and then bottled water or the aquafina flavored water. Another vending machine had those nutter butter type things, honey buns, and those 6 packs of mini doughnuts…so breakfast/snack type foods. 2 were pepsi machines and the last had things like lays potato chips, cheez-itz, etc etc. They were always turned on during lunch itself and I know a lot of kids spent a majority of their money there. My senior year of high school however the vending machine situation changed a bit. The pepsi machines turned to coke, there was one coke machine and the rest was stuff like powerade, orange pop, etc. Those vending machines along with the two food ones were also only on before 7am and after 3pm.
For comparison sake, my high school also offered free and reduced lunches. My family isn't rich, but we aren't poor. However, that being said, the requirements to get free or reduced lunch seemed a little ridiculous to me. I remember one year I tried to get reduced lunch and I couldn't because it was just my father and I in our household and if your home had 2 people in it, you had to make less than $7,000 a year I want to say. My town wasn't at poverty level but we certainly weren't well off and to me it just seemed like my school was making it a bit to hard on families to feed their children.
It's truly sad to such children have to eat such unhealthy and unsatisfying food. Good luck to you and I really hope you are able to open people's eyes.
I found your blog through Yahoo. I think what you are attempting to do is awesome. My daughter is a second grader and we pack her lunch everyday because I am a teacher and I see what is for school lunch. I also know that even though schools attempt to provide nutritious choices like vegetables and salads, children do not always take those or they throw them away. It is really sad what we are feeding our kids. And I must also add that I think it is awful the amount of packaging that is being wasted at your school. I assume your school probably does not have a kitchen and therefore has to bring the food in from somewhere else, but surely we could find a better alternative to packaging than this wastefulness.
I applaud you for what you are doing also. I was unaware of lunches. It has been 25 years since my kids have been in school. However, I have taught at two private high schools. The first one I taught at actually hired a "Chef". She was excellent. She prepared excellant healthy food for the kids. I could really notice a difference after she came on board. Before her, the students were fed lots of pasta dished and filling food.
I now work at a non-profit private residential school for high risk teens. The food is bad about 2X a week and not necessarily nutritional. However, they do serve salads and fruit.
I like many of you feel that our future is in the hands of our youth. they develop eating habits while young, and their young minds and bodies also depend on healthy food.
Eating healthy is expensive, but so is healthcare. (I won't go there)
Would I contribute additional taxes for school lunches, absolutely
Hi, I am a doctor and I teach medical students the biochemistry behind nutrition, digestion, and absorption, and the obesity epidemic in America, I believe your blog addresses one of the most important public health and policy issues our country is facing today. I am not too far removed from the days of public school lunches and collegiate dining halls, but looking at some of your pictures, I can say that the food has gotten unhealthier. Other than the odd pear, almost everything on the menu in your pictures is somehow based on corn or corn by-products which not only has very little nutritional value.
However as you may know, the lack of nutritional value in public school lunches should not surprise anyone. The sad fact is, our government throughout the years has systematically passed legislation to subsidize corn growers so that companies like McDonalds, Heinz, and Frito-Lay can purchase corn below cost, which is how we can purchase a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese for less than the costs of 2 apples. Corn and beef lobbyists also have made it almost impossible to speak out against their practices including the way beef is processed due to the Vegetable and Beef libel laws, so even if a child that dies of E. coli contaminated beef or vegetables, it is unlikely that you will find justice. And with the Supreme Court allowing for anonymous and unlimited campaign contributions to election funds, any change in the future for consumers is unlikely.
The nutritional value of your school lunches is sadly not just an issue of food selection, but is a systemic and insidious problem that has its roots in huge multinational corporations, federal government, and health care. This country is producing an entire generation of diabetes/hypertension patients which is great for private business interests like drug companies, the food industry, and the health care industry because eventually when these patients need treatment for obesity of dialysis for their renal failure, they will be repeat customers with excellent reimbursement plans from Medicare.
In any case, I'm rambling. It's hard for me to form a coherent thought when I am overcome with outrage when looking at your pictures. Please keep on getting the word out. It's blogs like these that will change people's opinions, and hopefully when enough parents are demanding better food, our governments will supply it.
By the way, if you want to make it harder for your school to figure out who you are, you should take your pictures each day for a week and then scramble them so that someone can't follow your day to day photos and match them to the menu.
Keep fighting!
Well, right now I,m a kid in highschool and our school lunches are about the same quality as yours. What,d I like to say is that i don't find school lunches apalling at all. They are good most of the time and they are nutritous. That's why schools cook them is so that kids in school get the nutrients and energy needed for the rest of the day. I really think everyone is overdramatizing the issue. IT's not just that people can't pay for good lunches either. My dad is a doctor and we make more than enough to buy some food to pack. Also, he would understand that if school lunches were bad for you, he wouldn't let me eat them. That's just my side to the whole school lunches debate anyways, so do with it what you will.
Ps If you think school food is bad you should check out prison food!
I am also a teacher and when I first began at this school, 7 years ago, I tried to eat the school lunch with my class, since many of them were sadly lacking in table manners and I thought I would be an example. After 3 lunches, I had to stop, since all three times I went home with terrible cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea within an hour of eating. I had jalapeno corn dogs, a cheeseburger, and pizza as my entrees. I really don't remember the sides, but I've always wondered how you can mess up a corn dog…Now I bring a sack lunch, as do several of my low-income students, and we still practice table manners. We also learn how to check expiration dates and read nutrition labels, if they are available. The food has steadily improved, since the cafe staff knows what I am up to. Good luck to you and your kids!
I actually think it looks pretty good… I'm not going to defend that school lunches have appropriate nutritional value because they probably don't, or that it's cost is worth the return because it's probably not… but at least they have food. When I was in elementary school, my lunch was the leftovers from what the other kids didn't want to eat in their school lunches. Honestly, I was happy to get food period.
Somehow, even though I have more money now since I am an employed individual, I've retained a lot of my childhood habit. I'll have a piece of bread for breakfast, a cup of milk and a banana for lunch, and another banana and some rice for dinner. And I'll scavenge the local colleges for free food.
While, like I said, I'm not going to defend the cafeteria food you are eating, I think there is some general sense that a lot of americans become spoiled in growing up, taking their food for granted. I rarely even leave a kernel of rice in my bowl at the end of the meal.
I read across your article. Yes I agree with u about the school lunches. I was a lunch lady for many years in Orlando Florida. We have to work with what the school provides or what we get from the government. I believe that the people who make the school lunches menus have never eaten them or have kids in the school system. Good Luck… will be reading more your blog . Believe its a very hard thing preparing foods for school lunches. especailly when u don't have the correct equipment to work with.
I just discovered your blog and LOVE the concept. I am a parent of a Kinder student in Houston ISD. Already, I am shocked at the poor quality of food and poor choices given to our students. Our NEW Superintendent was recently quoted criticizing the lunch program for serving fresh fruit daily when costs are so high (does he realize entire apples, pears, oranges are trashed daily because the kids can't peel them?). He has compensated by reducing hours and cutting staff of cafeteria workers. I'm so glad to see so many willing to speak out. I am starting a small parent group to help address the issues in our district. Hopefully we will be heard . . . eventually.
I'm a teacher in California. It IS possible to improve school lunches! We have done so here in California, at least in my district, through the "Healthy Kids" initiative. All "side dishes" are fresh fruits and vegetables, to be chosen by the kids from a salad bar. If they don't want any fresh fruits or vegetables? No sides. The entrees themselves tend to be healthier than past choices, and they do things like substitute turkey for beef. I would like to get rid of chocolate milk, personally! Our breakfast options need some improvement, as well. There is no need to offer the kids sticky-buns instead of cereal! Great blog, good cause, keep up the good work — you are advocating for our kids! Your fellow teachers support and appreciate you!
My school is health conscious. We can't even have ketchep because there is vinegar in it. We even have our own green house. The problem is that all it grows is kale, which the kids absolutely refuse to eat.
What's really sad is I believe the prisons in the U.S. eat better than our children! What's up with that? And I don't think its because the school districts don't have money, I think they don't want to spend it on good food for the kids. How sad!!
I found your blog by chance and have not been able to stop reading it. First, I'd like to commend you on the incredible risks you're taking to do this. It is so incredibly vital that people know what our children eat.
I can't believe how processed your foods are! I have two children in school with child #3 set to start in August. My kids have always been school lunch kids – at first because it was a necessity and now because it seems more economical. However, reading your blog makes me think twice about what my kids are eating!
I've sat in with my kids at lunch a couple of times since moving to Alabama and while they do not get the processed little packages that you and your kids are forced to consume, I wouldn't call it healthy by any stretch of the word. However, I must say that my kids at least seem to get an option or two a day and always have a fruit and veggie on their menu. Processed fried ocra is on that list many times and while I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, the kids seem to enjoy it.
And, as uneconomical as it may be to pack lunch for all three of my children, it may be something I take into heavy consideration now that I've read your blog. I remember the 'slop' that was served when I was in grade school and, sadly, it has not improved at all.
They took vending machines and soda out of schools – when will they realize that that is just the tip of the iceburg. I'm realistic (and lazy) so I don't expect home cooked lunches made with organic ingredients but something better than rubber meat sandwiches or questionable vegitation needs to find its way to our kids' plates at lunch time.
Oh – and bring recess back. It's vital to social growth and a necessary break from a system that does not actually educate.
that's better than a lot of the food I ate in San Francisco and Alameda schools.
I might actually eat if this was served!
This blog is amazing. I'm a senior in high school and honestly, I regularly don't eat lunch, and when I do, I either don't have enough time to eat the one good thing we have (salad bar) or I end up eating part of the lousy things we have, and throwing the rest away. The food you show on here, actually looks much more appealing than most of the things we have in my school. One time, I actually had the principal ask me why I was eating something greasy off the al a carte we have when I could be eating something better. It's ridiculous how bad the food is.
I can't believe the food that you are served. I guess my students and I have an advantage. We have cooks that make food fresh daily. While it is not the highest quality food all the time, we almost always get fresh fruit. The students generally eat everything or share what they don't eat. My school is 97% free or reduced lunch program. So, most of them live in poverty and have limited nutrition at home. Hopefully your blog will open people's eyes to see what is really going on. It is no secret why our children are unhealthy.
That's disgusting. I think I would rather kill and eat a raw squirrel than put that it my mouth, let alone swallow.
Glad you're making this effort- I hope it ends up helping the children.
We have the option of having a fresh lunch everyday. We have recess everyday. We do not have a glorified babysitter for a teacher (using your words) because we homeschool. What goes in the mouths of the public school student is pretty close to what goes in their heads. In a typical 8 hour public school day, I can accomplish the same in maybe 2 hours. No waiting in line for the rest to finish their bathroom break. No waiting in line to go to gym. No waiting for class to settle down. The ratio in my class is 5 kids to 1 teacher. I agree there should be healthier food out there for kids. I just don't think taxes are the way to do it. How would my children benefit from paying for better school lunches? The problem with Democrats is that they want everyone to pony up big bucks for their pet projects. If you want money somewhere, put in your own! Don't force others to by raising everyone's taxes. From a homeschool mom in MN.
Your school lunch is actually quite variety-ish (yeah, IDK). I am a student, middle school, and we get 42 minutes for lunch, and 3/5 days we have chicken. Chicken patty, nuggets, parmesean, strips, rings (yes, chicken rings) and more. I'd like some variety. But the chicken isn't THAT bad. I enjoy it. Everone is like no more chicken, but other foods, it just isn't enough to keep you full from 11:15 (when my lunch per. is over), until 3.
Wow. That is a sad looking lunch.
Fortunately, not all public school lunches are like that. I mean, I'm a pre-service teacher. I am doing my second practicum this semester, and I have eaten lunch a couple of times at the school with my cooperating teacher. It was actually pretty good at the school I'm at.
Made from scratch lasagne, side salad, apple, butterscotch pudding, and milk, anyone?
I live in a very wealthy suburb west of Chicago. If a child wants to eat lunch at the grammar schools it must be brought from home. The few times I would visit at lunch I was disgusted by all the kids who brought Lunchables. Our middle schools serve a decent lunch through a food service company known for their high food standards. However, I still insist on making lunches for my kids. Food is the fuel of the day they need to eat good whole foods in order to excel. Even living in an affluent area is surprises me how many kids that don't eat breakfast. So many kids are taking so many meds to assist in ADHD. These kids as well as all kids need to be fed prior to going to school. When I have breakfast discussions with friends and neighbors, people look at me like a I crazy because my kids are served a hot whole grain breakfast on every school day. Those sugary cereals are only allowed as an after snack or on a weekend. I don't know how to get through to people and tell them they are slowly killing their kids with "food". Maybe your blog will awaken some of them. I will be sharing this.
I bet you can hardly wait for Spring Break so you won't have to eat that crap.
That looks gross. Does no one take any pride in the food they serve children any more? Half the reason that children are obese is that the school does not reiterate healthy choices to them. As a Kindergärtner I was never taught that nutrition was as important as the ABC's, now thank goodness my mother thought that it was and I learned it. But what about those who can't for what ever reason learn from mom and dad? Shouldn't the school be there to step in?
I've not ready all the comments before me, but hopefully I'm not repeating anyone when I say the corn lobby in this country is all over your "today's lunch." Popped corn chips, corn kernels, high-fructose corn syrup around the fruit, and surely high-fructose corn syrup and possibly cornmeal in the bun. Probably soy in the burger. You are bumping up against big agrofarm profits with your blog… and they will probably have something to say about it. Keeping fighting the good fight. I'm proud of you.
It's funny to me that people see these lunches and remember their childhood and how things look the same. This meal actually looks better than the meals I had! It was sorry pizza. They might add a side of greasy fries with a ketchup that had to have been made from powder. At least there's a fruit cup??
I can't believe you're doing this project. I have been complaining about this very same thing for years. We moved a few years ago, but our previous district actually had a contract with local fast food restaurants that provided the lunches every day. One day was McDonalds, one day Buona Beef, one day Dominoes Pizza, etc. How bad is that for our kids' health?! And schools wonder why we have kids in our country with high cholesterol, diabetes, heart problems, and obesity. I hope, for your sake, you keep up with regular health checks to make sure you don't develop any of these issues yourself. Good luc and kudos to you for bringing this issue to light.
Why are the fruit cups alway frozen? They were like that in the 90's when I went to school too! You would think, after all these years, it is a problem they could work out and put an end to!
That looks a lot like my lunch, with out the weird popcorn chips. If we want to have chips at lunch, they are an extra 50 cents and not even offered all the time 🙁
O.O ah no flashbacks!! i just got used to being a freshman with NO school "food"
I found your blog through the yahoo homepage and have read it from the beginning.
I went to elementary school in both Southern California and Arizona. The school lunch in California, I remember, was real food. I remember having real spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, a vegetable, a fruit, and milk. and I don't believe it was much more than $1.25. I actually ate the school lunch on some days. Taco days were real tacos in a shell. We moved to AZ when I was in the middle of the 5th grade and I was stunned, even as a 5th grader, in the difference in school lunches. That school had a real kitchen in the back of the auditorium/gym/cafeteria.
The AZ school was pared with local fast food restaurants to provide lunch. So Monday might be crunchy or soft tacos from Taco Bell, Tuesday might have been cheeseburgers from McDonald's, Pizza from Pizza Hut. We didn't have a cafeteria in the AZ school. Just the gym/auditorium, where the food brought in from the restaurants was placed on a table in exchange for a lunch ticket or two.
What I think is interesting is that while we didnt have real school lunches in AZ, we did have mandatory fluoride rinses in the school because the water in my town was not fluoridated.
As for your summer project, I think you attempt healthy school lunches within the budget of the school.
I don't have children yet, but I find your blog fascinating!
Love your blog and I applaud your efforts. As a teacher myself (elementary science), I wanted to share that I am surprised at the individual packaging of all the items. In my district, many foods on the lunch line are served traditional "buffet" style, and we have no "lunch ladies" to serve the food. That's right, all the kids serve themselves from the vats of food. Trying to teach 5 year olds how to handle a spatula to retrieve a soggy piece of pizza is truly an art. And once you've seen the germ-infested spoon handle fall into the pan of corn… well, your appetite for school lunch seems to run for cover. We shouldn't wonder why the kids are out sick so much!
I hate the amount of waste caused by individual packaging. And I hate the lack of funding to provide servers for these kids. It's a no-win situation.
Keep up the good work! I hope you are able to facilitate some positive change.
My mother is a school lunch lady. I always ate prepared lunches at school. The one thing that I am noticing in the photos is the lay out of the food and how it is presented. Even if we had to use plastic trays and not ceramic, food was delivered by hand to students. The food was prepared by hand in batches. Yes there was sometimes burgers but usually reserved for Friday. Here in Louisiana (or at least in the parish I grew up) there was a required amount of servings in each meal; meaning main meat dish, veg, and fruit with milk.
Not only are most of these lunches unhealthy, everything is packaged! It's been about 15 years since I've had school lunch, so not sure if the packaging is something new or because it's a different part of the country. But geez, way to use up resources. I remember divided trays, and never have seen a bag of chips in a school lunch. Oh, and am surprised everything is yellow, considering it's Saint Patrick's Day. No green colored applesauce?!
Any way to find out how much money your school is wasting on serving all of this pre-packaged food, instead of real food. I understand you may have to figure in the time issues with cooking, but it cannot be that much.
My son attends a small school in Wisconsin. Our school serves lunch and breakfast daily. The school also serves breakfast (with actual eggs and meat 3 days a week), and an afternoon snack, to any child who wants to come during the summer months. The only thing that regularly comes in a package is the milk. Yes, they serve chips occasionally, but they buy these huge, industrial type bags and actually serve them on the kids trays. Everything is cooked on site. The school buys fruits and vegetables from the local farmers to serve to our children.
We are not a big town, probably 9,000. Some may think that is why the school is able to do all of this, but in reality, our school is in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin. We do not receive a ton of funding. So what make our school able to serve actual healthy foods? Community awareness, and a community that actually attends school board meetings. Local vendors sell to the school at a discount. Our school, 5-8, has a very large garden that the students tend to. Part do this for science and part for FFA. One of the prisons in our area has a bakery, and sells bread and other fresh baked goods to our school at reasonable prices.
I wish you luck in your project. I know if my sons school lunches looked like these, I would not allow him to eat there.
This looks really sad. I have never seen school lunch look this bad. I have lived in Utah most of my student life, with a couple years in New Mexico, The lunches in NM weren't as good as the ones in my hometown in UT. I remember being excited for the mashed potato and hamburger gravy day! It was the best. When I was in high school I spent on year of it in NM and the rest in Utah. I remember asking my mom for money everyday while we lived in NM. The food there was awful, cold, and unflavored. Moving back to UT the lunch room, had 2 options each day, 2 days out of the week we had a soup bar. Those were the best days, especially during the winter. I just can't believe what the lunches look like in some schools. I'm grateful that most of my student life was in UTAH!
Just wondering, by any chance did you do blood work prior to starting this project. Like the guy in Super Size me did. It would be interesting to see if there are any changes in your cholesterol level and liver enzymes. I don't think eating one meal a day of this crap could affect your insulin level but I bet it could alter your blood chemistry. I have read through some of your old posts and I don't see it mentioned.
Who is taking this information to Mrs. Obama?
She is on a healthy kids campaign, after all. Does she know what our kids really eat at school? Does she know that at my school, as well, recess has been cut. I wonder if she knows how the kids come into class bouncing off the walls after eating all this processed junk. I do know that this lunch may be the best thing that kids get to eat all day. So HEY..let's do it right and make it healthy. Healthy foods+exercise= BETTER LEANERS!
Thank You so much for doing this!
I'm totally with the person that said You Go, Girl! 🙂
I'm a 6th grade student and I just stumbled across your blog. It's amazing what you're doing here! At my school, we have pizza three times a week(Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, local pizza place), and nachos the other two days. The healthiest thing there is a fruit-flavored sodas. I really don't like that, and I can't pack my own lunches because there isn't much I can make that'll last until lunch, and the lunches there are $2.50, exluding anything other than the main lunch with the milk they serve. They have a small salad-bar type thing, though the stuff there is usually old, and it never has anything teens would actually eat. (Like anchovies.)
Thanks for taking a stand. 🙂
Ms. Q, I am curious about these lunches. Does your cafeteria cook these for the students or are they provided by an outsource company that provides tv dinner type lunches. Our parish is talking about outsourcing lunch meals to elementary and middle schools and we are very concerned that they will be not be nutritious. I would love to know if this is the case with your school and if so what company is providing these meals to your school. Thanks for the information.
Ugh… Looking at that food made me remember why I skipped lunch all together.
I wished the school board would realized back when I was attending school. The only time I would eat cafeteria food was Nutrition period. Breakfast was so much better than lunch. I used to come home with an empty stomach when I decided to skip lunch for the rest of my high school years because I always ended up with an upset stomach. My mother used to worry so much and asked me why I stopped eating lunch. She had gone to PTA meetings so many times to discuss about this but no one had done anything. Of course there were an option on buying lunch that came from fast-food chain restaurants like subway or pizza hut but that doesn't solve anything. I'm very glad on what you're doing and I wished all teachers would have done the same like you.