Today’s menu: hot dog, tater tots, fruit cup, milk
I forgot to grab ketchup today. The fruit cup was frozen. It is what it is.
Like I said before, I don’t have a problem with hot dogs. I love eating them in the summer straight from the grill. Or when I go to the ballpark. I just wonder if they are the best regular entree for growing children.
I would eat that.
You are a brave, brave person.
The meals at my kids' school are very nasty. The school made a big deal a couple years ago about making portion sizes smaller to combat obesity, but the food quality has gotten worse. I think they were just making excuses for trimming the food budget.
Lucky for us, we can afford to pack our lunches.
There seems to be lack of variety in the fruit part of the lunch. Mainly there are fruit cups, are they in a syrup? That adds a lot of sugar to the diet. I have also noticed there seems to be lots of carbs in the lunches. Maybe someone should suggest fresh veggies once in a while. Good luck on this project,we love it .
There seems to be lack of variety in the fruit part of the lunch. Mainly there are fruit cups, are they in a syrup? That adds a lot of sugar to the diet. I have also noticed there seems to be lots of carbs in the lunches. Maybe someone should suggest fresh veggies once in a while. Good luck on this project,we love it .
it seems lunches are not getting better from when i was a kid. Well at least the hot dog is not green. they need some steamed veggie and baked meat
I think I'm rapidly giving myself a reputation as a fussy eater, but I confess to having hated hot dogs since I was a kid. 🙂 So this lunch strikes me as disappointing.
My question is, do the meals change with the seasons? When it gets to Summer, do they still get the same hot meals as in Winter? I ask because it's 37 degrees C today (98.6 F for any non-metric people) and the last thing I feel like eating is hot food!
OMG…you poor, poor woman – that looks SO unappetizing!! I commend you for continuing to do this, and pray for your stomach!!
I don't understand the frozen fruit cups. Why are they so often frozen? And why bother serving them if no one eats them? It seems like this would be easy to fix…
It's me, anonymous. I'm not a troll, I'm just honest. You may not like what you're hearing, but there's some part of each and every one of you who agrees with me.
So let's get this straight: parents can't get it together to feed their children. So we, the taxpayers, provide food for them. Now people are complaining because we're not serving organic microgreens?
Well guess what people, you know what I just ate for lunch? A microwaveable hotpocket. Why? Because I have a demanding job and I can't afford to "do lunch."
I work. I pay taxes. And you know what? I'd love to sit down to a nice hot dog and some tater tots.
Anonymous (@8:10)- Thanks for your input. I also eat hot*pockets and microwave meals. The thing is I'm an adult. I'm only growing out, not up! These are children who are still growing and learning. Obviously we can't give them "organic microgreens" (what are those anyway?), but I believe we can do better than what I see in the cafeteria most days. You are absolutely entitled to your opinion and I'm happy to hear that you would love a hot dog.
I have to say, this meal strikes me very unappealing (and I like hot dogs!) because it's monochromatic! It's all beige… Blech! It's seriously bland LOOKING on top of being nutritionally lacking. (Where are the veggies?! Don't tell me that tater tots count?!) I have a sister that works with day cares and their food program & she says the ketchup counts as a veggie, so maybe tater tots do too?! Argh!
I wonder if the fruit cups being frozen has anything to do with the weather. They probably come frozen and then the lunch ladies are supposed to take them out of the freezer when they come in that morning to let them thaw by lunchtime. It looks like sometimes they are thawed by lunchtime and sometimes they aren't, and I wonder if that has to do with how cold it is that day.
This reminds me of how the cafeteria at my elementary school was always uncomfortably cold, even if it wasn't cold outside. Maybe the thermostat was broken. I remember our teachers letting us bring jackets to wear at lunch.
Anonymous 8:10: I don't think Mrs. Q ever said we should be feeding school kids "organic microgreens". All she does is show the world what school food really looks like. If you think it looks delicious, then cool! What's wrong with people seeing what school food looks like? If it's great, then there's nothign to hide. She's already posted about how most kids at the school say they like the food. Perhaps this is a testament to how the system is working.
What can one really expect for a $1.50 lunch?
If this is so atrocious in the minds of parents, pack your child's lunch!
Well maybe not organic microgreens, but if we served the kids organic greens along side their protein (which I guess today is a hotdog, got to love those nitrates), it would be a different world would it not? Of course somehow enticing the kids to actually eating greens, might be as big of a problem as anything :).
I would definitely eat that if I had to, but I would not choose to. I agree with Karen on the monochromatic scheme to this lunch. It just looks boring and especially to kids.
I am a little concerned that some think that the kids don't deserve better, more nutritious foods. Yes, it's only a $2 lunch and yes we as taxpayers are contributing to the schools and to those lunches. With that said, I think that ALL of the children deserve to have something healthier. Not all parents are able to pack their kids a lunch. Some parents work their tails off and are barely able to feed their kids at all. Just because a kid has a free or reduced price lunch, doesn't mean that they should eat crap. I am appalled by the so called grown ups that basically say the kids should take what they get because their parents aren't able to pack them a 5-star meal.
Wow…what's up with all the plastic & styrofoam trash in these lunches?
Also, as an aside to this terrible-looking lunch, when I was in 7th grade my friend saw a delivery driver wheeling a dolly of boxes into the cafeteria. The boxes of meat were marked "Grade D But Edible."
I wish we could clone Alice Waters.
fyi: any form of potato counts as a veggie. that is why kids are loaded up on starch, which turns to sugar when unused
Along these lines, how safe is the meat the USDA buys for the school lunch program?
Marion Nestle, who writes on food safety and the politics of food, in Food agencies at work (or not): USDA says that the "USDA bought 450,000 pounds of ground beef produced by Beef Packers during the dates covered by the recall" and sent it to schools for use in the school lunch program.
The recall she refers to was reported in an investigative report by USA Today and involved 826,000 lbs recalled by Cargill subsidiary Beef Packers, Inc. The meat was reportedly associated with a highly antibiotic-resistant strain of Salmonella.
Thanks so much for this blog. At our school, kids are served spaghetti and french fries! And our head kitchen person is always given wonderful reviews. Have you noticed any weight gain with all the carb laden food you are eating?
I am a school nurse in a Western US State. I've noticed a rise in the number of stomachaches in the afternoons of days with hotdog-based lunches. I've been known to refer to it as "corndogitis". The kids know what I mean.
Thank you for your efforts! My daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog this evening. My daughter appreciates your "strong dislike" for the pizza; she feels the same way.
This does not look healthy at all, my son is starting school soon and thanks to you for opening my eyes to these lunches i am going to pack him healthy lunches!
i graduated from highschool in 2008.. and ive been eating cafeteria food for 12 years. ive always enjoyed the fruit cups frozen… because majority of the time, if its not… the fruit is very sour!
I actually like frozen fruit cups if the fruit is peaches. The coldness cuts down on the excessive sweetness of the syrup, although I guess it doesn't make all the sugar any less bad for me…
I'm in college now and I pack my own bento lunches every day. And when (if?) I have kids I intend to pack their lunches. I'm fully confident that my cooking skills trump those of whoever made these school lunches, anyway. As long as I never live in France.