I was just looking at my son's lunch menu for March...

dawn_mo

dawn_mo

Well-known member
this is an elementary school lunch menu. I limit him to hot lunch twice a week because the lunches are so unhealthy, in my opinion.

I turned the sheet over and looked at the breakfast menu, which he never has, and I was appalled at some of the breakfast choices, on one day they are serving Poptarts, chilled juice and milk. Then I started looking at the combinations of hot breakfast and hot lunch together on the same day. Is this representative of school lunches elsewhere?

Here is one example:

Breakfast: French toast sticks, syrup, sausage, juice and milk.

Lunch: Nachos with cheese sauce, mixed vegetables, applesauce, peanut butter cookie and milk.

Here's another:

Breakfast: Pancake sausage stick (what in the world is that?), chilled juice and milk.

Lunch: Popcorn chicken with Ranch dip, seasoned rice, garden peas, chilled fruit, milk.

And one more:

Breakfast: Bacon and Cheese Eggstravaganza, warm biscuit, chilled juice and milk.

Lunch: Chicken patty on bun, potato wedges, corn, cookie and milk.

 
The menus aren't soooooooo bad. The kids get vegetables at every lunch, which

many kids don't, including those who go home for lunch. And there's milk at every meal. I don't see fries, or anything deep-fried, and I don't see sugar-and-fat-laden desserts (though some breakfast options will sure lead to some sugar highs!), although there's a scarcity of fresh fruit. Pop-Tarts are inexcusable any way you look at them. I think whoever's in charge is trying hard to provide some decent nutrition while keeping it fun -- and familiar. My report card: B+ for effort, with room for improvement.

 
And here's where reality rears its ugly head: 90% of the kids go for...

...the sugary, fatty, yucky stuff, and throw out the healthy parts of the meal.

Then they go back for seconds...

Michael

 
Looks like my husband's work-cafeteria menu...minus the milk and cookie. smileys/wink.gif

 
Well, that can be a can of worms. The veg could well be frozen. And with

modern processing, canned and frozen often end up being better, in flavor and nutrition content, than the prematurely picked and never ripening supermarket "fresh." With factory farming, the processing plant is usually right at, or close to, the fields, so the produce can be harvested, processed, and canned or flash-frozen within hours, at the peak of freshness and retaining maximum nutrients.

I never thought I'd ever be coming to the defence of the food-processing industry, but when you look at nutritional analysis, there's not a significant difference between fresh, frozen, and Grade A or B canned. (Watch out for added salt, though.) An at least the kids are *getting* vegetables, period. Alice Waters and others are forceful proponents of fresh (and local and seasonal) produce only, but in schools and other quantity-cooking situations, fresh is often impractical and costly.

 
here it is.

And here's where reality rears its ugly head: 90% of the kids go for...

...the sugary, fatty, yucky stuff, and throw out the healthy parts of the meal.

Then they go back for seconds...

Michael

 
Very similar to ours out here in CA...

Pancakes on a stick however can be downright tasty! There was a brand that used decent sausage and pancake batter (15 years ago) and they had a little maple flavoring. Actually, they look almost alike! Must be a national product. Our school used mostly frozen vegetables and fresh on the salad bar. I used to work in the department. Talk about stifling culinary creativity!

http://www.tusdk8edu.org/pages/school/documents/february2008menu.pdf

 
Is it any wonder the kids are getting fat - that stuff is so bad they eat junk food!

My daughter basically doesn't eat school food any more. So what does she grab - she goes and grabs a soft drink and then she eats junk. All the efforts at making the meals healthier has resulted in worse results in my opinion.

Of course, it's not much better here at work where they have this big healthy and wellness push and lousy cooks to go with it.

 
I think the bigger problem is to actually get the kids to choose and eat the fresh "good" food.

So much of it ends up in the trash. I had lunch with my nephew on salad bar day, and the kids spent too much time making their salads that they didn't have time to eat them, then most of it ended up in the trash. Such a waste. And how many kids wouldn't even choose the healthy foods over the nachos? too many, sad to say, and that's not the fault of the school.

 
In Defense of Pop-Tarts and Other Random Musings

I have spend the past 6 weeks in a 4th grade classroom, and I never thought I'd say this but I wish some of my students would have Pop-tarts and a cup of milk every morning before coming to school.

About 1/4 of my students do not eat any breakfast before school because "my mom/dad doesn't get up up on time and there is nothing in the house to eat" or variations on the theme. They are lethargic and have stomach aches until lunch time. I've started bringing in granola bars for them to have at morning recess.

I agree with Shaun's assessment of the nutritional value of frozen/canned veggies. Our school district provides at a least one fresh veggie along with a veggie/salad and fruit bar each day for along with the lunch entree. I think they do pretty well at $3 a head.

My son brings lunch from home every day. He has had the same menu since last September - why? Because it is what he likes and I know he will eat it. If I get "fancy", he ends up throwing half of it away and is ravenous by 1:00 with two more hours of school left. He has homemade peanut butter cracker sandwiches, raw carrots, apple slices and water. He eats a variety of foods for breakfast and dinner, so I don't worry too much about lunch.

 
The "School Lunch Program" Story

For those who don't know where it started...
When the US got involved in WWII, the young men who signed up to serve our country were decidedly under-nourished. Many were farm boys, and products of the depression era. Our government began the School Lunch Program in an effort to provide the nation's school age children with an opportunity to have at least 1 good, well rounded meal 5 days a week. The idea was to have 1/3 of the daily nutritional requirements provided for. The program as it is today is supposed to he low in fat, salt and sugar. Like you, I don't see it. Even from my days working in the cafeteria as a cook, the practice of actually cooking has gone by the wayside in an effort to reduce labor costs. Here in CA, our Child Nutrition Director doesn't let the ladies cook much. The kids here have a salad bar (ok, that's a grand term - iceberg lettuce and dressing), either a fresh or hot vegetable, fresh or occasionally canned fruit and milk - in pouches. Children must select at least 3 components, and they serve themselves all but their entree. I work for a K-5 school (Admin. Secty.). Gone are the days of a tray handed across with all the items, gone are the days of the teacher sitting with their students to encourage "no thank you" bites. Gone are the days of a "home cooked" type meal. It's very sad to see. Teachers no longer eat school lunch because it simply doesn't have enough healthy choices.

 
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