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| The guidelines for school lunch continue to get more and more strict. Very similar to what slimmybabe said, we offer healthy choices and then we offer pizza or chicken nuggets as well. I have a salad, sandwich and a wrap on the menu each and every day, but if the child wants pizza, he's going to pick pizza. We encourage each one to go to the salad bar, and we are seeing an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption. But we have to offer them a choice. I recommend going over them menu with your children and making healthy choices together.
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We are living in Australia and there are strict guidelines on what can be sold through the school canteen. Mostly healthy choices with the odd no so healthy option. I choose to pack my kids lunches, so I know what they're eating. Each day I give them:
Sandwich with either tuna / cheese / ham plus salad
Small box of chopped fresh fruit
Small tub of fruit yogurt
Flavoured rice crackers
Piece of homemade cake or homemade cookie
Piece of raisin bread with butter and strawberry jam
Small carton of milk
Bottle of water
My kids eat at 11am and 1.30pm ("Little lunch", then "Big lunch"), so that amount of food usually covers them for the day.
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FERGUSONCD540
8/1/07 9:34 P
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| Does the school system consider what they are doing to our children? They worry about no child left behind. What about the child with the big behinds? I am tired of schools not educating our children about nutritional choices and enforcing it at lunch time.
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I work for a school district in the food service /child nutrition department. NSLP regulations require a weekly average of 633 calories for k-3 lunch at minimum, they can exceed the number of calories, but must be under 30% total fat and 10% saturated. 544 calories for breakfast.
If you would like to know more go to
http://www.fns.usda.gov/
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my children are 17 and 15. They have had only a handful of school lunches that were purchased.
Usually they have their own sack.. They like their food better...
Caeryl
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LISABLACK1979
4/5/07 2:32 P
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My girls menu for the week is: (Milk is every day)
Mon:
Crispy Chicken Sandwich on wheat bun, sandwich trimmings, fries, carrot raisin salad, fresh fruit, pickle spear.
Tue:
Nachos or Crispito, mexicali corn, chili beans, mixed green salad, fresh fruit, dessert (which was a frozen juice bar they said)
Wed:
Lemon Chicken or steak nuggets, brown rice, sweet potato, green beans, fresh fruit, wheat roll.
Thurs: (today)
Pizza or Tuna salad cold plate, celery & carrots w/ranch dip, corn on the cob, fresh fruit, pretzels, dessert.
Friday:
Beefaroni or Hamburger, steamed cauliflower, mixed green salad, fries, fresh fruit, wheat roll, pudding.
Most lunches are prettty good...But breakfast this week was:
Mon: Homemade cinnamon roll, oatmeal, fruit.
Tue: Sausage biscuit, juice
Wed: Ham & Cheese wrap, fresh fruit
Thur: Banana bread, oatmeal, juice
Friday: Scrambled egg & cheese toast, fresh fruit.
My children all are good sized, my dd (10) is 10 and wears a 10/12 regular, she is tall for her age and had a bubble butt...my other two are in slim sizes. so I dont mind them having some not as healthy foods every once in a while.
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ANDERSON12
4/5/07 10:48 A
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| I dont know what school and were your mother teaches but a great deal of those kids would not get any breakfast if it wasnt for them getting it at school and the laws were we are, that it has to be 100% fruit juice .
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CHEEKS1177
3/15/07 4:46 P
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| I have a six and eight year old that are in elementary school and it is a disgrace with what choices they have during lunch. An average school lunch is 700-900 calories...no wonder why child obesity is so high...one time my daughter asked if she could buy breakfast at school and I said sure...well when I asked her what she ate she said fruit loops and a gogurt...that was the last time she bought breakfast. I feel that it is important to try and teach your children how to make good nutrition choices, but they really have slim pickins'. I pack there lunch 4 out of 5 days and let them buy 1 day a week.
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Currently my boys have a packed lunch but all the students who have packed lunches have to wait until all the school dinner children have had theirs, so they often run out of time.
The school dinner menu has much improved at their school after Jamie Oliver's programme.
My boys watched this and have always been quite interested in food anyway.
I was really upset and angry to find my son hiding his sanwiches (home made organic whole meal bread0 with an organic filling of his choice.
When I had calmed down I realised that it didn't matter how healthy the food I was providing was if he wasn't going to eat it.
I bought a book with great ideas for lunch boxes and let him lok through and choose. His choices were not the healthiest but were not really unhealthy either and I'm hoping letting have greater control and choice will work. After all he goes up to hig school this September and will have a cafeteria system style lunch, so i need to enable andeducate him to make the right choices for himself - most of the time.
After all we're all only human and if I always made the right food choices for myself I wouldn't have 20 pounds to lose.
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I have packed so many lunches that I have lost count.
My oldest is 17 and a senior.. she packs her lunch...
uses multi grain bread, lettuce tomato meat... cheese.. fruit some other type of veggie...
sometimes she takes leftovers from dinner to school .. they have a microwave she can heat things up..
Ms 15 used to eat school lunches... it was a big deal for her... Not anymore.. she loves to make her own lunch.. natural peanutbutter with sugar free jelly on multigrain bread seems to be her favorite.. She also will take yogurt to school...
Caeryl
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| My daughter only buys maybe once or twice a week. She is in kindergarten She buys on pizza or mac and cheese otherwise we pack a lunch together.
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POOKEYBUM624
3/5/07 11:30 A
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I pack the kids lunches every day. DS is 8 in grade 3 and DD is in Junior Kindergarten Mon & Wed.
DS gets hot lunches on Fridays and only if he likes the choices either hot dogs or pizza. he stays away from the chicken or mcdonalds which is nice not to have to worry.
I find it hard to keep things interesting for the lunches, The choices and ideas do not flow freely like they do at the beginning of the year.
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| Yes, it's awful. How about "cold pizza box"? here's a hint: the FDA is the FOOD AND DRUG admin? Why should they be working together if not to profit from one another? They are making us unhealthy on purpose!
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| I work for the Nutrition department in my shcool district and Im here to tell you its not all that bad. You have to remember that the Chicken nuggets are backed not deepfat fried. I can almost tell you the school lunch is more nutritional than the kid bring their lunch. Every bite of that lunch has to be anaylis down to how much iron and vitiams are in it Thats for the day and combined for the week. You also have to remeber that a lot of the kids that is the only meal they will get a day. Which is very sad but it is what happens. They always get choices of fresh fruit and vegtable.
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| My daughter is in Pre K and I can't believe what is on the menu for the entire month. It seems as if its the same every week. Pizza, nuggets, fish sticks, you name it. If I don't like what is on the menu for that day I make her a sack lunch. I can't stand seeing the same choices every week.
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ANGELLOVE29115
10/7/06 6:28 P
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| OMG I know what you mean. My kids go to a private school and you should see the options they have there. Hot pockets, pizza sticks, chicken fingers and stuff like that. And they offer them soda. I have an ADHD child who doesnt need to drink that. Its making me crazy. Again Im also making their lunches most days.
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For my elementary age daughter I pack her lunch everyday. For my middle school soon, we compromised on one day a week he buys, the rest we pack.
I just cannot believe the "food" on the menus!
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| My son told me yesteday he had lunch from the salad bar at school yesterday (6th grade). Of course I can't tell you what's on that bar..could be all macaroni salad, but I was still excited and proud.
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It's a real problem for the school districts - balancing what they need to buy with their budget, vs what they can buy. They also have to create a lunch menu that meets 1/3 of the childs RDAs for the day. They try to use foods that are ones the kids want to eat.
It's a balancing act of needs, availability, foods kids will eat. I would not want to work in food service because you can never please all your customers.
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School lunches have healthy options, however, my 6th grader isn't one to run for the salad, carrots, or fruit. I started a rule, sack lunch always. He only has access to whole grain breads, fruit, applesauces, and I buy small bags of chips to add to the variety. Being bored with sandwiches, today he took whole grain pancakes, some lite syrup, an apple, and cheese. I don't feel bad for having him take sack lunches because he is better off in the long run.
His middle school finally replaced all vending machine junk food! YEAH for them.
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It is so good to see that I'm not the only frustrated parent. Our district just instituted a Health and wellness Policy, part of which discourages foods like sugary carbonated beverages, doughnuts, cupcakes, candy and addresses issues such as saturated fat and trans fats. I sat in a PTO meeting with my mouth clenched shut as parents and the principal complained about the policy--what harm will one cupcake do? FRUSTRATING!!
Now they have started up a treat cart for after lunch. My first grader came home in tears because she did not have any money to buy ice cream or candy. I think I have reached a breaking point!! Junior high/middle school--maybe. Not elementary!
Amy Elise
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LOTTOTHEONNE
10/3/06 7:23 P
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My son eats pretty good because I present him with pretty good food. If given a choice he'd grab a corn dog and fries for every meal. Young kids shouldn't have those decisions presented to them, as they don't know what they are doing to themselves.
My daughter had many junk food options in high school, and all the kids ate it daily, in mega doses. Now she regrets it. No matter what parents say, they feel doing what everyone else was doing was ok to do. Now she knows it wasn't the best choices, and is having to try to overcome bad habits.
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The documentary "Super Size Me" covered a test where one high school serving troubled kids (who also almost all ate both breakfast and lunch at school because they were eating on the free meal plans), took all the junk out and adopted a "from scratch" healthy plan.
Initially the kids complained and wouldn't eat, but after a few weeks they liked it and grades went up considerably and behavior problems also dropped noticably.
As Barb said, the biggest problem with revamping a school lunch program is that kids who are used to eating junk WILL NOT eat healthy options if given a choice. Most kids these days don't come even close to eating enough vegetables. Peas, carrots and corn are about it.
As a parent, it bothers me that their idea of healthy is to screw up what is still junk food - like putting nasty non-fat cheese on a pizza that is still mostly white bread. It's still unhealthy and all they did was make it taste gross!
Nachos don't belong on a school menu, nor do hot dogs (unless they are using good ones..which isn't likely), tater tots, french fries, or chicken nuggets.
However that probably isn't going to stop in most places.
I'd love to see real meals; healthy casseroles, lasagna, ethnic foods, seafood, etc. but again, a lot of kids have never been exposed to those foods and won't touch it.
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| I am also a lunch lady. I work at a 6-7 building that feeds 136,000 lunches a year. There is dietary guidelines that the school has to follow for lunch menus. An actual reimbursable lunch (gets money back from the government) only consists of 2 oz. protein, 2 servings fruit or vegetables,bread and a milk. The child only has to pick three of the choices to be considered a lunch. My school has made some changes in the last several years to make the lunchesa healthier. We offer a chef salad each day, we only season vegetables with spices and herbs(no butter or margarine) We have breadsticks that are made with whole wheat flour and the once every three weeks we have choc chip cookies made with whole wheat flour. We also offer 4-5 entrees everyday, there are always some healthier ones on the menu but the majority of the kids take the chicken nuggets, chicken strips, chicken popcorn bites...etc. Our biggest sellers are nachos with cheese and meat and pizza. We also have some sort of fresh fruit everyday (bananas, plums, nectarines, watermelon, apples...etc. and some fresh veggies (cucumber slices, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli etc) We also have ala cart after they go through for their lunch where we offer low fat ice cream/yogurt, pretzels, reduced calorie fruit snacks, 100% fruit juices, water. This is a whole lot healthier than what was offer years ago when they hade donuts,cookies, etc. Our school is trying very hard to offer healthy food but most kids are used to fast food and won't eat the fruit and veggies and we can't force them to take the good stuff. I know the schools offer alot of unhealthy things, but there is only so much we can do.
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CECECAPPETTA1
10/3/06 4:14 P
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| My mom is a teacher in the elementary school and now they are giving free "breakfasts" to all students. But instead of having the students come to the cafeteria before class begins like they used to, they now bring food to the classrooms, they get juice, skim milk and a prepackaged item, like a granola bar. Well, the kids won't drink the skim milk so they only drink the (sugary) juice and the high sugar, high fat, low nutritional value food item. Not really gonna help them contentrate on their studying.
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LOTTOTHEONNE
10/3/06 1:36 P
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| Visiting my sons school for field trips and volunteer work, I was shocked at the junk the kids bring in their lunches. Some kids don't even have anything that is not prepackaged. They boast they packed it themselves. Thankfully my son eats well. He even thinks pumpernickel rye bread tastes like chocolate! I wish I ate as healthy as I feed him.
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Hi. I am a mom of 6 children, 2 still at home. My high school age son buys his lunch daily, and he is becoming aware of how bad their lunches are, but I leav e that choice up to him. I cook healthy meals at night, and he is 5'11" and 130 lbs so he can afford to eat some junk!
My 6 year old on the other hand, prefers her lunchbox. She may eat once a week at school when they have pizza. Since we only have pizza at home about once a month, I feel like that's okay.
I have a variety of things I pack in her lunch. Somedays she choses, and other days I just build them. I have all the ingredients in one location plus the refrig. so that I can just put them in there. I will make a list below to help with variety. My daughter is not much of a sandwich kid, so we only do that once or twice a week.
Breakfast bars
Fruit bites/snacks
Jello w/ fruit
yogurt
Yogurt drinks
fruit cups
100 calorie snack packs
Crackers w/ cheese spread
pretzels
cheese sticks
tossed salad
chips -not more than once a week
cherry/grape tomatoes
baby carrots/ ranch dressing
Grapes
apple
plum
lunchmeat rollups - 99% fat free turkey
crackers
teddy grahams
Tuna sandwich
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Vienna sausages
tuna salad w/ crackers
juice pouches
Normally I put 4 - 5 items in her lunchbox. She only finishes it all about once a week, but the items she brings home, she will have for a snack before dinner, or I will just leave it in there and she gets it the next day.
I also build our lunches at night. I keep them in the fridge, then I add a frozen ice saver to keep our lunches cold during the day.
I have been taking my lunch for about 3 months, not only does it save me money, but I eat at my desk, and use my lunch hour to go to Curves! That's where I am heading now. I hope this has helped you out!
Nan :)
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I am right there with you on the school lunch issue. One of the "entrees" offered at my son's school is yogurt and animal crackers. This is more of an after school snack than lunch!
One good thing at his school lately though is that because they are a language learning school for immigrant families, the school lunch program has began offering one "native" dish each week from one of the countries the different children are from.
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RANDOMFAERIE
10/3/06 9:52 A
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Thanks for the vegan lunchbox link! I'm not vegan, either, but I'm getting tired of fixing the same thing over and over for the little guy (even if he's not getting tired of eating it)!
The school he's going to claims to be very healthy with their lunches, but all I can think of is the food when I was in school. Hence the lunchbox. :P
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Well, I am a "lunch lady".
The popcorn chicken is really good. Not healthy but the kids love it. It was taken off our menue for this year. And yes some of the food is gross. The kids love the cheese sandwiches and garlic toast.~Gross~ I agree that who ever makes the menue have no clue about the proper food for kids.
My kids take there lunch to school. I pack them everyday.
We offer salads to the kids if the order them in the morning. The get what is being served but the main item is the salad.
On spagetti day the salad count is HIGH!!
Hope this help~~the lunch lady~~
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We're homeschooling this year but I'm going to try packing our lunches in the morning so that we can picnic somewhere if the need/desire arises - otherwise my dd would eat chicken nuggets everyday or noodles and I honestly can't say I'd be doing much better! LOL! I'm not vegan or veg... but I was gonna use the ideas at this site as a jump off point, adding meats or doing the traditional no-veg dish when I feel like it!
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
Good luck and I hope you get some great lunches for your daughter!
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As I would look over the menu for our elementary school, every other day would either be a hotdog or corn dog. Since when is a hotdog considered a "meat" on the food pyramid?? What is really sad is that the kids get this stuff and the only thing they eat (if they eat anything) is the main thing that to me sounds and looks greasy and disgusting. I went to eat lunch with my son a few days and some of the kids didn't touch their lunch and only drank the chocolate milk. The other problem we had was that they only had like 10 min to eat the food once they got through the line and got sat down and my son at so fast he would get sick and puke. The only thing I can say about our lunches was that they offered everyday as a last choice PB&J for the main selection. Our lunches aren't even made at our school. They are made 20 miles away at another Sr High and sent to the school everyday. Our school district is large for this rural area and has about 10 schools in it.
Thankfully this year my oldest went to the high school where they can choose from a variety of things and my son has leaned the hard way that he cannot eat a bunch of junk or it will mess with his system. He has some digestion problems and gets heartburn and constipated easily. They have a salad bar and al a cart (sp?) so he can get some good stuff there. My youngest is only 3 so I have to go through this all over again in a few years.
There was a special on I think TLC over the summer where Jamie Oliver (food network)went to the schools in England and tried to makeover the lunches to be healthier and get the school systems to adopt healthier foods for the kids. I think someone tried to do that here (some famous chef) but I don't remember. I have seen shows about the vending machines and obesity that was based around school lunches.
Good luck with it. My son and I would do the same thing and circle the days he was going to eat and we packed everything but his sandwich and drink the night before. Sometimes I would have to ask him what the heck some of the stuff was?! Oh by the way, have you ever seen a kid eat egg salad on a bagel???
Michele
Wow! When someone gets on a soapbox..thanks for bringing this up and letting me vent.
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Yikes! My girls are still in pre-school so I can still get away with packing their lunches for them. You have to wonder what the schools are thinking serving this to kids?!? Does the menu reflect the new food pryamid...
Food Guide Pyramid: New and Improved
Take care,
Kel
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We start school next week, and my daughter & I were going over the lunch menu for September. ugh. Most days, we pack a lunch together, but she begs to eat school lunch on "mashed potato" days.
First day--
Popcorn chicken or
Cheesy bread & sauce
Mashed potatoes & gravy
Carrot slices
mixed fruit
cheesy bread & sauce??!! That is not an entree!! I'm not so hot on the popcorn chicken either. Another day, one of the "entree" choices is cheese max sticks. aarggrgghhhh.
Anyone else dealing with this?
Amy Elise
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