Mother Talkers

It's National School Lunch Week: What Are Your Kids Eating?

by Dana

Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 09:45:33 PM PDT

It's National School Lunch Week, and I'm glad President Bush has proclaimed it—part of his ongoing commitment to our children's health. (Yeah, right.) How to celebrate such an occasion? Whip up a batch of "American Chop Suey," a meat, tomatoes, and macaroni mixture I remember from my own tray-carrying days? Throw some canned fruit into orange Jello and have a party?

I think a better way is to share the advice of Chef Ann Cooper, the "renegade lunch lady" with a mission to improve the quality of school food in our nation and instill our children with healthy habits for life. In honor of this week, she suggests in her podcast, "I think every single parent in America should go and eat lunch with children at their schools and really see if the food they're eating in their schools is delicious and nutritious."

Her current podcast is also a good introduction to her ideas on how schools can find money to serve fresh foods, things parents can do to build healthy habits in their kids, and why we need to make childhood food and nutrition a priority in the U.S. In fact, she wants to make the issue of school-lunch funding "part of the 2008 presidential debate," as she told me last December when I spoke with her and reviewed her book Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children. Below are a few of the sobering statistics from that post; here's the full original.

  • Children born in the year 2000 will be the first in our country's history to die at a younger age than their parents.
  • More than 35 percent of our nation's children are overweight, 25 percent are obese, and 14 percent have type 2 diabetes, a condition previously seen primarily in adults.
  • Current research shows that 40 percent of all cancers are attributable to diet.
  • 78 percent of the schools in America do not actually meet the USDA's nutritional guidelines.

Are you happy with the lunch options in your school district? Discuss, or take the poll.

  • ::
Poll

If you have kids in school, how satisfied are you with the lunches provided?

4%2 votes
4%2 votes
30%13 votes
30%13 votes
2%1 votes
27%12 votes

| 43 votes | Vote | Results

Tags: food, nutrition, health, schools, education (all tags)

Permalink | 14 comments

  • We don't have elementary school cafeterias (0 / 0)

    in Canada so the whole school food programme is...well..foreign...to me.  My kids bring a lunch every day.  My daughter wanted to buy her lunch and I let her do it once a week in kindergarten and by the end of the year she asked to stop buying her lunch.  

    I childproofed my house but they got back in somehow.

    by lonestar canuck on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 05:59:00 AM PDT

  • Nothing fresh here... (0 / 0)

    As far as I know, there's no fresh produce of any kind in our school lunches.  My son brings a lunch every day from home.  I just refuse to have him eat what they offer.  And, my son isn't crazy about what his peers are eating either.  He says the pizza looks disgusting to him.

    Have you ever heard of Two Angry Moms?  I would love to do something about the school lunches in our district, but I just don't have the energy to take on another task.  Plus, as I stated in Expat Chef's diary I think it would fall on deaf ears here.  We aren't a rich school district, so the priority really isn't with the school lunches.  Maybe when Madeline's in school I'll see if anyone's open to the idea of making some changes.  

    It's my understand that a school district can do fresh ingredients cheaply, but there's more labor involved...that's why I think it would be tough sell here.  

    American Son ~ Wes Clark

    by 1plain1peanut on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 06:19:28 AM PDT

  • At Kid Sparky's daycare (0 / 0)

    the lunches are nuritious, but they sure give them cookies a lot.  

    by lonespark on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 09:50:07 AM PDT

  • Three different schools. (0 / 0)

    One school offers what I consider to be really good lunches and breakfasts...they have a school next door that specializes in food/restuarant service and they cater the lunches.  Real food that isn't just re-warmed junk.  Its very traditional food, so if one is looking for a lot of very low fat fare, it probably wouldn't meet the goal,but its not processed and its balanced with fresh fruit and vegetables.  

    Another food service provides lunches for my daughter's school, and they aren't too bad...the content is really pretty good.  

    The public schools' menus look decent enough...but the problem is in preparation.  They're packaged and heated, warmed and re-warmed several times over.  Needless to say, by the time students get them, they look and smell so damn unappetizing that only the truly starving would want to eat them.

    That said, my two youngest are picky eaters and end up packing their lunches most days.  My high school son gets $3 or $4 a day and chooses ala carte.  I'm sure he doesn't always make the best of choices...but he's 17, and I can understand why he wouldn't purchase his public school's lunch.  And 17 year old males just aren't going to bring in a sack lunch.

    by tjb22 on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 09:50:25 AM PDT

    • They rewarm at our school, too (0 / 0)

      They prepare all the food at the High School and then send it out to the other schools - guess they are able to have fewer staff that way.  (Our school has one lunch person and then the 4th and 5th graders are able to help her serve in return for free lunch).  

      I think the reheating really influences the choices, too.  Lots of canned fruits and veggies.  What a shame.

      When I worked for Head Start, we had a service bring our meals in and we reheated the main course but we almost always had fresh fruits to serve with the meal.  It was a nice balance.

      Jen

      by MrsPastor on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 10:05:19 AM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      • Head Start (0 / 0)

        I am often in Head Start classrooms and they have the best, most interesting food!  There is enough staff for someone to prepare the variety of fresh fruits and veg.  It's very appealing, the opposite of institutional, and the kids really seem to enjoy it.

        My son's school doesn't offer lunch everyday.  Every Friday is "Hot Lunch" -- one class takes charge of preparing lunch for the whole school.  Parents donate ingredients and help organize the kids for cutting, stirring, selling ($3 a person), serving, and clean up.  The meals are really good and often feature interesting exotic foods.  DS is a picky eater and doesn't always partake.  He also spurns the two afterschool snacks -- one a handful of fruit or veg, and the second a more substantial snack, like a tostada or stuffed baked potato or homemade tomato soup.  He gets in the car starving.  Drives me nuts.

        by mamacita on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 11:16:34 AM PDT

        [ Parent ]

        • that sounds like a really cool idea (0 / 0)

          If I'm still working from home when Jess gets to primary school, I'd definitely look to doing something like that. Shame he doesn't partake, but at least he knows how to prepare!

          by Rachel on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 04:19:55 PM PDT

          [ Parent ]

          • forgot to mention (0 / 0)

            the Hot Lunch proceeds go to a charity that the class chooses.  Kids think of ideas and try to persuade their classmates to support this or that cause.  It usually raises a few hundred dollars!

            by mamacita on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 08:11:54 PM PDT

            [ Parent ]

        • Doesn't that make you crazy? (0 / 0)

          I mentioned that my son's school has catered lunches...they tend to consist of the choices you describe.  He won't eat them, either.  I'd love to be able to have such lunches every day!

          by tjb22 on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 04:23:27 PM PDT

          [ Parent ]

          • yes, it is nutty (0 / 0)

            We send a bag full for lunch -- something he can heat up in the classroom microwave, like cannelloni or pasta or tamales, and a fruit, and some baby carrots, or a salad, and (this is his dad's doing) some chips or crackers and a couple of cookies.  While he's in the car telling me how starved he is, I often have him go through the lunch bag and find something.  Almost everything we send is still in there.  And when I say something like, "It looks like you weren't crazy about what we sent for lunch.  Is there something you'd rather have?" he grunts out, "I dunno."  

            So helpful.

            by mamacita on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 08:16:47 PM PDT

            [ Parent ]

            • Ugh. (0 / 0)

              Several times a week, we go through the "what do you want for lunch" routine.  "I dunno" is usually the answer.  How can you not know what you like to eat?  Right now, we're going through a beef jerky and cheese phase.  Sounds wonderful, huh?  That's what he's saying he'll eat for lunch.  So, we do the jerky, cheese and add something that doesn't sound too nutritionally horrible.  

              by tjb22 on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 08:40:16 PM PDT

              [ Parent ]

  • Brown Bagging Issues? (0 / 0)

    I do think school lunch needs to be fixed. Am in a group called Real Food for Schools, but not good at getting to the meetings! I do what I can.

    On a recent post, I was asked for ideas on brown bagging menus. I have a few questions:

    1. How often do kids have access to a microwave to heat them?
    1. Is there storage in a fridge, or do you use the ice packs and insulated lunch boxes?

    That will help me frame up some ideas on easy foods. Knowing that it is already a struggle to get just breakfast and dinner on the table, adding a packed lunch each day is another chore.

    Thanks for reading! Expat Chef http://expatriateskitchen.blogspot.com

    by Expat Chef on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 08:36:07 PM PDT

    • I don't believe (0 / 0)

      my son's large public high school has a microwave for student use.  If they do, the line to use it would be so long that it wouldn't really be a viable option.  Both of my kids' small charter schools do have microwaves.  No refrigerators, though.

      by tjb22 on Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 08:41:32 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

    • At our elementary (0 / 0)

      There are no refrigerators or microwaves for student use. I use ice packs, thermoses and good insulated lunch boxes.  After three years of trial and error, I've learned that Land's End lunch boxes are much sturdier and easier to clean than the regular offerings from Target, etc.

      On AngryMoms.org they advise using leftovers and salad. I use both these options, and it works well for my kids. If they liked it for dinner, they will eat it from their thermoses the next day. My 8-year-old loves to take salad, but the 6-year-old is not 100% sold on the idea. Another fave is yogurt, granola and fruit with an empty container to mix them in.

      While I'm plugging lunch box foods, Honest Tea is selling a new line of juice pouches called "Honest Kids" that are only lightly sweetened with real sugar. It's a happy halfway point between juice and water. My kids love it. We can get it at Target and local health food stores.

      by sangfroid on Thu Oct 18, 2007 at 06:42:39 AM PDT

      [ Parent ]

Permalink | 14 comments