Mrs. Q., an elementary school teacher in the Midwest, is eating the same lunch as her students in the year 2010 and
keeping a blog. She has chosen to do this as a way to raise awareness of the quality of food that is served to students and to let people know that, beyond the taste and nutrition, students, when served this food, do not learn as well. What was your experience eating school lunches? How can it be solved?
It’s extremely disappointing that the quality of food served at public schools is so poor. If we provide an education, one would expect us to be interested in our student’s health. What good will an education do to our nation’s students if we are ruining their health. Obese, overweight and diabetic children are becoming more and more prevalent.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, I attended a private high school and reading the blog I felt that the food served was similar to what I ate at school. They served empanadillas (dough filled with meat or cheese-kind of like a fried hot pocket), pre-frozen chicken nuggets and wings, nachos with neon yellow cheese flavored sauce, french fries, and hot dogs and hamburgers that sat at room temperature for too long. There is a common denominator of poor quality food in schools, which although may not be the case for all I think it's safe to say is the majority. What do you guys think?
I think this is an awesome way to inform the parents and people in the PTA to try to better raise the standards of the school lunch. When I was in high school they served the same portion of food to the middle school kids as they did high school. It was inexpensive but not filling and definitely did not fuel you up to learn for the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteS.Franqueza
In india,the system of school lunches does not exist.The school has cafeterias but one has to buy food there.
ReplyDeleteMostly in india children have home cooked meals that are packed by their mothers and delivered to them during their lunch breaks.This option is better than the lunches provided by the school as this ensures that the child gets fresh,wholesome meals instead of prepackaged meals that are not always the at their best nutritional levels.The home cooked meals provide a balanced diet instead of carbs and sugars found in most school lunches.
The best way to deal with this problem is to educate people about the importance of balanced diets and home cooked meals.Teaching people that making nutritious food at home is not always difficult will help solve the problem of dependence on school cafeterias.
The truth is that schools do not have money to fund for healthy school lunches. Even though they may, often times there is no one who knows how to cost the food. In order to change the environment of school lunches, someone with a lot of money must be willing to fund it. Not only that, many other people will have to be willing to maintain it. I believe that there are a few people out there but schools almost refuse to accept outside help because they get so many endorsements from the soda and candy companies.
ReplyDeleteThis is a korean story. I graduated elementary school long time ago. so, when I was in school, eating lunch from school just started. Before that kind of system, we brought our lunches from home. Of course, there were a lot of problems in the beginning. I felt that schools used low quality food for thier profit. I would get the same menu many times and I was sure it was left over food from the previous day. As a solution, the parents of the students, volunteer in turns as lunch ladies to check whether lunch is good or bad for thier kids. It was really helpful. So,the company, where a school offers to serve kids's food,must hire a person who only care about nutrition and make lunch schedule every month with fresh menu every day.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting. When I went to elementary school they gave us a milk,fruit,vegetable, and the main course. But then when I went to middle and high school they had "healthy" choices, it was just up to the student to pick it. I felt this method really didn't work because if you had a choice between a burger and a salad. Most students would pick the burger. So I think that schools need to enforce more healthy eating and not leaving it as a choice.
ReplyDeleteI think there is definitely a problem with the food programs in our school systems. The food is inexpensive, mass produced, and low in nutritional value. To have a teacher eat the food at school and write about is a great way to bring awareness to parents as to what their kids are eating.
ReplyDeleteThe portions are the same for most age groups, which to me is a problem. High school kids need more food than that of a child in kindergarten. The food also tends to be a lower quality food of what kids like. (Ex. pizza, burgers, fries, hotdogs etc) While at times it is paired with a vegetable, how many kids do you know that actually eat it? I would say very few. I happened to like broccoli as a kid, but would never have touched it at school because it too tasted awful.
I would love to say that all kids should have packed lunches but that is also a problem since most things packed in lunches brought from home are also mostly processed foods like sandwiches and "lunchables."
The problem with having home cooked meals for lunch is that there is growing trend for both parents to hold 9-5 jobs in order to support their family. There is not always a mom or dad at home that can devote time to cooking their kids meals to bring to school.
I hated eating school lunches, but had to because my mother said it was affordable. Luckily for me i usually had a home cooked meal at night. But for kids whose parents dont cook, eating unhealthy food for lunch and dinner is definitely a reason why obesity in kids in on the rise.
I think that school districts should look heavily into trying to put local produce into their lunch systems. There should also be more programs designed to teach kids about healthy foods and eating habits.
In my high school our school lunch program was from different restaurants and we pre-ordered what we wanted to eat the month before. i think this was a good system because we were able to chose what we ate. It could have been anywhere from a salad to greasy chicken nuggets. I think people should have the opportunity to chose what they want to eat for lunch.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that all these issues trickle down to something as basic as education. In the video "Teach your child about food", Jamie Oliver presents America’s dire need for change in our diets. Life span is being shortened, obesity is more prevalent, and unfortunately the fast food chains and lack of food education are pushing this issue on the rise. The fact that this blog and all of us who read it can recognize and have experienced the poor quality of food provided in our schools is a red light that there is something wrong. I don’t think that all schools can afford to offer all organic produce or solely local produce, but by integrating on-site cooked meals and fresh produce we are providing alternatives to processed foods. Just the mere exposure to produce and healthier options can educate children and change their view of food. Some kids consider McDonald’s Happy Meals to be the definition a real meal, but by educating them within our schools that produce and cooked meals exist they can slowly transform that definition.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was in HS the lunch menu the school provided was very similar to other schools with the exception that they would have salads add on to the menu. However, the salads they provided were limitted so not everyone that wished to go for that "healthy" option would get it. I stongly feel that schools should expose students to other varieties of healthy foods other than just salads. It is then, that they would be encouraging students to change their eating habits and see that little by little the number of students eating healthy is greater than those who decide to go along with the regular lunch menu that they would start considering in changing the entire school menu because healthy options would be more in demand by students.
ReplyDeleteSchool lunches should not be about profit, and while unfortunately the funding for safer, healthier foods is not there, It needs to be. Small steps are important like this blogger is making purchasing foods without artificial conditioners, and focusing on educating the older generations of what their children are eating in schools, but at what point will educating children on proper food choices meet what they are offered daily? How do you expect them to make a healthy choice if they are not offered any?
ReplyDeleteIn elementary school my mom made my lunch so it wasn't until highschool that I could really buy school lunch if I wanted to. In my highscool they had 4 different lines each one serving something different, so you got to choose if you were going to eat a salad every day or fried chicken. I think that it's good that someone's actually esperiencing what kids eat every day at school and letting people know that it's not good and it should be changed.
ReplyDeleteK.Fry
Jason Garland
ReplyDeleteMy school lunches were horrible. Thats why i ate at home most of the time. my lunches at home weren't that much better now that i think about it. I would eat alot of pizza rolls, which i cant stand now and dont think i would eat them even if i did like them.
I think it had and has alot to do with poor education of the foods and poor diets passed down from generation. I look at my parents eating habbits, which while i was living under their roof were my eating habbits, and its not pretty. They are getting better about it but i thik most of the damage is done.
There needs to be more funding for schools. They need to get rid of standardized testing and start funding programs like gym, music, and gardens for the schools. The lack of caring happening today with the American childs education is unexceptable. From day care to 12th grade and higher the teachers should be payed more and the money should be in place to help the child learn. Education, especialy early education, is crucial and the bar isnt set high enough in this country. Which i feel is a main reason that the typical Amarican child is turning out the way he/she is, fat,lazy and uneducated
I think that it is good that someone other than the students is experiencing school food. The high school I went to maybe had 4 different vegetables (1 for each cafeteria line) and the usual chicken patty, french fries, tater tots, pizza, etc. Every Friday was pizza and chicken sandwich day because we had chick-fil-a and papa johns pizza. But ever since they passed the laws that made schools stop frying foods due to obesity the food has gotten a little better, but not a lot. Now instead of frying the foods, it’s baked. But still the same choices. My sister had the exact same meal EVERY DAY and after a while you develop ways of covering up the taste whether it be with hot sauce, ketchup, or ranch dressing. The foods do make it hard to concentrate for the rest of the day and usually by the last hour of the day you’re ready to lie down and sleep. Being tired does not make you want to go out and be active which as we know does not help the whole “obesity” issue.
ReplyDeleteS. Booth
While salt does cause some health concerns, I believe that it is the consumers issue to deal with. I can understand why they might ban salt from the tables in restaurants but as far as the kitchen, that’s ridiculous. Salt brings out the full flavors of food and if used properly, salt would not even be needed at the table. Most restaurants also offer low sodium options for those who are concerned with their health. If you are so concerned that you can’t even go to restaurants and get the low sodium option and be happy with it, then maybe you just need to stay home.
ReplyDeleteS. Booth
the cafeteria food at my high school was never exceptional, but it was always much better than all of the pictures and descriptions that Mrs. Q gives of the food she eats at her school. even though our burritos were made with mystery meat, we were able to see them make it right in front of us with real food- so we knew that it wasnt just taken out of a box and put in the microwave.
ReplyDeleteSomething that was nice to see is that they are trying to fit in some vegetables and fruits in the lunches. even though the kids aren't necessarily getting the most balanced diets, its not all just fried and coated in sugar. i think that is a very important problem in most school cafeterias today, is that there arent fresh fruits and vegetables made available. and if they are, there are much more sugary drinks and candies to choose from than fruit. if the schools cut back on desserts and added in more dishes with vegetables and even just gave every kid apple slices with their lunches, the kids would be getting so many more nutrients and less saturated and processed foods.
Especially since the kids are young, if schools can get them in the habit of eating fruit or veggies at lunch, they will be more accustomed to continuing to do that throughout their lives.
If i remember correctly, our school lunches when i was in elementary were not all that bad. They were your basic lunches. Protein, and two vegatables. To my recolection it seemed pretty healthy, with the exception of the occasional rectangular piece of pizza or "chicken rings". And the drink was normally milk. But as i got older and went to different schools the meals gradually moved to fast food. In middle school and high school we actually had Domino's pizza delivered to the lunchroom, and could buy that for around $1.50 a slice. It was a big seller, and there were also a couple of lines where all of the food was fried ala carte items. It was not what a growing kid needed to eat. It was junk food. Although there were a couple of more lines that served your basic lunches; protein, veg, starch, and some sort of bread. All processed it seemed. It wasnt until the end of highschool that they started taking away some of the fried food and started adding healthier, "fresher" food to the menu. They also took away the soda machines and replaced them with vending machines that had juices, gatorades, and bottled water. I hear now that the food at my old high school, though not very popular, is considerably healthy.
ReplyDeleteWhile in middle school, I remember the school lunches not being so great. I remember bringing my lunch to school with me everyday, however in highschool, I know I ate a lot of the meals that were given out. Mostly I had off during the breakfast periods so that's mostly when I ate. However for me at least, I don't remember them being all that bad. Maybe my highschool was different but typically we had decent to fairly good lunch. I can remember the lines would go on forever. We were also given choices of what we wanted. For those of you who are thinking, well maybe that I went to a private school, I didn't, I went to a regular public high school.
ReplyDeleteHowever from what I hear, typically school lunches are pretty bad. One teacher trying to do this, to me anyways, is a waste of time. If this teacher was able to do this across the US with many different teachers all at different schools at different levels I think it would work out. For the most part all it will effect is her small community and that's it. If she can get more teachers envolved I think it's a great idea.
John Sisto
I not so fondly recall being served hot dogs that had an odd green tint to them while attending elementary school. I find it quite distrubing that this memory has stuck with me over the years. It's scary to think about the poor nutritional habits that are being taught to our future of this country. Our country boasts a strong military force but at this rate Americans won't even be able to get off of the couch. Unless of course, it's to obtain their next insulun dose.
ReplyDeleteIn elementary school I used to joke with my friends that they recycle the juice boxes and milk containers to make the pizza crust. We knew the food was bad even at age 8.
ReplyDeleteThe "fed up with school lunch" project is great! It is about time that someone shed some real light on what kids are eating. Parent's know but they don't really know what is going into their kid's bodies every day.
The food at my elementary school was horrid. Warm cheese wiz type product on ham and a stale roll of some kind. If I had to guess that ham was all water content and had more salt than any processed meat legally should contain.
Moving into middle school and high school, students could pick what they wanted to eat. I would say most individuals buying lunch ended up with high sugar juice or soda, french fries and a little debbie snack cake. I don't know any parent, educator, or mentor who would say that is an acceptable lunch. Kids went for those foods because the meals were so unappetizing that they had to eat something (and sugar was what was left). Fresh fruit was not even available- only fruit in syrup (just pour on the sugar!).
After buying my lunch a few times in elementary school I decided to bring my lunch to school. Knowing a lot about eating well and nutrition my parents thought packing my lunch from home was a much healthier option. I was lucky. I know everyone is not that fortunate to be able to afford to bring healthy meals from home so something must be done in the schools.
Something major needs to happen with the way we feed public school children today and I think the school lunch blog is a great way to start. Shed some light on the real food eaten and let everyone really see what is eaten by the american public under the age of 18.
When I was in school, I was very lucky to have had a school that had extra funds for the cafeteria. Therefore, our food was usually a bit better than you would see in a regular public school. On the other hand, I would still see the emence amount of junk food that they would serve like pizzas and burgers. This left little room for the nutritional food like veggies and salads. In my senior year of school, I was given the opportunity to work in the cafeteria as an intern. This gave me the oppurtiuity to make food for my peers along with making healthy delicious food that wouldn't normally be seen in a school cafeteria. Some of my popular dishes were seafood salad and sugarfree raspberry cheesecake. Although they were popular, I was limited to how many portions I could make, and would usually run out before everyone could get some. Overall, it taught me that since schools are so restricted with money, it is often hard to get healthy food for everyone, but not impossible. I really hope that one day they implement healthier menus in schools, to ultimately help raise better health in the country.
ReplyDeleteMy experienced ranged from very good to very poor. I do recall that there was a vast difference in opinion between "microwave taco day" and "taco day." I see too possible options to this problem.
ReplyDelete1. No processed food. Let the lunch ladies actually cook from scratch and serve food fresh. It might not be extremely healthy, but at least it wasn't in the freezer for a week and filled with preservatives.
2. Standardize all school lunches. Build factories all within one days driving distance of any major school and have good nutritious meals made daily, packaged, and then sent out to schools to either be reheated individually or served buffet style. You'd be surprised how good a frozen bowl of soup that was made that morning can taste.
The fact that we have come to this point is quite scary and enraging. If anything, elementary schools should be serving the most healthiest meals when it comes to schools. We are all aware that children who are in elementary still have lots of developing to do and need specific nutrients to ensure a healthy outcome. This teacher is one of many who is concerened for their students and I hope that her experiment goes according to plan and not only should it be the teachers going to great lengths to do this. Parents! These are your children, parents should take the lead when it comes to what is being served to their children. The fact that this issue has gone this far is sickening, the government needs to act quickly because we are already seeing childhood obesity, diabetes and other diseases related with unhealthy eating. What's next? Instead of feeding our infants milk are we going to suggest soda?!?
ReplyDeleteWith the current obesity crisis in america, one perpetrator sticks out above all else: the public school lunch program. children have been learning at very young ages for far too long that that the food they eat in school is ok, and develop eating habits based on what they learn in school. the meals are fatty, heavily processed and full of sodium, not what i want my kids eating when they are at such key stages in their growth. recent actions by activists/chefs such as alice waters have tried to combat these outdated programs, and while gaining national attention, have yet to really implement any real large-scale fix. i can only hope that by the time i have school age children, edible school yard-like projects are the norm and not the exception. We need a fix and we need one soon.
ReplyDeleteI can agree that the school lunches in my schools were very unappealing. The lunches at my high school were especially disgusting. The problem was it was cheap food that was served to the students at a very high rate. The food was always cold and it was never any god. It made eating school lunches something to be feared and something that was not often something to look forward to. Another problem was the health factor in the whole equation. School lunches are not the healthiest things to be eaten. And a big problem with that is young and growing children need nutritional value in their meal and by eating school lunches they are not receiving everything they need. School systems need to budget things in a better way. They need to provide children in schools with real food; they need to provide them with healthy food. A good solution that has been thought of is the Edible Schoolyard idea that has indeed become a part of school curriculum in some areas. We need a system that will help get children involved with cooking and the preparation of food so they know what they are eating. By doing this children can grow up to be more aware of the foods they eat and how those foods will affect their bodies. Something needs to be done about the food in the school systems and it needs to be done fast.
ReplyDeleteThis has become the topic of the moment. Every charity and celebrity chef even remotely related to sustaining agriculture has jumped on the this band wagon. Not to say that it isn't relevant. Children are typically offered a menu of french fries, reheated frozen pizzas, burgers and hot dogs for their school lunches. It is cheap and easy to prepare. But as in anything related to government involvement who is to be responsible for the well being of a child. The school or the parent? Now set aside abbot districts where a parent may fall back on the school district to provide maybe the only valuable meal that their child may receive in a day. In an ordinary district you have to acknowledge the question. If you don't want your child to eat garbage everyday why is it than that the parent does not provide the alternative? We lead by example no? As a parent you set limitation and guidelines, why would this be any different? Now addressing the abbot districts. You have a perpetual cycle of food abuse in this situation. Obesity has become a huge epidemic, especially for the poor. Fast food cost less and for a working single parent; exhausted from work it takes no time to put together or order. The child is bombarded from all ends with little options to avoid the situation. As a member and the VP for CCS (Chefs in Community Service) here at the CIA, we have asked ourselves and our group members exactly this question. How do we change what our future eaters pick to eat. We would like for them to have an understanding that healthy food is good too. We have began looking into large corporations to aid in his quest instead of fighting against them. Our long term goal is to find ways to make farm to table food in homes and schools more affordable and excess able. Chefs such as Ann Cooper and Alice Waters have had years of hands on experience fighting this exact situation. Now new Celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver are also trying to change the way children eat at school. So on the whole I think it's a good thing especially in poorer districts but I always will believe it should come back to the parent to choose better for their children.
ReplyDeleteSchool food is absolutely disgusting, it is unhealthy and doesn't help you in anyway. Most of the food is so unhealthy and dripping in oil. At my high school very rarely did they have healthy food or something that tasted good. Due to this many kids would just eat french fries and a hamburger, and very rarely would they get a salad which was very small portion at that. I believe that it is possible to make healthier and tastier food from which the school and school cooks are provided but it might take some more time and creativity.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that school lunches should be better then what they currently are. if we teach kids at a younger age how to eat healthy and what to look for in healthy foods then they have a better chance of growing up and becoming better equipped with knowledge on eating healthy. I remember my old high school days of eating horribly prepared meals that consisted of rubbery hamburgers and microwavable burritos. Even the french fries tasted like sugar sticks, i cant even remember if vegetables were offered to us or not. The kids who brought food in from home would always get surrounded because they had the better food that we all wanted. For some parents making a child a food for school can be difficult, they dont really have the time, plus some family's cant afford it and sign up for the low income school meal plans. I dont just feel like this just effects elementary students either, most college's dont have a very good choice in what they provide to students for meals. A lot of college campus' have fast food joints in there food courts, the only healthy type option for them is subway. So if they grow up eating junk food in elementary/High school, how can we expect them to make healthy food choices as grown adults. There comfort food becomes junk food, so thats what they settle for, because its what they know best.
ReplyDeleteThe lunches today in schools seem to be of the same nutritional quality from when I was in school, fifteen to twenty years ago. I guess it speaks to the longevity of the school lunch problem. I think that the schools are partially hand tied since almost everything is budgeted, but the schools are not really proactive in providing healthy alternatives either. It's ironic that at school, kids are not educated on food choices or taught how to make healthy, nutritional food choices. In the scope of world education, the United States seems to fall further and further behind in education. There's a direct correlation between nutrition and education. I think that schools and administrations sometimes focus on solving the wrong part of the problem. Solving for the outcome rather than the source. That's why people like Mrs. Q, other proactive teachers, and leaders in our food culture like Jamie Oliver who continue to advocate nutrition will be the best agents of educating and change within the schools.
ReplyDeleteI think school lunches are very unhealthy for our younger generations. It's all frozen processed governtment food which is a discrase to our society today. We as a counrty are surrounded by fast food joints and take out which isnt the best choice for our society and then they wonder why our generations are becoming more and more obease because our world is all about fast quick and easy!
ReplyDeleteBeing a product of the DC public school system i am no stranger to the toll school lunch takes on a student. During my time in the system, the food almost always consisted of fats, starches, and cheese. What this has done to many students is addicted their bodies to this taste. And although very rarely is the lunch beyond edible, but it also establishes trends and poor eating habits when it comes to what food you choose to eat when not being fed. Many of my friends, are conditioned because of the almost everyday consumption of this cafeteria food to reach for pizza, soda and fries whenever they have money to burn. The schools seem to revolve around a cycle that usually doesn't move past square pizza, fries, soda, and an optional fruit cup or piece of fruit. The system as a whole needs to be changed to establish good eating habits for the children, especially the younger ones, in the schools. Its hard to break away from the starchy cycle that has occupied americas stirafoam trays for years. But its something that needs to be done to ensure the healthiness of future generations to come.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in school, very rarely did I eat the food that the school sold. Nine times out of ten I brought my own lunch, because to me, the lunches did not look appetizing. Nor did the food ever seem to be nutritious. Mostly, I remember them serving pizza, burgers, fries, taco salads, and giant chocolate chip cookies, which is not what children need every day.
ReplyDeleteI think in order to solve this problem, children need to be introduced to fresher, more nutritious food in the classroom and the lunchroom, as well as at home. As we saw in the Jamie Oliver video, none of the children he spoke to could identify any of the vegetables he presented them with. If this is the case for other children, which I'm sure for some it is, it will be very difficult for them to live a healthy lifestyle later on in life. And therefore, our obesity problem will continue to rise.
Although I grew up in a very small town, I feel like our school was very well aware of the nutrition value of the food they were serving. Although there would occasionally be hot dogs chocolate milk and French fries, I know for a fact that nothing was ever fired, there was no fryer in their kitchen. We had a salad bar, 2 soup options every day, as well as sandwiches and free range fruit.
ReplyDeleteThe Cafeteria staff was very active with the students as well. If there were any complaints, there were documented and brought to a meeting.
I understand that my experience with school lunch in high school may have been the exception and not the rule. I think what this teacher is doing is very noble. I feel like there is no simple solution to this problem. However I do believe as corrupt as our government may be when it comes to food regulations, I have noticed that soda machines and other vending machines are turning into water or sports drink venders, or are simply removed. These are small, small steps in bettering the eating habits of children.
I also think that nutrition class should be mandatory as a half year course in middle school and then again in high school. This way kids will be educated on how to make healthy choices in the lunch line, at home, and throughout their lives.
Melanie Bindman
ReplyDeleteI find the idea of this blog very intersting as well as the idea of an adult trying to survive on an elementary school lunch for year. I think its down right sad that almsot everything kids get a school comes from a freezer. I know that is it is possible to change this but it requires an open mind and a great deal of effort. Most people who have the power to make the changes don't belive its possible and they actually make the problem worse by giving resistance to the breave people that try to make changes. Most of the major stumbling blocks for change is the was the dietary requirement for students are written. That is a slice of forzen pizza and french fries fits them better then fresh cooked chicken with salad and rice. Overall I think student lunch programs are benifical since in some communities parents can afford lunch for their kids but is the junk we are feed them doing any good?
When I was in elementary school, my mother used to pack my lunches. Occasionally, I had school lunches and I remember eating something like the rectangle pizzas on a plastic tray. I don't think I really thought about whether if the food I was eating is fresh or not back then. It was pizza and yummy. Looking back, I can't believe I ate so much junk food when I was younger.
ReplyDeleteSeeing my niece go to kindergarten and getting her lunches, it has definitely changed. Now, it seems that people are at least aware of what they eat and understand what is good to eat and what is not.
TV shows such as Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution epitomizes the effort & awareness people have come to. But, still it is a long way before the freezers of America are emptied of processed foods that do no good to our body.
SH813956
It was not until high school that I began eating school lunch regularly. Most --if not all- foods were intended to be made cheaply, fast, and in bulk. This means that everything was processed and filled with unpronounceable chemicals that could impair brain development, concentration, and et cetera.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I do not believe the food served to me in high school had any physiological impact on me. Though, many of the times I did not feel 100% could have something to do with said chemicals in food, but the jury is still out on this situation.
One must also think what the country would be like without the Post-World War 2 eating experience. Would we have come as far as we have without the ability to nourish the masses?
-Patrick Seibold
School lunch is definitely not one of my favorites. I haven't eaten school lunch since middle school, 4 years ago and I don't plan on eating it in the future. My high school is trying to become healthier. I remember a few years ago they closed the school store it restock with healthier choice. So they took out hot fries chips, but still sold candies and chips. Not so healthy I think. They do offer things like salads and fruits but most students don't choose those opinions.
ReplyDeleteMy friends at school lunches throughout high school and sometimes I would think to myself how can they eat that. Most of the time the french fries were cold and hard. I remember in middle school one of friends favorite lunches were these boneless chicken wings. I thought they were gross. It was processed chicken shaped into a chicken wing and they were pretty much like rubber. Don't get me wrong I once like school food before I knew how bad they were.
I really don't think school lunches will change anytime soon. For the school systems it is cheaper and takes less time for them to buy frozen foods instead of cooking fresh foods themselves. Back in June my restaurant management class attended a meeting at the White House with Michelle Obama, where she discussed her Chefs Move to School program. She wanted chefs to partner up with a school and prepare fresh and healthy meals for the students. This might work for a few school, but not enough schools to make a significant change. I think each school themselves should take action. If they really cared about the health of their students, they would want to see them grow into healthier people. This will make them spend more money, but I think it is money well spent.
ID: 826154
In high school I would dread forgetting my lunch one day and having to buy the disgusting cafeteria food. It was always greasy, the portions were way too big, and it just looked like it could give me an instant heart attack. People, especially children in elementary school, do not realize what they are eating anymore; we will put anything given to us into our bodies. Processed, fried, and junk foods surround us and are their accessibility is the cause for childhood obesity today.
ReplyDeleteIt was to much of a hassle to carry an extra bag with me just so that I had something to eat during out lunch break. Throughout my high school career I almost always went without eating lunch because the state funded school lunches were revolting. The few times I did eat the school lunch I got severe stomach cramps. The so called "fruit" were from cans 90% of the time (and when they were fresh they were near rotten), the milk was questionable, and the remaining parts of the meal were either from cans or previously frozen. None of the meals served in my high school cafeteria could ever be considered healthy, which is a HUGE problem.
ReplyDeleteI believe that in order to see a change for the better in any cafeteria menu the food budgets would have to expand. With a better food selection in schools I believe that many students would preform better academically and be healthier overall.
- Maddy Redo
I remember my chef at school telling me that the last true thing in a school cafeteria was the grade school lunch menu. After grade school the quality of food really did go down hill.
ReplyDeleteI remember in my grade school at least we received an actual balanced lunch. We received the correct serving of veggies, fruits, dairy, protein. It's that back then the majority of food wasn't processed either at the time. Food was actually made by hand and you could tell that it was a healthy lunch that would provide for the rest of the day.
Moving into middle school and high school the food just fell down the hole. Your choices seemed to be hamburgers or pizza with fries. It was just greasy, full of salt, and not good in general. Fruit was available but it was from a can, and the salad you could opt for was just full iceberg (which doesn't have much nutritional content to start with) but its moved so far away from food that was made on site to processed boxed pizza and burgers. That's why I packed my lunches, simply because I knew what was in my lunch was better than the schools.
Now that schools are having to cut budgets they are turning more and more to processed foods simply because its cheaper. But the movement of processed foods has gotten to the younger ones. They are the ones that need to understand what good eating is because they'll grow up eating poorly. It's like what Jamie Oliver said in his TED talk, if food education isn't implemented they'll never know what real good food is and won't have the skills for the future.
Starting with food education but being more supportive for food programs in schools will help solve this problem. By informing the cafeteria works and also parents to join on the movement you it will help fund a school to change its food program. Kids don't need all these bad things but they need to know what will benefit them for futures sake.
-Garrett
My experience with school lunches has varied widely as I have attended a few different schools. I attended a private elementary school, where lunch each day of the week came by delivery from different fast food restaurants. McDonald's on Monday, Chick-fil-a on Tuesday, Pizza Hut on Wednesday, and so on. Thinking back on this time, it never occurred to me once that I was eating unhealthily.
ReplyDeleteIn middle and high school, I attended a different private school. This school had a very good school lunch program: there was always a salad bar and a make-your-own sandwich bar, a daily soup, a hot item or two (maybe chicken and rice or fish with baked potatoes), and then the standard pizza, hamburgers, and French fries. While many students opted for pizza and French fries everyday, there was still the option to eat healthy.
For my junior and senior year, I attended a public high school. This was the least nutritional food I have encountered in a school setting. The only thing sold was Papa John's pizza, chicken nuggets, chips, and chocolate chip cookies. This was the daily menu. If I forgot a lunch, I was eating pizza.
My experiences with school lunches show that, unfortunately, you get what you pay for. At my public school, there was a 140% overcrowding, and the school district still had to make budget cuts every year. The last thing they were focused on was improving the quality of the food. Politicians need to recognize that learning about food and how to eat are as important to an education as the basic school subjects, and should budget accordingly. I would rather have a bad English teacher and be eating good food :).
--Joel Eisenberg
The more I read about school lunches the more it upsets me. I attended public school K-12 grades and the school lunches were okay not great. The lunches were semi-nutrius, there was always a small salad but the rest of meal was fried. I feel the problem with school lunches stems from a lack of training in the "lunch ladies" in the proper way to prepare food nutriously and also in safe food handling (but I wont go there, also in the lack of funding. Most school districts have less than $1.00 per student to spend on food. With the lack of proper cooking skills of the cooks, schools tend to buy already pre-processed foods like frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, french fries, and burritos. These foods tend to be more expensive than it would be to buy the raw ingredients to make a pizza for example.
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