Do you care what you kid is eating at school?...

[mclmike]

Personally speaking, I was totally disgusted with what I saw at a elementary school lunch a few months back. How can we feed our kids with junk food every day as a part of their 'normal' diet? All the things they eat are chicken nuggets and fries but no vegetables. So now, I am trying to gather a bunch of parents that share the same anger as I do.

But before that, I have typed out a mini-survey and would like to gather some general information and concerns as to how you guys feel about the food served in schools in general. It can be elementary schools or middle school or high school.

Please feel free to reply below or send me a personal message! I really hope that I can pull off this healthy school food campaigne for the schools in my area!

Here are the questions:

1. Do your kids take pack lunch to school?


2. So what sorts of food is served at breakfast and lunch every day for your kids?

3. Why do you think kids prefer to eat these types of food instead of healthy food?

4. Do your school put out knives and forks for students to use for their meals? If not, what is the reason behind it?


5. Do teachers eat with the students?

6. What do you think will happen if the price school meal is increased by 50cents?


Thank you for your time!
-Mike

 

[JessicaMadison]

Hi Mike! To answer that, I totally care about what my kids eat at school. My only child in elementary school is Alexis and I pack her a lunch to avoid from her eating junk. I mean, if they have a pizza day in school every month, sure I'll let her have pizza. But, my lunches for her are strictly a sandwich (unless I have leftovers to put in a thermus) 2 pieces of fruit, another snack that isn't fruit but is still somewhat healthy and water in her canteen. When my older kids were in high school I forced them to pack their own lunch except for one day a week they can eat at the cafeteria. They have such junk in high schools.

Quiz:


1. Do your kids take pack lunch to school? Yes, she does take a packed lunch to school.


2. So what sorts of food is served at breakfast and lunch every day for your kids? At their school or at home? I'll do both. At home for breakfast, I usually have either cereal, bagels, english muffins, toast, muffins sometimes and if they're lucky waffles. Cinnamon buns once in a while for a treat. Lunch: A sandwich, fruit, granola bar or leftovers. At school: They don't serve any breakfast. Lexie's school doesn't have a cafeteria that serves food. But if I can draw back from Hunter and Bailey in high school it was junk. Cheeseburgers, fries, chicken burgers, pizza, wrap and they had like Taco Tuesday. Poutine was popular according to Hunter. I don't know if all my buds from the US know what that is. It's fries, cheese and gravy. Really popular in Canada. Especially in Quebec. It's a french thing but I think it's gross. Real crap besides like the wrap.

3. Why do you think kids prefer to eat these types of food instead of healthy food? I think if I'm being honest, unhealthy food tastes better than healthy food.

4. Do your school put out knives and forks for students to use for their meals? If not, what is the reason behind it? No they do not. Not even for highschool. I'm not sure why.


5. Do teachers eat with the students?
Well, for Alexis' age group, the teacher does eat with the students just to keep an eye out for any fights or I'm guessing health reasons. But they don't in high school. There were security guards at my kids high school though.

6. What do you think will happen if the price school meal is increased by 50cents? I think kids will still buy lunch because that's what is popular. They'll be peeved off but they'll still want that fast food.

 

[mclmike]

Thank you very much for your reply JessicaMadison! I just feel that kids can eat a lot healthier with the food budget they get in schools. The problem that people don't see is that although junk food/ highly processed food are cheaper in the short run, however the diseases kids develop in the future, such as diabeties, will cost parents more to get their kids cured.

Anyway, i'd love to post links to videos to illustrate my point. However, I don't have the right to do that yet in this forum. But I would suggest people to watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (someone post the 6 episodes on youtube).

Also, there is a documentary called '2 angry moms' that talks about how two moms got frustrated with what schools are feeding their kids. It's pretty interesting.

 

[Xero]

Actually, my school always served pretty acceptably healthy foods. The lunch wasn't 100% wonderful EVERY DAY (they had pizza days sometimes and stuff) but most days I can't see why parents would have a problem with it. The main dish was usually something pretty healthy, and there was always a vegetable as the side dish and the rest of the line always consisted of salad and a selection of different fruits. All of the milk was strictly low fat. Even the vending machines in my school were stricly NO pop, and they were only juice, tea, or water/flavored water. I can't see any reason to complain. There's no reason to expect fine dining at a school that feeds hundreds and hundreds of children, anyway.

Also, this kind of thing obviously depends on your area. You can't really get on the internet and get everybody angry, because it only matters in certain areas. Your area obviously is having issues with healthy lunches in the schools, but my area is actually very above average in how much they care about the things the kids eat. So this doesn't apply to everybody. You need to be rallying up the parents in your area to make a difference, not people on the internet. Its not a national problem, its only certain areas.

But don't get me wrong, I certainly agree with you, and all schools should definitely be trying their hardest to feed the kids a healthy lunch. Its very important to eat right, and if your school is feeding your kids garbage, then the people who live in the school district should try to get on them about changing that.

 

[stjohnjulie]

School lunch programs are under fire in the US already. I think some areas have already taken steps to improve things before the government forces them to. The First Lady is very involved in this campaign and now it's a matter of getting congress to approve things. I think they approved a huge amount of money to revamp the school lunch programs, 4.5 billion dollars (?) So, eventually, everyone will have to change what they are doing. For now, I think you should get your community together to put pressure on your schools to make these changes BEFORE the government makes them change....cause it's gonna happen as soon as they can deal with all the red tape.

Where I live??? The public school has a full kitchen and the stove only has one working burner, and the oven doesn't work at all. It's a wonder they can produce any meal for several hundred kids let alone a healthy meal. What they serve isn't so bad. Could be better, but we have bigger fish to fry before we expect them to kick out a super healthy meal. My son is in a private school. They have strict rules on what can be brought to school and there are no vending machines. Their hot lunch is now provided by the public schools. He packs a full lunch and also gets hot lunch. He is a good eater, so I don't worry too much about what they are serving him for hot lunch. If he can't identify what it is, he won't eat it.

 

[mirandamonru]

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Miranda

 

[mistyrain77]

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