You're too incompetent to feed your own children....

Yes, it was board meetings. There are only six board members to begin with but they have to plan for 20 people. Why?!? I have no idea. But supposedly it includes the principals, superintendent and the secretaries as well. It completely irritates me that it is more about the bottom line than it is about the children's needs. My mom is thinking of looking for a job elsewhere simply because she can't stand to see what is taking place behind the scenes. She has personally paid for children to have lunches because they don't have money left in their account (and parents can't send money). The cafeteria manager won't let that child eat because they are out of money. I understand not wanting to give it away but seriously, if they can serve prime rib and shrimp cocktail then they can serve kids a few meals before the parents get the money to the accounts.

The teachers do have a different meal everyday than what the kids do. They always have a salad bar, a soup bar and several other meal choices. My mom has also said that if they are running short on cookies then they stop serving them to the children and give them to the teachers instead. They will do that with whatever they don't have enough of for both the children and teachers, including fruit, fresh baked rolls, etc. So in all honestly, the children ARE the ones suffering, not the teachers. My mom is the head baker. Everything, cookies, cakes, pies, rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns, breadbowls, etc are all made from scratch. She goes in at 6 a.m. every morning to be sure this is done.

 

That's just... wow. I can't...

Nope.. no words.

 

I agree it's not right. When I was a teacher, we got salads that the kids didn't get, but we had to order it in advance, and paid extra for it.

 

I have to say that living in a progressive state "sometimes" pays off.

WA PS's have good menus. At our local ES our kids got a choice of main dish (sometimes not super healthy but decent, sometimes organic, sometimes not. But they had a salad bar loaded with kid friendly fresh (mostly) fruit and veggies and kids could get as many as they want. My kids did learn to eat a several thing there that I don't normally serve.

The biggest problem is not all parents aren't like this group. Many are lazy and prepackaged food seem to rule surpreme in many households. (I have a son with a red dye "issue" and we eat very little prepackaged food.)

 

I don't care if "some" are lazy or not. It's not the government's responsibility to micromanage decisions for us. It's NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS how healthy my kids do or do not eat. Heck, it's not their business to feed kids at school AT ALL. Stop taking away the rights of the majority because of a few irresponsible people. It sure isn't making them any more responsible!!!

 

I agree with Jackie. If someone wants to feed their kids something unhealthy, it's their choice, not anyone elses. Period. None of the pre packaged stuff is illegal, and even if I don't give it to my kids, I do not have the right to come into someone elses home and tell them they cannot eat it. It's a personal choice, and it's one that the governement needs to stay OUT of!

 

A more logical option, assuming educating is actually a priority for anyone anymore, is for the schools to work with local grocers to create "lunch packs" of some sort that are healthy, easily shopped-for, and priced comparable to the junk food. I'm picturing a sale where, if you buy 1lb of bananas, a bag of baby carrots, a loaf of wheat bread, and non-nitrate lunch meat you get it at a discount of, idk, 15% off. And to have the items on a single display in the store.

Then parents are being educated about what a healthy lunch looks like, can shop for it easily, and aren't paying extra for healthy over boxed.

 

Amie, that is a wonderful idea! I know around here if it were all in one place, and at a discount more people would feed their child healthy foods. Seems like that would be a win win for the stores, schools, parents, and children! It would also be nice if it rotated each week, so that the children had variety.

 

I DO like that idea, Amie!!!

 

ok my thought is are they paying for these lunches for the kids. Some kids can't afford the lunch there.

The food at our school is gross. They serve chicken nuggets almost all the time and there is no chicken in them.

The problem I see in our local schools is they don't cook anymore. When I grew up we had mashed potatoes, meat and corn. Here no way they have chicken nuggets, pizza and stuff like that. Its all on paper plates. They have no dishes to do or anything. Maybe if they stop buying all the paper products they would have enough money to buy some good food for the kiddos.

 

I agree with this. Our school had some great meals- ravioli, idk. Really yummy stuff. I doubt most of it is handmade.

But the calorie counts are high as well. So yeah, they serve salad and raw veggies (which is great) but imho not all kids should be eating 800+ calories for lunch (and I'm not making that up). Once you factor in breakfast, and supper (which is our 'big meal' of the day), then take into consideration shorter recesses and less gym, well... imho schools are contributing to the obesity problem that they are pretending to help correct. The portion sizes were tiny, as well- I'm not a big person, and am the type to only eat say.. one slice of pizza. But I was still starving after my 800cal consumption. Again.. that doesn't help kids with weight control.

I once had my ds in pre-k through a headstart program. I only enrolled him because I heard great things about it. I was sadly mistaken (that's a story for another day) but I will say they were very careful about calories. The day I had breakfast, it consisted of 1/4 waffles and applesauce. No butter, no syrup. It was.. more than a little dry going down. But healthy!

 

Starvation is not healthy. My 16-month-old eats more than that for snacktime!

 

No- you are right. I apologized if I seemed like I was implying that


My kids don't eat like that, either. The kids at the preschool WERE allowed to ask for seconds, so it wasn't like they only got 1/4 of a waffle. However- as hard as it was to get that thing swallowed, 1/4 was good enough for me. Of note though- if one kid asked for "2nds" 3x, then some other kid only got their 1/4 of a waffle. The whole atmosphere was very dog-eat-dog.

Personally, I didn't care for it (and about a zillion other things that place did which to me (who practices something closer to attachment parenting) seemed almost.. emotionally abusive), but at least they seemed to take caloric counts into consideration. Which is far more than our ps does.

 

Yup I worked for a daycare, and the breakfasts we'd feed the kids were tiny! They'd get one pancake (small pancake maybe 2 inches across) two slices of fruit (canned fruit like sliced peaches) and a small cup of milk (maybe 4-6 ounces). Most of the children wouldn't drink the milk because the corporate center made us serve shelf stable milk because it was cheaper.

I used to take both of my boys their own breakfasts and lunches every single day when I worked there. I kind of felt badly for the children who had to eat the junk they served. The worst meal I ever saw there was tater tot casserole...It was made from tater tots, pre cooked shredded chicken, cream of mushroom soup and cheese, it would be served with a veggie, a fruit, and more of the milk that the kids wouldn't drink.

School lunches aren't any better because they are based off the same program the day cares use. It's all a federally subsidized lunch program all the government says is that breakfast and snacks need to have at least two food groups represented, lunches and dinners need to have 4\5 food groups represented. So breakfast can be cereal and milk and that's healthy to the government. Lunch can be pizza, a veggie, a fruit, and milk. Snacks were graham crackers and juice, a cupcake and milk.

 

Sorry. I gottcha now. hahaha

Oh the power of the written word!

 

Has anybody ever watched Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution? His whole focus is on going into schools and trying to get them to change the lunch menus to make them healthier. You would not believe the animosity these schools had for this guy! All he was trying to do was put more fresh, hand made wholesome food in these cafeterias. The biggest objection they had was that the district couldn't afford these kind of foods, it wasn't approved by the board, and that the kids wouldn't eat it. Jaime Oliver was appalled at the foods being served and at the attitudes of the schools. He also didn't seem to understand the lack of funding for better preparation and less frozen ready made stuff. I wonder if some of that wasn't just for dramatic TV purposes,though.