Why does APS school lunch suck?

[Anonymous]

Yes I realize I can pack my kids lunch and that's what I do. But the only reason i do is because my kids complain about how bad the school lunch is. Their friends in nearby Kent Gardens in Mclean have a salad bar for lunch that they really enjoy. I did once go to a meeting with the Health Advisory Board which the Nutrition Services director attended. She was celebrating the fact that they now have "halal" yogurt. I was confused the entire time because yogurt obviously have no meat. But then I realized it was because they were giving the kids sugar and gelatin laden yogurt which is anything but healthy. Since gelatin is derived from pork, a "halal" option was necessary. But why not just serve good food? Then we won't have to be celebrating offering the kids halal yogurt.

[Anonymous]

My 10 yr old asked that question this morning...

[Anonymous]

My kids at W-L really really like the lunch 50% of the time. Yesterday the strawberry shortcake was a huge hit.

[Anonymous]

My kid at Gunston seems to love the lunch but I think it's a huge step down from when I was growing up AND i went to school in a state that is bottom of the barrel when it comes to per student spending (maybe we spent it all on lunch?).

In MS and ES growing up we had salad bars. By HS we had a variety of different options to pick from. There was a taco/burrito stand, hamburgers/hotdog/chicken sandwich/re sandwich stand, and a pasta stand. Then there was also a salad bar.

My HS had 2100 students so similar size to APS schools.

[Anonymous]

Lunch quality is awful. Food that should be hot is still frozen in parts etc.

[Anonymous]

so go join the school health advisory group and work on this!

[Anonymous]

OP here. Glad to hear that middle school and high school lunch isn’t that bad. I have elementary schoolers. I did try to join the school health advisory board. But unlike other advisory boards, their meetings are at 2 pm. I work full time and don’t have the type of job where I can leave mid day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid at Gunston seems to love the lunch but I think it's a huge step down from when I was growing up AND i went to school in a state that is bottom of the barrel when it comes to per student spending (maybe we spent it all on lunch?).

In MS and ES growing up we had salad bars. By HS we had a variety of different options to pick from. There was a taco/burrito stand, hamburgers/hotdog/chicken sandwich/re sandwich stand, and a pasta stand. Then there was also a salad bar.

My HS had 2100 students so similar size to APS schools.

APS schools don’t have salad bars? I guess I just assumed all area districts have them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Glad to hear that middle school and high school lunch isn’t that bad. I have elementary schoolers. I did try to join the school health advisory board. But unlike other advisory boards, their meetings are at 2 pm. I work full time and don’t have the type of job where I can leave mid day.

Are they really still at 2 pm? I wanted to join a while back and could not for that reason either. PLEASE write to the school board about this, OP!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Glad to hear that middle school and high school lunch isn’t that bad. I have elementary schoolers. I did try to join the school health advisory board. But unlike other advisory boards, their meetings are at 2 pm. I work full time and don’t have the type of job where I can leave mid day.

Are they really still at 2 pm? I wanted to join a while back and could not for that reason either. PLEASE write to the school board about this, OP!!!

They have it at 2pm to actually discourage parent participation. If its at 2pm and runs to 3pm, that's getting close to the pickup time for most elementary schools. It's a pretty perfect time to make sure you don't get working parents or SAH parents, because its freaking middle of the work day as well as the end of the SAH kid free window.

[Anonymous]

During the pandemic I took advantage of the free lunches they distributed and oh boy. They were inedible. I grew up poor so my standards for what I’ll eat aren’t very high. My kids said that it’s the same stuff during school lunch.

Sorry OP I don’t have an answer but yeah school lunch is not good here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Glad to hear that middle school and high school lunch isn’t that bad. I have elementary schoolers. I did try to join the school health advisory board. But unlike other advisory boards, their meetings are at 2 pm. I work full time and don’t have the type of job where I can leave mid day.

Are they really still at 2 pm? I wanted to join a while back and could not for that reason either. PLEASE write to the school board about this, OP!!!

OP here. Yep they are still at 2 pm. It’s such an annoying time.

[Anonymous]

Well SHAB was taken over by APE so no surprise they don’t want participation from other parents. Sad.

[Anonymous]

School lunch will never improve until the school's hire cooks for the schools and prepare the food on-site. I've worked in hotel kitchens where crowds are fed regularly. Serving healthy large-batch food is not hard or expensive, but it does require some labor and knowledge. The school systems no longer see value in this and prefer to buy the pre-fab processed garbage to give to kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well SHAB was taken over by APE so no surprise they don’t want participation from other parents. Sad.

OP here. It’s been at 2 pm for years and years unfortunately. Has nothing to do with APE.