School Lunch - Can We Talk About Improving Nutrition for Kids?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The issue here is it doesn't matter what you think. School lunches are based on what most kids eat, not what the kids of over achieving DCUM members eat.

I grew up in a poor home, we had fast food every night except when there was no food.

I loved school lunch. Still do. It was the one meal we could count on. I loved the cut up veggies and the chocolate milk and the frosted flakes.

Maybe your kids grew up with pureed organic leeks but most kids don't. And won't eat beets or cabbage in any form.

The fact that you think it’s ok to feed kids this stuff is insane. No one said to give kids puréed organic leeks. You realize that it isn’t either/or right?

DP. That PP was right. Kids won't eat cabbage, no matter how long its shelf life is.

The meals from FCPS vary from good to a bit strange (whole wheat cinnamon rolls?). But not bad. I wonder who is complaining.

Speak for yourself. My child loves cabbage. She'll eat a whole jar of rotkraut.

Cabbage rolls are delicious. My kids love them. That being said healthy food isn’t just beets, cabbage, broccoli and organic leeks. PP has a very limited idea of what healthy is.

Oh Lord I would give anything for Romanian cabbage rolls right now.

I'm the pp you're responding to. This is exactly My point. Kids who are poor will not eat cabbage rolls or sauerkraut. Their palates haven't been exposed to t his type of stuff. Hence the tremendous food waste when you try to force it on them.

This is probably also cultural. Rich minority kids won't touch your cabbage and sauerkraut with a 10 foot pole either.

LOL I'm neither poor, nor rich, nor a minority, and I'm not touching her cabbage and sauerkraut with a 10 foot pole. That's just gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue here is it doesn't matter what you think. School lunches are based on what most kids eat, not what the kids of over achieving DCUM members eat.

I grew up in a poor home, we had fast food every night except when there was no food.

I loved school lunch. Still do. It was the one meal we could count on. I loved the cut up veggies and the chocolate milk and the frosted flakes.

Maybe your kids grew up with pureed organic leeks but most kids don't. And won't eat beets or cabbage in any form.

The fact that you think it’s ok to feed kids this stuff is insane. No one said to give kids puréed organic leeks. You realize that it isn’t either/or right?

DP. That PP was right. Kids won't eat cabbage, no matter how long its shelf life is.

The meals from FCPS vary from good to a bit strange (whole wheat cinnamon rolls?). But not bad. I wonder who is complaining.

Speak for yourself. My child loves cabbage. She'll eat a whole jar of rotkraut.

Cabbage rolls are delicious. My kids love them. That being said healthy food isn’t just beets, cabbage, broccoli and organic leeks. PP has a very limited idea of what healthy is.

Oh Lord I would give anything for Romanian cabbage rolls right now.

I'm the pp you're responding to. This is exactly My point. Kids who are poor will not eat cabbage rolls or sauerkraut. Their palates haven't been exposed to t his type of stuff. Hence the tremendous food waste when you try to force it on them.

Kids that are poor?? Are you serious?? You clearly have an extremely limited palate and are passing it on to your kids. DH is Middle Eastern. He grew up poor (7 kids, poor immigrant parents.. dad worked three jobs to make ends meet). He loved cabbage rolls as a kid.

[Anonymous]

Why is this conversation being limited to cabbages and beets anyways? You all realize there are other vegetables right?

[Anonymous]

Look, if kids won’t eat a variety of fresh fruits, veggies and meat, then they have to eat fortified grains, which are cheap and are the bulk of calories provided in school lunch—to ensure minimal nutrition requirements are met. That’s it. I’m it’s not going to get better. Just look at the people in this thread who insist their kids won’t eat perfectly normal food. They need their whole grain nachos with low fat cheese and soy protein because they can’t stomach real food and will have deficiencies if only given options like beans and rice with veggies and avocado.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like the only option is to maintain the stauts quo (which everyone seems to agree is sub-par nutrition). Improvement isn't possible. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the only option is to maintain the stauts quo (which everyone seems to agree is sub-par nutrition). Improvement isn't possible. Ever.

Like I posted above, if the goal is to make sure kids don’t have nutritional deficiencies, this is the menu. It’s the USDA guidelines, combined with budgets, that drive it. If you want better, you have to do it yourself. We do. The menu is for the lowest common denominator which is the kid that won’t eat freah food, but will eat something that resembles highly processed heat and eat snack food. No one gets scurvy or tickets, the end.

Our school has a salad bar this past year, finally. Kid was allowed to eat anything from the salad bar every day and only allowed pizza once a week. The rest was absolute trash food, but again, would meet the daily recommendations for vitamins and minerals I’m sure, if we allowed him to buy it.

[Anonymous]

Wasn't Jamie Oliver doing some docu series focused on this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the only option is to maintain the stauts quo (which everyone seems to agree is sub-par nutrition). Improvement isn't possible. Ever.

Everyone agrees except for those of us who picked up the lunches over the spring and summer or who visited our kids at the school cafeteria and saw the school lunches.

[Anonymous]

They did a survey and cabbage was in the top 10 favorite vegetables. I'm surprised people don't like beets.

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/amercas-least-favorite-vegetable-determined-survey

I know, I know but fox was the only link I found with the entire list.

[Anonymous]

OP there is a great group called Real Food for Kids that are trying to improve school lunches in the area. I would love to get involved but I’m stretched thin. Unfortunately it is an uphill battle because for some reason, as shown here, there are a lot of people who are resistant to improving school lunches. Others seem to believe it can’t be done. It can.

[Anonymous]

Japanese kids who are poor will eat sushi. There's definitely a cultural component. But I personally find its a bit elitist and racist to complain that the stuff poor American kids like isn't good enough for you.

Great, so don't eat school lunch. But don't inflict your shredded beets and soggy cabbage buns on them either. They like what they like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the only option is to maintain the stauts quo (which everyone seems to agree is sub-par nutrition). Improvement isn't possible. Ever.

Everyone agrees except for those of us who picked up the lunches over the spring and summer or who visited our kids at the school cafeteria and saw the school lunches.

We could 100% improve school lunches...with better funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Japanese kids who are poor will eat sushi. There's definitely a cultural component. But I personally find its a bit elitist and racist to complain that the stuff poor American kids like isn't good enough for you.

Great, so don't eat school lunch. But don't inflict your shredded beets and soggy cabbage buns on them either. They like what they like.

No, we won’t walk away from trying to make everyone’s school-provided diet healthier.
If poor black kids from 30 years ago had eaten healthier school lunches, african Americans today wouldn’t be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Japanese kids who are poor will eat sushi. There's definitely a cultural component. But I personally find its a bit elitist and racist to complain that the stuff poor American kids like isn't good enough for you.

Great, so don't eat school lunch. But don't inflict your shredded beets and soggy cabbage buns on them either. They like what they like.

I’m not sure why you seem to believe that the unhealthy foods that people are complaining about is food that “poor people like.” Chicken nuggets, sugary buns and these processed foods are eaten by people at all income levels. Obviously richer people have access to better food but that is simply because of how unequal our country is and how messed up the food system is. And yes there is definitely a cultural component because some cultures generally eat healthier than others. I’m not sure what you mean by soggy cabbage buns. Wtf is that? We are arguing for food that is healthy and tasty. Also I don’t see why a “poor kid” can’t enjoy shredded beets. Do you believe that “poor kids” as you like calling them can’t enjoy something that tastes good and is healthy? That’s frankly insulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the only option is to maintain the stauts quo (which everyone seems to agree is sub-par nutrition). Improvement isn't possible. Ever.

Everyone agrees except for those of us who picked up the lunches over the spring and summer or who visited our kids at the school cafeteria and saw the school lunches.

We could 100% improve school lunches...with better funding.

Or leadership at all levels that stands up for food education and nutrition over big agro.