"free" school breakfasts

[Anonymous]

Several elementary schools are offering free breakfast within the classroom and more will start soon.
The problem I have with it is that many of the breakfasts are junk food - chocolate milk and juice are drink options, and entrees include cinnamon buns, French toast sticks, pancakes and "panwiches" (syrupy pancake rolls with processed chicken sausage inside). I don't want my elementary school kid eating this stuff. How can a kid who is totally sugared up sit still and focus on school?
This food is especially bad for the littlest kids.
Can schools either opt out totally of these wonderful free breakfasts, or substitute cereal for the worst offenses? I know they offer cereal as an option on the side but I'm thinking it'd be better if the whole school was served cereal instead of forcing a kid to choose to be the only kid in class to give up a sticky-sweet cinnamon roll.
It's not as if the cereal is great - it seems like the choices are things like Frosted Flakes instead of plain Cheerios - but it's got to be better than a "panwich."
And can the school decide they won't serve chocolate milk at breakfast, only regular milk?
If they weren't giving it to kids in the classroom, I wouldn't fuss but they throw this junk right in their faces.
If anyone knows the rules about what kind of control individual schools have over what they give kids, I'd be interested.

[Anonymous]

As long as industrial catering company is have lobbyists, there is no hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Several elementary schools are offering free breakfast within the classroom and more will start soon.
The problem I have with it is that many of the breakfasts are junk food - chocolate milk and juice are drink options, and entrees include cinnamon buns, French toast sticks, pancakes and "panwiches" (syrupy pancake rolls with processed chicken sausage inside). I don't want my elementary school kid eating this stuff. How can a kid who is totally sugared up sit still and focus on school?
This food is especially bad for the littlest kids.
Can schools either opt out totally of these wonderful free breakfasts, or substitute cereal for the worst offenses? I know they offer cereal as an option on the side but I'm thinking it'd be better if the whole school was served cereal instead of forcing a kid to choose to be the only kid in class to give up a sticky-sweet cinnamon roll.
It's not as if the cereal is great - it seems like the choices are things like Frosted Flakes instead of plain Cheerios - but it's got to be better than a "panwich."
And can the school decide they won't serve chocolate milk at breakfast, only regular milk?
If they weren't giving it to kids in the classroom, I wouldn't fuss but they throw this junk right in their faces.
If anyone knows the rules about what kind of control individual schools have over what they give kids, I'd be interested.

Give your kid a proper breakfast and tell them to have the juice and fruit if they want it. There was a huge study into the benefits of this program... I'd suggest you research them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as industrial catering company is have lobbyists, there is no hope.

IS HAVE ALL THE THINGS!

What?

[Anonymous]

I don't know that individual schools have much say, I think meal planning is typically done at the district level (probably because they buy in bulk for the whole school system, rather than each school doing its own purchasing). The meals don't have to be that way, though. Our school's breakfasts, while not total models of health, are better than that. And chocolate milk isn't an option at breakfast.

[Anonymous]

I'm in no way advocating for these crappy breakfasts, OP, but FYI the whole sugar=hyper myth has been debunked.

[Anonymous]

I don't know that individual schools have much say, I think meal planning is typically done at the district level (probably because they buy in bulk for the whole school system, rather than each school doing its own purchasing). The meals don't have to be that way, though. Our school's breakfasts, while not total models of health, are better than that. And chocolate milk isn't an option at breakfast.

Thanks! OP here. So it sounds as if individual schools can at least decide to avoid the chocolate milk. I hope we can also make substitutions, even if it's just cereal and fruit, for some of the least nutitional options. The menu says schools offer alternatives (which I took to mean cereal) so maybe parents could collectively ask the principal to just offer those alternatives on days that the really high-sugar foods are offered.
The concept of a free breakfast is fine with me, although my kids will always get a breakfast at home first. It's the implementation - especially the high levels of sugar and low nutitional value in the foods that are given to the kids in their classrooms- that concern me.

[Anonymous]

The schools have to apply to be part of the program and those that get in get in for a reason: a significant population that needs the free breakfast. Giving it to all reduces the stigma. I'm not a fan of the chocolate milk but it's there because the goal is to offer calories in ways that kids will consume, and the meals have to meet federal health standards. Our school emphasizes that you should let your child's teacher know if you don't want your kid having the breakfast, or the chocolate milk.

[Anonymous]

We have a national obesity problem, and the food is way out of line with guidelines by groups like the American Heart Association or American Academy of Pediatrics. Getting them into the habit of eating poor-quality food poses health risks for them in the long run. We should do better by our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't know that individual schools have much say, I think meal planning is typically done at the district level (probably because they buy in bulk for the whole school system, rather than each school doing its own purchasing). The meals don't have to be that way, though. Our school's breakfasts, while not total models of health, are better than that. And chocolate milk isn't an option at breakfast.

Thanks! OP here. So it sounds as if individual schools can at least decide to avoid the chocolate milk. I hope we can also make substitutions, even if it's just cereal and fruit, for some of the least nutitional options. The menu says schools offer alternatives (which I took to mean cereal) so maybe parents could collectively ask the principal to just offer those alternatives on days that the really high-sugar foods are offered.
The concept of a free breakfast is fine with me, although my kids will always get a breakfast at home first. It's the implementation - especially the high levels of sugar and low nutitional value in the foods that are given to the kids in their classrooms- that concern me.

The students can opt for the alternatives, but the principal isn't going to be able to just ditch the standard meal in favor of alternative, that's not the way the budgeting and purchasing works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as industrial catering company is have lobbyists, there is no hope.

pretty much, yup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several elementary schools are offering free breakfast within the classroom and more will start soon.
The problem I have with it is that many of the breakfasts are junk food - chocolate milk and juice are drink options, and entrees include cinnamon buns, French toast sticks, pancakes and "panwiches" (syrupy pancake rolls with processed chicken sausage inside). I don't want my elementary school kid eating this stuff. How can a kid who is totally sugared up sit still and focus on school?
This food is especially bad for the littlest kids.
Can schools either opt out totally of these wonderful free breakfasts, or substitute cereal for the worst offenses? I know they offer cereal as an option on the side but I'm thinking it'd be better if the whole school was served cereal instead of forcing a kid to choose to be the only kid in class to give up a sticky-sweet cinnamon roll.
It's not as if the cereal is great - it seems like the choices are things like Frosted Flakes instead of plain Cheerios - but it's got to be better than a "panwich."
And can the school decide they won't serve chocolate milk at breakfast, only regular milk?
If they weren't giving it to kids in the classroom, I wouldn't fuss but they throw this junk right in their faces.
If anyone knows the rules about what kind of control individual schools have over what they give kids, I'd be interested.

Give your kid a proper breakfast and tell them to have the juice and fruit if they want it. There was a huge study into the benefits of this program... I'd suggest you research them.

Teachers love it. Breakfast=kids staying on task. with the food were better but better than no breakfast. The research is clear on this one.

[Anonymous]

I meant wish the food not with...

[Anonymous]

What can we do to improve the quality of the food? The food doesn't have to be of poor nutritional value, with "pearsauce" and Craisins the only fruit offered.

[Anonymous]

Teachers at my school hate it. It is messy and the kids drop the food which brings mice and bugs. They have to dump the unused milk in the sink which causes clogs. It takes forever for the kids to eat it.