How healthy is food in WofP DCPS elementary schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Janney, the kids are given fresh fruit and veggies. There is a kitchen garden on the school grounds. 99% of the parents are obsessed with healthy food and lifestyle. Your child's lunches will be dug from the ground and meat will be slaughtered by 9:00AM (with the supervision of a rabbi!), washed in the school natural on site spring, and delivered in a free trade bowl to your child by noon. I'm only slightly exaggerating.

Have you actually seen the lunches at Janney? I'm the poster who volunteered in the classroom (above). At least 19/20 days the fruit was an orange and the rest of the lunches were nothing like what was described on the menu. This was at Janney. I bet parents have no idea--I certainly didn't and the menus make it sound fantastic.

Right. Because you volunteered for 20 days in a row, so you know this. Hyperbole much?

[Anonymous]

20 days equates to about 10% of the school year and that is a pretty good ballpark judgement, don't you think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every child needs to suck it up and eat the square cheese pizza once in a while. Builds character.

It's just so hard to believe Americans have poor eating habits and are overweight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Packing a lunch is such a total hassle. My DD was at a charter with organic hot lunch and I was so surprised to see kids with lunchbags. On a field trip I paid attention to what the other kids were bringing in those bags - nothing healthier than what the school provides, and in fact a lot more processed foods. Weird.

We are also at a school with Revolution Foods and my impression is that there are a lot of picky eaters and the parents are caving. I told DS that as long as his school lunch was healthy and tasted good (I've sampled Revolution Foods and it is) he has to eat school lunch. If we ever go to a DCPS school (on either side of the park) I'll pack for him because IMO Chartwells is kind of gross.

I too have sampled a few of the Revolution Food lunches during the school year and have determined that they are nasty. My children are under the same impression. If they ate the reheated food it is on ly because they could stomache just a few of the offerings.

My child begs for me to send lunch (an assortment of veggies usually). She does not like RF

My kids hated Revolution Foods and refused to eat it. I sent a lunch everyday (in a plastic grocery bag b/c my ADD son lost about 10 lunchboxes), but oh, we live EofP. We use plastic bags over there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My kids hated Revolution Foods and refused to eat it. I sent a lunch everyday (in a plastic grocery bag b/c my ADD son lost about 10 lunchboxes), but oh, we live EofP. We use plastic bags over there.

Fascinating. Where did those 10 missing lunchboxes go?

[Anonymous]

OP, I didn't read this entire thread, but I would say that if your school uses Revolution Foods, then give the school lunch a shot. If its chartwells, then pack the lunch. We have chartwells and its tysons chicken, trix yogurt, etc. Not fried, but definitely not what I would want my kid to eat every day. I pack a lunch as does about 1/2 of my kids etop PS class and it hasn't been a problem. (He did come home asking for pears one day b/c Chartwells gives them, so its not all a bad thing!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I didn't read this entire thread, but I would say that if your school uses Revolution Foods, then give the school lunch a shot. If its chartwells, then pack the lunch. We have chartwells and its tysons chicken, trix yogurt, etc. Not fried, but definitely not what I would want my kid to eat every day. I pack a lunch as does about 1/2 of my kids etop PS class and it hasn't been a problem. (He did come home asking for pears one day b/c Chartwells gives them, so its not all a bad thing!)

Huh? My kid has never been served trix yogurt. Are you sure that wasn't a class snack?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I didn't read this entire thread, but I would say that if your school uses Revolution Foods, then give the school lunch a shot. If its chartwells, then pack the lunch. We have chartwells and its tysons chicken, trix yogurt, etc. Not fried, but definitely not what I would want my kid to eat every day. I pack a lunch as does about 1/2 of my kids etop PS class and it hasn't been a problem. (He did come home asking for pears one day b/c Chartwells gives them, so its not all a bad thing!)

Huh? My kid has never been served trix yogurt. Are you sure that wasn't a class snack?

That seems pretty far out of the scope of the "Healthy Schools Act," passed in 2010. What year was this?

[Anonymous]

This is 12:05 and this year, as my child just finished PS. Chartwells started the year better, using stonyfield dairy products and less processed meats, but somewhere mid-year it changed. They kept to the non-fried rule, but found loop holes with the rest. It was posted somewhere on dcps, b/c my school sent out a notice about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

My kids hated Revolution Foods and refused to eat it. I sent a lunch everyday (in a plastic grocery bag b/c my ADD son lost about 10 lunchboxes), but oh, we live EofP. We use plastic bags over there.

Fascinating. Where did those 10 missing lunchboxes go?

EotP we don't keep track of such things, we hate our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is 12:05 and this year, as my child just finished PS. Chartwells started the year better, using stonyfield dairy products and less processed meats, but somewhere mid-year it changed. They kept to the non-fried rule, but found loop holes with the rest. It was posted somewhere on dcps, b/c my school sent out a notice about it.

Ah, that would be just about exactly when Kaya Henderson fired Jeff Mills, the head of Food Services for DCPS who had been trying to move DCPS toward cook-from-scratch meals and in the interim, much higher standards for vendor contracts (i.e. Stonyfield Farms instead of Trix). Henderson has said over and over she doesn't give a crap about school food so don't look for any improvements this coming year. More Chartwells, lower quality menu items, no accountability for being off-menu.

And speaking of off-menu, Chartwells' contract stipulates penalties for failing to serve their published menu items. Drop a dime on them to Office of Food & Nutrition Services if what's being served is not what's on that day's published menu. Getting oranges everyday instead of the fruit listed on the menu? Report it. If nothing else, report it to Mary Cheh's office and they'll follow up.

[Anonymous]

I guess I'm one of those parents who "caved" and sent a home lunch. I was thrilled to be at a school with Revolution Foods, but my 5yo DS basically refused to eat them. I tried getting hard-ass with him, and said, "nope, you will be having school lunch every day." Which resulted in him not eating ANYTHING during the day for a few weeks and having complete melt-downs because of being so hungry. And his teacher asked me to please send his lunch. So, yup, I caved.

[Anonymous]

Does WofP get different offerings???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does WofP get different offerings???

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All DCPS use the same menu. It's healthy (no pizza, fried food, etc) but the food is still sort of gross, cafeteria food. At our WOTP school, I'd say 1-2 kids out of 20 in my kids' classes last year got the hot lunch. Sometimes none at all.
Almost everyone packs.

Wow, really? We are at a WOTP school and the majority of the kids got school lunch most days.

And I certainly would not call it gross cafeteria food. Look at the menu.