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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We already had a national dialogue--remember Michelle Obama? Let's Move? Big changes in the school lunch program thwarted by the food industry, so badly that pizza is now considered a vegetable?

Plus kids wouldn't eat the food. But to be fair, it sounded like it was not very appealing. Raw vegetables, salads, bland steamed vegetables. Our family eats a ton of vegetables but we cook them in interesting recipes (usually Greek).

Lunch lady dorris isn’t cooking briam for 400 kids

Other countries manage to provide good meals in their schools. France, Greece, etc

My kids attended three different schools in England and all three cooked fresh prepared food everyday. It always smelled wonderful and looked appealing. There was a full kitchen with a full cooking staff. We can do it. It will just cost more.

In the states, my kids do not want to buy lunch as they think it is bad. We make them hot food each day and feed them fresh fruit and raw veggies. They eat it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Middle Eastern. We eat lots of vegetables and kids love it. The “healthy” meals serve in schools taste terrible and Michelle Obama’s entire Lets Move program was poorly executed. Who eats raw broccoli? It tastes disgusting. Undercooked vegetables taste disgusting as well. For broccoli sautee it in olive oil and garlic until soft or roast it in the oven. It needs to be cooked well. Vegetables shouldn’t be a side anyways. They should be incorporated in the meal. Same with beans. There are so many wonderful vegetable filled stews in Middle Eastern cuisine. The vegetables cook for a long time and taste delicious. Cook your vegetables people and actually learn how to cook! Kids will eat anything if it tastes good and they try it enough times. Also salads don’t need to be dosed in some disgusting dressing. Instead how about just lemon and olive oil and salt? Maybe a little bit of garlic. School meals can be healthy and delicious. But they aren’t. And it’s quite baffling that people don’t understand this.

Thank you! This ^^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure that schools and school systems would happily feed kids better food if they had the money. As it is, even with federal subsidies, they only have enough to spend a little more than $3.00 per kid for lunch and $2 something for breakfast. Round up and that’s $6 a kid. They also have to buy things that are going to last and not go bad as quickly. Buying fresh fruit and veggies is costly and not economical. This is an overall societal problem. Junk and processed food is notoriously cheaper than organic, healthy meals. Everyone wants something better, but few are willing to pay more to get it.

No it’s completely possible. They just aren’t making it a priority. Check out this menu from NYC a public schools. My friends say the food is excellent.

http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/898916/27977561/1535570315703/September2018PreK-8AlternativeLunchMenu.pdf?token=XtBgwD9rMuc7iwvClNYR1gOygLY%3D

I’m from NY. They pay higher taxes than we do here in VA, which was the overall point of PP. There’s a lot of literature out there about school nutritional programs, and they all say the same thing—feed kids good, nutritionally dense foods is expensive.

Also from NY and new to VA. I can tell you that there were a ton of controversies in the last two of so years about NYC school lunches. They had a mold issue, and food was spoiling because it wasn’t being consumed. I will say that my kid had a greater deal of options. Our NYC school had a salad bar out VA school does not.

My kids and their friends in FCPS found mold on pretzels and overdue yoghurt. But they didn’t report it to the adm knowing they would be targeted just for reporting something like this.

[Anonymous]

Not just in NY but in Colorado as well. https://303magazine.com/2017/08/chef-ann-foundation/

It’s entirely possible. Colorado paid for the school lunch program using federal dollars. It didn’t cost extra.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m Middle Eastern. We eat lots of vegetables and kids love it. The “healthy” meals serve in schools taste terrible and Michelle Obama’s entire Lets Move program was poorly executed. Who eats raw broccoli? It tastes disgusting. Undercooked vegetables taste disgusting as well. For broccoli sautee it in olive oil and garlic until soft or roast it in the oven. It needs to be cooked well. Vegetables shouldn’t be a side anyways. They should be incorporated in the meal. Same with beans. There are so many wonderful vegetable filled stews in Middle Eastern cuisine. The vegetables cook for a long time and taste delicious. Cook your vegetables people and actually learn how to cook! Kids will eat anything if it tastes good and they try it enough times. Also salads don’t need to be dosed in some disgusting dressing. Instead how about just lemon and olive oil and salt? Maybe a little bit of garlic. School meals can be healthy and delicious. But they aren’t. And it’s quite baffling that people don’t understand this.

I grew up in deep South. People are under the impression that Southerners don't eat vegetables. Actually, they do. We, too, cook them a long time. I grew up not particularly liking vegetables, but there was not a meal in my house that did not include at least one vegetable.
Diners and cafeterias in the South traditionally offered a meat and "three." Cafeterias also offered a "vegetable plate" that was composed of three or four side dishes and cornbread or biscuit. (Admittedly, one of the sides might be mac n' cheese.)
I am always surprised at people who don't cook veggies. FWIW, I like my green beans cooked a very long time. They should be olive green.

But, I agree with PP about raw brocolli. (Unless it is slathered in Ranch).

Middle Eastern PP here. Yes I agree! Green beans should be olive green. Otherwise they taste like grass lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not just in NY but in Colorado as well. https://303magazine.com/2017/08/chef-ann-foundation/

It’s entirely possible. Colorado paid for the school lunch program using federal dollars. It didn’t cost extra.

Yes with help from a private organization that had sponsors like Whole Foods who donated free food. No one is saying it can’t be done. It just can’t be done cheaply without some sort of help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not just in NY but in Colorado as well. https://303magazine.com/2017/08/chef-ann-foundation/

It’s entirely possible. Colorado paid for the school lunch program using federal dollars. It didn’t cost extra.

Yes with help from a private organization that had sponsors like Whole Foods who donated free food. No one is saying it can’t be done. It just can’t be done cheaply without some sort of help.

Where does it say that they get free food from Whole Foods? Anyways whether we need Whole Foods or not it can be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not just in NY but in Colorado as well. https://303magazine.com/2017/08/chef-ann-foundation/

It’s entirely possible. Colorado paid for the school lunch program using federal dollars. It didn’t cost extra.

Yes with help from a private organization that had sponsors like Whole Foods who donated free food. No one is saying it can’t be done. It just can’t be done cheaply without some sort of help.

Where does it say that they get free food from Whole Foods? Anyways whether we need Whole Foods or not it can be done.

No pp but read the whole article. It talks about how they are able to do it “at cost.” They partnered with a private organization that has relationships with food vendors like Whole Foods, which is mentioned in the article, who subsidize the program with free food, so schools aren’t paying full price for organic salad fixing etc. It can be done, but not for $6 a kid, which is what USDA budgets for school lunches. Michelle Obama’s program failed because ultimately schools couldn’t provide food under the nutritional guidelines for the money they have/had, so they provided what they could, which wasn’t appealing or tasty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not just in NY but in Colorado as well. https://303magazine.com/2017/08/chef-ann-foundation/

It’s entirely possible. Colorado paid for the school lunch program using federal dollars. It didn’t cost extra.

Yes with help from a private organization that had sponsors like Whole Foods who donated free food. No one is saying it can’t be done. It just can’t be done cheaply without some sort of help.

Where does it say that they get free food from Whole Foods? Anyways whether we need Whole Foods or not it can be done.

No pp but read the whole article. It talks about how they are able to do it “at cost.” They partnered with a private organization that has relationships with food vendors like Whole Foods, which is mentioned in the article, who subsidize the program with free food, so schools aren’t paying full price for organic salad fixing etc. It can be done, but not for $6 a kid, which is what USDA budgets for school lunches. Michelle Obama’s program failed because ultimately schools couldn’t provide food under the nutritional guidelines for the money they have/had, so they provided what they could, which wasn’t appealing or tasty.

I don’t understand how people don’t get that this is a cost/waste thing. We know that kids need healither foods, but we don’t want to pay more in taxes to ensure that. I couldn’t feed my own kids on $6 a day if I’m buying good, whole, non-processed food. How can a school system? On top of that, they are responsible for feeding larger groups on a tight budget. Food has to be bought in bulk and needs to last for more than a few days. My kid’s school has a salad bar, and he constantly comments that no one eats from it. Whether that’s true or not, who knows, but I can’t imagine how much they have to discard because salad goes bad quickly.

[Anonymous]

You can’t feed your family on $6 per person per day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t feed your family on $6 per person per day?

I can easily. And, we eat healthy and tasty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t feed your family on $6 per person per day?

Three meals, plus snacks? What are you feeding yours? I just bought four apples for $5, and they weren’t even organic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t feed your family on $6 per person per day?

Three meals, plus snacks? What are you feeding yours? I just bought four apples for $5, and they weren’t even organic.

I have two teenage boys and a preteen boy. They’d eat $60 worth of food a day if I let them. These are the people who say “rice, beans, pasta.” Fresh foods cost a fortune.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t feed your family on $6 per person per day?

Three meals, plus snacks? What are you feeding yours? I just bought four apples for $5, and they weren’t even organic.

I have two teenage boys and a preteen boy. They’d eat $60 worth of food a day if I let them. These are the people who say “rice, beans, pasta.” Fresh foods cost a fortune.

Clearly, you both are bad parents who aren’t good with money.

[Anonymous]

I don't find vegetables more expensive. Have you taken a look at how cheap beets are? Or cabbages? Why can't schools buy vegetables from wholesale producers and prepare those instead of getting the packaged garbage?