Where is this? You can give just a general area.

I wouldn't mind something like that if they could at least take it home, or share them with a classmate who might not have enough at home to eat! Bananas DO ripen, among other things.

My dad retired from substitute teaching about 5 years ago, and he said that the schools which had more than a certain percentage of free or reduce price lunch students would get a piece of fruit per student (ALL the students) each day; taking them was optional. They always had apples, bananas, and oranges, and sometimes peaches, plums, and pears in season. All the fruit had to be discarded at the end of each day, so the staff would bring bags to school and take that extra fruit home. Not sure if that was legal, but they managed to do it.

 

I remember we used to get canned peaches, fruit cocktail, pear chunks in jello, apple crisp kind of stuff. Many times kids wanted seconds of those.

Not only does the food need to be nutritious, it needs to be appetizing. Something all too many schools overlook nowadays. It's much cheaper and easier to hand out under ripe fruit than it is to take the same fruit and turn it into a nutritious and appetizing dish.

 

When I was in high school everybody was required to take an apple at every lunch. Predictably, 80% of them were thrown out.

They finally used their brains and OFFERED kids the apples at every lunch: a container of apples were set out at the cashiers AFTER the kids bought their lunches, and kids took what they wanted of them! That solved the wastage promlem.

 

I was in line with my daughter (my first child to go to public school) and the children were also required to take the meat. Almost every kid didn't want the meat for the nachos (we were in line for milk by the way!) and the lunch lady was telling them she legally had to put it on their plates but she could put it on the side so they didn't have to eat it, so they took it and tossed it out on the way to sit down, it literally never even made it but a few steps from on their plate to the garbage.

Something about USDA legal requirements but what about vegetarian or vegan families? Or like you said, the waste? Imagine the animals being killed, the factory to make the mystery meat into nacho "meat", the gas to get it to the schools, all the plastic to store said mystery meat and cardboard, the labor involved in the entire process for it to literally only be thrown away at the other end. It's enough to make you crazy if you let it.

 

Pig farmers ought to visit each school dumpster after lunch.

 

In order to help fight childhood obesity, the government has implemented changes to the school lunch program. It's in all of the schools. My son packs his lunch, but he said all the kids are complaining about it.

As far as the quality goes, it is not the school's fault. They do try, but they only have so much to work with. Plus it is mandatory that they stay within the guidelines of the school lunch program. I know it's not a perfect system, but think of how many kids would go hungry without it.

 

I wonder if that's illegal?

Yes, almost always.

Food that comes in contact with humans, must be disposed of "properly", meaning carted off to the landfill.

Little Janie could sneeze on an apple and the next thing you know - black plague.

 

I was in line with my daughter (my first child to go to public school) and the children were also required to take the meat. Almost every kid didn't want the meat for the nachos (we were in line for milk by the way!) and the lunch lady was telling them she legally had to put it on their plates but she could put it on the side so they didn't have to eat it, so they took it and tossed it out on the way to sit down, it literally never even made it but a few steps from on their plate to the garbage.

Something about USDA legal requirements but what about vegetarian or vegan families? Or like you said, the waste? Imagine the animals being killed, the factory to make the mystery meat into nacho "meat", the gas to get it to the schools, all the plastic to store said mystery meat and cardboard, the labor involved in the entire process for it to literally only be thrown away at the other end. It's enough to make you crazy if you let it.

And I'm sure that the meat is one step above pet food grade, if you think about it. Someone told me a while back that Hormel chili is made from that, which didn't surprise me either.

 

Pig farmers ought to visit each school dumpster after lunch.

In most places, it's now illegal to give food that has come in contact with humans, directly to farm animals.

This does not count (at least not yet) your own food scraps or old produce.

 

At our schools,if a child gets his food whether it's a hot lunch or ala carte and they take it to the Lunch lady to Pay for it and that child has no money or there is none in the account for that child, that food is tossed out.....Now they have tossed that food out because that child couldn't pay for it or whatever, they now hand them a pbj and apple
that way they have something to eat.....very wasteful here.

 

yes, lunchroom food is one of the current first lady's pet projects. school lunches are supposed to be healthy. unfortunately, they don't realize that healthy does not have to equal tasteless and yucky.

the food here is gag-worthy, imo. i thought the wheat rolls would at least be good. nope - hard, and absolutely NO taste. of course, they refuse to let the kids have butter or salt or something to make it a bit more tasty and appetizing. and that was for a lunch for the parents - i can only imagine how bad it is on a normal day. in the whole of september, dd picked 4 days that she will eat, and she isn't sure about 3 of those.

 

This is the 1st yr my kids are able to eat in cafeteria. Pre-school & kinder were only 1/2 day and didn't offer lunch time. This yr my son is 1st grade and daughter got all day kinder so they both get to eat in cafeteria and were very excited the first time. My daughter generaly likes school lunches and chooses to eat them. My son says "nope" most days so I pack his lunch. We are in a rural and somewhat lower income area and I suspect this is the best meal many kids eat all day. There will be waste for sure. My son often even wastes some of the home packed lunches!

 

This is a small local charter school but they have manged to fix their lunches. I'm not sure about this large scale but any move towards fresh foods seems like a good idea. It is a public school so they do have free and reduced lunches (which many/most of the kids of this particular school does qualify for).

The Village School - Food Services

http://www.mediate.com/village/docs/Sept 2012 Breakfast Menu.pdf

http://www.mediate.com/village/docs/Sept 2012 Lunch Menu.pdf


My daughter is 7 but if for some reason I can't pack her lunch she practically cries that she has to eat "hot" lunch that day. Lucky for her I pack her lunch 99% of the time.

 

The schools are not allowed to give the wasted foods away--when I was young my bus driver was a farmer also & got the plate scrapings for his pigs.

Our food was cooked on site & was delicious--there were very few throwaways & we swapped food with each other at the table if we didn't want something. Now most is shipped in & reheated to slightly ickily warm.

One thing that prevents thrown away fruit (as well as having ripe, good tasting fruit to start with) is simply cutting the fruit up--slicing apples & oranges in fourths or even smaller & even bananas are more acceptable to little kids cut up. My SIL is a lunch room lady & they are now doing this. I don't see why canned fruit in juice isn't used more--most kids will eat it better than fresh.

The quality of the food is sometimes awful (I have worked at several schools). A sandwich with any kind of meat--the meat is likely to look like pressed sliced gristles & grease.

No butter--we got the little pats on paper covered with wax paper. No salt, no pepper--its pretty yucky. Who wants to eat plain boiled vegetables of any kind? No wonder they prefer the pizza & fries. Which are pretty awful, too.

Now we've got a program going called "Grab & Go" where every kid takes a breakfast to class--including a fruit. A ton is getting thrown away & can you imagine 20 kindergarteners trying to eat a fresh peach? Juice everywhere & no kid I ever knew would eat the peeling anyway.

I have done teaching & it's hard enough to get a morning off to a good start what with coats & bags & stuff to turn in & morning announcements, pledge, etc. without trying to get them fed in the classroom. I want every kid to have breakfast but that's why there's a cafeteria.

 

Study after study after study has shown that kids eat the stuff that's 'bad' for them and toss the rest. Fruit, veggies, whole wheat bread and the like.

 

Study after study after study has shown that kids eat the stuff that's 'bad' for them and toss the rest. Fruit, veggies, whole wheat bread and the like.

yes they do. and now that the whole entire lunch is healthy, many don't eat anything at all during the day. when i insisted dd eat at school each day in hopes that she might expand her tastes, her grades went down. she started brown bagging and they went up. direct correlation.

 

At our schools,if a child gets his food whether it's a hot lunch or ala carte and they take it to the Lunch lady to Pay for it and that child has no money or there is none in the account for that child, that food is tossed out.....Now they have tossed that food out because that child couldn't pay for it or whatever, they now hand them a pbj and apple
that way they have something to eat.....very wasteful here.

I heard about a place that would give such children a cheese sandwich, as in white bread and that yucky semi-fake sliced cheese. People commented about neglectful parents and the like, but I think a lot of that was the result of bullies who thought it would be really funny to see someone eat a cheese sandwich. :grit: At least the kids GOT something; I wasn't so lucky.

 

People have brought this upon themselves. There is no such thing as a "free lunch", (pun intended).

By demanding that the government please feed our children we lose the right to feed our children what we please.

This is but a small aspect of the entitlement culture. People want a free ride but never think about the restrictions that will be placed upon them by ceding control over their own lives.

Just don't do it. Make your kids lunch. Home-school. Private school. Anything but selling your freedom for a free or subsidized lunch.

 

Actually, Tinknal, I sent my kids off to school with a check for their lunches. Feeding something too small or thaat is made with poor quality ingredients is sort of a cheat: I paid for a lunch that tasted bad.

There ARE ways of making bread, meat, vegetables, and fruit taste good to children!

 

There ARE ways of making bread, meat, vegetables, and fruit taste good to children!

Yep, and the best way to do this is to make it yourself.

 

Terri, just because you send a check doesn't mean that you pay for the meal. Most school lunch programs charge only a fraction of the price and the rest is subsidized.

 

I did while they were younger.

The thing is, the kids wanted a HOT! meal, and the lunchboxes do not deliver that. And, our schools actually gave a GOOD lunch, with carrot sticks, canned fruit, hamburgers, salad bar, and either milk or a "vegetarian substitute" that was orange juice that had calcium added. I had no problem with the lunches then.

I have no idea what they are serving now, as both of my kids have graduated.

When I pay for something, I expect something that is not too terrible. It sounds like that is what is happening, however.

 

Terri, just because you send a check doesn't mean that you pay for the meal. Most school lunch programs charge only a fraction of the price and the rest is subsidized.

You think so? I could almost have prepared the food for what they charged: I once figured it out and mine was only a few cents higher. And, they get economies of scale as they do not buy retail.

 

You think so? I could almost have prepared the food for what they charged: I once figured it out and mine was only a few cents higher. And, they get economies of scale as they do not buy retail.

Terri, I'm not knocking anyone who chooses school lunches, I'm just pointing out the inevitable pitfalls.

 

Terri, they have economy of scale but they also have a number of paid employees to deliver the product and inspected kitchens, vans, drivers, dishwashers, etc.