Comments on: Is the School Cafeteria Worse Than a Fast Food Restaurant?

By: keydrum smith

keydrum smith — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:16:24 +0000

This Keydrum Smith, yall lunch look nasty. And the school looks lame. I will holla at ya later homies

ha ha ha God bless

By: Brook

Brook — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:35:37 +0000

Thanks for everyone’s input! My organization, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), works with school systems so that children will have access to fresh, local food in the cafeteria. We commend the Child Nutrition Directors across our region who purchase fresh food from local farms. But serving healthy food in schools is only half the battle; you have to get kids to EAT the healthy food. We believe that fostering positive experiences with healthy food, through initiatives like cooking with kids in the classroom, will lead children to develop lifelong healthy eating habits. ASAP provides local food cooking demos for schools in WNC. We come to the class prepared with a volunteer chef, food, and all of the supplies. We also have resources available for school gardens and farm field trips. For more information, you can contact me at brook@asapconnections.org or 828-236-1282.

To learn more about our Farm to School program, go to http://www.growing-minds.org.

By: earthfare

earthfare — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:20:45 +0000

Rachel, thanks for sharing your experiences — eating healthier does take more time but it is worth it! And, we should take more time to enjoy our food

By: earthfare

earthfare — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:03:16 +0000

And it would teach kids where their food comes from! Isn’t it amazing that many kids do not know what a tomato or cauliflower is? And, no fault of their own…it’s time we all looked at food differently!

By: earthfare

earthfare — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:56:31 +0000

Elaine, thank you for sharing your comment and experiences. We were definitely not trying to lump ALL school meals into the negative light. In fact, we actually believe school cafeteria managers like yourself work very hard with the very small budget to feed all our kids. You are doing the most incredible and important work right on the front lines. Rather than pointing fingers at anyone, we wanted to raise the point that school meals CAN be better and we must help those who work in the system to get more funding so that kids do have better options. We are amazed at what you are accomplishing. You truly are a model and we are glad you shared your comment and experience here. Please continue what you are doing to ensure our kids are receiving healthy meals in schools. We realize some schools and individuals are working very hard to do this, so we are glad you shared your comments. Kudos to you and your efforts! Please let us know if we can help.

By: elaine

elaine — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:17:51 +0000

I am a school cafeteria manager, we are one of 8 north ga counties that have upgraded our menus based on fresh fruits and veg. choices and high fiber, low carb, low fat foods, we strive to serve high quality foods and it irritates me greatly that school food is often made fun of or accused of being of poor quality. Our foods comes from the same venders that supply high quality eating establishments. Our counties have been visited by several USDA Reps to study our menus and recipes, I have personally worked the last 6 years developing homemade healthy recipes and students have gradually started taking “from scratch” healtier choices (salad bars, fresh fruits, veggies), I personally attend parent/school events to educate parents on the work we are doing in our schools and meet with students to see what they like and dislike as far as “home gardens” teachers have started one but due to health regulations, I can’t serve any foods that have not come from inspected and approved food sources, so before commenting negatively on school foods, please contact your reps in the gov. to increase funding for healthier foods in school so children across the Country can have access to healthier food choices and make schools adopt a “healthier” menu and recipes. I am seeing more and more students trying to pay for lunch with pennies, nickels and dimes and my staff keep change in their aprons and gladly give change to a child that needs to eat, so please don’t lump all of us in a negative light, alot of us are trying really hard to make positive changes,

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:34:29 +0000

I’d love to see some simple agriculture being taught at schools with the kids being able to ‘eat’ their hard work. Every school should have a garden with all the classes helping to tend it. What a shift in thinking it would create for the future of our planet if every school and home had a garden and people could trade cucumbers for peppers!

By: earthfare

earthfare — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:42:44 +0000

Wow!! What a story! That is so crazy and sad.

By: b

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:27:44 +0000

I just moved to Augusta, Georgia. I spent the day at school with my first grader and we had lunch in the cafeteria. It was Pizza Day. Let me say that we only let our kids buy lunch about once a month, the rest of the time we pack our own. Well, I was shocked and appalled by what I saw that day. The pizza did not look like real food and the cafeteria adults were walking around with large bottles of ranch dressing to put on the kids’ pizza! Some of the kids were simply eating the dressing with a spoon. That was the last time our kids bought lunch.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:37:22 +0000

I agree, supporting local growers betters the local economy, so everyone gets benefits. And speaking as a mom who makes practically everything from scratch, I’ll be the first to say that healthy eating isn’t more expensive–it just takes more time. And the health benefits that we’ve received from eating healthier, homemade foods are definitely worth the extra time.