If you’ve been watching the news or keeping up on food blogs, you may have noticed something recently. Parents are restless. From their keyboards, kitchens, and school lunchrooms, parents have decided to take matters into their own hands. They’re starting a movement.
They’re waging a war against unhealthy school lunches.
Perhaps the most famous lunch crusader is the anonymous Mrs. Q, who took on a project (Fed Up With School Lunch) that garnered her national attention – she decided to start eating the school lunches her students were eating. She also photographed and blogged each lunch, and shined a harsh light on what kids are eating in many schools nationwide.
We asked our facebook fans to weigh in on the issue, and the response was immediate and emphatic! Most of you said you typically pack your kids’ lunches. Bonnie told us about the turning point for her, writing:
“We have always packed their lunches because our daughter has food allergies. We did let them buy on pizza day last year a few times, but that stopped when I volunteered one day at my son’s school.
It was pizza day and the lunch monitors were walking around with GIGANTIC bottles of ranch dressing and pouring it all over the pizza (which didn’t look all that good) for the kids. Some of the kids near where I was sitting actually ate the dressing with a spoon and then they got more put on their tray! It was disgusting to watch and that was the last time we gave money for lunch.”
So, what’s it like in your house? How are the options at your kids’ school? Are you waging your own war on school lunches? Let’s hear your story!
We are opening a new preschool and found a local restaurant that was willing to cater our school lunches using Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution menu. It is costing us about the same as it would to pack our childrens’ lunches and we know they are getting a good, healthy hot lunch every day!
Definitely waging war here! It’s shocking to me that I live on an Army post, where health and well-being are stressed every single day, yet they serve warmed over garbage to our school children. Warmed-over rubbery pizza, chicken nuggets, corndogs, heavily salted and peppered canned vegetables, white bread, fish sticks, pink milk, ice cream (which is probably the most nutritionally redeeming item on sale) — it’s all garbage and it’s all pretty disgusting. I started a blog before school began telling folks just that and showcasing my kids’ home-packed lunches. We’re having fun with our food, getting all our colors in, using shapes and textures and they’re taking meals they would never get in school. I love it that my favorite grocery store is on my side, helping me keep my kids healthy and well-fed at reasonable cost. Keep up the good work, Earth Fare!
School lunches are a minefield. The milk has chemical colors, preservatives and flavors; the ranch dressing has msg; the chicken nuggets are, well, who knows what they are?? The fresh fruit is always old and the veggies either come from a can or are so overcooked as to be unrecognizable. I truly believe the lunchroom staff does the best they can with what they have, but it’s just. not. nutritious. And many children get their only 2 meals a day at school. Nutritious food helps feed the mind. If schools are going to be so obsessive about their test scores, they might want to start with diet.
@Jessica, wow! That’s awesome – and what a relief!
We pack every day. I volunteered at my granddaughter’s school last year and I really hated seeing what so many kids were eating. Not to mention, if a child takes a milk or juice and doesn’t drink it but takes it from the cooler, they carry it to the table, sit there for 20 minutes, carry it back. Instead of having the kids to toss the milk or juice that they think has been unopened, they sit it on top of the trash containers. Then a staff memeber comes out every so often, picks them up and puts them back into the cooler. Those milk cartons are out of the cooler for at least 45 minutes to an hour if a child decides not to drink it. They make each child take a carton even if they don’t want one. I wished that practice would stop. Many times when I was there as a volunteer and would have lunch with my granddaughter, we would go to open her milk and I would always turn it upside down just to see if it leaks. Most of the time, it does so it wasn’t sealed. When a child goes up to ask for another milk, if this is the case, they almost want to argue or scold the child for asking for a fresh milk. It is sad and if this practice is continuing this year, I am going to talk to the school board about it.
Our school lunch program is really bad as well as their breakfast programs. I know foods with protein (which kids really need in the morning) is a bit more expensive but I do think lots of parents would pay a bit more for a healthy lunch.
For the families who can’t afford to pay more, lots of those kids qualify for free lunch so, the community helps there. I say if we want our children to do better in school, we must provide them with quality fuel.
Oops, sorry to get on my soap box. School lunch is a touchy subject for me.
I agree with everyone on this post! I normally don’t respond to blogs, but I found EarthFare on a friend’s FB and became a fan.
We care so much about the food we put in our bodies…why? Because we know highly processed foods, HCFC’s, genetically modified ag products, tortured animals in our food chain, pesticides, hormone enhanced meat,and etc., can not be good for us.
I say, we as parents and grandparents, start a movement nationwide to BOYCOTT school lunches. There are creative ways to preparing lunches on a budget, and EarthFare is one of few sites and stores that show you how.
By boycotting school lunches, we can increase the awareness and prick the subconscious of the school administrators (who I highly doubt eat their school’s lunch and /or breakfast.
How does this impact the free-lunch and reduced programs? When schools start throwing away un-eaten and recycled foods (see Teresa’s comment above) and parents become more cognizant of the waste and un-healthy nature of school lunches, the school’s budget will have to be tightened and less money spent on food. In turn, the schools will have to get creative (Think Sales Pitch) and try to win back their students (Former Clients) or hire a new cafeteria team (wow, how about using the local culinary arts school students and offer internships?). The law of Supply and Demand. If there is no need for Un-Healthy School Lunches, then there is no need for the antiquated way our children are fed in school.
I am thankful I moved out of the county where I have live for the last twenty years. My oldest son is now 23 years old and and my youngest is 13 years old. I have not seen any improvement in school lunches in Jefferson County KY the entire time we lived there. Sad fact: Top ten in nation of obese adults and children. Top ten in highest cancer rates.
We need to start caring about what we eat.
Thank you ALL for the great feedback. It’s great to have you weigh in with your opinions!
I just saw a nutritionalist yesterday talking abt hormones in milk, chicken, etc. and how it is causing children as young as 7 to begin puberty!! SEVEN years old!! I have only bought organic meats for a few years now, but I wish I could take back many more knowing what I know now.
I remember the milk man coming to my grandmother’s house. Oh, and the taste of the goodies he left!!
Thanks to my new Earth Fare store I have that hormone free, dairy fresh milk and butter again!! My daughters love it too. They have been on the soy or almond milk so long I wasn’t sure if they’d like it.
I wish more people would become aware of what they are consuming and not just eat healthy because it’s “fashionable” now!!
My girls have always said “the school milk smells funny.” I usually freeze them a water or juice overnight to carry.
I totally agree with everything above. My question is how to get started to make a REAL change in the system? I see that this issue could by “my” thing to tackle in the community I live in. Just advice on how and where to start would be great. EarthFare…are you up for partnering with a local school system to really get this ball rolling?
Hello Earth Fare Fans!
Tomorrow is my oldest daughter’s first day of school, tomorrow my journey will start. Both of my kids, my 5 year old daughter and my 2 year old son, qualify for free lunch at school and daycare. This was my plan two weeks ago, I have been packing their lunch at daycare for the past two months, I work at this daycare so I know what kind of food they get at schools and how they prepare it, I have been in the kitchen helping also. As I said this was two weeks ago before doing my research and finally making the decision one week ago when I research the Earth Fare website. Yesterday I went for the first time to the store at the Raleigh, NC location, I only went to look around and see the prices but to my surprise I ended up getting my weekly groceries there. I cook every day and pack my lunch, my husband’s lunch and my kids’ lunches, so this won’t be different. Sometimes it is hard for me because I want to sleep that extra hour and send them to school to have lunch there but again my mind does not let me. Both of my kids suffer from eczema, this means if it is cold they get rash, if it is hot they get blisters, if they are sweating they also get blisters, if they use a different soap, shampoo, detergent, body lotion they get severe rash, I am tired of this, I am tired of using highly priced prescribed body lotions to stop this, so yesterday I finally started my healthy journey, I have not seen any changes yet but the banana milk shake made with organic milk and organic bananas was the greatest and yummiest in our lives and everybody in my family noticed it. So please let me know I am not alone in this journey and that this will be worth it in the long run!!
Thanks for reading my long story!!