[Okiegirlfriend]

Our private school fired the government a few years ago. The rules were so bad about what we served, mostly carbohydrates, that the kids throw the food away. Now we charge a little more for the meals and we can serve nutritious meals without worrying about in what state the oranges were grown. The kids are given a choice between 2% milk and fat free chocolate milk. They get fruit three times a week and dessert twice a week. It works for us!

[_redbird_]

A bit off topic, but by law the Food Service at my work is required to feed the inmates serving time in Oklahoma state prisons a certain number of calories consisting of a nutritious value, that I would think our schools would be doing the same thing for children.

And let's face it, kids will always throw food away when their mother is not around. e.g. Most kids will throw green beans away. I know I did!

[soonerguy]

Originally Posted by karibear

Whatever happened to the commodity foods the feds stockpiled some years ago? I know there used to be a lot, and I do mean a LOT, of it. Plus there were tons of MREs that were given to a lot of secial service agencies for redistribution after the Gulf War. Seems like that kind of thing would be useful now.

I don't know what happened to the commodity stuff but I think that is what they used when I was growing up. I remember delicious school lunches.

When teachers, kids, and parents complain to the lunch ladies about the food quality, they say "we have to use what we're given" and even they agree that is not much.

[karibear]

Originally Posted by _redbird_

A bit off topic, but by law the Food Service at my work is required to feed the inmates serving time in Oklahoma state prisons a certain number of calories consisting of a nutritious value, that I would think our schools would be doing the same thing for children.

And let's face it, kids will always throw food away when their mother is not around. e.g. Most kids will throw green beans away. I know I did!

Mostly I didn't get school lunches until high school, I took mine or went to a friend's house that adjoined the school yard. But when I did, none of the kids ever threw anything away - they traded for what they did like. There were always some who liked what others didn't. The food was okay for the most part, and the district dietitian lived next to my grandmother. When I'd go over to play with his kids and watch TV, they always had boxes of sugar corn pops to snack on. Blech.

[colleeng47]

Originally Posted by Okiegirlfriend

Our private school fired the government a few years ago. The rules were so bad about what we served, mostly carbohydrates, that the kids throw the food away. Now we charge a little more for the meals and we can serve nutritious meals without worrying about in what state the oranges were grown. The kids are given a choice between 2% milk and fat free chocolate milk. They get fruit three times a week and dessert twice a week. It works for us!

And now the government wants to make rules regarding our health care. Won't that be wonderful!

To SoonerGuy: You suppose wrongly. I am not only familiar with "suburbia", as I did my teaching internship in a Title I inner city school in Trenton, NJ. And yes, in that school most of the kids depended on the cafeteria for their primary food. But, I realized that not all schools are like that, so I still dispute your statement that MOST kids (nationwide) depend on the school for the majority of their meals.

I also found out that in a lot of those schools, the time spend in class was the most nurturing, peaceful and happy part of a lot of the students' day. I mentored a boy (who has since OD'd) of 13, who in the 5th grade, walked over 8 miles a day to school to get away from his violent stepfather. He walked because he was homeless and didn't want to go to the school the homeless van would drive him to. There are MANY problems for children in these schools that No Child Left Behind does not take into consideration when spouting off dialog about every student being able to comprehend and test well on upper level math and science.

[riverbottomkidok]

Our school receives commodities, but what most people don't realize is we are given a choice as to what we would like to receive each month. We order according to our menu......and it works out great. We feed our kids the required nutritional values plus. We have fruits and vegetables at all times. We can't seem to keep fruit at all. A full salad bar is available to all.

We try to feed them half and half. Half home-made and half precooked and frozen. If my kid won't eat it, we don't cook it. I am very fortunate to work in a very small district with somewhat of freedom to feed these kids what they want. Out of 500+ kids we feed at least 450 everyday. We also retain a 75%+ poverty level. These children need us.....I know for a fact that if a majority of our elementary kids don't eat at school they may not eat at all.

We even go as far as to let the kids help decide what they would like to have on the menu. We listen and we provide.

There are a lot of good points made here, but, don't let schools fool you. Time management is a lot of the problems with our cafeteria as well as the attitude "I'm here for the paycheck and the school breaks and vacations".

Our mentality is "we love our kids as we do our own" and we only hire workers that love kids too.

We aren't teachers but we "teach" our kids in subtle ways about health and nutrition. We take pride in everything we do.

[mkfarnam]

Originally Posted by soonerguy

Maybe not most of the students you see, but most of the students I see and deal with rely on food provided by the school. Breakfast and lunch alone equal 10 meals out of 21, not to mention the food that goes home on the weekends. This is common in OKC and similar districts. Title I schools with 90%-100% free or reduced lunch populations. Thousands of kids on OKC for sure, and any other city you pick off the map. I agree it probably wouldn't be as obvious in suburbia.

Although one very affluent suburban high school I once visited had done away with the cafeteria. In its place were a Taco Bell, a Wendy's, and a couple other fast food outlets.

Addressing the issues raised by the OP, the bottom line is that many hundreds of thousands of kids in this country rely largely on a source of food that is more unhealthy than it is healthy. Can this lead to obesity and other health problems? I think so.

Sounds like you depend on school food yourself, along with your kids just so you don't have to feed them at home.

When I went to school we carried our own lunch. If you don't like what the school serves, there's no law against putting together a lunch for them .