School Kids Skipping Healthy Lunches Mandated by Michelle Obama, Dept. of Agriculture

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by Delahanty

The point is, the kids are trashing this food (waste, I guess, is okay) because they don't like it. Also, it's not high enough in carbs for most active teens--just ask those involved in sports, many of whom are back to brown-bagging it. At least they're doing that where the food Nazis aren't searching their lunches looking for contraband such as that dreaded candy bar or peanut butter sandwich.

Maybe schools should serve what I was served weekly not even a decade ago: country fried steak with mashed potatoes, white rice, a biscuit, and white gravy. There MUST have been a vegetable option (now I'm thinking it was peas because peas and beets are the only vegetables I still won't eat!) but I was not required to put that on my plate. This was at one of the best public schools in Georgia in one of the top 3 most wealthy counties in the state (and top 20-50 in the country). We had that for lunch every single Monday for 4 years. Your other option was a burger and fries or chicken fingers and fries or pizza and, you guessed it, fries. I remember a lot of those frozen fruit juices too serving as our fruit. I graduated from high school in 2006 and the situation was the same when my brother graduated in 2008.

At one point, you could buy a side of fries in addition to your school or homemade lunch. There were no lack of kids who ate the above meal (easily 2000 calories on a plate) and also proceeded to eat a boat of fries drenched in spicy salt. When the school system decided it was egregiously unhealthy and pulled the fries off the menu, not a single parent complained. Imagine that!

Today, there are no longer such carb heavy meals but the vegetable options are still lacking. From the look of the menu, students choose 4 sides (after a choice of 5: pizza, burgers, chicken sandwiches, vegetarian aka garden salad most days, or a "special" which seems to be a lot of fajitas or pasta) including "leaf lettuce and tomato" (aka one piece of iceberg lettuce and a slice of tomato meant to go on a sandwich), celery, or baby carrots. Most days do not have any hot vegetable option and if there are any, it is typically steamed veggies. Out of 8 choices, there are 4 "fruits" (fruit juice and apples/bananas available every day, canned or frozen fruit the rest of the days with an occasional fruit dessert), 2 carbs, and only 2 veggies - including the lettuce and tomato. Not particularly healthy when a plate should be 3/4 vegetables. And also sufficiently calorie dense that an athlete would be fine, provided he or she brought a snack for before practice.