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That's exactly what I do. But here's a reality: up to 40% of the kids in every school are getting free or reduced lunch, meaning that some of them get only 2 meals a day and those are at school. Their parents CANNOT pack them a lunch. WHy is it that children who have the least access to resources have to get fed processed, chemically-laden foods? I agree with the PP who suggested a nice turkey sub, an apple, and some peanuts or something. Does the milk HAVE to be "strawberry" (aka petroleum-derived fake strawberry flavor fake nuclear pink coloring)? These additives have been shown to cause ADD symptoms in children. So we pump them full of them at SCHOOL? Seriously?
Exactly. Kids do not choose to have parents that can not or will not feed them properly. If taxpayers have to pay for it, should it not be nutritious? Sadly, the kids, when given a choice, choose the processed food over the fresh food.
This has gone totally way off topic, but it has never, ever been scientifically shown that strawberry milk causes symptoms of ADD. White milk is available, fresh fruit is available, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are available every. single. day. It is my professional belief that school lunches are generally more healthy than 75% of what comes in the school in a lunch box. Most of what you see on the menus is significantly healthier than you think, although there is always room for improvment. When I worked there, we even made brownies (homemade) out of CHICK PEAS (USDA commodity food) and wheat flour!!! The kids didn't even know it! But all you saw on the menu was "brownies" because if a kid sees chick pea brownies on the menu, they're not going to eat it. (And that I know for a FACT because I did the pilot tests on them labelled as brownies and chick pea brownies and personally sat there and did exit surveys and plate waste counts in elementary schools across Wake County. You have't lived until you've spent a few months counting and even weighing uneaten food or half eaten food in a school cafeteria). We also made blueberry crumble out of blueberries and and oats. Again, the kids loved it. Most parents thought it was from a "processed" box mix, but we actually made it on site.
We were sent the blueberries and told we had to implement them, so we made the healthiest thing we could that the kids would actually eat. Believe it or not, a lot of thought, effort, research, taste testing and piloting goes into new menu items.
You can't force a kid to eat anything no matter what you put on the menu. All you can do is offer healthy choices, encourage them to make healthy choices and continue to educate. Even if they can ONLY have white milk, they can and will just throw it in the trash if they don't like it (like I did in school when there was no other choice because I can't stand the taste of white milk). If they need to drink pink milk in order to get 1/3 of their daily calcium that their families are not able to feed them, so be it. Strawberry milk it is and I will always support that for low income families. It may be the ONLY milk they get and I'd rather see them drink pink, blue, yellow or purple milk than no milk at all.
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