Do You Really Know What Your Kids are Eating at School?

From what I can tell, school lunches have changed very little since my days in the lunchroom (this is only based on brief observations). Looking back on my own school lunches, I am frightened by what they were able to pass off as “food”.

My daughter is still in preschool and we always send her lunch with her rather than opting for the hot lunches. Party because we're vegetarians and she has a dairy allergy, but also because the food tends to be pizza, chicken nuggets and other not so healthy options. We even send snacks with her even though they're included because they are also things like goldfish crackers and graham crackers. The school and the teachers seem to think these processed foods full of salt and sugar are healthy. In our house a snack is an apple, carrot sticks, or the occasional whole wheat cracker. I honestly don't trust other people to feed my kid.

They do NOT allow parents in the lunchroom where my 5 year old goes to school in Florida

LIke when I was a kid, my son takes his lunch to school everyday. He is now asking to eat at some on some days (Pizza days). I now get the school lunch calendar to see what is being served everyday so we can make some smart choices.

At my daughter's daycare, they are offering jelly beans during potty training. I feel sort of strange about this but then I try not to get too bent out of shape about it. I believe in everything in moderation and I know that she doesn't get a lot of sugar or junky foods at home.

I don't have a school aged child yet but I remember very vividly what I ate when I was in school...even without an allowance I still managed (somehow) to buy junk...all the more reason for me to consider homeschooling my kid.

I don't have any children yet so I haven't been to a cafeteria during lunch. But, reading Lunch Wars has made me think about what my future children will be exposed to in their lunch rooms. I feel that I should send them to school with a better understanding of food instead of just hoping that they make the right decisions based upon their at home nutrition. Education tends to be a very powerful weapon so I hope teaching children healthy eating habits will help them make the right decision at lunch time.

I don't have kids, and I'm not around kids and their eating choices. Since reading Lunch Wars, though, I've been wondering about analogues among the corporate world's cafeterias and delis, and the food choices grownups have available.

Since nutrition messages are haphazard in school classrooms, as Kalafa notes, what happens when children grow up? And get to choose their own food options?

I try to eat healthily, for the most part...

But I am sure that I, and some of the people I've worked with, have suffered from all kinds of unknown chemicals additives making us hyper or leaching our attention spans. I wonder how many grouchy bosses or snippy coworkers could, like a class of hyperactive kids, be traced to diet?

I don't have children in school, but after reading Lunch Wars, I'm convinced I might have survived longer as a substitute teacher if children had more balanced and healthier food options. All of that caffeine and sugar explains a lot.

I don't have a school aged child but I know I will go have lunch with Henry. I plan to pack his lunch as much as possible, but we will have lots of discussions about eating healthy before he is set free to make his own food choices!

Lunches where I used to teach were OK. Generally nutritious with a protein, two veggies and a fruit, though all canned and relatively flavorless. The breakfast bothered me more. A small pancake with enough syrup for a dozen and a sugarry orange drink (not juice!). Candy was a regular reward in classrooms, mine included.

Though now I homeschool. Our treats are homemad scones with afternoon tea. :)

Lizzy's not of school age yet, but when she is of age, she'll probably attend the private school that's affiliated with our church, if we can afford it anyway. I'm there frequently during lunch dropping off my nephew, and there's good and bad--every child gets fruits and vegetables on their tray no matter what, and they're often the extra fruits and veggies from congregation members' gardens (which I see as being good), but there's also still a lot of grilled-cheese-on-white-bread and that sort of thing (not so good). Yes, it's homemade, which is a step up from a lot of places, but there's still room for improvement! Lunch Wars got me thinking about a school garden and/or salad bar...

My kids generally prefer to bring their own lunches to school, and I have to admit I prefer that, because then I know what they're eating. Our school district has pretty strict rules about no candy and no cake or cupcakes, etc. But, I haven't been through a school lunch line in a long time, so this prompted some great conversation with my boys!

Ugh, I hate when schools offer food as a reward. I'm lucky enough that I haven't seen that as much, but I have already seen Math problems involving MnMs. We discuss healthy food choices at home and although my son has a sweet tooth, I am hoping at one point this will sink in. Until then we do limit the amount of school lunches that he can have. They do have certain days for treats about once a week, and he can have one once a month. They do not offer those treats daily, thankfully.

I tried to think back to when I was in school and if candy or junk food was allowed as a reward, and I cannot think of a time that it was. I remember using lima beans in 1st grade when we were learning to do basic math, not M&M's. I'm surprised to see it going on, especially with all of the food allergies that people have.

There is a teacher in the school my kids attend who has a relative who works for M&M/Mars. Every kid wants her for fourth grade because she has tons of candy she gives out as rewards...I'm not cool with that. I don't mind a very-once-in-a-while treat but when kids expect a candy because they did their work in full and on-time I think it's sending them the wrong message.

I have seen (and yes, eaten) the school lunch. It's OK, not great but not horrid--but so much food gets tossed by the kids there's no hope of a balanced meal. Even the kids who 'bring' instead wind up throwing so much away.

My mother got a reputation at our elementary school after a first year teacher ended up rewarding me one week with 48 donut holes for good behavior. She sent in a "no sugar" note. But that teacher was the exception over the school years.I don't remember any teacher routinely giving out candy. Even on holidays, my teachers trended to "Happy Holidays from Mrs Silver" pencils rather than candy. Treasure boxes had super balls, stickers, pencils, and jump ropes (if you worked hard for it!) and even those rewards were far between. Not multiple times each week.

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I was surprised on school visits on the vending machine policies and contents. School websites give a general description or no description so all I had to ponder was the "Bosco Stick" and the various "nuggets" rather than the actual contents of the machines.

My children are not yet school aged but I definitely worry about this. If kids have tempting options then parents are facing an uphill battle. The garbage needs to be removed.

For me, the interesting part of this discussion is that we seem to have a decent handle on what our kids are being fed but let's be realistic - very few of us know what our kids are ACTUALLY eating. Whether the school lunch or a sack lunch at home, our kids may not be eating everything that's in front of them. Even if the lunch - school or sack - is healthy and well-balanced, that doesn't mean the child is eating every bite of that nutritious meal. I have had lunch with my kiddos at the school - for fun, not because I'm trying to assess the food - and I've seen kids who toss almost an entire tray of food at the end of the lunch period. Milks - white or chocolate - may only get a sip or two before being thrown out. I remind my kids constantly that they have to try everything on their plate, but that doesn't mean they're actually doing it!

I pack my son's lunch everyday, so I'm pretty sure I know what he's eating for lunch. (Unless he's swapping and I'm unaware of it.) But you're right, the rewards in the class are something I haven't thought of, and as a former teacher, something I am guilty of! Although my reward was one m&m... surprising how excited a first grader gets over one m&m. I have been surprised by other parents, though. Birthday treats that are brought to school are out of control with the amount of sugar! And recently, my sons have been playing on a baseball team and the snacks they have gotten are crazy! Last saturday morning at 9:15am they walked away with a brown bag containing a fruit roll up, a snack pack of cookies, and a bottle of koolaid! At 9:15am! I remember as a kid getting orange slices and a small juice box. I hope the team isn't too disappointed when it's my turn to bring snack!

sometime last year carol (@nycitymama) mentioned that there was some sort of classroom-based lunch sharing of each of the students' packed lunch at her child's school. i wonder if any of you have heard/know about this and what your thoughts are. i think i like the idea of food sharing - i certainly don't mind sharing my daughter's food with her classmates; however, i'm not quite sure if i'd like the food choices that other's have made being shared with her... for instance, i make a point for her lunches to be organic & hormone free... but worry that she'd get shared food that wasn't...

I don't have kids in school yet, but I can say that even in my church's Sunday School, we give candy and donuts to kids while we have them. And that's only in an hour and a half! There is definitely a balance that needs to be struck, but I think we are seriously falling short of "balance" in our Sunday School. Lesson learned and I will most certainly be paying attention to what my future kids will have access to in their schools!

This book makes me want to go to my daughter's school and have lunch with her, even though I make her lunch every morning. I want to see what they are serving!

I haven't visited the cafeteria, but I think I'm going to try soon. I feel somewhat segregated from this because I send a lunch EVERY day, but I know that's how Amy felt, too, until her daughter was in middle school and she filmed her. There is candy as a reward in my daughter's school. Today, for instance, her class was well behaved in art class, so they got to each choose two candies as treats. She read the ingredients on them and said she couldn't eat any (the HFCS and dairy) and so got an army man on a parachute instead - which ALL the other kids were really jealous of and wish they had instead. We DO have a healthy eating policy in our school to the point where any snack has to be a fresh fruit or vegetable in its skin or cheese sticks, so this was a surprise to me. And yes, I will be bringing it up. Plus, I think the army man was cheaper than 2 pieces of candy anyway ;)

We are also lucky that we are not in schools where they require that you dump your leftovers at the end of lunch, so the wee ones bring home what wasn't eaten. I encourage them to do so - that way I know what not to send them in the future and ensure they have food they want to eat in the right quantities. It isn't about monitoring what they eat, so the wee ones are good with it and feel comfortable bringing home what they don't eat.

Oh am I going to have a lot to say on these topics....