Comments on: School meals: it’s good to feed kids

By: Sophie

Sophie — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:36:59 +0000

There has certainly been a lot of justifiable blame placed on the quality of meals offered to students in schools. There are, though, a number of providers of healthy school lunches who have grown their business exactly because of the increased public awareness of obesity and malnourishment in children. There is a trend in the private sector to offer healthy, locally sourced, and nutritionally superior lunches to students in both public and private schools. When more parents are involved in deciding on school lunch programs, the best interests of the students are the priority. This is in contrast to the ‘standard’ school lunch service whose days may be numbered as general awareness increases (and governmental budgets decrease).

By: Lisa Knoxville TN

Lisa Knoxville TN — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:33:24 +0000

There just isn’t enough time built into the school day for the kids to eat lunch without gulping it down. Isn’t that unhealthy, too?
It at least set them up for behaviors linked to over eating later on. Also, the school lunches have extra fats and sugars added to meet the required calories for the program, don’t they? My children get sick with heartburn, vomiting, etc. from school provided lunches. We usually don’t eat all that processed stuff at home.

By: Daniel K Ithaca, NY

Daniel K Ithaca, NY — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:59:50 +0000

Breakfast for all is great. Also, how about getting rid of the ‘snack bar’ and ice cream for sale. The school day is pretty short. I’m pretty sure the students will survive without having dessert with their lunch.

It seems then the state depts of education would then need to INVEST in healthy school lunches instead of seeing it as a loss (and schools trying to cover costs through junk sales ).

By: Sheila

Sheila — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:55:13 +0000

It is a national shame to have so many children coming to school hungry, impairing their learning. But, let’s not assume that the children who eat breakfast at home are actually getting any better nutrition other than calories. Many of the “breakfast” foods sold in stores and served in homes in this country are shocking lacking in nutrition and shockingly high in simple sugars and artery-clogging fats. I can see a big potential benefit to feeding all children breakfast at school, especially if it can be done with excellent nutrition and in conjunction with classroom learning about nutrition and making healthy choices. A carton of skim milk, a piece of fresh fruit, and a whole-grain choice could be easy for children to self-serve from a classroom table and easy to clean up, as well as dramatically improve the comfort and learning ability of the children.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:11:40 +0000

Our two-year-old daughter is in a kita (pre-school) in Germany for four hours each day. All the children fed once at 9 am and again at noon. There is a small room next to her classroom set aside for this purpose. The food is healthy and prepared fresh each day. This nourishes the children and this also teaches them about the social aspects of eating with others.

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:41:50 +0000

I’m an elementary teacher teaching in a district where a lot of students are eligible for free meals. While I agree there are many good reasons for serving meals in classrooms I have some reservations.

We have minimal janitorial services now due to budget cutbacks. Cleaning of floors is done once a week. My concerns are who is going to clean up after these meals? I spend an extra hour after school after class parties cleaning my room. Food served daily is going to result in class teaching time shortened due to cleaning up after meals, or not cleaning and the resulting problems.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:31:14 +0000

In theory, I think it’s a great idea to feed all kids breakfast in the classroom every day. In reality, though…I don’t see how it’s going to be easy.

As a teacher, I wonder who is going to prepare, serve, and clean up that many meals. Teachers don’t have time to do everything they need to do on the clock as it is; it’s unreasonable to add yet another task to this schedule.

As a parent, I have real concerns about what my children would actually be served. At home, they eat a healthy breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs, and whole grains. No transfats, HFCS, etc to be seen. I wouldn’t want them to participate in our local school’s breakfast program now – fried, greasy, and highly processed.

Also – if it’s going to be provided to all children, you need to account for the needs of all children which can mean gluten-, peanut-, dairy-free, etc.

I’m not saying it can’t or shouldn’t be done…but it’s going to take a lot of planning!!

By: Linda Daniels

Linda Daniels — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:34:24 +0000

Universal would be great. Another ideal – how about providing high quality REAL foods that are prepared well (and teaching kids about where food comes from, etc). We’re poisoning kids in school now.

You know the old saying – you can pay now or pay later? Pay now for better food that will nourish the next generation or pay later to provide healthcare for all the damage done.

By: Janet Camp

Janet Camp — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:44:30 +0000

I never let my kids eat school lunch because I do not think it is healthy. In the 80′s they went to pizza, “hamburgers”, with only a bit of iceberg lettuce being the “vegetable”. I packed their lunches until they were old enough to earn a bit of money to buy what they wanted, not because I approved of that, but because by then, their peers had way more influence than I did and you have to pick your battles. Luckily, we lived in the city and they usually got fairly decent deli food (sandwiches) for lunch. I didn’t approve of “open-campus”, but the school didn’t ask me, sadly.

I have to confess that as adults, they have told me that they threw away a lot of the apples I put in their lunch bags and traded the milk money for chips. The whole culture around food is badly twisted.

By: Morta Di Fame

Morta Di Fame — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:55:09 +0000

Feeding in the classroom does sound like a great idea. Think about homeroom, you just goof off in there, a perfect time to eat.
The only thing is that school lunch is so gross! I remember just not eating or just eating the bun because the mystery meat was so nasty looking. I just read about a college on the greenhorns blog that started serving all local vegetable and grass fed beef and milk. That is revolutionary and truly a step in the right direction.