School Lunches? What?

I work in a high school. As I look around me each lunch period, I see hundreds of children buying lunch. Some buy the standard lunch, an entree with fries, a juice and a milk (mostly chocolate). Some buy a salad box and fries, juice and a milk. Some buy a tuna fish salad wrap, a soft (whole wheat)pretzel, juice and a milk, but most buy a couple bags of chips, a gatorade, and later come back and buy an ice cream.

Parents! Do you know that you can send money into school in the form of a check with your child's name marked clearly in the memo section, specify that it can only be used for school lunches or breakfasts?  You don't have to send your children into school with $3.00 each day. With that money they'll buy two bags of chips, a gatorade or powerade, a cookie and give their friend the change. But if you send a check to the school marked with your child's name, and a note to apply it to "x" number of lunches and "y" number of breakfasts, that will be all that they can buy. 

So what are these entrees that the kids buy?  Well, personally, my favorite is the mozzerella dippers!! Man, those things are like gold. They're like the stuffed crust part of the pizza, served with some tomato sauce, and mmmmm, mmmmm! They are so delicious! Kids love them too. By the time the fourth lunch rolls around, there are usually a limited number of mozzerella dippers left, and you can see it on the kids' faces. Soooo sad!

But they can also get teriyaki chicken over rice, a chicken patty, a cheese steak sub, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti (another crowd pleaser), a taco salad 'box', and a few other select meals. Thanksgiving is the most popular of school meals. It is basically Grandma's Thanksgiving Meal, served high school cafeteria style! Turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, a vegetable, corn bread, and juice and a milk! The lines, which are already incredibly long, are tremendous for that meal! Faculty come down to buy lunch, all the kids who normally bring their lunch or buy chips buy that one, and high school principals have been known to get in on the fun!

School lunch though, is a source of tremendous controversey! Is it healthy?  Is it nutritious?  Is it worth the $3.00 (HS) cost?  Well. . . here's my take on school lunches from the point of view of someone who is in the lunchroom every single day of the school year! It's a good thing that nutrients can be 'injected' into foods, because without that pop tarts would not be remotely  nutritious, nor would most food prepared food sold in this country. So, knowing that foods are vitamin enriched, potassium enhanced, and so on, I will say this. Maybe a home-cooked lunch would be more nutritious. But they are not available anymore. Many of our kids in Baltimore County receive federal assistance to help them acquire lunch. So they 'buy' lunch. And the school lunches provided in Baltimore County are much more nutritious than the ones I grew up with. Our cafeteria manager has grapes, strawberries, oranges, and apples available as a juice alternative, all the kids have to do is choose them. She won't take grapes off the menu because the kids buy her entire stock! So, even though grapes make perfect ammunition for that one kid to pelt at that other kid, they are still bought and munched on regularly. The school lunch is a good deal too! You get a milk, a juice or a piece of fruit, an entree, and either an order of fries (or mashed potatoes on Thursdays), or a soft whole wheat pretzel. 

Should we provide healthier lunches?  Certainly. Is it feasible? Well, that's a different story. Everyone points to the budget issues, and I will not be an exception. When the government allows for a larger budget for school lunches, then perhaps the initiatives for greener, locally grown lunches can stand a chance. But you have to provide what the kids will buy. Parents have to provide the healthy stuff at home, so the kids don't turn their noses up at it at school. It's a lifestyle, eating is. And currently, our teenagers, and yes, our elementary school kids too, are fast-food creatures!

Now, let me get to lunch and grab myself some mozzerella dippers before they are all gone!