Do you know what is served, and more importantly, what is eaten for school lunch? Are fruit and vegetables part of every meal? I suspect with the cost of food these days that the quality is going down to try to maintain budgets. Do your kids buy or bring?

cj/

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My kids bring lunches that we pack at home every day except one day a week when the big treat is pizza from the local pizza place.

Just our choice.

As for myself, I honestly don't know what the schools are serving. At my son's school this year, there isn't a menu provided but he bags his lunch daily.

It did seem over the past years as if the menus in our public schools have improved somewhat, and that salad bar and deli sandwiches were offered daily. Alex always claimed to take one or two servings of fruit. Still, tacos, pizza, meatball subs, smiley fries, etc were served more frequently then I would like.

cj/

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I allow my kids to 'buy" lunch 2 times a week. They get to chose which day by looking at the food calendar. My kids have only bought 2 times this year. They would rather have home lunches because school lunches are "yucky". They buy french bread boats and chicken fried steak. They have a fruit with the meal (applesauce or diced fruit but it's in HEAVY syrup...stupid). Sometimes there is a veggie but I seriously doubt it has any nutritional value. My 9 and 7year olds would LOVE a salad bar but the high schools don't even have that.

Our food calendar has a star next to the "better choice" option. I am STILL wondering how mini pancakes with syrup and sausage is the "better" choice over a hoagie sandwich (they do not have mayo on the sandwich). Lots of kids bring home lunch at our school.

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The lunches at DD's school are awful. She has to take hers to school every day but pizza day and she has been saying even that is getting really bad too. btw her lunches are still only $1.75.

UGH, don't even get me started! I work at an elem school and although we no longer have "desserts", the rest is total crap. It's starch, starch and more starch. All the entrees are starchy and the only veggie you seem to see is corn. Bleah

Especially at breakfast!! Even though the cereal is supposed to be lower sugar, the chocolate & strawberry milk, even though 1% milk is LOADED with sugar! So a typical breakfast is cereal, some type of flavored milk, and two,...count 'em two white flour biscuits and some type of "fruit" which like SexySmurf said is in a sugared syrup. It's totally disgusting.

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Our cafeteria serves terrific food -- $1.65 for kids and $2.15 for adults. The kids go through the food line and can pick up milk and then choose from the entree of the day that is listed on the menu, a ham/cheese sub, or cheese pizza. They then go through the salad bar line which always has a green leafy salad with baby spinach leaves, red cabbage, and romaine lettuce. Further down, there are carrot/celery sticks, salad dressings, salsa, and other fresh fruits and veggies that are in season. This past week, there was fresh pineapple. Once a month, they serve birthday cake to everyone for all of those children who had a birthday that month but no other desserts are served (except occasionally for the teachers only).

It sounds like schools vary a lot from what I'm reading in this thread.

Our schools do try very hard to at provide fresh veggies and fruit. The main item on the lunch menu has two options, a vegan and a meat option. Sometimes they are both vegan. With my children raised to love fruits and veggies, they lean toward more of this and less of the other. Both schools (elementary and middle) have a decent salad bar and my kids try to load their plates with this mostly.

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I have been a campus aide at our school for the last month or so. Parents would not believe what their children take for lunch. At our school there are always 2 different entrees, some kind of salad (they look really good) yogurt, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There is always a fresh whole fruit usually bananas or apples, canned fruit, veggies, salad, and once a week cookies and sometimes rasins and always milk. I think at least half the kids come out with just the entree and milk. The rest may take 1 or 2 other things. I wish the kindergarten and first graders could share a lunch because so much of it gets thrown away. Parents would die if they saw what they were spending $2.25 on each day(3 or 4 chicken nuggets and a milk). Then there are the parents that pack lunch for their children. These kid throw away so many unopened items in their lunch. As they are throwing someing unopened away I tell them they should just put it back in their lunch box and take it home. They will say they don't like it and I say take it home because if you throw it away your mom will think you like it and will continue to send it. Make sure and tell your kids that if they can't eat something or don't like it that it is ok to bring it back home.

I forgot....the other thing is that the lunches the kids bring is not great either. I see a lot of sandwiches getting tossed and all that is eaten is the junk...The chips, the cookies...the candy...the soda! If most of you could see what the kids actually eat out of what you pack for them, you would be shocked. I wish I could make them take home what they don't eat and show parents, but they know better. They throw out the sandwich, and the fruit, and only eat the sweets.

Going back to the breakfast thing. I have this one kid I call "Donuts" because every morning at breakfast, he has a sleeve of powdered or chocolate donuts, and a Capri Sun....EVERY MORNING!! And for lunch, he usually has a lunchable with a soda and more sugary snacks. He doesn't even eat the lunch meat in the lunchable, just the snacks, and throws the rest away.

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My kids are in 2 different schools this year and I must say the difference in the lunches served is HUGE. My son is in public school this year and it is just crap. The only thing I have seen that can be considered nutritious is the sub sandwich. His lunches are CHEAP $2 and this is an actual lunch for this month Mozzarella cheese sticks with marinara and a potato triangle plus salad bar. Daughters school has a great variety but is $2.75(elementary charter school). She buys lunch 1 or 2 times a month. She is my healthy non junk food kid so she loves to take her lunch. She likes to gross out all the kids in her class with her healthy veggies and fruits(cracks me up and she is only 7).

BTW..in case anyone is interested, here are the menus & prices for our school district. I did forget to add that they do offer salad every day at lunch, but trust me the food sounds SO much better than what they are really giving the kids.

New Meal Prices

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OK, I just asked DS2 whether he's eating his lunch or throwing parts of it out. He said to "Tell those ladies if their kids are throwing away their sandwiches that their moms aren't making great sandwiches like my mom".

I told him that if he doesn't liek something and is throwing it away to let me know so that we can tweak his lunch contents. He gets a sandwich (insists on lettuce and tomato on it - picky!), a piece of fruit, chips or crackers, and a treat (granola or cereal bar, cookies, pudding cup) every day. He's 14 and plays football and needs a lot at this point in his life.

cj/

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My son buys. Every morning they announce on the radio the school lunch menu. Today it was chicken and noodles...breakfast was scrambled eggs and hot apples with cinnamon.

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My son takes his lunch more than he buys it now. This is the first year it has been like that.

Last week's cafeteria lunches were:

Super Nachos, Icee Juicie, Refried Beans, Milk
Uncrustable Sandwich, Potato chips, Carroteenies, Red Apple, Milk
Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, Broccoli Spears, Choice of fruit, Milk
Soft Taco, Lettuce & cheese, choice of fruit, cookie, milk
Ghostly grilled cheese, spooky tomato soup, goblin crackers, frankenstein fruit, monster milk (halloween)

I am the first to admit my son is picky. He had cafeteria lunch on Monday and Tuesday. He won't eat spaghetti with sauce, he won't eat soft taco's from the cafeteria, and he does not like tomato soup.

A typical "homemade" lunch for him at school is :

Thermos with Spaghetti O's, Soup, or Ravioli (Or a Bagel Sandwich - a bagel with cream cheese & lunchmeat)
Fruit cup (applesauce, or mandarin oranges, or something like that)
Single size bag of chips or pretzels
Capri Sun
(if he has a bagel sandwich I normally toss in a cheese stick because he already has the cold pack in for his sandwich)
Fruit Roll up or Snack Pack pudding

I try to give him plenty to eat, as he is not a huge breakfast eater. I always end up tossing some of the spaghetti 0's or ravioli when he brings his lunch bag home, but at least I know he got enough food.

He complains that the school lunches don't give the kids enough to eat, plus he is not too fond of the selection and items they offer.

I am more than happy to make his lunch. I am sure it has less calories and fat than the school lunches, plus I know he will eat them.

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just curious - for those of you with teens - do you pack their lunches, or do they?
my teens both buy - it's super cheap here at $1.25 per day, but the serving size reflects that.

dd7 and I go over the school lunch choices when the menu is sent out & she chooses the days she wants to buy -last month, it was a total of 4 times (cost for her is .95 per day to buy). Usually, she prefers to carry her lunch to school. I do pack hers, and try very hard to pack healthy choices. If my boys wanted to take lunch, I'd expect them to pack it themselves.

Today's menu in our school district is cheeseburger, fries, baked beans and fruit. Kids have the option of choosing a turkey, tuna or cold cut sub, or a pb&j if they don't like the menu selection. 1% milk in chocolate or strawberry, 2% white milk to drink.

I make (made) my boys lunch daily. I work outside the home, and feel this is one thing that I can cover, whereas there are other things that I cannot necessarily be there or do.....so it's a good tradeoff for me. My guys associate their mom lunch with love.

cj/

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cj (and I'm dead serious) you're such a good mom! can you send some of that positive energy my way?

I have such a hard time functioning in the morning, and for some reason I *hate* packing lunches.

FWIW, tho, ds16 will be working the polls tomorrow, and I'll be packing him up a bunch of stuff to feed him during his very long (he has to be there at 6, polls close at 8) day.

My kids bring their lunch almost daily. The school lunches are terrible and over priced for what they're serving. Kids lunches are $2.65 or $2.85...I honestly cannot remember. They've gone up in price every year since my oldest started school. Adult lunches are $5.50!! They usually have a veggie but most kids do NOT get it. The have green beans about 4 times a month, corn about 6 times a month, cooked carrots about 2 X a month, salad at least once a week(but can I just say that soggy salad is undesirable). They have some type of potato almost every day! Mashed potatoes, french fries, smilies, potato wedges(I feel like the scene in Forrest Gump where they list all the things you can do with shrimp and then say "that's about all you can do with shrimp" LOL). The last Friday of every month they have breakfast for lunch which normally inclues a cheese omelet, choice of chicken or steak biscuit, smilies or very greasy hash browns, cooked apples and sometimes gravy. My kids will usually buy that and sometimes on field trips when they have choice of PBJ or ham and cheese sandwich. I think since school started in the middle of August, my kids have bought 3 or 4 times each.
Their school has a fruit every day and usually 2 fruit choices. The majority of the time, they have fruit cups filled with sugar, of course and occasionally they have fresh sliced apples, oranges or fresh grapes. Most kids choose the syrupy fruit though.

Well, that's the beauty of things....that each and every person can maximize their strengths (I am a morning person) and minmize their weaknesses (I am a morning person ) and it all works out! (Gosh, I'm so Pollyanna today )

Are you packing DS an entire cooler for 14 hours?? My son would need one.

cj/

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Our elementary school lunches are disgusting! They are brought in by truck late morning and kept in a warmer until lunch time(which can be as late as 1 p.m.). Once lunch time starts the trays are stacked on a trolley type thing and if you're last in line, your lunch is cold!!!
The menu is pretty nasty too. They actually count 2 lousy bread sticks with either fake nacho cheese sauce or pizza sauce as an entree. When they have those, they offer peas and syrupy peaches or pears with them.
Thankfully my kids prefer to pack their lunches. They didn't even like the pizza(which is saying something).
I always pack either a sandwich or a thermos with soup,spaghettios, or left overs, some kind of fresh fruit(grapes,apple slices with peanut butter to dip them in), crackers or a small bag of chips and a "treat". The treat depends on what they take as their "entree". If it's something hearty then we pack pudding or some cookies. If it's a sandwich then we usually put a yogurt tube or a cup of yogurt as the treat. They do get juice boxes but I also try to keep the single serve milks on hand so they can switch it up a bit.

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My kids' previous school had a "sharing table" for kids to put unopened items that they didn't want on. This way, the kids who were still hungry or forgot their lunch could take stuff. I used to send all the bags of chips that my kids didn't eat from the huge variety packs of Frito Lay. It really was a big hit for the kids and cut down on the waste.

My friend in Berkeley, CA organized a group to take the left over school lunches to a local park for the homeless. Otherwise, they were thrown away!

What gets me is the rush for hot lunch kids. By the time they got thru the lunch line and sat down to eat, they were only sitting for a few minutes before the lunch lady starts to clear tables. With home lunch, they immediately sit and eat. Also, our school gives whole oranges for the kids. 90% get thrown away. I don't know any kid who will sit there and peel an orange - especially when rushed to begin with.

My kids take home lunch everyday and the kids who eat school lunch beg them for parts! It annoys the heck out of my youngest dd. Now she leaves stuff in her lunch box so noone sees. Then she eats it when noones looking. LOL

our school does not allow ANY sharing of lunches. I'm not sure why...allergies mayve? In any case, my son tried to give someone half of his sandwich (he ate a huge bkfst and didn't want it all) and he was busted by the lunch lady. NO SHARING. Yikes

My son told me the same thing about hot lunches. He doesn't have time to eat it once he sits down. He says he gets maybe 5 minutes tops before they have to leave for recess. They are allowed to stay and eat BUT it will be with kids from a younger grade and so usually, he just wants recess. That's another reason I am glad my kids prefer home lunch...they EAT it

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Our school lunches are disgusting!! Because 85% of our district is on free/reduced lunch, the food has to be cheap. The kids have to take everything included in the lunch (main entree, milk, two sides) even if they aren't going to eat it. They are not allowed to share or give away anything due to allergies. My biggest pet peeve is the fruit is always whole - never cut up. Most kids don't eat whole fruit! Heck, this is elementary school where most of the kids have a tooth or two missing/loose and eating whole fruit is difficult! And like so many other posters said, they don't have much time to eat once they go through the line and sit down. It pains me to see the mounds of untouched whole fruit that is thrown away every day. There is some stupid government rule that we are not allowed to put out a box to collect the uneaten/untouched fruit and take it to a food bank or shelter. It must go to the child and be thrown away if they don't want it.

Both my kids have always taken their lunches. Because I have always worked, I usually pre-pack what I can the evening before so in the morning I only have to make the sandwhich and/or cut up the apple. DH has always been great about getting up early and helping with lunches since it is so much cheaper and healthier. DH and I also take our lunches everyday.

I pack DS lunch 95% of the time because he is so picky. He usually gets a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread, a juice box, a milk item (milk bottle, yogurt, or pudding), and one or two other items like raisins, nuts, fruit snack, crackers, etc. I have eaten lunch at school several times (they give it to us free sometimes when we volunteer and they have extra) and it is pretty good. They put the main dish on the plate and then the kids go to a food bar where the kids can choose most of the sides that they want. The other day they had chicken nuggets (with choice of sauces). On the food bar they had mashed potatoes and gravy and different kinds of fresh fruit (peaches, apples, and grapes). So they kids can pick and choose what they want (and how much) so there is less waste. When they are done with lunch there is a tray on one of the tables where they can put unopened milk and other students can take it if they wish. The oldest kids (5th graders) eat last so if there is extra food they are allowed seconds.

The lunch program at our school is really nice. (This is at the high school) The kids have an ala carte line which includes 2 different types of salads per day, different yogurts, 2 types of sandwiches, all kinds of fruit and beverages, and 2 different sides, several types of snacks, plus the daily scheduled lunch. Here's a sample menu for this week:

Chicken Patty
On Wheat Bun
Steamed
Green Beans
Fruit Cocktail Cup
Choice of Milk

Breaded Chicken
Patty on Bun
Steamed Mixed
Vegetables
Diced Peaches
Choice of Milk

Flame Broiled Burger
or Cheeseburger /Bun
Baked Potato Smiles
Steamed Corn
Diced Pears
Choice of Milk

Sloppy Joe
On Wheat bun
Spiral Seasoned Fries
Chilled Applesauce
Peach turnover
Choice of Milk

French toast Sticks
Maple Syrup
Sausage Links
Cinnamon Applesauce
Orange Juice
Choice of Milk


The other thing is, we are registered through "My School Account" and we as parents are able to monitor what they are eating on a daily basis. We can even put money on their account through it.

Now, with that said, I have 2 teenage boys that eat me out of house and home. I was giving them each $5.00 a day for lunch and they'd never come home with change. So, the above program was implemented and still, they were spending their daily allotment. My boys finally told me that they'd much rather me pack something a few days a week, since they were still hungry with what they were buying and knew if I'd made something, they wouldn't be. So, lately they've been buying once a week and packing the rest.

The overcrowding at the high school is pretty bad, so they have fast food carts set up around the school.....pizza, taco bell, chik fil a. Thankfully my kids don't get that stuff, since I prepay for their lunches, and those carts don't take the prepay system, cash only, and they are more expensive.

It's rare for them to bring their lunch. I know they are ravenous when they get home.

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The school where I work is the same way. One reason is because of allergies but another is because sometimes they share and don't get a healthy, balanced lunch. A couple of examples: one student a couple of years ago drank 6 cartons of milk that the other kids shared with him. He then proceeded to throw up milk all over the cafeteria. Even though the milk itself wasn't unhealthy, too much of a good thing can be. I've also seen kids ask half a dozen other kids at their table for their cookies, fruit snacks or whatever junk/dessert item was on the menu that day. If the kids gave it to them, they would go back to class on nothing but a stomach full of junk. If they can only eat their own food, then they can't fill up on everyone else's junk food and they will eat more of the healthy items on their tray. Now, most kids aren't doing these things, but to be fair, we can't allow some kids to share and not others so the rule is no sharing, even if you're not going to eat it yourself. It seems wasteful, I know, but I can also guarantee that most of our parents would be ticked if we had to call them to come pick up their kid after he puked from eating 17 boxes of raisins. (and yes, I personally confiscated 17 boxes of raisins from a student who got them from all of the other kids in his class who weren't going to eat them!)

I hate packing the lunches too, but it doesn't make sense for the kids to be buying every day. I am not a morning person either, so I pack at night. Right now there are two lunch boxes sitting on the counter-each has a drink, bag of chips, and a fruit snack in it. There is a sandwich and a bag of grapes for each boy in the fridge. Tomorrow, I will just throw those in, and they will be good to go. I used to refrigerate the drinks, but decided that it was one less thing to do in the a.m. if I just put them in at night-the kids really don't care.

My 15 yr. old son needs to eat a lot-he is a baseball player, and if he isn't eating constantly, he is losing weight. (I really think this kid was switched at birth!). There is not enough food for him w/ the regular school lunch ($2.xx daily), and I won't give him the $4.xx daily to buy the combo meal. We got a big giant container of a chocolate protein/calorie builder shake. He drinks one of these every a.m., with whatever breakfast he is having. We also went to Sam's club together. We bought Gatorades, cheese crackers, beef jerky, Sunchips, granola bars, etc-and this stash is OFF LIMITS to the two younger boys (he actually keeps this stuff in his walk-in closet). He will make himself a sandwich in the a.m., and pull from his stash. It still works out a lot cheaper.

Not sharing is a good idea, though I keep thinking about the book about the abused boy, The boy called it?? how that was his only meal most of the time was what he scrounged up at school :-(

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A little off topic, but if your kids pay electronically, you might be able to track their expenses here:
https://www.mylunchmoney.com/index.aspx

Our school participates in this program.

I am not a big fan of our school lunch program, it seems to be pasta 3 out of 4 days and then pizza on Fridays. If there are some good choices my daughter will eat at school, but DS has always taken lunch. And the breakfast program, all SUGAR!

I think one problem we have is that our lunches are made at the high school and brought in, maybe that limits what they can make and keep hot and safe, I don't know.

And definiatly no sharing, I don't think i would want my kids eating anything from someone elses lunch, unless I know the parent.

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Omg, I feel horrible for the kids at the school were I work and which is also my school district where my elder 2 finished and my youngest is a junior in High School. All I can say sadly is Yuck Yuck all the way. We pay really high taxes here on Long Island and we have a very very small school district. However the lunches and the rules are horrible. For instances, they serve turkey hot dogs, they look white not pink. The hamburgers look like they were cooked days ago, the french fires are mushy and cold , when they kids get their food. The taco's omg the meat smells. I could go on and on, the only things I feel look ok are french toast sticks and chicken nuggets. But now here comes the problem I do not know it this is how any other school lunch rules apply, but say for instance they get pizza which is every friday, along with that they always get a push up frozen ice, now to me this is a treat or snack, however my school counts this as a fruit.... What its not it reads right on the package not made from 100 percent fruit its either blue or red, but thats not the point. If a child decides they want the ice , and they do not drink milk , they cannot get apple juice or orange juice to drink, because my school says they are getting 2 fruits... I am a Kindergarten paraprofessional, so I take my class to lunch everyday. While we do have some nice lunch aids, and they will give me the drink, others refuse. SO what are we suppossed to do if a child is eating they need to drink. This is a big issue in our school and the head lady in the kitchen , she is not the nicest lady, you would think the money is coming out of her pocket. So many parents have complained. My kids never ever ate any of the lunches.Btw each day in addition to the lunch being served they offer you a bagel , either buttered or cream cheese, or yogurt, no more peanut butter because of all the allergeries.. Finally our hot so called lunch is 1.60 per day.Which they the children have to have 3 items on their trays... Peace.. Catherine