For all you moms who have kids. had kids or who are having kids.

OKay so here's the question. For all ya'll who wonder about school lunch.

I took a look at my sons lunch menu and since having surgery and really looking at everything I kind of get appalled at the school lunch menu.

Pizza every friday. (so i never ever want to order pizza out (not that i eat it but the family does enjoy it on occasion) because he has it once a week already.

pizza sticks with marinara sauce 2x a month (in addition to the pizza friday)

Today was chicken patty on a bun with macaroni and veg. so your having processed meat, with carb. with carb???? figure that one out for me.

they have chicken nuggets (more processed meat) a couple of times a month. in addition to the chicken patty a couple of times a month.

they have kfc like chicken with mashed and veg. (not so bad on this one at least it's not processed poultry but i wonder what they consider veg. that day hope it's not startchy corn...) they have that a couple times a month.

they have pasta with either a marinara sauce or butter sauce. garlic bread and veg. (since when does a kid need a butter sauce????????)

okay all that being said. they do have sandwhich choices, but really what's the point of sending the kid with money for school lunch if they are just gonna have a sandwhich anyway???

and that being said they do have a salad option (which i believe i saw that it was a chef salad. and with that they get soup and fruit) Finally something healthy. However I wonder how many kids who's mom tells them to get the salad actually get it or tell a fib and get pizza or chicken nuggets for the umpteenth time that month?

I made a deal with my son. Every other week instead of pizza he must get the salad. (and i told him i can check with the cafateria ladies and they will tell me what he got ,, kid doesn't no any better he's in the first grade lol) and last week he did that. and i told him how proud i was that he made such a healthy choice for him self. and he beamed from ear to ear.

today was chicken patty on a roll with mashed and veg. so i told him he had a couple options. he said mommy i'll have the white milk instead of choclate milk and it will be healthier lunch i said yeah that's right that would make it healthier. or you could eat half the bun with it... or. you could have salad soup and fruit. with choclate milk. (tell the kid choclate milk you know what he's having lol)

I'm not about depriving the kid from being a kid at all. But don't you think it's important to learn about nutrition from a young age? I mean they tell them eat healthy and then serve that kind of menu? they had this big thing on heart healthy last year. and where serving processed meats that week????

oh and here's another kicker. on a day when there once again wasn't the best top hot choice. the sandwhich choice. PB and fluff. are you kidding me? why in the world would you want to hop a kid up on fluff?

okay enough venting let me know what ya think.
katie

Alot of the school lunches are not good for them .. they never were when we were in school either .. but my sons(high school) and daughters(middle school) offer a full salad bar everyday. My children don't have weight or food issues(thank god) So I really don't have to worry about them making a bad choice, But I always tell them to eat from the salad bar or get something from the deli line instead of the chicken patty or pizza line. They do have more to choose from than we did .. it was one or the other for us. The schools have come along way,  they also did away with chips and soda a couple years ago. My daughter actually asked if she could bring a lunch this year and thats fine with me, her lunch now costs $2.25 a day.  

My son just started kindergarten this year. I was shocked at the menu selections. My feelings were just as you spelled out in your post. My son has the potential to have weight issues if I.m not careful. Of course he wants to buy the lunch at school. This is quite a novalty and he feels so independent doing this. I have sent him in his healthy snack but the fruit is coming home again. I'm hoping the novalty will wear off and he will want me to pack his lunch for him. This day and age you would think they could come up with a healthier menu. But they are not actually cooking,all they seem to be doing is heating up prepared food.

my son only had one full day of school in kindergarten so i only had to deal with lunches one day. But snack was a different story. i started thinking. he gets up at eight. eats a very nutrious breakfast. if he had snack a little earlier then i would have been fine with it. but he had snack at 11:30. and would come hoome and eat lunch at 12? a half an hour a apart? i don't think so. So i stoped packing him a food lunch and only packed him a drin****pt got a couple of "charges" home from zach "charging" an apple for snack. i payed them but i wrote a note to the teacher saying i purposly didn't pack him a snack and not to allow him to "charge" a snack. I got a note home saying " the children have snack everyday at school. at 11.30. pleas pack a snack for zach acordingly. I wrote back again. explaining that my child did not need a snack at 11:30 a half hour before lunch. she wrote back saying she was afraid of zach feeling left. out. to which i had to tell her most kids talk during snack and usually don't finish all of their snack. zachary always had a drink to have so he was "taking part" he just wasn't eating". I was so pissy because i was like who is she to question me? He always had a snack on his full day as there lunch time was further from snack! and he did need a snack.

This year he  first grade and always has full days, so he always has snack. and we have gone over the menu and if there is something i find unhealthy he has the salad option that comes with soup fruit and either deli meat on top with cheese (chef salad) or tuna on the side. and he really enjoys this option pretty much once a week.

an idea . fruit isn't the only option. or maybe something different like sf jello with fruit in it. or if you include him on making the choice over what he wants to bring for snack. which is what i do with zach i give him two options, then i give him the options of what i would like to see him have for lunch. if he chooses the less of the good options for lunch he has white milk. if he chooses the healthy one he gets to have the choco milk :D. (gotta conceede somewhere lol)

i think a lot of it is about helping them make decissions and learn what is and what isn't healthy.