Side Eye for School Lunch?

[niccig]

In my district the kids get free breakfast, lunch and supper. If a kid is late to school they miss the breakfast, all the teachers keep what isn’t eaten or perishable for those kids or have granola bars they buy so the student won’t be hangry all morning.

I don’t like the food options, and my DS never ate school lunch as hated it. But he has food options at home that my students don’t have


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[JustMe]

I went through this when dd was in Kindergarten. Not only was her school free breakfast for all, but they ate breakfast in their classroom. I was horrified to see the colors and ingredients in some of the things they served...and I was pretty low income back then, but still never served the types of cereals and other products served. I fed dd before she went to school in the morning and just hoped she wouldn't be hungry enough to eat too much school breakfast. One day I volunteered in her Kindergarten class and was frustrated again as I watched dd's teacher tell dd that she needed to eat when dd took a bite or two out of whatever it was and left the rest...not knowing dd had already eaten breakfast...anyway, yes, there are some negatives to this, but I agree that it is important that kids have access to food and it is more complicated then numbers reported in terms or determining who may or may not have that access.

[SnuggleBuggles]

There’s an extra layer too- a stupid layer, imo. So, my kids do/did sports and activities over the summer through the school (marching band, soccer…). If those are full day activities, like 1-2 week long daily camps, food service is required to provide breakfast and lunch for all participants. Our school is more than 60% qualified for free/reduced meals so everyone gets the free meals. BUT if kids aren’t participating then the program ends for that activity, leaving the kids that might need it without access to it. As a result , ALL kids are told they need to take a meal even if they don’t want or need it in order to keep the program in place. It’s such a dumb system and results in so much waste!


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[bisous]

Teacher here. The lunches are better than the breakfasts. They are definitely not ideal but the amount of fruits and veggies that get thrown away is truly staggering. Where I live the kids HAVE to take a fruit or veggie, and more than half just toss it. So if the lunch is chicken tenders and a roll and green beans, the green beans end up in the trash. I can safely say I have never seen a kid eat a green bean at school.

At the end of the day the kids who have no (and I mean ZERO) food at home are able to eat. And really that’s all I care about.

This is a really important POV, thanks for sharing! The sugar content, the waste issue, those are things that matter far less than making sure kids are actually eating enough to be free from pain and disease.

[KpbS]

Teacher here. The lunches are better than the breakfasts. They are definitely not ideal but the amount of fruits and veggies that get thrown away is truly staggering. Where I live the kids HAVE to take a fruit or veggie, and more than half just toss it. So if the lunch is chicken tenders and a roll and green beans, the green beans end up in the trash. I can safely say I have never seen a kid eat a green bean at school.

At the end of the day the kids who have no (and I mean ZERO) food at home are able to eat. And really that’s all I care about.

Wow, that is crazy. My kids love green beans and would eat all of their friends' portions, lol.

I hate food waste also. That would drive me crazy.

[mom2binsd]

Agree with PP, the kids who don't have food at home will all qualify for free lunch, the schools have a very good way of determining who is in need, but the kids still swipe their lunch card like the others so nobody knows who pays or who is free.

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