School lunches | Imamother

amother

Jetblack

Mon, May 06 2024, 10:17 am

Our school lunches are actually pretty good and reasonably nutritious, so I'm fine with them. And they eat my home cooked meals just fine. I guess they're not that picky. They do have a strong preference for fresh, hot food, which is why I have them on hot lunch. They don't like packed lunches.

dinglehopper

Mon, May 06 2024, 2:18 pm

It's five meals out of 21. Make the rest of the meals at home healthy ones, and it becomes much less of a big deal.

amother

Peach

Mon, May 06 2024, 3:07 pm

It isnt the food.
When you institutionalize childcare, make everyone "the same", prioritize "fitting in" and have a less individualized approach to children-- this is what happens.
When you allow the government to give freebies - TANSTAAFL.

Instead teach your kids to make their own choices and live a life aligned with your values (and fitting in shouldnt be a high value as we know how bad that can be). Do what works for you. Focus on your own kids and your own family.

amother

PlumPink

Mon, May 06 2024, 3:22 pm

dinglehopper wrote:

It's five meals out of 21. Make the rest of the meals at home healthy ones, and it becomes much less of a big deal.

Some posters mentioned mesivta boys.
There it's 16 meals out of 21.

amother

Cornsilk

Mon, May 06 2024, 3:29 pm

dinglehopper wrote:

It's five meals out of 21. Make the rest of the meals at home healthy ones, and it becomes much less of a big deal.

It can be hard to get kids to eat healthy foods once they're used to ultra processed fast foods.

amother

Hosta

Mon, May 06 2024, 3:32 pm

amother Cornsilk wrote:

What's stopping me is that my kids want the greasy, cheesy, sugary, carby takeout the schools serve.
I'm not a fan of bread. I hate centering meals around it. But it's a huge improvement over ultra processed junk parading as food.
Not sure why kids skipped lunch in your day. We all ate our sandwiches.
There are so many other things I'd gladly send with them as well, but sadly they wont get eaten.

Maybe it’s a chinuch issue and not the schools fault. It’s up to you to set the boundaries in your home. My kids want to never shower and never go to sleep. Guess what they don’t have that option.

amother

Hosta

Mon, May 06 2024, 3:33 pm

amother Cornsilk wrote:

It can be hard to get kids to eat healthy foods once they're used to ultra processed fast foods.

It’s really not. Kids know there things they do at home and things they do in school. And really feed them what you want they can decide to eat it or not. If you don’t give into their demands they won’t have a choice. I never understood these posts where people want the whole world to function a certain way because they can’t say no to their kids.

Comptroller

Mon, May 06 2024, 3:37 pm

amother Hosta wrote:

Cost wise no one is serving grilled chicken and vegetables. Realistically what do you think they can serve when they cook for so many people?

Yes, you can do much better than that, but the will has to be there.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, May 06 2024, 4:33 pm

The factors that go into a school lunch menu are:
1. Cost -- the reimbursement rate from the government is laughable, especially when dealing with kosher food
2. Labor -- the harder it is to make, the more staff you need, which means your cost sky rockets
3. Meet government standards -- for some reason, hot dog on a whole wheat bun is perfectly fine because it's whole wheat. Pareve cholent has whole grain and protein. But white rice which has less of a bug issue and probably would be eaten by more kids for not much of a loss in nutritional benefit is a no go.
4. Be palatable to the average kid -- there went half the lunch ideas that maybe could have worked (falafel was great but free kids were choosing it in our school)

amother

Violet

Mon, May 06 2024, 4:51 pm

In Brooklyn my children's school made quality homemade lunches every day with main side veggie and fruit. All that went out the door around covid. No more cook. Now they're serving heat and serve frozen items that are fried and not filling with cut up kirbies. My dd is gaining weight and always starving when she gets home.

amother

Mistyrose

Mon, May 06 2024, 5:15 pm

amother Cornsilk wrote:

Yup. It makes me so sad on so many levels. And when we moved from Brooklyn to lakewood and kids started getting snacks as well... and when inspectors come and they give danishes and box drinks for breakfast... I wish I had more control over what my kids eat. They're all great eaters until they start school and then they only want pizza, ziti and chicken nuggets.

We live in Lakewood and my kids aren’t crazy about the school lunches. They much prefer healthy home cooked food like a good salad or soup. I pay for the lunches because it’s practical and convenient.