Wednesday, March 31, 2010

What's for School Lunch?

Anybody else school lunch-crazed thanks to Jamie Oliver's new show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution"? I'm lovin' it! (No, the irony that "I'm lovin' it!" is McD's slogan is not lost on me. ;)) We watched it on the big screen at my BFF's place last Friday and by the end of the second hour, all four of us parents were hooked. Have you signed Jamie's petition to improve school food, include cooking skills in elementary education programs, and increase funding for healh and food education?

My BFF is sending her son to a public school this fall that uses Aramark foods, so I've been doing some research and I'm not loving what I'm hearing about Aramark...like not disclosing ingredients...?!?! :o Spawn has to avoid red and yellow dye due to his ADHD, but companies like Aramark are not required by the USDA to disclose the entire contents due to the need to keep proprietary recipes a secret because some other company might steal them?!?! Honestly, who's going to steal a recipe for a food item sold in a school cafeteria? :p Bizarre reasoning if you ask me. :p And parents should KNOW what their kids are eating at school!!!


I find it fascinating what kids all around the world are eating for lunch. The USA school lunches tend to be the saddest, grossest, most nutritionally deficient, and wasteful and I wonder why when so many schools are funded by gov't programs to provide balanced meals. Why can't those meals be delicious as well as healthy? Who decided pizza constitutes two different servings of grains? And what child needs two servings of grains in one meal? We know too many carbs aren't good for small children. Those guidelines were set in 1973, for goodness sake! It's time for the lunch program to catch up! 

"Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet." Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery. Forget what you packed or planned for lunch today. Tomorrow is a fresh start. What can you do to make your child's school lunch better? Do you pack, buy, or eat at home? How about your own lunch at work or home? Do you pick and graze or plan lunch daily? What works for you and how can you improve on it?

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom

3 comments:

Kelly said...

Aramark is the company that provides the cafeteria food at Disney. When I was working, I out and out refused to purchase food from them....I knew some of the workers and the horror stories they would tell me about the food was vomit worthy.

And I looooove Jamie Oliver's new show! My Mom DVR's it for me. Even though we homeschool, it's very eye opening and inspirational!

Our lunches are not note-worthy or interesting...but I think they are pretty healthy. Even when Alex was in public school, he took his lunch to school every single day..so I knew what was going into his body.

Libbytown said...

It's no accident that school lunches are so crappy, it's all part of the system of dumbing everyone down. Shameful.

We have Aramark at work, I don't touch it! And our lunchladies are unhappy and rude!

Melissa said...

I've been lunchbox obsessed long before Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, AND, I've been crushing on Jaime Oliver long before I was lunchbox obsessed - so my short answer is YES, I've watched it and have loved it. :)

School lunches are not only an assortment of ick and yuck, but the excess trash and waste accumulated from all that "food" makes me sick. :(

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