Did you know that public school cafeterias don’t even have real kitchens anymore?
School cafeteria workers only have access to giant microwaves that quickly heat up the overly processed, factory fat laden, genetically modifed, agricultural dumping ground food they serve.
Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, says that bureaucratic rules require that schools buy food only from the cheapest bidder.
The national school lunch program is nothing more than a dumping ground for agricultural commodities that subsidy supported industrialized farms dispose of on the government.
The sad truth is that only the cheapest, most nutritionless, most highly processed garbage food makes the cut for the school lunch program.
Until changes are made – and there are those valiantly trying to stop this scandal, you MUST pack your child’s lunch yourself. Even if all you can afford in your homepacked lunch is a humble nut butter sandwich with a banana or an apple, it is light years ahead of what your child would be served at school.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
#ewww RT @realfoodmedia: School Lunches Are Microwaved FrankenFood http://t.co/s9RB4T32
And thats… reason 12,473 that my mother homeschooled my siblings and I!
During the summer the school here puts on a lunch in the park for everybody (it’s a government program, yes) and I met a friend there once…my kids wouldn’t eat the mystery meat sandwich, they looked at it almost terrified and only eat the veggies. I was pretty suprised how nasty the food was. My oldest is 4 so he’s not in school yet…but the nasty food was part of my decision to homeschool. and then i was suprised to see that some officials from the schools here were invited to the White House to be honored for their healthy school lunches!
During the summer the school here puts on a lunch in the park for everybody (it’s a government program, yes) and I met a friend there once…my kids wouldn’t eat the mystery meat sandwich, they looked at it almost terrified and only eat the veggies. I was pretty suprised how nasty the food was. My oldest is 4 so he’s not in school yet…but the nasty food was part of my decision to homeschool. and then i was suprised to see that some officials from the schools here were invited to the White House to be honored for their healthy school lunches!
School Lunches Are Microwaved FrankenFood – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/5sGVzrD5
I’m a nutritionist and I was looking to get a job in the local area and ironically most places like school cafeterias and even nursing homes won’t hire me because they consider me to be over-qualified. They only want someone with a high school diploma. Heaven forbid someone come in who will actually help them serve healthy food to their clients.
Thankfully I homeschool so I am able to leisurely cook meals for my whole family, from scratch, each meal. If I did send my kids to school I would pack their lunch. I do not expect a restaurant, school cafeteria or even a meal at someone’s house to be healthy, organic and of the best quality. Only I can love my family enough to spend the extra money and feed them like that!
just make your kid’s lunch yourself and you never have to worry!
our daughter’s public school here in NYC has hired an organization called Wellness in the Schools to revamp their school lunch program. they have brought in a chef to teach the workers how to actually cook and put together what they consider to be healthy food. they serve dishes like rachel ray’s yum-o mac and cheese, sandwich alternative of PB&J, arroz con pollo and vegetarian chili. fridays are always pizza and the salad bar is a disgrace. i held a workshop for the parents called packed lunches for picky eaters to try and kick start their energy for making nutrient dense packed lunches and it went really well. the interesting thing was that the parent coordinator for wellness in the schools showed up to make sure that i wasn’t undermining her intiative to get all the kids on board with this new healthful program. she took me aside and asked if she could pitch her program before my presentation and then asked if i would endorse the program to the parents at the meeting. i told her that i could not do that for a few reasons….1. no one feeds my kids but me. i truly believe that it is each parents individual right and privilege to nourish our own children 2. i thought the menu was ridiculous and it perpetuated the dumbed down modern idea that kid’s needed “kid food” and all that crap that you see on children’s menus in restaurants – kids will only eat pizza, chicken and pasta….and ultimately 3. the ingredients they were using were still coming from the dept. of education which is basically a mafia contract you can’t get out of so, their healthful, freshly prepared food was a joke. i told her that it was like putting lipstick on a pig (no offense to pigs). if the ingredients are crap then the food prepared is still, you guessed it crap! until cleaner ingredients are being sourced, cooking does not matter at all. make your child’s lunch at home and send them off each day with a box or a bog full of love from your home.
I’m at my daughter’s school a lot and they have a real kitchen.