School Lunch – 1988 and Today
When I started my senior year of high school, I decided that I would buy school lunch every day so that I could prepare myself for the institutional food that was coming my way when I left for college the next year. Somehow, I convinced my friends to join me in this masochistic plan. And somehow, I remembered that we actually took a picture of our last school lunch ever. There is proof – the back of this photo is stamped June 1988 (remember when we used to get film developed and the date was stamped on the back!) So here we were, big hair, big sweatshirts, big smiles, all enjoying our cardboard pizza. Yum!
My son started first grade last week which means that he can now choose to eat school lunch if he wants to. Amazingly, he has not asked to do so. I am overjoyed. In perusing the school lunch menu, I see only one lunch that might possibly live up to my standards for a healthy lunch: On September 29th, they are serving a grilled cheese sandwich, yogurt cup, and baby carrots with dip. Not bad. But there literally is no other day in September that I would want my son to buy lunch. Not one. Here are some of the options:
Stuffed Crust Pizza Dippers
Chicken Nuggets with Baked Tostito Scoops and Nacho Cheese
Macaroni & Cheese
French Toast Sticks, Hash Brown Patty, Sausage (yes, for lunch!)
Cheeseburger on a bun with potato puffs
Pizza Party (of course – I wonder if it is the same cardboard pizza?)
So there’s our school lunch menu for first graders. And we wonder why according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 16 percent of all children in the country are overweight or obese? Now, my school offers an online program where I can see what my child chose to eat for lunch. Cool, but look at the less-than-stellar choices!
Rhode Island (the state in which I was born and raised and in which I feel I have dual-citizenship at times!) has implemented strict new guidelines for school lunches.
Last Sunday’s Providence Journal featured a great article outlining the new program. Among the changes: more fruits and veggies, beans or legumes at least once a week, no white bread or flour, only whole wheat. The new regulations also restrict sodium – not easy to do. I’d love to hear from my Rhode Island readers. How are your kids liking the new program?
Well, thankfully, my son is happy to bring his Transformers lunchbox filled with healthy things – for now. And since I know the NuVal scores on lots of foods, I can be sure to keep packing it well. Long term, NuVal hopes to be the universal standard nutritional scoring system in the country. And we hope to provide nutritional guidance wherever food is eaten – even in the school cafeteria. NuVal is being recognized by journalists, bloggers, doctors and dietitians for its objectivity and independence and its ease of use. It is an amazing system.
To all my readers? Do your kids buy lunch at school? What do you do to make sure they are making nutritious choices?
Posted by: Melissa 11 comments
Posted in: School Lunch
