I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Off-Topic => Off-Topic: Talk about anything you want. => Topic started by: angieskidney on September 21, 2006, 05:17:11 AM
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I was reading this and became interested in the foods kids eat today so since there are a lot of teachers here (I know of at least 3 here) I decided to share this with you guys!
Food served in schools sucks (http://www.foodrevolution.org/askjohn/43.htm)
Dear John,
Is anybody doing anything to change the food in schools? It’s terrible. Last week I took my 8-year-old to a school picnic. It was a lovely day, but they served bologna and cheese sandwiches on white bread, with mayonnaise. Plus cookies and ice cream. And, of course, enormous plastic jugs of Coke. In class, pupils earn credits for good behavior, which they can use to get candy and Cokes. Help!
Frieda
Dear Frieda,
My, oh my. That is a shame. Maybe you and your child could wear one of the T-shirts to school that says “If you love me, don’t feed me junk food.” I wish these parents and teachers and administrators could understand what they are doing to the precious children in their care.
Fortunately, there are some people trying to change things. The chairperson of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Tom Harkin, has proposed that the government subsidize the cost of giving away fruit and vegetables in school cafeterias as an alternative to candy and snacks that are sold in vending machines.
Los Angeles Unified School District, which has 748,000 students on its 677 campuses, prohibits carbonated drink sales at elementary schools. And recently, the board of the nation’s second-largest school district extended the ban, effective January, 2004, to also include the district’s approximately 200 middle and high schools. The Board voted unanimously for this step, despite the vehement opposition of the National Soft Drink Association.
Up until now, most Los Angeles Unified Schools have relied on soda sales to fund student activities such as sports and field trips. Sodas sold in vending machines and student stores have generated an annual average profit of $39,000 per high school.
Wouldn’t it make far more sense to fund our schools adequately in the first place, so they don’t have to sell soft drinks and other junk food to cover their costs?
Change is painfully slow, but it is starting. In 2001, Berkeley, California, schools went all organic. In 2002, the Oakland school district banned vending machines, candy, soda pop and other junk food from its campuses. In the fall of 2002, Palo Alto (California) Unified School District went all organic.
I know it’s frustrating seeing the junk kids all-too-often eat in schools. But here’s a recent report about how things can indeed change, written by Jon Rappaport, titled “A Miracle In Wisconsin”…
In Appleton, Wisconsin, a revolution has occurred. It’s taken place in the Central Alternative High School. The kids now behave. The hallways aren’t frantic. Even the teachers are happy.
The school used to be out of control. Kids packed weapons. Discipline problems swamped the principal’s office. But not since 1997.
What happened? Did they line every inch of space with cops? Did they spray valium gas in the classrooms? Did they install metal detectors in the bathrooms? Did they build holding cells in the gym?
Afraid not. In 1997, a private group called Natural Ovens began installing a healthy lunch program. Huh?
Fast-food burgers, fries, and burritos gave way to fresh salad and whole grain bread. Fresh fruits were added to the menu. Good drinking water arrived. Vending machines were removed.
As reported in a newsletter called Pure Facts, “Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching.”
Principal LuAnn Coenen, who files annual reports with the state of Wisconsin, has turned in some staggering figures since 1997. Drop-outs? Students expelled? Students discovered to be using drugs? Carrying weapons? Committing suicide? Every category has come up ZERO. Every year.
Mary Bruyette, a teacher, states, “I don’t have to deal with daily discipline issues…I don’t have disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior I experienced before we started the food program.”
One student asserted, “Now that I can concentrate I think it’s easier to get along with people…” What a concept---eating healthier food increases concentration.
Principal Coenen sums it up: “I can’t buy the argument that it’s too costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I found that one cost will reduce another. I don’t have the vandalism. I don’t have the litter. I don’t have the need for high security.”
At a nearby middle school, the new food program is catching on. A teacher there, Dennis Abram, reports, “I’ve taught here almost 30 years. I see the kids this year as calmer, easier to talk to. They just seem more rational. I had thought about retiring this year and basically I’ve decided to teach another year---I’m having too much fun!”
Pure Facts, the newsletter that first ran this story, is published by the non-profit Feingold Association. In my book Reclaiming Our Health, I write extensively about the Feingold Association, and the dramatic decrease in delinquency, ADD, ADHD, and Ritalin use that occurs when kids are shifted to a healthier diet. You can get a copy through this website.
Thanks for caring,
And hang in there….
John
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I completely agree that the food they serve has been crap. There are movements underway though, like the article said, and I'm really glad about that. I just hope the plans are being implemented at the poorer and inner-city schools too.
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Budgets have a lot to do with school lunches, I've always disliked the school lunch menu. (The only thing I liked was the pizza.)
Kids like the junk food though, just like we did when we were kids and didn't know any better.If you send them to school with a better lunch in a bag your options are not much better and besides the kids throw away what they don't want. They ought to take all the food the kids throw away and mix it all up and use it for prison food. One way to save a few dollars. :P
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(The only thing I liked was the pizza.)
Did you have the rectangle slices of pizza? That was the best, and I've never seen it outside of a school cafeteria, and even they don't have it often. :'(
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(The only thing I liked was the pizza.)
Did you have the rectangle slices of pizza? That was the best, and I've never seen it outside of a school cafeteria, and even they don't have it often. :'(
It's called a Sicilian pizza. Thicker than regular pizza pies.
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Did you have the rectangle slices of pizza? That was the best, and I've never seen it outside of a school cafeteria, and even they don't have it often. :'(
There is a drive-in movie theater that me and my wife go to sometimes that actually serves the classic rectangle school lunch pizzas. Every time we go there I have to get one.
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(The only thing I liked was the pizza.)
Did you have the rectangle slices of pizza? That was the best, and I've never seen it outside of a school cafeteria, and even they don't have it often. :'(
Yes and on my birthday my parents let me buy a whole tray of them for me and who ever I allowed to eat with me. Funny I never had many friends until it was my birthday.
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My little one is in 3rd grade, and when she buys lunch, she complains about the "salad bar" and milk.
I think things are changing, but it's a slow process.
Now, my high schooler, that's a different story, junk food machines and all kinds of crap at her school.
My take on it is parents have to take a bigger role in their children's well being. We can't depend on the government to do that for us. ;D
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The salad bar in our staff room sucks at our school. Not enough stuff to make a really tasty salad and no romaine lettuce. And it is expensive. I am going to start cutting up and bringing my own veggies for lunch.
I see the kids meals at our school and just shiver over them. Not many veggies, few fruits that the kids actually eat and lots of carbs. Then they go buy a Gatorade with sugar and salts that their bodies do not need in them. Plus red dye in it. I read the nutrient listing out loud to my kids in class. They did not care. Gonna drink it anyway. Sheez! No wonder they are on the ceiling after they eat lunch.
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Don't take prepackaged spinach. ;)
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Don't take prepackaged spinach. ;)
Oh ya I have been hearing all over about that! Very bad!!
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I read in the paper 2 days ago that out of the 230 some odd cases that have been reported so far that 15% of those people have developed some degree of kidney failure as a result of the bacteria.
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an oldie but goodie
my school had this big deal about eating healthier, most our students get free lunch and breakfast
they changed the pizza choice from pizza and salad to pizza and French fries
the students would place their fries on their pepperoni pizza like another topping
pretty yucky looking
a common breakfast--- hash browns, biscuit and cream gravy and chocolate milk
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My fondest memories of school lunches are:
1) hominy ever other day (I don't think I ever saw anyone actually eat it)
2) milk in the little waxed cartons (we later used the empty cartons to wax the slides on the playground)
3) trading food you didn't like to someone in exchange for something they didn't like (and you did)
4) lunchroom tickets that cost $1.00 per week (yes, they were called lunchrooms back then)
5) everyone got the same identical lunch (no choices, but you could get an extra milk for a nickel)
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Things changed really quick at my kids highschool 4 years ago.
Since budget cuts...kentucky fried chicken, Pizza Hut, Subway and a spanish food one.. pull up their trailers (company trailers)
and they sell lunches at the sam price for the kids..
No Junk machines or soda machines
ONLY juice machines.
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Believe it or not, I used to like the boiled hot dogs.
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I hate the fact that Gatorade and fake fruit water is sold in our school's soda machines. Gatorade? To a twelve year old? Who is sitting in a classroom all day long? Come on!
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I'm happy to say that my son's school serves healthier lunches than when I was a kid. They offer a lot more fruit and veggies for lunch, rather than the tater tots and french fries. Granted, he's in 3rd grade, but it's still pretty good. He doesn't get the school lunch all the time, but he does like the choice.
I have seen what some parents give their kids for lunch and it's a shame. Way too much junk food and soda (and gatorade too, I agree w/KitKat, come on!). He has desperately tried to get me to buy those Lunchables/Snackables in the grocery store. No way! Too much garbage and way too expensive. He is quite happy with taking a PB&J to school, along with goldfish and a fruit, water and a juice box. His junkie snack each day is 4 Chips Ahoy cookies.
A lot of parents really need to step up and kill all the junk food in the house. I'm fine with them having some of it, you can't deny them all the time or they will want it even more. But, stop buying so much of it. There are WAY too many overweight kids out there with early on-set health issues they shouldn't be having.
Ok, I'll get off my soap box for now. :shy;
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In high school I would get a brownie and chocolate milk for our morning break, which was called "nutrition." :rofl;
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I think the juice machines are as bad as soda, most kids do not need all the extra calories you get in juice, my girls pediatrician says NO to all juice,says it is just empty calories. :(
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I think the juice machines are as bad as soda, most kids do not need all the extra calories you get in juice, my girls pediatrician says NO to all juice,says it is just empty calories. :(
Oh I agree - I only buy the 100% juice boxes - like Minute Maid. His morning juice (he drinks Plum juice for the digestive help) and afternoon juice box is it for the day. He can either have water or milk after that.
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we have a junior / high school combined and when our cokes machines were taken out our principal was angry
he would encourage us to take up drinks as we saw students with them and then students would buy more cokes and that was more money for our school
our coke machines were within easy reach when students changed classes (no taking up drinks at lunch time)
then we got rid of cokes and now we have all those drinks that are just as sugary
one high school teacher was knocked out cold when a student threw a plastic coke bottle
when I was in school we had coke machines even in the lunch room when I was in elementary -- 1st grade--sometimes I had only cokes for lunch
we did not stay with our class, we could sit anywhere
but we also had recess two times a day and PE classes and the country kids played on the school grounds until late buses came
:o
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I think the juice machines are as bad as soda, most kids do not need all the extra calories you get in juice, my girls pediatrician says NO to all juice,says it is just empty calories. :(
My nutritionist said that it takes 5 oranges to make a cup of orange juice. She said no one is going eat that many oranges, and the benefit is in the whole fruit, not just the juice, which is very high in sugar.
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The juices at the school are nutritional.. no gator or power ade.. no speed drinks..
There is OJ.. and juices like pear, apricot, etc.. all natural.. and not great big huge ones either..
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I've often wondered if baby food may be the reason behind the reluctance of kids to eat wholesome food. And before you think I'm barking mad (I probably am anyway) just consider this.
The type of baby food you get in the little jars are usually mixed flavours (well they are in the UK) for example Chicken Carrott and Leek to name but one. The point is that in the early part of it's life a baby is fed and therfore knows only mixed flavours.
Eventually when presented with adult food of a single flavour for example a spoonful of cabbage or green beans the child must wonder what the hell he or she is being given to eat and therfore naturally rejects it. Makes you wonder.
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One memory I have about school lunches still amuses me to this day. We used to sit at long tables in the school canteen and we were strictly not allowed to talk during the meal. Well my pal who sat next to me whispered something funny in my ear and we both set off with the giggles.
We were trying so hard not to brake out into hysterical laughter we were at bursting point. We were eating rice pudding at the time and suddenly because we were trying so hard not to laugh my mouthfull of rice pudding started coming out of my NOSE!
When my pal saw this he couldn't hold on any longer and just blurted his mouthful all over the table and a kid sitting opposite to him. We were both marched out of the canteen taken to a classroom and caned by the teacher, but as soon as he'd left, in spite of our stinging hands we both absolutely cracked up laughing. I still see this guy to this day and we still crack up when we talk about it.
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My high school, when I was there (1991-1995) served healthy food. We even had a salad bar, which was very popular. We did have a soda machine out in the main lobby, but it was locked during the day and only turned off after the buses left. Only kids who stayed after school for sports or clubs had access. It was a small school, so obviously it wasn't a money maker. There were maybe, at the most, 3 overweight kids in the school. Parents are not the only ones who contribute to the problem!