School Lunch

So it started for me when Rebekah brought home her first school lunch calendar. I didn't glance too much at it--it was one of thirty papers coming home from school that first week. It took a couple weeks of sorting out info with the school district, but soon we discovered she could eat cheaper at school than by bringing lunch from home (which always seemed to be the reason I remember for my having to bring a lunch from home--school lunch was too expensive). So it seemed like a no-brainer. Hot lunch and saving money on groceries, not to mention no reminding and pushing and pulling to get the lunch packed each day and not forgotten. So it was all set.

Then when the next month's calendar came home I started looking at it. I was shocked. Every other meal was some variation of pizza! Well, I think pizza is a great meal to introduce healthy items into lunch, but this wasn't that kind of pizza. Pizza sticks, pizza funables (whatever that means), double stuffed crust cheese pizza, tony's pizza, "the max" cheese pizza wedge. I could not believe it. What made the pit in my stomach worse was realizing most of the other meals were worse than pizza: cheeseburgers, corn dogs, hot dogs, french toast sticks, chicken nuggets. (And Bekah told us today they just replaced the ham and cheese sandwich with a cheese-filled pretzel!) But I didn't do anything about it because I thought maybe this is how all schools are and I never realized it, and this is my first child so maybe I'm overreacting. But then I found out more about the "lunch hour" that disturbed me. It's only 20 minutes long. And that 20 minutes has to include gathering your stuff for recess and carrying it with you to the lunchroom, dropping it at your table, standing in line for school lunch, grabbing your drink napkin and utensils, and then you get to sit down and eat. Unfortunately if you forget to get your drink or utensils, you don't have time to stand back in line to get them, and the lunch supervisors seem to be (from what I hear from other parents as well as Bekah) strict about everyone sitting down and eating only their food and then leaving for recess. Like one day if a boy steals your milk for a joke, you aren't allowed to go up and get another one. (true story)

But I should say some things in defense of the lunch room. We don't really have a cafeteria so they turn the gym into a lunch room. When you really think about stuffing 50-75 6-8 year olds into one gym without any food fights or messing around you need to keep them on task. The best way to avoid mishaps is to keep kids focused and busy. But if the 20 minutes is up I hear you are told to throw your lunch away and leave for recess. So it didn't take too long for Rebekah to start begging to bring lunch from home. This surprised me until I learned the reasons why she wanted to bring lunch. When I did casually ask a teacher about having to "throw your lunch away" I was told that the kids can always move to another table to go finish their lunch. But from a first grader's point of view I can see how that would be embarrassing when all your other friends get to go out and play and you would have to sit alone.

It doesn't seem right to feed children this kind of food at school when so many are trying to preach good eating habits. Especially when some of the preaching is happening in health class right after lunch! We're sending mixed messages to our kids. And it doesn't seem right to make kids have to eat so fast because they are afraid they won't have enough time to eat enough. It creates anxiety around meal times which breeds stomach aches and possibly other health concerns.

I don't know what the answer is and I don't know what I can do to help yet. But I'm learning. I believe in working with people and helping them feel like you care about them and their jobs and how to improve them. There is already so much automatic brick walls between teachers/administrators and parents that even dropping hints causes everyone to be on edge. It's taken me six months to build rapport with Rebekah's teacher to help her realize I really do trust her opinion and that I'm not out to promote my child over everyone else. I'm just trying to understand my role and what I can do to complement her education. So I know these things take time. I bet most school lunch cooks care about eating healthy but are probably trapped because they don't order the food or pay for it. I bet most administrators who order the food are trapped by what companies can offer and the prices of those offerings. And I bet the companies are trapped by a bad economy and needing to push those items that have the highest return so they can stay afloat and because that's what gets ordered the most. So I bet if I spent more time getting to know the situation I would probably end up doing many of the same things that are already being done. That said, I still think I can do something, especially starting with becoming more knowledgeable about school lunch.

I've really felt enlightened by following Mrs. Q's Fed Up With Lunch blog. Just a regular teacher who didn't know what to do but wanted to do something and she now gets 1,000-4,000s hits a day and requests for interviews from major media outlets. From reading her blog, I have learned to be grateful for the school district we are in. We at least still have daily recess. I had felt content for now to just gather information. Until today. I read this post and was floored about this senior's experience with Aramark. And this school district is right next to ours! Now I know I may not see the whole picture of school lunch, but I agree that if it's mandatory to post nutritional information on food sold in stores and at fast food restaurants, I believe it's not too much to ask that school lunch nutritional information be posted as well. How about you? Even though you may not be part of District 300 or even in the state of Illinois, can we still send a message to companies like Aramark that we care about healthy food choices and would really like to see that information? Please consider signing this petition.