Last year (and in previous years) kids had milk, a piece of fruit, a protien (such as eggs or ham) a grain (french toast, english muffin) and a choice of cereal for breakfast. Obviously the food was processed and void of any nutrients but there was a good portion of it. Lunch wasn’t much better. There were veggies daily but they were cooked beyond recognition. There was also mac & cheese, pizza, burgers, hots, soggy fries (which are a veggie) and sometimes the cold sandwich choice. The kids also got milk and juice daily.

This year marks the first year of Aramark’s reign over our children’s food. One of the most popular breakfasts is (hold on to your hats!) a cheese stick, 2 graham cracker squares, and a milk. That shows up 2-3 times a week. Occasionally they will get stale bagels (sometimes donning lovely green fur) as their main food. Once in a while they are lucky enough to get a couple of soggy french toast strips and “syrup” or a cold egg and sausage sandwich. The milk is sour quite often. The juice is frozen solid.

Yay. The District has saved a ton of money on this food service provider change. But at what cost? They have made the horrible food the kids previously ate even worse. It’s disgusting. It smells horrid. The kids even hate the food. It’s unbelievable the comments my students make.

And Aramark? They should be ashamed of themselves for feeding that shit to kids. It’s disgusting. And the cooking process? Ridiculous! The food os cooked once at “Central Kitchen” then shipped out the the elementary schools and cooked again………all in oven-proof plastic. I’d wager my house, life-savings, hell I’d waiver my life on the bet that these kids are getting more chemicals in their breakfasts & lunches than nutrients. And guess what folks…..I’d win.

Here’s one thing that we need to focus on-the parents. Parents have more power than they think. If they protest, and pull their kids from those lunch programs, the companies won’t make any money. Where I am the hot lunch programs are parent run, although they must fall within the BC Healthy Living Guidelines that were mandated by the government.

If parents mobilized against these huge companies who care more about profit then the health of our kids, there would be change.

Thanks for linking up to Food Revolution Fridays! I love your posts-so much information!

But after I watched “Two Angry Moms” the other night, I came home and told my husband how glad I was that her school does not have a cafeteria. Because even though we’d pack her lunch, and even though we’ve tried to raise a thoughtful eater, there would be no guarantees that she wouldn’t somehow get sucked in. And, frankly, I was glad, too, because it would depress me beyond words to have to see that kind of food served to kids every day. As the film made clear, just because we do the right thing at home doesn’t mean we can ignore what’s happening in schools.

Now, that said, I do think laying a good foundation counts for something. A lot, actually. I repeat this over and over, but kids are smart, and if we give them credit and engage them in conversations and decisions about food, they will embrace that. Plus they’ll realize that real food just tastes better. So even if they get sucked into eating crapola (because their friends are or because the packaging is pretty or just because they feel like it), they might not finish it or choose it again. Sounds to me like your daughter is in this camp, so I’m guessing she’ll do just fine.

Of course, now we just have to do something about the system that even allows this to happen.

Thankfully, my nearly 8 year old is so disgusted by both the Jamie Oliver show and a piece on the Dallas news about what kids bring from home that she was making me promise that I’d still make her lunch bentos and not “make her eat that kind of stuff!” Hopefully the little one (he’s almost 5) will feel the same way. We’re not even food purists in the grand scheme of things–the kids enjoy treats and meals out, we have no dye or gluten allergies, and I do reap the benefits of the take-&-go pizza on busy nights. But I just cannot get behind feeding them that kind of junk for 5 meals out of 21 per week.