Check out my progress on Lunch Line
Yesterday in my lifecycle nutrition class, we began our discussion of the National School Lunch Program by watching a documentary called Lunch Line. The film reveals the many flaws of our current school lunch program, among them its reliance on commodity items and its overemphasis on kcalories versus nutrition. For anyone interested in food (as I expect most of you are!), it’s worth taking the 65 minutes to watch it—we should all be aware of the dietary offerings being presented to our nation’s children.
Anyway, watching this documentary got me to reminiscing on my own lunch line days. I’ve had a pretty varied background when it comes to school dining:
1) For kindergarten through second grade, I attended a school that allowed students to go home for lunch. I was fortunate enough to have Mumsy waiting for me at home, so I walked home everyday with my older sister, Our lunchtime favorites were grilled cheese and ABCs-123s. Back then I thought Chef Boyardee was a culinary master.
2) For third through 6th grade, I attended a school at which you could either bring your lunch or buy whatever was being served in the cafeteria that day. It was there that I had my first taste of fried chicken, among other things. My favorite day was Friday: my standard meal was a slice of that icky rectangular cheese pizza, a popsicle, and a carton of chocolate milk.
3) My middle school and high school years were spent at a private school where lunch cost was included in tuition, meaning I could choose whatever I wanted and eat as much of it as I wanted. The food served at Altamont was pretty nutritious, in that I developed a taste for collard greens and black-eyed peas by dining there for 6 years. There was also a vegetarian option available daily—I used to race to get in line when black bean burgers were on the menu!
What do you remember about school lunches growing up? Any dishes that were particularly icky or amazing?
Now if only schools would start serving scrambled tofu…
For lunch, I improvised a white bean dip with basil, red wine vinegar, and a touch of Dijon mustard. I also had a Waldorf Salad.
I wasn’t much in the mood for cooking tonight, so I just had a baked potato with some serious cheese action on top.
Alright, I am off to catch up on Glee—I still haven’t seen this week’s episode! Happy weekend to all:)
Filed under: Meals
Caroline Yoder, dietitian-to-be and all-around foodie.
My staple lunch in high school was chick fil a, doritos, a cookie, and a soda.Lunch of champions.
I am SUCH an advocate on altering our school food establishments. I love everything Jamie Oliver stands for, except for the fact that he’s being extremely public about it.. I don’t think all the attention is necessarily good for our kid’s mindsets– The other day a girl I babysit for told me that her friend refuses to eat school lunches because they’re too fattening… She’s in second grade and really doesn’t need to be exposed to such negative judgment around food.. Nonetheless, something NEEDS to be done to our food establishments!
I remember being excited for Pizza day in grade school, but in high school i was in your same situation. I started out eating lots of cheese burgers, but then switched to the salad and sandwich bar.
I love all the emphasis being placed on bettering school lunches these days!
Mystery meat. That is one thing I never, ever liked. Even as a kid.
ugh, school lunch! perhaps i’m biased by working in a field with many pediatric type 2 diabetics and in a hotbed of pediatric obesity, but honestly, i think essentially ALL crappy junk food should be out of the schools, STAT. if parents want their children to eat unhealthy things, they should pack it themselves.
when i was growing up, usually i packed lunch. smushed pb&J on whole wheat plus a juice box was the norm. when i got to high school, my eating habits worsened and a fat free yogurt and pretzels (no fat, very little protein, alll carbs . . and why was i starving by 2pm?) was the norm.
I never purchased lunch at school growing up; it was expensive and not really nutritious at all. I think the economic state of school districts has a lot to do with the quality of food offered; it’s really sad when one district can do local and organic food and another one across town can only afford processed lunch meats and packaged treats.
I remember my school lunches being pretty bad (at least in terms of nutrition). I actually liked the pizza. But from what I remember about the veggies, there weren’t that many of them and they were mushy and not good at all! When I have kids, I plan on having them take their lunch. Much better for them.
In high school, you could bring your own food or buy in the cafeteria. The cafeteria food was your typical mystery substances, mass-produced, and looked terrible and tasted even worse, so I always brough my lunch. BUT they had a frozen yogurt stand, so my best friend and I would split a chocolate vanilla twist in a cup with rainbow sprinkles a few days each week. Ice cream in the middle of the day- can’t beat it!
I want that waldorf salad! Looks so yummy. Much better than the original version. The movie sounds really interesting. I loved watching Jamie Oliver’s show about what kids eat and their knowledge of food. Scary!
I took my lunch more then I bought it during 1-6th grade. I do remember liking the pizza even with the veggies hiding underneath. The food served was not very healthy. The meals I brought were not healthy either but I did not care. Middle/high school lunch was usually fries/chips and pop. Sometimes I would get a bagel. Totally different from what I eat now.
Oh man. I’d throw a party if they started serving scrambled tofu in schools.
Ugh, the rectangular pizza! It didn’t even taste like real food. I took my lunch for most of elementary and middle school, until I could buy whatever I wanted. Then, my lunches consisted of pizza, chips and chocolate milk. Horrible!