Perhaps this may be a tad early but schools will be back in session next month. Something going on right now will certainly have an impact on your local school’s lunch room.
This article at The Associated Press confirms something I have suspected…the skyrocketing gas and food prices will be hard on public schools and school lunches.
Even a one-penny increase in the cost of milk can cost the nation’s schools another $54 million, said Pavel N. Matustik, chief food services administrator of the Santa Clarita Valley School in California.
According to the article it costs well over $3 (let’s say $3.50) for a school lunch. The state reimburses the school only $2.57 per lunch. AND remember that $3.50 isn’t just food. That $3.50 has to cover the wages for the lunchroom staff, and operating the lunchroom. When everything is considered this leaves the school with about $1.00 per child for actual food according to Ann Cooper of Lunch Lessons. And that was when food prices were lower. Now that figure may be closer to .85 cents or lower.
How much quality are they getting for .85 to $1? Especially when the operating costs of most lunchrooms leave little room for them to do anything other than microwave convenience foods. This is very scary IMO.
Now might be a good time to start thinking about homemade lunches. Here are some articles and links that may help:
I think about this a lot. I am not happy that there is only milk offered. Milk or pop machines. I am contemplating having my kids do only sack lunches this next school year. They won’t be too happy about it. I have two in school and one that I am homeschooling. I don’t like that the meals are not rounded and are mostly carbohydrates.
I am not sure where I read this, but school lunch programs get the bottom of the barrel foods. It has the least quality because as Tiffany said, they have to keep it cheap.
I am home schooling this year. The awful school lunches was one of the reasons why I made this decision. Even though I would send lunch with my daughter, she would eat school lunch and bring home her homemade lunch. It became a peer thing and a big battle for us. I am glad I won’t have to deal with that problem anymore.
When I was growing up, my mom always packed my lunch. I’m glad she did too! I plan to do the same with my children. Cafeteria foods are not very nutritious in my opinion.
My kids refused to eat school lunches, would rather go hungry – the lunches were so disgusting! I’m past that phase in my life but I really enjoyed packing their lunches, and they were always the envy of their friends. :-) Well worth the few minutes of work it took.
My solution to healthy lunch packing is to have 3-4 lunches rotated on a weekly basis- they include a whole grain (brown rice, quinoa, brown rice noodles or corn pasta) a protein (sliced turkey, chicken sausages, or tofu) a vegetable (cucumber, tomatoes, broccoli or green beans) and a high quality fat product( nuts or goat cheese) I put them in little containers and my daughter loves them!
My daughter last year was very frustrated with having to bring lunch rather than eat school lunches. All her friends get school lunch, after all!
But I’d rather have control over how healthy the foods she eats are. Maybe she’ll trade sometimes with a friend as children will do, but at least I know she’s getting the option to eat well.
My kids used to eat school lunches until I realized that the food was making my son sick. He would come home almost every day with dia****h. It didn’t take long for me to switch up the game plan and start sending home made lunches every day. I felt much better having control over the quality of food my children were eating. Since sandwiches and wraps get boring sometimes I send a hot lunch in a thermos. And the kids always tell me their food is still warm when it’s time to eat. I also freeze organic yogurt sticks and pack those as a healthy treat. Fresh fruit and raw carrots are a favorite too.
jill this is so horrible . In this phase of things , they should stop giving meals.