Bernie Calls Out School Lunches

Dizzi Izzy

I wasn't going to comment on this video but I felt the need to offer my opinion after reading the comments that were left.

I agree with seaside, and as a recent high school student(class of 2006) and a current college student, I am well aware of what it's like as the student to make the decisions of choosing healthy or fatty lunches.
For the first two years of my high school career, the school offered the choice between a healthy or fatty lunch everyday and, as you might expect, majority of the my friends and even myself typically chose the unhealthy lunch.(I even had a friend who would ditch her healthy lunch from home to eat pizza or nachos) However, when I became a junior, my high school stopped offering the fatty alternative everyday. For the rest of my high school career my friends, myself, and my entire lunch table didn't eat lunch at school. My friends and I would go to a White hen, Shaw's or a pizza place around one of our houses after school for food before going home.

I'm not saying that school's should serve unhealthy lunches but it's not as much about whether schools serve them as it is about children, and teens, understanding food and the consequences poor diet.

seaside

those are great options Mallory, but try them in the real world.. they don't eat them even if they are hungry, they go without, or hit the machines up or the local store after school. I have been at this 20 years and am sssooo tired of people that know so much more and sit at home judging without true knowledge. Stop by your school cafteria and see whats really up, and what your kids do with your healthy lunches

mallory

I'm glad Bernie brought this up. To seaside lunch director - why even make the pizza or french fries an option? Put a whole wheat turkey sandwich out for lunch, and if they're hungry they'll eat it. Offer anyone an apple or a cookie and they'll likely side with the cookie. With the money you would have spent buying unhealthy foods, buy more fruit, vegetables or buy the ingredients to make a healthier pizza from scratch or offer an oven-roasted sweet potato rather than a deep-fried french fry. The options are there. I agree with you that the vending machines should be removed. No sense in that at all. If students and parents still don't like what's being served, then they can start bringing their lunch.

To JLP's point, it is for some the only meal they get during the day. That's why nutrition should be of utmost importance. School shouldn't just be about learning to read and count, it should be a balanced education, with nutrition a part of that.

seaside

I am a school lunch director, while some choices are not as healthy as we would like, there is always a healthy choice, your kids do not choose it. if there a a turkey on whole wheat with a salad offered vs. pizza or fries, the pizza and fries win. Tell your districs to elminate vending machines, they are money makers for them, not us. Vending machines take away from our participation levels. We are given a very small budget to work within and expect to work miracles... you make lunch for 1000 kids to serve in an hour and make everyone happy and as healthy as parents want and still have the kids eat it... and make the district happy and make money for the program

jlp0328

As a former teacher, I know first hand just how bad school lunches can be (often upwards of 800 calories per meal!!) as well as the overall "food environment" of the school aka vending machines. So, not only are students provided with horrible school produced lunches, their only alternatives come from processed food from the vending machines with little to know nutritive value.

Most schools will argue (and this is a valid argument) that this is the only meal some students will receive throughout the course of their day. Unfortunately, many children's only meals are provided to them by the free or reduced breakfast/lunch programs at their school. However, this is no excuse to give these kids horrible meals.

HeatherK

My children haven't entered the school system yet, but when they do they will be taking their lunches with them. I won't get to decide the courses they take but I will get to help them decide what goes in their lunch boxes.