My son patiently ate the food I ordered for him in 3rd and 4th grade and finally told me in 5th grade - Ma, please start packing my lunch for me (or I will do it myself) - I would rather eat a PBJ to what they are giving us at the hot lunch. I have been packing school lunches for most of this school year (except for the time when I went to India)...no matter if I had a critical deliverable or an early morning meeting - my evening ends with my planning a packed lunch for my boy. Reality is it is not that hard once you have a plan of what you want to pack and I am able to give my son a "reasonably healthy and nutritious" lunch for < $1.50/ day. Here's one of the sample meal plans I built (what can I say - I am a planner!)
But this blog isn't about my ability to plan and pack school lunches for my son. It's about the fact that
(A) Food at my son's Public school runs to about $5.50-$6.50 for a school lunch that includes an entree, a choice of drink (milk/water) and a choice of fruit. School Lunch prices for our school district are way "out of whack" when compared to neighboring districts (these graphs are self-explanatory!) - in case you are wondering my child falls under the BRSSD umbrella. If I as a part of a double income family am feeling the pinch - can you imagine how hard this would be for a single income family ( about half the families in our school district comprise of single income households)
Here is a Yelp Review that I pulled up on our lunch provider on the topic
The response of the vendor was particularly enlightening but I won't add it in here, I am hoping you would actually go to Yelp and read their response (gist of it is they say - they don't get the $5.50-$6.50 - apparently the district sets the price to cover "other" costs).
I have started a conversation with the School District but the answers I have had from their Chief Business Officer have been very "officially correct" but not particularly enlightening.
(B) The quality of food is sub-par and the vendor usually gets away with it. I will give you an example that had me all riled up this week - my son was signed up in advance for the spaghetti with chicken meatballs ( we don't eat beef or pork)...a week before the lunch was due I am sent a message saying chicken meatballs were not available, so they were substituting it for spaghetti with meat sauce (beef) WITHOUT consulting me- I went in and changed the order to cheese ravioli very reluctantly (it's not a very nutritious meal!) - but honestly seeing my son's sad face in the AM when I told him he had a hot lunch was just a "cherry on top of that indignity". The reality of WHY I ordered a few school lunches this week is - I am frugal and I had a balance sitting in choice lunch and I didn't have the patience or time to ask them to refund it, so instead ordered a few lunches to close it out to zero balance and my son's expression made me wish I had gone thro' the pain of getting that balance back vs. order him a hot lunch. Read an example of the travails a parent faced - I had a similar conversation with a parent at our school.
From a parent’s perspective School Lunches are successful when (a) their kids are happy eating the food – no complaints (b) the food specs are reasonably healthy (c) the food is consistently affordable. From my perspective school lunches for us have been bombing on all three levels . A good school lunch strategy is if we had a simpler lunch menu vs. complex choices that are very poorly executed and a pricing structure that is reasonable ( reasonable for me is comparable to other school districts and something that doesn't feel pricy to parents)
My son moves to middle school next year and my strategy for school lunches is - Status Quo aka pack my son healthy school lunches from home. What are your thoughts on school lunches?
Just pack your own son's lunches... I went to Ralston (where I assume your child is going) from 2011-2014, and picking up my lunch was a crazy wait. I would not recommend buying school lunches. They'll really appreciate your homemade lunches when they reach high school! :)
ReplyDeleteAgree with you - I have been packing his lunch all of this school year except on travel days (when I was forced to get him hot lunch)! Thanks for reading!
DeleteHome food always better - you know how fresh it is and what went into it.
ReplyDeleteJust looking at your menu: I would recommend an Indian lunch (chapati/sabzi or rice/sabzi) -- see Rijuta divekar's books/videos --> essentially, our genes are tuned to our food. Further, according to her (which I tend to agree), our cuisine has evolved and the combinations are 'designed' to work together for a complete meal. Finally, to me, this is one other thing that retains our roots to our culture. Interestingly a lot of Americans appreciate than we give create for. So its worth saving it for our future generations.
Just my 2 cents, no flames.
Hi Bharat - We have eliminated Rice and Rotis from our diet about 4-5 or more years back - we did that very consciously and it has had a very positive effect on our health ( my father developed diabetes at 38 while his mother at 35 and I am in my 40's and my sugar read is ~ 75). I would strongly recommend reading this book by a practising Indian MD in the Bay Area - Ron Sinha :
DeleteThe South Asian Health Solution, we should talk again after that :)
Well, my theory ( which I felt validated when I came across Rujuta Divekar's articles) is, stick to the diet which you have evolved to process. Yes, along the way, excess processing killed the native diet. Polishing of Rice, Refining of Jaggery (Sugar), Refining of Oils etc. I strongly believe that there is nothing wrong with our native diet.
DeleteThe reality is the Indian Diet as it exists today is not really working for most Indians - we have the dubious distinction of having a 50-400% higher chance of heart diseases & diabetes than any other country. In a study done by WHO - 80 million people will suffer from diabetes in India by 2025. I have tweaked my family's diet based on my copious research on this topic (we still eat a lot of the Indian dishes - filling daals, subzis, rajma/choley but now skip the rice/roti for quinoa). If you are an Indian living in the US (like me), the links I have posted are worth a look - Read a blog post I did more than two years back @ http://randomponderingsofamom.blogspot.com/2015/07/simple-living-phir-bhi-dil-hai.html
DeleteI have read a few of Ms.Divekar's books (remember she has a degree in nutrition but isn't a registered dietician) and feel like she isn't teaching us anything new...it's health tenets that Ayurveda has prescribed for a long long time - eat for your dosha, eat minimally processed, eat local and eat seasonal. I absolutely love settling down to my bowl of hot daal with a dab of ghee with quinoa and a bowl of subzi, most days - but don't shove that down my son's throat everyday - he was born in the US and I am ok giving him choice and practising dietary tolerance. The benefit of my approach is I have a well-balanced eater who has developed good healthy eating habits for a young boy ( I don't know that many kids who would take a thermos of choley and quinoa to school and actually finish every bit of it, no complaints). I believe it is mostly about applying common sense to our food and life habits. I would urge you to read the following article by Dr.Ron Sinha
http://culturalhealthsolutions.com/can-wheat-really-be-bad-for-your-health-a-closer-look-at-gluten/
https://indianfoodsafari.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/profile-a-south-indian-vegetarian-goes-on-a-low-carb-diet/
This is a topic I am very very passionate about, so open for a conversation offline.
I vouch for Indian diet anyday. However quantities should be taken care of. Native diet is what our Indian bodies adhere to. No matter the kids are born in US they still have Indian genes. That's just my point of view.
ReplyDeleteI would vouch for Indian Diet too minus the rice and rotis - but my family has developed a more global palate and I try and make sure the focus of my meal is healthy and balanced vs. primarily Indian - my husband and I eat Indian at least 4 times a week and experiment the rest of the time - but with my son I don't drop that down as a hard and fast rule - as they are growing up it's better to let them feel they have a say in what they eat (if they are reasonable and healthy)!
DeleteThank you for posting this, Meenakshi! I have been volunteering at the school for hot lunches for the past 3yrs now and I will say that the meals leave a lot to be desired. Mac cheese is a lump. The fruits and veges are often gross. They are packed the night before, I think. My kids do not like their food either. Today I dropped my middle schooler a little late around 9:30am and I noticed the pizza being delivered!!! How is it acceptable to have pizza sitting there fore 3 hours and serve it to kids. And to top it of, charge them $5.50!!
ReplyDeleteAnd whose bright idea was it to cut out the snacks...they were the best part of the lunch ;-)
My son used to love those snacks too (and they were reasonably healthy - pirates booty, annies etc) - I am hoping that a lot more people reach out to the school district and let them know they are not ok with the situation! Thanks for reading!
DeleteThanks for your email Nicky - the vendor before Choice Lunch definitely had some better food offered. I don't agree with the quality of food - my son's hot lunches are cold, sometimes burnt but mostly goop that has an overload of tomato and cheese...I am happier packing lunch for my son and though miss the convenience of a back up plan with the school hot lunch - I rest easy most nights that I am feeding my son nutritious meals
ReplyDelete