School Lunch | Imamother

amother

Thu, Feb 29 2024, 11:44 am

Anyone work in a Girl's School or have experience with the school lunch? When my kids come off the bus they are Famished!!! They claim the lunch is not edible. I give them 2 snack bags daily + a morning snack of 2-3 cookies or a granola bar... I also try sending lunch when I can but they get asked a lot of questions or made fun when I try to go healthy'ish. but honestly I don't them to eat a cream cheese bagel daily
Of course they would be more than thrilled for a tradition soup everday...
So my question is why is the school lunch here diff style than I had in brooklyn growing up? (correct me if I have the wrong picture) It just seemed more well rounded, more options and you might like it everday but usually there was one or 2 you appreciated...
and If it indeed is as my daughters claim then why?

amother

Sienna

Thu, Feb 29 2024, 11:59 am

I would also like to make an important point that may or may n ot be relevant but is worth keeping mind.

in some schools/grades there is a lot of social pressure around eating and especially eating school lunch. it may be considered 'nerdy' or 'weird' to eat the lunch especially if a cooler kid in the class turns up her nose.
I know this from personal experience a family member did not eat lunch in middle school bec it wasnt the in thing to do and she was really losing weight. it was terrible.
the pediatrician set her straight and told her very sternly that not eating is not cool and she can potentially cause herself hormonal/fertility issues etc

it could be your school lunch is really awful and totally not applicable to the above but im just putting it out there just in case it can help you out....

amother

Thu, Feb 29 2024, 12:14 pm

amother Brown wrote:

OP this sounds school specific. Maybe include name of school or location for more targeted responses?

I don't want to put the school down They are otherwise wonderful...
Was just wondering if it's across the board....

amother

Maroon

Thu, Feb 29 2024, 12:38 pm

I have subbed to help serve hot lunch a few time. (not in NY) My girls' school is preschool-12th. The younger grades have smaller portions (of the main) and some kids do need more. But there are plenty of fruit/vegetables served. I cut up dozens of apples and oranges and put out tons of grapes and grape tomatoes.

I don't know what your kids schools serve or ages of your kids. But each kid has different taste--when my kids schools gave free lunches during covid, my girls hated the baked ziti and mac and cheese --which was served once a week. Those days, I sent lunch and my kids were very happy to have something they liked to eat. Most (not all) of the other lunches they ate part or most.
My son is beyond picky and only ate the school lunch maybe twice the whole year, so he got home lunches every day.

amother

Brown

Thu, Feb 29 2024, 1:41 pm

amother OP wrote:

I don't want to put the school down They are otherwise wonderful...
Was just wondering if it's across the board....

in our school you have to pay for lunch. so we send it in instead. is your lunch extra $$? maybe speak to your kid about bringing food from
home instead?

keym

Thu, Feb 29 2024, 2:07 pm

Ive had multiple kids and multiple schools with varying levels of school lunch edibility.

It all boils down to how this particular school gets their lunch and serves it.

Is the food made onsite or brought in from outside? When is it brought in? Is it served in a cafeteria or classroom? Is it self-serve or served by an adult?
What temperature is the food?

Best case (that I have experienced) is that the food is made in the school kitchen, served in the lunchroom, and staff members spoon out the food. Hot food is served quite warm.

The opposite end of the spectrum that I've also experienced is that the food gets brought in from outside. It gets delivered at around 10:30am, gets divided into crates and brought into each classroom. By the time lunch comes around, the food is lukewarm. Also, it's self-serve, which means that there are kids poking around the pan and the food becomes less and less appetizing.

And there are areas in between.

You should probably find out details before you decide how to deal with it

amother

Thu, Feb 29 2024, 2:23 pm

keym wrote:

They do eat in the classroom but I'm not sure about the rest... I think there is a lunch fee and maybe a gov program... I don't remember the details... Not much I can do about it anyway, but send lunch...
was just wondering if majority has decent food... or maybe our kids are not even worth it? Only the men deserve streak and meatboards at the kiddush