food in your children's schools...

In High School, they introduced a salad bar.  I'd have sooner had a big plate full of salad than those nasty frozen pizzas.

Salad bar!!!  very fancy!

OUrs was ok, my mom told me i told the people there they were good 'cookers' and would give me seconds.  the lunch ladies LOVED me.  I was skinny then too, so they prob wanted to fatten me up a bit!!!!

in junior high and high school i remember getting more ice creams and junk food.  But in nursery school and elementary, it was pretty healthy.

My mom never took the time to make my lunch (not even once a month).  I was a hot lunch kid all the way!

Interesting article on school lunches in a few different countries:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4298245.stm

Really interesting Liz!  Funny, we never had soda at school, I wonder if that is newish.

There is no system of school canteens here, and all Norwegian school children bring a packed lunch to school.

That is kind of cool, except for the fact that some kids go without food all day if they forget their lunches!  That is not a good thing at all!

I think one of the things that struck me as well is that, even if crap food is being served at schools there are clearly 2 other areas that need help as well. I mean, according to the JO show, a whole class of kids didn't know what celery looked like.

So first is at home - parents either won't or can't make the right choices.

Second is back in the schools. As I've said, i don't recall my school hot lunches that well since I rarely had them. I do know, however, that they weren't that stellar and that especially in high school, lots of junk (cakes, cookies, etc) was available. That said, we also had 'health' classes in middle school. It was part of the county curriculum. This weekly class covered everything from sex ed to 'teen stress' to healthy eating. And I'm quite certain that we all, even the poorest of us, knew what celery looked like.

Here's another 'TV chef's' take on his kids lunch box (interestingly, he lives in Dorset and it appears that school lunches are not provided at all!).

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,1388934,00.html