food in your children's schools...

I'm a cooking show junkie and also a big fan of organic/locally sourced food when I can afford it.

Last week I watched the first episode of Jamie's Dinners where Jamie Oliver goes to a school and tries to create healthy meals for the children. It wasn't great TV but it was interesting.

When I read the review of this week's upcoming episode, I was more inclined to watch again:

"Who'd have thought that Jamie Oliver would be responsible for one of the angriest bits of television so far this year? And not angry in the Gordon Ramsay...sense; this is actual political anger..."

I recall that food in my school was pretty crap but I think it's become even more so. Oliver has 37p per child to work with. I think that's less than for prisoners (wasn't that in the news recently?).

Is it a serious problem? I don't expect kids to never eat chips, but JO finds what appears to be a whole class who don't know what celery, leeks, or courgettes look like!

What is your experience? Do you think it's different in the US vs UK?

I've eaten in a couple of school cafeterias/canteens since I've been here and I have to say that the food is terrible.  Not just terribly prepared, but terrible choices.  Kids go right for the pizza and chips and may occasionally have one of the mayo-laden sandwiches (if the pizza and chips are all gone!).  I don't usually get the pizza and chips when I'm in a school, but, honestly, the other options aren't much better.  Everything is stodgy mush and children shouldn't be made to eat it.

I guess this hits close to home for me because of my time as a teacher.  It DOES make a difference when a kid has a good breakfast and certainly helps if they have a good lunch.  For lots of kids, the only meal they get is a school lunch and pizza, chicken nuggets (with about 10% chicken!), chips, crisps, and chocolate washed down with a soda or a milkshake just isn't cutting it.   

It's a sad thing and shame on the governments (UK, US, whomever) who force feed their students such crap. 

And don't even get me started on the packed lunches kids (or parents!) prepare!   

Oh Lola I was just about to 'say what about packed lunches?' !!  School dinners have always been vile here.  In my day (as they say) we got no choice at primary school and were usually given some kind of cardboard like substance that was apparently once an animal, plus mashed potato and putrified, sorry BOILED,  carrots and cabbage. This was  followed by a steamed pudding or cake plus custard.  Once they gave us "curry" which was watery mincemeat with carrots and sultanas mixed in it.  I can still remember puking up afterwards!! I didn't eat Indian food until I was about 25 because that was my only experience of curry and I hated it so much. I was very skinny as a child because I didn't eat lunch til I was 10 when we were allowed to take a packed lunch. 

What is school food like in the US?

Allowed???

YUP. I don't know what it is like now, or maybe it depends on the school but at my primary school packed lunches were not allowed until the penultimate year.  And when I went to secondary school first years weren't allowed to take packed lunches either. Lucky I lived 5 minutes from that school and went home for lunch.

Once they gave us "curry" which was watery mincemeat with carrots and sultanas mixed in it.  I can still remember puking up afterwards!!

Oh my lord!  That sounds disgusting!!!  

What is school food like in the US?

I remember it being really good when I was in school.  Now, of course, we could get pizza and burgers and whatnot, but the "real" food was pretty good and I usually got that.  It would vary from county to county, though.  Schools in poorer counties always had cheaper food -- so lots of chips and mashed potatoes and weird soup and stodgy sandwiches.  I know that the schools I taught in served horrid food and the kids went right for the junk.  

I really think the junk shouldn't be offered at all.  If the schools would do "real" food the right way, kids wouldn't want the crappy stuff (and wouldn't have the option to have it anyway!).  

This goes for soda machines in schools, too.  I HATE them, but the schools get money from them (through a deal w/ Coke or Pepsi) and since schools are so poorly funded, they'll take the cash wherever they can get it.

Getting lunch from the school was, for me, a 'treat' and I always got pizza or a hamburger. My mom packed my lunches and never included these 'lunchables' or any of that crap.

I can't recall though, what the non-pizza options were since I did't eat them much.

There is hope!
(at least here in the US)
Some school districts are dropping contracts with Coke & Pepsi (I believe the L.A. Unified did last year).  There is a great program here where I live that is working to help kids understand where food comes from in addition to getting farm-fresh foods into the schools (http://www.reapfoodgroup.org/farmtoschool/index.shtml).

My eldest son just started hot lunches last week. Until then he has always carried a packed lunch. He loves his "hot dinners" at school but when I ask him what he ate its always the same garbage...chips, fish sticks or other fried crap, yogurt and squash to drink. I pay £1.45 a day for this??!!
When I was in high school I worked and bought my own school lunches. We had a choice everyday of hamburgers or a fish sandwich or you could have the special meal, ie pizza, meatloaf, etc. There was also always a choice of salads and fruit to choose from. My son doesnt get offered any sort of veg or fruit at his school. Well at least thats what he's telling me.

Oh Lola I was just about to 'say what about packed lunches?' !!  School dinners have always been vile here.  In my day (as they say) we got no choice at primary school and were usually given some kind of cardboard like substance that was apparently once an animal, plus mashed potato and putrified, sorry BOILED,  carrots and cabbage. This was  followed by a steamed pudding or cake plus custard.  Once they gave us "curry" which was watery mincemeat with carrots and sultanas mixed in it.  I can still remember puking up afterwards!! I didn't eat Indian food until I was about 25 because that was my only experience of curry and I hated it so much.

You must have gone to the same school as me! Gave me exactly the same attitude to Indian food until someone took to me an Indian restaurant in my twenties. Our school also served coleslaw about three times a week - have never eaten it since.

I am interning in the schools in Seminole County in Florida.  They do not allow candy, sodas, or chips anymore in schools or vending machines.  You can get milk, juice, or water.  I think they might serve sports drinks too.  In the elementary schools, kids get a well balanced meal (especially compared to those other stories), but once they reach middle and especially high school, all the kids eat are hamburgers, fries, cookies, etc.  I think in middle school they still have a meal, but everytime I have been in the high school lunch room, I have never seen a kid with anything but pizza, hamburgers, cookies, or fries.  I don't know why they chose to get rid of some things but not others. 

Well, when I was in school in the 80s I ate school lunches because we were poor enough to qualify for free lunch and so it was obviously cheaper than my mother trying to pack lunches for us.

And I lived on Mexican pizza & tater tots for almost an entire semester.

But my mother gave us a good breakfast in the morning and wonderful dinners in the evening. 

My youngest alternates between hot lunch & packed lunch.  He gets a very well-rounded packed lunch - sandwich, fruit, yogurt & either a packet of crisps or some sort of chocolate bar/biscuit (not both in one lunch).  And he makes much better choices on the hot lunch than I did when I was older than he is now!

Oh - I just remembered that I did love the turkey tetrazzini at school! 

What is school food like in the US?

I remember it being pretty good!  Especially in Grade School.  The School Chef Eleanor made things from scratch and we all loved her!  Her $.10 big choc. chip cookies were the BEST!!!!  We had after-school programs at our school and Eleanor taught us how to make snacks!  I'm glad I have such fond memories of school lunches!!!

Yesterday's Scotsman has a quote from Jamie Oliver saying that Scotland's school dinners are much better than the rest of the UK:

"When he strated his Channel Four series, he was asked not to look at Scotland. 'Now I know why - they are light years ahead of England,' he said."

Things have clearly moved on since I went to school, when I was treated to the same curry recipe as Britwife, and where the highlight of my school day was the poke of chips at morning break. Every morning

I remember our school dinners as being half way decent.  Yes, you did have your days of fish fingers, tater tots or pizza, but they were certainly interspersed with things like roast dinners.  In elementary and middle school you had no choice -- milk was the only drink available.

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