Our program might include a mini M&M, or snack sized skittles once a month. We haven't had any in the past month. In fact, we forgot to give them out once last year and none of the kids asked for them!!!!!
We do have chicken fries, but they are baked - we also have taco's in the one form or another almost every week. I personally get sick of serving them, but the kids love them.
We get a lot of our food in our "government orders" and the burger they offer is GROSS! My boss orders from another broker and uses his allotments to buy cases of fresh fruits and veggies.
The Gov't. needs to get better at providing more nutritious foods to the school lunch programs. They do send some really great things, but also things that don't go over real well - like the abundance of asparagus they plan to give to the schools. Make that broccoli and the kids would LOVE it. When I serve that, it is gone in a flash!!
Little steps at a time are changing some things. The parent groups at the schools need to step in and tell the schools that they should remove all pop and candy machines. Let the kids get that on their own after school.
The sad thing is: ala carte items are bigger sellers than the scheduled lunch. Those big plates of fries are usually not part of the reg. lunch - plus they cost more than the gov't. mandated lunch,then the kids leave school to go home and play video games!!!!

My Schools (Elementary + Middle) Served --

Entree: Chicken Nuggets, Chicken Patty, Fish Patty, Turkey (VERY RARE,) Hamburger, Spaghetti, Tacos, Sloppy Joe, Jamaican Beef (God Only Knows What Was in That because it sure as hell wasn't beef,) Corn Dogs, Fajitas, Pork Chops (FRIED AND COVERED IN SAUCE,) or Pizza
...
Potato: Mashed Potatoes (RARE,) Tater Tots (MOST OF THE TIME,) or French Fries
...
Vegetable: Soggy Overcooked Spinach [which noone would eat]
...
Drink: Lowfat Milk
...
Desert: Fruit Juice Bar (ALMOST EVERY DAY)

Chicken Nuggets, Hamburger, Spaghetti, Sloppy Joe, Corn Dogs, and Pizza were the most common Entrees. Tater Tots (Fried Potatoes) were by and far the most common Potatoes. We only had Mashed Potatoes when we had Turkey which was VERY RARE (once a month or less). French Fries were served on occassion, but Tater Tots were the main side. The Spinach always ended up in the garbage, because almost noone would eat it [as it was overcooked and soggy.] Fresh Fruit was almost never served...and when it was, it would be Orange Slices. Fruit Juice Bars were served pretty much on a daily basis.

Breakfast is interesting. Before 3rd Grade, they actually served Eggs and breakfast meats. Sometime around 2nd or 3rd Grade, they decided to go with Cereal, which 90% of the time was Lucky Charms, Trix, or some other cereal that was loaded with sugar. Bread and Milk were always served with Breakfast. Whole Milk was available up until about 3rd Grade, when they switched over to Lowfat Milk. The first day they served Lowfat Milk I grabbed it not aware of the difference [Whole vs. Lowfat.] It was so disgusting, I didn't drink milk for years after that.

In the middle of my 3rd Grade year...they got a Salad Bar. I chose it every time, because it was the closest thing to fresh food there ever was...Unfortunately, the salad bar was dropped and never came back. I actually stopped eating Lunch in the Cafeteria about 7th Grade, because they served Sloppy Joe, Jamaican Beef, Corn Dogs, and Spaghetti [I hate Tomato Sauce and they permeated their Spaghetti in the stuff] 90% of the time. I couldn't stand any of those foods. Plus I didn't like Tater Tots. My favorite food was Turkey with mashed Potatoes...but, that was served less than once a month. So, my dad started taking me to the local Cafeteria (Morrisons/Picadilly/etc...type of place) after school to get something to eat. I'd usually get Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Soda, and Bread.

My HS had an open campus (only one of two schools in the county with open campuses.) That meant I could leave campus during lunch (except during Summer.) So, I would usually get fast foods as that was all I had tiime to get and get back on time. During the Summer, you weren't allowed to leave campus. The only foods served on Campus during Summer terms were Cookies, Bagels, Soda*, and Chips*. The ones with stars came from the snack machines which we had in HS and during the Summers in MS. The others were baked by school clubs who sold them to raise money for trips. After I went off to College, I stopped eating fast foods so often, and mostly ate Spaghetti, Bread, Rice, Crackers, Fruit, and Soda.

you know, for any kind of improvement in nutrition, the kids will need some appetite, which they are never going to have as long as they are taking in a few hundred calories every day of high fructose corn syrup, from drinks. few hundred? that might be conservative. BTW, when I was young, the schools had actual kitchens, where food was cooked, not just meals brought in from industrial plants. People could have dignified worthwhile jobs, add their special touches, one lady made stewed tomatoes that many of us loved - so I suppose they were all fired, so that "meals' could be made by minimum wage employees of agribiz conglomerates. Likewise voicemail, put a few switchboard operators on welfare, spend millions on the systems, a small price to pay for the opportunity to piss off everyone who phones. My, how i do go on.

This thread is interesting. You folks should read "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser (sp?). Just don't read it when you're in already in a low mood - it'll make you angry and hopeless.

Yes, did you ever notice that when Mom decides that eating at McD's is ok is only after she realizes they now have salads? As if it's only MOM who should be eating them!?! While the kids eat the fries, shakes, etc! ACK. And yes, in the KFC ads, they say "chicken (yes breaded of course), a side..... then it SHOWS the side.... a HUGE serving of mashed potatoes and gravy!! Two itty bitty pieces of chicken, which altho they are breaded, would at least be better for the kids than all those potatoes and gravy! Then they get applesauce too--ok, fine, that's not that bad, unless it's loaded with sugar--and a fruit rollup thing on top of that! What do you suppose the kids will go for first!?

Why don't they make a lunch with the chicken strips grilled, with a nice salad and the applesauce (why not fresh fruit)? sigh.. sorry to rant and rave but the ads really bug me!

You are SO right! When I was in grammar school (many moons ago) we had REAL food--like you said--and real people who actually knew how to COOK real food! When you de-humanize every industry, you get a country full of lazy, rude people and overweight, unhealthy people. I wish more people would realize that cooking real food from scratch really isn't hard. My dream job... either teaching people to cook... or cooking real food for homeless/helpless people. Someday!

OH! Me too!!!!! They drive me crazy!!!!!

The food ads on the "news" too! Today Mr Food was making donuts out of refrigerator biscuits! OK....Mr Food has never claimed to promote healthy foods.....but still!

One day I was watching the news and one of the local food stores had a segment: "healthy Ideas" or something like that.....well, the woman on there brought out some nice white fish (yum!)....then dredged it through bread crumbs (OK, not too bad, you can lightly coat it)....then cooked it in a frying pan full of hot oil! Oh yea! That's real healthy! Of course they made a point of telling viewers to not use egg before breading....because of the extra fat!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to throw something at the TV at LEAST once a week.

The ones I get a kick out of? Hungry Man! LOL They don't care! "It's good to be full" No health comments, nothing! At least THEY'RE honest!

My mother used to make her version of "leukumathes" (a Greek dish consisting of balls of fried dough with honey poured over it) out of deep fried Pillsbury biscuit dough.

It was one of my favorite treats back then. (No wonder I've had weight issues since I was a kid--favorite foods? sweets, pastries, spaghetti and bread, mashed potatoes, french fries, rice--not that I didn't like my protein, but I ate too amply of these high-carb bad boys--I fact I used to fantasize about a place called Spaghettiland where everything was made out of spaghetti, because I loved it so much... btw, my other genetic background definitely has some Italian in it).

I've see those fried biscuit/donuts dipped in granulated sugar at Chinese food buffet tables. (Not that I've even dared a Chinese food buffet since I started on this diet... way too hard to navigate THOSE hidden or not-hidden carbs).

Yes, they do make great tasting, albeit VERY unhealthy doughnuts.

LC doughnuts? I suppose, with the right LC bread or baking mix.

Doooo - nuts!

I think the biggest culprit is SODA! Go anywhere and you will see kids drinking it--empty calories, sugar galore.

I just heard a news report that children are now showing up with low bone density and they are blaming the fact that they don't get enough dairy! I almost laughed outloud! All that soda is the reason for the low bone density. When they drink the soda, their body can't absorb the calcium and it just takes what it needs from the bones.

I was thinking for years that when this generation of kids grows up, they will all have osteoporosis and it is already headed that way.

Get the soda out of the schools and make it less attractive for kids and maybe we can save them.

I remember as a child getting a Coke at a soda fountain and it was served in a 6 oz glass. Now you can barely find one under 16 oz and some places serve up to 42 oz in one huge cup.

Atrsy