Hungry? We’ve got lunch for you.

The Thematic Photographic theme for this week is “Hungry?”  It’s the week of our school play, so eating time is limited, and rushed.  But, I figured that since I‘m doing lunch duty every day it would make for good photo fodder.

So,  for those of you who have not had the opportunity to enjoy a scrumptious public school luncheon in a while, I bring you our typical menu, in photos.

The entrée for the day:  Some chicken-nugget like stuff, mashed potatoes, corn, cheese and gravy.   Mmmm.  All this and a pint of milk for $1.65.

Pizza is offered every day.  It actually is made fresh every day at the school.  You can have pepperoni, cheese or vegi.  Comes with tater-tots, chocolate or 2% milk, and as much ranch dressing as you can squirt on the plate.  $1.65 also.

Another daily special:  Chicken sandwich.  With tater tots and a pint of milk.  (You guessed it) $1.65.

Made to order “deli” sandwiches.  Your choice of ham, roast beef or turkey with white cheese food or yellow cheese food.  Garnished to your liking, with milk and tater-tots.  $1.65.

Nachos.  Yum.  $1.65.

Calzone, pepperoni or cheese only.  Comes with ranch, thousand island or Italian dressing to dip in.  Price?  Ha! You’re wrong.  This is at the ala-carte window, which means you can’t use your school lunch funds to buy it, cash only.  $2.00.

9th graders are officially High School students, and allowed more calories in a school lunch than the 7th or 8th graders.  This time the extra is these graham crackers.  For those of you who have always thought graham crackers were somewhat bland, you need to try these.  Next time you have the Keebler ones you’ll think they are downright spicy.  We call these the “sheetrock crackers.”  They bought a month’s supply, we’ve had them for almost 3 months now.

Who’da thought there would be a “school lunch” clique and…

…a “sack lunch” clique.  Most tables are not this segregated, but I caught these two tables and couldn’t resist posting them.

Of course there are some students that trade their more nutritious parts of their school lunch for a couple of all time favorites.

And some parents don’t find themselves locked into sending their kids to school with the traditional brown paper lunch sack.  Waste not, want not, I guess.

After lunch you can get a slushie for 50 cents.  One of today’s choices was this unnatural lime green.

Tater tots may be yummy, but they also make great projectiles.  Several kids a day get reprimanded for throwing them at their friends.  The pizza?  I think that just fell on the floor, and there actually exist junior high kids that won’t eat off the floor.

Last, but not least, what do you do with all the garbage and left over food?  Why make “lunch art” of course.  There are two main goals to lunch art: 1) make it as gross as possible or 2) (as in this case) make it stand as tall as possible.

Bon apatite!

Lead a horse to water…

I’m a big fan of the Obamas, both Barack and Michelle.  I think they have brought a dignity to the White House that hasn’t been seen in decades.  (You may not agree with his policies, but you have to admit there have been a lot fewer embarrassing blunders than the last few presidents.)

And I wholeheartedly support Michelle’s campaign to have school lunches offer more healthy options for my students.  But, as often happens in education, the people who make the implementation protocols have little, if any, knowledge of how things work when you are dealing with hundreds of teenagers.

“You can lead a teenager to healthy food, but you can’t make ‘em eat it.” - Old English proverb, tweaked to fit this post.

Our lunch ladies are required to make each and every student take 2 servings of fruits or vegetables along with their entrée.  The students are not allowed to leave the line without them, and if even one does when we’re being audited, the school is fined the entire amount of our Federal Lunch Program funding for that day.

Sounds good?  Yeah.  Every student getting two servings of fruits and vegetables at lunch.  Theoretically, and excellent idea.

Can anyone guess what’s really happening in lunchrooms across America? (Other than me eating a lot more produce at lunch, because I like that kind of stuff.)

G’head, think about it.  I’ll wait. … … … … … … … …

Yup.  Our trash bins are filled with discarded fruits and vegetables.  And since fresh produce is more expensive, the serving size of the entrées is smaller.  This I know to be true, because I often do lunch duty and am down there in the lunchroom watching it all happen.

What I suspect is also happening is that the students are spending more money at the vending machines, eating food that is less nutritious than the entrée they had for lunch.  And I’d bet that high school students are going to the nearest fast food restaurant for lunch.

So, since every good bitching deserves a reasonable alternative, here are my suggestions:

• Have all those great fruits and vegetables available to the students, but don’t force them to take what they are just going to throw away.
• Continue to serve smaller portions of the entrée, which will make the students more inclined to choose and eat the fresh produce.  (Teens are more likely to eat something if it is their choice to take it instead of having it forced on them.)
• Use the money you’ll save by ordering less produce to make more nutritious entrées, not just go back to bigger portions.

Just a thought.