It's Lunch

No matter who you talk to everyone will have stories, or nightmares, about what they were either served or purchased for their school lunches. It is becoming the chat du jour these days with the First Lady getting gung-ho about juvenile obesity.

I applaud her efforts, but...what about the learning and examples that kids are meant to learn and see at home? Why is it that it has become the total responsibility of the scvchool systems/staff to ensure that kids get everything they need in/for life?

When I was in school my mom either packed our lunch and we ate what we got or traded. When I got to high school and could buy things I almost always bought the kind of stuff we did not regularly get at home. Stuff like pizza and burgers and most often the sweet treats and goodies.

At home my mom would make meals that had vegetables and fruits, some of them I really hated, but she insisted that we eat them. I still have a huge aversion to warm beets. I have a friend who will make separate meals for her kids if they do not like what the main meal is going to be. Are you kidding me?! Seriously I say no way. I never did that for my kid. He either ate what was for dinner or went to bed hungry and with no snack. It is not a crime to make your kid eat the food you buy and cook.

Granted I had more treats in my home, for my kid and myself, but I still turned him on to salads and other good food. he did not live on junk and did not take it to school either. What they do when they get older, in cafeterias and lunch places, is out of our control. They offer taco bars, pizzas with veggies and other decent fare. If you take away everything and try to go strict healthy I can imagine that most of them won't eat at all and will save that money to hit McDonalds after school.

When I was teaching many of the kids got free breakfast and lunch. Most of them either threw the lunch out, sadly, because there was fruit and raw veggies often. The breakfast was cold cereal and pop tarts. Nothing that they would not normally eat, but the kind of stuff that some would have done away with.

There could be some adjusting and creative, healthy changes made, maybe less sodas available and candy, but why not put the responsibility on the home and less on the school.