Quality of school lunches

[chex]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/educ ... 7867.story

A school has banned lunches from home. What are your thoughts on this?

Some schools serve healthy lunches only, but allow children to bring lunches from home. I hear many people complaining (via sources like Yahoo News comments), saying that kids want healthier foods, they should bring them from home. Opinions?

[Beany]

At our school we're never allowed to bring school lunches, which was a pain, until recently (they revamped the lunch menu), because the food was often unwashed (potatoes, etc), not totally cooked, mouldy, etc. But, even though it tastes better now, they don't always put out veg, and the fruit's still rotten. I think that all schools should give children the option to bring food from home, but only if they are monitored (to prevent anorexia, etc), but that school food should always have a really good balance of foods (not too much junk, etc) .

[bella]

Parents are the ones who should teach their kids to eat healthy. Banning lunches from home is no help. Jamie Oliver tried to make canteen food more healthy at England's schools, some parents boykotted him by bringing their kids junk food during break time.
School food should be a healthy option (although it often is a question of money because usually it is funded with not very much money) but a balanced diet starts at home.

[Pete McGiveris]

A school has banned lunches from home. What are your thoughts on this?

That it's iron fisted, and sort of insane.

[Beany]

Thing is, most people (schoolkids) pay around £5 for lunch each day here (not sure how localised though). But we still don't get very good quality food, because it has to cover all the teachers, kitchen staff, maintenance people, etc. Then they go and give some people a discount. WHY?! It's us who lose out!

[chex]

Some people get a discount, because it'e the only way the kids could afford to eat.

[LaLou]

I think the parents are the first ones responsible for their child's health/nutricion. It's great that schools offer healthy lunches, and even breakfast for their students. I don't think though that they should ban lunches from home.
Ali, I think it's a really bad thing if the canteen food is unwashed, undercooked or moulded/rotten. If that's the case the parents are paying way too much for the food, and I, as a parent would certainly not accept it.

[Moe]

Well, since this is about school lunches Our school recently changed the lunch system... -- If you want an extra entrée, You have to pay the dollar out of your pocket when you pay for your lunch -- The way it used to be: The dollar for extras came out of your online lunch account...

---
But back on topic---
Our school has some decent lunches, at times... There are some that look, taste, and smell disgusting though..
Overall, I give our lunch program a 3.5/5

[Beany]

Sadly the reason why people at our school get a discount is because they don't usually have lunch at our part of school (it's the 6th-formers) . This means that, when they pay absolutely nothing, we get less than a portion of food, for enough money to buy lunch more than 3 times at my sister's school.

Also, we pay that much for caterpillars in the salad apparently :\ .

[sizz]

I've nearly always brought lunch from home, and i agree that healthy eating starts from home. The canteen food at my school is actually pretty good (some of it's a bit greasy and stuff but mostly it's okay) and they do things like paninis, shepherd's pie, pasta, roast dinner, that kind of thing. but it's so overpriced, so i generally bring stuff from home. At my school, most people bring stuff from home as well.

I don't think it's right to ban people from bringing their own lunch and i guess it also creates complications like for people with allergies and stuff. School lunches here are generally around £3 but if you just make some sandwiches at home it can be under £1. People who can't afford lunch and things may get discounts but what if you don't qualify for that but still want to save money?

[Wesley]

Banning lunches brought from home is foolish. People eat things... or don't eat things... based on family, culture, religion, health, and choice. Unless the school can provide all the different lunches, well, I think if you look a little bit you will see an inexperienced school administrator thinking this is a good idea to make money for the school. Not good.

[Clovvach]

I agree with GreatZot, we have freedom to eat what we want.

[Shay]

Personally, I don't like it at all. Bella and Zot both hit the nail on the head for me.