Lunches on the News Last Night

For those not in Dallas (or even those who are), Channel 8 took another look at the whole "Food Revolution", but what's in the bag, versus what's on the cafeteria tray.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/Brown-Bagging-It-92705109.html


Sad to say, a lot of it isn't much better. :o(

The food isn't very healthy and the sheer amount of prepackaged items and the resulting trash is disheartening. We don't only use bento for health, I like the fact that we are not contributing to the garbage & landfill problem in the country. I'm also floored at the lack of fruits/veggies. I would think, if you are packing a lunch, you should be able to send your child the fruit he/she will eat?

So what do you all think? I'm still processing it all and wondering what next year will be like for F&B.

Comments

  1. This kind of thing just makes me insane. A week ago Kidlet and I were discussing lunches at school and he informed me that kids drink SODA at lunch brought from home. Whenever he tells me about what other kids are eating it just makes me sick.

    We like treats in our family just as much as anyone else, but only when balanced with the good stuff.

    It shocks me how many times I hear parents of Kidlet's friends say that their kids just won't eat veg or healthy stuff. It's never been an option in our house not to eat the healthy stuff.

    Maybe in addition to reforming school hot lunches, there needs to be classes for kids and parents on nutrition

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  2. When they showed the brown bag lunches on Food Revolution I was completely grossed out. I would say they were almost worse then the school lunches.

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  3. It's so sad what the children are eating. What upsets me is that there are a lot of people who complain about how their children are eating but won't do anything to make the changes for themselves. How difficult is it to serve fresh fruit and veggies to your children?

    We are fortunate in that our girls have always LOVED fruits and vegetables but a lot of that is because it was all provided for them for snacks and with their meals when they were younger.

    Now they understand that the occasional junk splurge is okay as long as they are eating balanced and healthy meals all the other times.

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  4. That's the part I don't get. We are in no means health food purists. The kids get treats & sweets, we buy pizza at Little Caesar's on busy nights, but I try to balance that with better food most of the time. I just can't see why (school or bag lunch) why you'd want 5 of 21 meals per week to be so non-nutritious. Frankly, if we're going to have a "pizza" type night, I'm getting the benefit of not cooking, not letting them eat it at school for lunch. ;o)

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  5. I don't do the bento boxes, but I do make her lunch and put it in plastic containers, I send fruit, cheese, meat and crackers, and sometimes if we have a sweet treat I will send her with that. I use a water bottle and put water in it and send her with a water flavoring since she is just as picky as I am when it comes to the tasteless substance :) I have gone and ate lunch at my child's school twice, once I ate the food since it was the thanksgiving dinner and the second time I took her lunch and just sat with her and her class. I have only had her buy her lunch a couple of times since then because we ran out of lunch food and it was time to go grocery shopping. Most of the kids in her class are over weight and I can tell why if they only eat the fruit cups full of sugar and drink the chocolate milks. I don't blame my child for being hungry if I have to let her eat at school, so I always have something with me in the car for her to eat on those days, because she won't eat it if it is not healthy or looks pre packaged.

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  6. I blogged about you on mine. :) I also posted a video of jamie Oliver today... It's about 20 mins if you have time to see it. He's talking about the Food Revolution.

    What's even worse is that most of the kids are eating like this at home too, not just at school.

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  7. I can't believe it takes people so long to realize that what you eat affects your behavior. I send my kids with home lunch every day bento style. I also send water. I don't give options for juice or soda. My kids have learned to ask "is this healthy mom?" before eating a lot of things. That opens discussion on good foods. We do have junk food but it is a treat and lunches are not times for treats. Parents need to wake up and look at what they are feeding their kids. I love Jamie Olivers show and hope it really opens peoples eyes to what is going on. I love your blog and you gave me the ideas for how I make lunches for my children.

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  8. Faith watched it as well (and she's watched some of the Jamie Oliver shows). When we were driving to Ben's preschool yesterday, she asked me if I would still make her bentos next year. I told her that was the plan and she said "Good, because I don't want to eat that stuff!" Smart kid!

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