Would you volunteer to eat school lunch every day to prove a point? This teacher did.

My child's school tried the Precooked - all you have to do is heat and eat food, meaning they could let most of the kitchen staff go and work with a much smaller crew, but after hearing the children complain - along with the parents complain - the principal changed back to the way things were. Yes there are days when my child doesn't like the food - he hates Mac&Cheese, but he tries to pack a lunch those days. I don't rely on the school to feed my child, but I know that when he goes to school, he will get a nice hot lunch. And when he gets home, he raids the fridge - thats when he gets unhealthy :-) kidding of course - I keep healthy snacks for him and he actually likes a lot of them.

my school district has a really healthy lunch program.
they promote good eating and fresh foods.

they serve pizza and strombolis everyday
but they also serve tons of salad and a freshly made 20ft sub!(the cut it into 3 inchs)
they have a frozen yogurt machine and an assortment of fresh fruits and boxes of carrot and celery.

as for drinks. there is NO SODA ANYWHERE in our school.
we have snapple, gatorade, fruit juice, flavored water and water.

the music department goes hand in hand with good eating. they encourage kids to drink water rather than constant sugar drinks by having a special vending machine price water at $.75!!
that is really cheap! its the big sports bottle drink!

so really i think some schools are just cheaping out by buying the cheapest frozen goods so they can get the most profit.

my school gets a pretty good profit but they deff arent cheaping out on the stuff they buy.
so really it depends on the district.
my district has been on the healthy act since i as long as i remember and now im a sophomore in hs and we are still going strong

I think mixed vegetables should be taken off the menu!

Recently I started making my sons lunches everyday because looking over the new menus that theu have been comming out with , I thought yuck! I wont eat that. I cook for a living and I know that you can mass produce good healthy food that looks good to. The kids just dont eat half the time, and that is not good for them either. My son said that they gave him meatloaf with an ice cream scoop and it looked like a ball of poo on the plate and none of the kids ate it. We see that the concept is out there with all the healthy kids food in magazines and such, why dont we act on it more. I heard on the news that alot of the hambugers and things that they serve are fast food chain rejects. They were not enough of a high standard for mcdonalds but they feed it to our kids. who likes hospital food? well for most it is the same thing.

Wow! This is news? BFD.

School meals in Texas have strict, healthy guidelines that must be followed. And the healthy meals are tastier now than the unhealthy meals used to be. I hope all states adopt and follow healthy guidelines for school meals. These meals are an essential part of many children's nutrition intake!

I live in KS and being one of the many of ppl out there who have had to eat school lunches, I would've rather had a PB & J everyday than the crap they feed kids! People want to complain about childhood obesity being caused by kids playing xbox or watching tv, those aren't just leading causes, how bout what they serve the kids to eat...that stuff is grade A CRAP!!!!!! Anyone who doesn't believe that needs to rent Food Inc.

Not all school food, and none I have ever seen looks like that. Many schools provide many healthy fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. There is too much processed food to go with it, but when you have $1.00 to put food on the plate it is hard to do. Not to mention that kids have about 15 minutes to eat it and they start eating lunch at 10:00 a.m. Not a lot of time for scratch cooking.

I am a elementary school cafeteria manager and I can say with pride that our nutrition services program is wonderful and spends long hours writing their school menus. Our menus are calculated by fat grams, sodium and calorie intake for the entire week. We serve at least 2 fresh fruit choices per day as well as 2 vegetable choices. Our bakery bakes wheat products such as, wheat dinner rolls, wheat hamburger buns etc. Any pasta we serve is whole wheat pasta. we offer salad bars frequently. We do not sell snacks loaded with sugar, as a matter of fact the only snack I sell at my particular school is bottled water.
We are very aware of the obesity problem our country is faced with (children and adult alike) and are doing our best to educate the children on a proper and healthy diet.
I work for Aurora Public Schools in Aurora, Colorado, and we are very proud of the work we do.

I live in West Virginia and I actually work for the school system and after looking at just the few pictures in this article I can understand the writers concrens. I have to say that our school lunches and breakfasts are very good. They taste good and look like a meal not space food. The cook at our school takes pride in her work and does a very good job. She does stick to the guide lines for servings etc. but it rare that I hear a child at our school say yuk. I am even the person who scans each child as they go through for lunch so I hear many conversations. It is usually "What are we having?" "Yes!"

We must live in a great school district (West Linn, OR) because our school lunches are healthy and have a number of good choices for the kids (2 choices of entrees or a sandwhich and a number of fresh fruits or vegetables). Not all schools in this country have unhealthy school lunches.

and if that teacher thinks she's doing something right she shouldent be hiding her identity!!

I think there is a difference between a 14 year old eating these types of lunches and a 44 year old eating these types of lunches. I ate these types of lunches and I turned out okay. If you're overweight you can: A. not eat as much, B: Do something constructive during gym class (If your school allows physical activity because we all know how traumatic not being as good as someone else in a sport can be), or C: Play a sport after school. Leave these kids alone, not everyone, especially school districts can afford organic, range free things from Trader Joes.

It's not like this everywhere.. I have never seen food served in what appears to be a microwaved, clear covered paper dish. Food at the school I work at is actually made, with some prepackaged or frozen ingredients, and the kids get choices. Fresh salad and fruit is always available and I find the food to be tempting and appetizing on many days. The only reason I would warn anyone to stay away is because of the portion sizes and fat content. It's not the healthiest foods but I would choose it over what Mrs. Q is having to eat for any of my children.

Not only does this food look unhealthy, look at all the excess packaging! Not only are we feeding our kids foods that fatten them up, we're fattening up the land fill along with them!
Think of the money that could be saved by eliminating all that excess plastic and paper. That money could be used to pruchase better food.

I agree with most of you, we had pretty good school lunch back in the 70's and 80's...scared to death of that crap in these pics though,,,,uuuugh!!

I am a secondary school teacher, and I very seldom think about what I will eat for lunch at school every day. I eat in the school cafeteria at least three times a week. Our schools have the exact same menu every month, and there are a few things that I will eat, and some I actually like. I have a problem, however, being charged $3 for an "adult meal" which is the exact same thing that the high school students get for either $1.75, $0.40, or free. Even if the children can afford to pay for extra food, they are not allowed to buy it. Our high school children range from 90 lb girls, to 200 lb football players. The football players get the same portions as the tiny girls. Do you think Brett Favre would be satisfied with a small chicken thigh, some rice and gravy and one other side? No, he'd be wandering through the tables trying to score someone else's food.

The regulations concerning the way that food is prepared basically take the foods we used to look forward to, like French fries, and make them inedible. Because lets face it, would YOU eat a baked French fry that had been put in a warming pan until it was soggy and then preportioned in a styrofoam bowl until it was cold? The quality of the foods used at our schools is also very poor. The beef is a lower grade than is used at Taco Bell, the only way you can tell the hamburgers are made with real meat is when you find a bone shard or piece of gristle, and all of the vegetables come from a can. I wouldn't feed most of that to a dog, much less a child.

School lunches need SERIOUS work, to make them affordable, nutritious AND appetizing. Most national restaurant chains have their own commissaries, where the food is partially prepared. Why can't we do something like that for our schools' cafeterias?

Shouldn't the plural of "stirfry" be "stirfrys" (as opposed to "stirfries")?

I went to a private school in Michigan and every day french fries, Pizza, cheeseburgers, and other unhealthy food was served daily. Something needs to be done. Thank You for speaking on behalf of our future. :)

Our school lunches aren't like this one. Our school longer serves hash browns or french fries. We have whole wheat pizza crust and the menu has been changed. THe only sides are vegetables and carrots , lettuce, celery. I think it is good because it forces vegetables if kids eat them. Most don't and just buy or bring snacks. But some schools have gotten on the healthy food wagon as best as they can.