I work in a school as an educator (including in PE, Health and Business). I am also a mother. Since Michelle Obama changed the food guidelines in schools, the school food program is terrible. The schools used to do some baking and cooking and students liked at least some of the options. Now, due to over regulation and implementation regarding Whole Grain everything, Everything they serve is processed, frozen, and most children won’t eat it. Healthy food is delicious. Get rid of making everything whole grain to make a regulation and bring back balanced diets that are actually made from fresh ingredients instead of ultra-processed.
There is an old saying in the computer field: “GIGO”.
It stands for Garbage In - Garbage Out; which means that, whatever the quality of the data that is fed into a computer program, that is also the quality of the information that will come out after computational completion.
A similar analogy exists here, with our next generations of American workers. Perhaps we need to ensure that they are provided the necessary and quality building blocks earlier in life, so that we have a strong and healthy generation that carries on the torch of liberty and freedom for ourselves and our posterity. Not everything is’good’ just because it falls under the mantel of government cost cutting. Conversely, not everything is ‘bad’ simply because it falls under the umbrella of government spending. Some things SHOULD cost more, in order to reach the level of American quality that we all strive to attain. This may be one of them, since it is an investment in ourselves. 
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I think there should be a farming program - besides home economics-where the kids get to learn how to grow vegetables and herbs and the school uses that food for part of their lunch program
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And perhaps have it be a manditory/core course that the kids must pass to earn proper credit for graduation. This really needs to be learned so that kids will stop saying that peas and corn come from Walmart. 
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@erin24_2001 Your state is obviously different than mine. I grew up in the 80s and graduated in '97 in Wichita, KS. I never paid any attention to how the food was prepared in elementary school, but worked in the cafeteria during my high school years (it was mom’s way of making sure I didn’t have any time to get involved in gangs or drugs or anything since she was entrusting my care to people she didn’t know (i.e. the school). But on Fridays, we had Pizza Hut pizza (Pizza Hut was started in Wichita, not sure if there is a connection or just coincidence as the company moved their corporate headquarters to TX two years before I graduated adn we were still serving Pizza Hut pizza for Friday lunch.) All the rest of the week we had various processed foods, cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, etc.
i do remember my mom commenting several times about the kinds of school prepared lunches she had grown up with though so I know that things did change, I just don’t know when.
I know in Japan, students have a class, where they spend it in the school kitchen and have to prepare the food from scratch, which teaches the students how to cook, about nutrition, food safety, etc. and then which ever class prepared the food for that day then serves it to all the other students during lunch. Maybe something like this could be implemented because cooking is becoming a lost art.
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Children are the future, I would be happy to have the government invest more into school lunches if it means they won’t have any processed foods and all of their meals are made from whole fruits, vegetables and meats. Move away from the high carb diets they are feeding kids that has pushed us to have one of the highest pre diabetic rates for children in the world and push for higher protein diets with all of the micro nutrients kids need to have energy and learn
I’d also love to see more phys ed classes for all children as it’s been proven that exercise helps kids retain information, this would also help end the obesity epidemic at the source
I think it’s important to educate parents on the foods used in school lunches as well, I’d love to see recipes shared yearly with parents so they know exactly what is being eaten and so the parents can learn what types of foods are actually healthy for their children
While we are restructuring schools i wouldn’t mind extending the amount of time kids spend at school to fit in more electives that peak their interests like music, electronics, finance, mechanics, business, or medicine. This will cut down on students going to college only to find out the subject they thought they would like isn’t for them, only to drop out.
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Yes, it has changed considerably. I am also in Kansas and grew up in the 1970s. I remember my elementary and junior high school diet because I would eat the stuff on the other kids plates that they didnt want, so I was not as hungry as them later on…lol. They served REAL food back then: roast beef, mashed potatos that were actually peeled in the back of the cafeteria, turnip greens and spinich with chunks of egg and bacon in it, pear slice with cottage cheese on a lettuce leaf. Having kids and grandkids of my own, I can absolutely attest to the fact that kids are served processed mass-produced garbage these days. We need to get back to the food that I ate growing up in school.
Sad Side Note: I often wondered about all those missing kids on the sides of those 1/2 pint Vitamin D whole milk cartons that I drank during lunch time (I always got 2) – I would study their B&W faces while I ate. NOW I know what happened to them – after all these years. Another reason to drastically reduce the size and scope of ALL 3-letter agencies.
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I ate the school lunch for 37 years over a span from 1960 until 2014. My Mother, a registered dietician, ran a school lunchroom for over 20 years that fed a thousand kids a day for quarter a head. Whole fresh milk, no chocolate, federal government commodities like peanut butter, butter, eggs, raisins, apples, fresh meats and vegetables, all pretty much made from scratch. Those ladies WORKED! Many felt, as did my mother, that it was their mission work to the children of the community. Kids ATE the lunch and we’re happy to get it. You could purchase an extra BOTTLE of milk for a nickel if you so desired and had the nickel. From 2010-2014, I stood in a middle school cafeteria for 90 minutes a day as a punishment from my principal for always saying things about the schooling faculty meetings that needed to be said. Half the kids did NOT eat the school lunch or brought their own. The typical bring your own lunch was a lunchable plus something loaded with sugar and/or fat. A high percentage of the kids that did “eat” the school lunch got it for free. You would not believe how much of those lunches was thrown away. Mrs. Obama’s school lunch, however we’ll intended, was a dismal failure. The typical entree was highly processed chicken in some form…chicken nuggets, chicken patty, chicken fingers, etc. Admittedly, there were more choices for the kids of fresh fruits and vegetables. Like most big government programs, what started out as a great idea eventually evolved into the opposite of what it was originally intended.
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Thanks for proving my point! America DID have wholesome freshly cooked food on lunch trays back in the day…it has all been done away with…replaced with microwaved pre-made poisonous preserved garbage unfit for even the backyard chickens to eat. And you are spot on – those lunch ladies REALLY put in a day’s work, cooking in those hot back kitchens and cleaning up afterward – I saw it! They weren’t microwaving Chinese-packaged “Happy Snacks”, soaked in FD&C Yellow #5). It was the Real Deal – raw food cooked from scratch.
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I hope RFK will address this issue. Lots of kids get at least half their meals at school in any given week.
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Yes I agree with this. Let’s also rebuild the home economics and wood shop programs. Lets help kids grow up to be competent and knowledgeable about how to live healthy fruitful lives regardless of the track they are on.
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I cannot agree more. My mother is a good service director for a small corporation. These guidelines are absolute garbage. And the rate of students eating at school has declined drastically. The corporation prides themselves on scratch food that just can’t happen anymore and even the students are begging for a change.
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Yes exactly
I agree. I used to work in an elementary school kitchen. Some of the schools in our district used to make their own rolls & pizza dough. They were so good! Once Obama guidelines came into place, our school lunch numbers fell by at least 1/3. Everything became frozen, we had spray-on “butter”, low-fat cheese, etc. Breakfast became a diabetics nightmare because most proteins were removed in favor of cereals, Trix yogurt, and premade waffles with the syrup already added. The school district even created a whole new position for a dietician to create the menus rather than let each cafeteria manager continue to create their own. One of the lunch choices that did go over well was the Chef’s Salad that was made fresh everyday. The kids & teachers alike loved them.
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How about ALL.
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I would ammend this to take a look at the regulations that are causing an issue. and why they were put in place to see what objective is trying to be met. Whole grain is healthier. But processed and packaged is not. They are not one in the same. You can cook food with whole grain ingredients (flours) and use whole grain bread etc. to make a sandwich. You don’t need it in everything and there are probably children with sensitivities to grains that cannot have grain anything. Using whole grain ingredients doesn’t require processed or prepackaged food. I would ammend the suggestion to say get rid of making everything processed and packaged food. The issue that is probably a concern is there would need to be a cook who is familiar with food allergies and cross contamination. There might be a liability issue for food illness that created the change also. So, I would be interested to see what the motives where behind the changes to see how they can be solved with healthy real food choices. I know it can be done. I have seen Charter Schools with healthy real food choices. Let’s hope that once Kennedy can implement a lot of changes in the system that these sensitivities will start to decrease indirectly also.
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Yes, this is a wonderful idea. Also agree with home economics and wood shop. Would also add a finance class for basic budgeting etc and basic auto course on how to change oil and tire etc. These are all essential skills. Love the farming program. There use to be more small farms so people learned by living but now that there are less this information does not get passed on.
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How are these ideas getting merged? Should you put this in a new policy?
As a school nurse for many years, I agree! Our schools in Louisiana used to have the best homemade food, even the teachers and staff ate it almost daily. I was there when the changes happened, and it was almost immediately the kids would throw out the bulk of their meals. Our lunch staff was depressed about not getting to cook real and healthy food for the kiddos. Some of these children school is the only place they get a meal and now its absolute garbage! I spend my own money to keep halfway decent snacks and other things to feed the kids, they are hungry!! And it’s so sad.
Please bring real home cooked meals back to the schools, our babies are hungry!
It’s called FFA and it needs more support/funding.
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