Day 15

On today's menu:

*Chicken Nuggets (not offered) OR

Steak Fingers (not offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Seasoned Green Beans (offered)

*WG Dinner Roll (offered)

*Mashed Potatoes (offered)

Apple Bread Pudding (offered)

*Choice of Fresh Fruit (apples, oranges)

Made in Oklahoma Day (I'm guessing the steak is the made in Oklahoma item)

I'm not sure what I had. I think it was considered the steak fingers, but it was more like a breaded steak patty. It tasted like it was quick fried, frozen and reheated. Gravy was offered to put on top of the steak and potatoes. I accepted. The steak had a nice texture and flavor.

I couldn't finish the green beans. They had a really strange taste to me . . . it was like the flavor had been all washed out. They were soft and I couldn't taste any seasoning if there was indeed some. It makes me curious why the green beans are not consistent. Maybe they get different brands.

The worst thing on the menu today (well actually the whole month) was the Bread Pudding. It tasted watery. Water actually dripped out of it. :-( I'm a big fan of bread pudding, even bad bread pudding, but today's was the worst I'd ever had.

The horrible bread pudding makes me wonder if CNS tastes these meals before shipping them out to the schools. Or if they ever do quality checks by visiting the schools and eating the same food the kids are eating.

I wonder if the director would come and have lunch with me sometime and if he would eat the food served for 180 days (the same amount of days kids are required to attend school).

Tomorrow is my last day. I have to say that I'm looking forward to being done with this adventure.

Day 14

On today's menu:

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR

Mexican Wrap (offered) OR

Burrito (not offered)

Frozen Fruit Slush (not offered)

Beans and Rice (offered)

NOT ON THE MENU: Fruit cocktail mix (offered with what looked like fresh bananas mixed in)

Variety of Fresh Fruit (apples, oranges)

Assuming you've not eaten today at an OKCPS elementary school, take a minute and imagine what a Mexican Wrap might be. I'll give you some time to think about it.

Wrap? . . . well that probably means in a tortilla. Mexican ? . . . what would that be? What could it be? How would one know what that description really means? But I bet something comes to your mind . . . .

Now that you've got a picture in your mind, here is what I had for lunch today:

It WAS a wrap. Inside the wrap was meat and cheese with some kind of "spread" with perhaps taco seasoning mixed in it. I have NO idea what made up the spread.

Did you picture the meat being perhaps, ground beef? If so, you would be wrong. The meat was some type of lunch meat. Turkey or ham or??

Several of the kids, myself AND teachers(!) thought the "wrap" would be served warm. Again wrong. It was served cold. It was very confusing for many of the kids. The item was wrapped up with the same paper that the heated food is wrapped in. It looked like a burrito. There was salsa served on the side (in my book another implication that it was burrito like). So based on previous knowledge "something was wrong" with this "wrap" that looks like a burrito.

The kids told me that they did not remember having this before.

I tried to unwrap the wrap to photograph the insides, but the tortilla stuck to the spread and pealed apart making it most unphotogenic.

Having said all that, it didn't taste bad. The beans had a nice flavor and the rice was so-so. NO VEGETABLES today. Apple was good.

It looked like another fast food item. It was something else than what was expected. I'm baffled why CNS (Child Nutrition Services) didn't just called it a sandwich wrap and at least offer some lettuce and tomatoes with it.

One of the teachers told me later in the day, that many of the kids needed to be excused to go to the bathroom. I too, spent more time than usual in the bathroom today. Crampy tummy. Could be just a coincidence . . .

Only two more days left in this adventure.

Day 13

On today's menu:

Turkey and Tetrazzini (NOT offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR

*WG Pepperoni Pizza (offered)

*Fresh Garden Salad w/ light dressing (offered)

Seasoned Broccoli (offered)

WG Dinner Roll (NOT offered)

*Variety of Fresh Fruit (oranges, apples, strawberries)

Peaches and Apricots (canned)

It was pepperoni pizza day! The first repeat all month. I finally got to have a chef salad. I was delightfully surprised at how good it tasted. The kitchen staff went to the kitchen to get my salad for me. My container had a big T on top. I'm not sure if that stood for Ms. Tree, Teacher (adult), or Turkey (referring to the meat, not me hopefully).

I'm unsure of what kind of meat was in the salad, could have been Turkey, but looked more like ham. Everything tasted very fresh. The salad was made of iceberg lettuce. Today they provided the light dressing, with a green triangle noting it was one of the healthy balance items. It tasted like Italian dressing.

An asterisk(*) denotes components of Balanced Choices meals that meet strict nutrient parameters for calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, fiber,

sodium, and other key nutrients. All Balanced Choices meals include a choice of 1% or less milk.

For the healthy balance choices today, the triangles were with the pizza, the side salad, the fresh fruit and the light dressing.

The broccoli today tasted like it had Parmesan cheese sprinkled on it. Again it was mostly stems, but the "seasoning" really added a nice touch (and flavor) to the broccoli.

The orange was very good. I understand that I missed out on the strawberries. I arrived later than usual today and they were all gone. Certainly my loss. And a loss for the younger kids who come later in the lunch rotation.

I think I could eat this meal for lunch for 180 days. It's the first time I felt I could say this. I was however hungrier than usual towards the end of the school day.

Day 12

On today's menu:

*Hamburger or Cheeseburger on WG Bun (offered)

Hot Ham and Cheese (not offered)

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Seasoned Peas (offered)

Baked Tater Tots (offered)

Variety of Fresh Fruit (strawberry, apples, oranges)

Baked Apples (offered)

I chose the Cheeseburger. It was no worse than a child's burger at McD's. It was however served on a whole wheat bun. And that added a lot of flavor to the burger. I am grateful for the tomato and pickles to give it some added flavor. Can't say that the iceberg lettuce does much of anything.

It says that seasoned peas were offered. I don't know what seasoning is being used when it lists the vegetable as seasoned. Today, I couldn't taste any seasoning. The peas were overcooked and mushy, but served hot.

Tater tots tasted better today, than the last time I ate them. They were a bit crisp which helped make them seem like tots. I'm wondering now, if the tots that I ate previously were not fully cooked and that's why they did not have flavor. I don't know.

The strawberries were delicious! I've been very impressed with the fresh fruit.

Today I brought my husband with me to lunch. He had the "baked apples". These looked like pie filling from a can. Dear hubby said they tasted sweetened, but were not overly sweet. They also had cinnamon on them.

Another fast food lunch. At least there was the fresh fruit.

Day 11

On today's menu:

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR

*Grilled Chicken on Bun (offered) OR

Sack Lunch (Ham and Cheese SW) (not offered)

Baked Chips (offered -- and I am assuming that Sun Chips are baked)

*Carrot Sticks w/ Ranch (offered)

Variety of Fresh Fruit (banana, apple, orange)

*Chilled Peaches (offered)

Today's meal was brought to you by the color orange.

The grilled chicken sandwhich was my choice today.

It was dry but tasted okay. Iceberg lettuce, tomato and pickle were available on the side. It appeared to be on a whole wheat bun. Carrots were crisp and yummy. The orange was delicious.

We had the sun chips again. Today I snapped a picture of the contents.

Sodium is 160 mg, Total fat 6 g

And I thought this was worthy of taking a picture of. This is what the chicken sandwich was wrapped up in. It is such fast food, that you don't even have time to figure out where to put the sandwich without written instructions. Talk about insulting the kitchen staff!

Have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday.

Day 10

And six more to go!

On today's menu:

Baked Chicken (offered)

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Chicken Rings (not offered)

WG Dinner Roll (not offered)

Green Beans (offered with onions in it)

Chilled Pears

Macaroni and Cheese

Variety of Fresh Fruit (orange, banana, plum)

Today's meal almost resembled something I might have served at home (sans the mac & cheese -- more on this in a bit). I couldn't believe they actually had baked chicken. It looked great. And tasted pretty good. Much like a rotisserie chicken you can get at the grocery, it had a lot of seasoning on the outside of it but with no skin that I could detect.

The biggest problem with the chicken is it's history. It was served once before and it was not completely cooked. It's become a legend. "It wasn't cooked!" "The chicken was bloody!", "Bloody Chicken!! eeeeewwwww", "I wouldn't let the kids eat it because I was afraid they would get sick." I remember, even my daughter who brings her lunch had much to say about it when she came home that day.

The memory of "bloody chicken day" is still fresh in many minds.

Most of the trays that I saw today chose the chef salad and I believe it is because of the history the chicken has.

Today, my chicken was done. Maybe too done as it was very dry, (unlike a rotisserie chicken) but flavorful. A teacher who also picked the chicken, said hers was not done. Darn!

I feel so frustrated! This is one of the only "real" meals they've served and from the get go it was sabotaged. Not intentionally mind you, but what an unfortunate way to start off. I think if they keep serving it, kids (and adults) will learn to trust that the chicken will be good -- assuming it is cooked until done on subsequent servings.

The green beans had onions in them. It provided a seasoning for them, but I (and apparently many of the kids) like them better without the extra flavoring in them.

Mac & cheese looked and tasted like it was out of box. I'm not knocking all boxed mac & cheese, as I have been known to have it on my pantry shelf. However, we are getting back to that idea that fast food is healthy. And it's not. It's quick. It's easy. Healthy -- it's not. Real macaroni like they had yesterday with cheese mixed into it, would have at least looked more like it was made at home. And making trays of Mac & cheese would be easy. It's something OKCPS kitchens COULD make, I think. We are not there yet, but I think we could get there. They are now preparing the Chef salads in the kitchen . . . It's not a HUGE leap to think they might prepare other foods in the kitchen.

I remain optimistic and hopeful.

Day 9

On today's menu:

Southwest Casserole (offered) OR

Super Nachos (not offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Pinto Beans

Frozen Fruit Slush (not offered)

*Variety of Fresh Fruit (plums, oranges, apples)

Not on the menu and offered: fruit cocktail mixed with peach halves (looked like the left over canned fruit from the other lunches this week.

I of course chose the Southwest casserole. This is a new item for our elementary school. (Two new menu items in a week!) This is my observation: macaroni noodles, with canned tomatoes, with some kind of cream of something soup, a can of corn (ahh, there's the southwest part of this casserole) with other things added in (i.e. celery), all poured into a pot and heated. Kind of bland, but not bad tasting. Lots of sodium!!! Which one would think, would increase the flavor . . .

The beans had a really nice flavor, but seemed odd to be with this meal. I guess it goes with the southwestern flair of the casserole. Salad was the same as the other days and the orange was very tasty.

Looking around the cafeteria, I saw that at least half of the trays had chef salads again. I spoke with a 1st grade teacher to find out how the salads were working for her class. She told me that she was surprised at how many of her students take the salad. When counting today, of those that had the school lunch, more than half had the salad.

I don't think we can believe the mantra of "but they won't eat the healthy food options" anymore!! The kids are choosing the fresh healthy option more often than anyone expected.

That's all there is today folks.

Day 8

On Today's menu:

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR
*WG Cheese Pizza (not offered) OR
Turkey and Vegetables on Rice (offered)
Scalloped Peaches
Seasoned Broccoli
*Fresh Garden Salad w/Light Dressing
*Variety of Fresh Fruit

I thought for sure we'd have the pizza. It's always pizza on Tuesdays. Some kids only bring their lunch on Tuesdays so they don't have to have the pizza. I was looking forward to trying the chef salad. I will only have the chef salad when we have a repeat on the menu.

I'm thrilled however that the food today did not look like fast food. In my eyes this is a huge improvement. I'm sad however, that the new entrees are heavily processed.

I chose the Turkey and vegetables with rice. It smelled really good when I came into the cafeteria. Today was the first day our school had ever had this entree. I didn't stay in the cafe today, however before I left I looked around at the lunches and I'd say about half of the trays had chef salads on them.

The Turkey and vegetable had a nice flavor. The rice was white and tasteless. I would have preferred brown rice. The side salad was iceberg lettuce with some carrot and purple cabbage in it. We had the same ranch as always -- I don't think it is "light dressing". I prefer the regular dressing, so this was a good thing. (The light dressings tends to have more sugar to make up for the loss of the fat) Broccoli was fine. Seemed to have less stems and more flowers today. Always a good thing!

All in all a good meal, with the exception of the reactions I've had to something in the last two meals. I am in the midst of getting ingredient lists.

That's it for today. I have eight more days left.

Day 7

On the menu for Feb. 12:

Sack Lunch

Turkey and Cheese SW (I don't know what SW means. Sandwich?) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers OR

Corn Dog (not served)

Carrot Sticks w/ Ranch

Choice of Fresh Fruit

Chilled Peaches (I don't believe this was served as an option)

Super Food: Bananas Taste Testing

Let's start with the sandwich. It was served on what looked to be white bread. I've been told that all the white bread served is really whole grain bread. There is no way to tell unless we get to see the packaging. I specifically asked if there was a whole wheat choice and was told no. The meat was highly processed "turkey". And the cheese tasted like American cheese.

Today’s American cheese is generally no longer made from a blend of all-natural cheeses, but instead is manufactured from a set of ingredients^[1] such as milk, whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, and salt. When substitutes are used it does not meet the legal definition of cheese in many jurisdictions, and must be labeled as "cheese product" or similar. -- Wikipedia

Everything else on the tray was as expected. Except for the bite of banana. Today was "Super Food Taste Testing” Day. And banana was the taste test. It wasn’t an exotic banana or a plantain; just a plain old banana. Something the kids get often and are familiar with.

Remember that kid I mentioned earlier this week that doesn’t eat his lunch? Well, today I watched him eat the white bread from the sandwich and after much discussion he decided to eat the banana.

No school on Monday, so I won’t be posting again until Tuesday. Today, I leave you with a parting snap shot of the end lunch. Have a great weekend.

Day 6

On today's menu:

*Chicken Nuggets (not offered!!) OR

Sliced Turkey and Gravy (offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Seasoned Green Beans

*WG Dinner Roll

*Mashed Potatoes (with brown gravy)

Apple Crisp

*Variety of Fresh Fruit (apple, plum, orange, Clementine)

I delightfully chose the Turkey and gravy for lunch today! I really can't tell you how excited I am to see this. It actually looked like a real meal and not something from a fast food joint.

As for the kids, about half took a salad and half took the turkey. Some that I talked with said it was the first time they remembered this being offered. I do remember that our school had a taste test earlier in the year and I think this was one of the foods tested.

The turkey tasted good, but I'm not a fan of the gravy. I think I might have liked it served on the side rather than mixed with the turkey.

It was a completely different gravy on the potatoes. It was fine. I can't really remember what it tasted like.

With the roll, I put the turkey/gravy on top and made a few mini sandwiches. I saw one of the students doing it so I tried it. Certainly made the roll more palatable. The rolls taste good, they are just a bit dry.

Green beans: good.

Clementine: great!! I was looking forward to the Clementine. The other choice for fruit was not obviously fruit. It was clearly a dessert and had more crisp than fruit. You can see it on the right in the top picture. A teacher I sat with said it was pretty good.

Another short post. Friday's post will not go up until Saturday. It's been a busy week. I've been surprised how much time eating in the cafe and posting about it has added to my already busy schedule. But I'm happy to do it! Very happy to do it.

Day 5

On the menu:

Enchilada Pie (not offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR

Frito Chili Pie (offered)

Seasoned Corn

Frozen Fruit Slush (not offered)

Baked Fries

Variety of Fresh Fruit (bananas, apples, Clementines)

Not on the menu and offered: fruit cocktail or mixed fruit (not sure what the district calls it)

I'm having technical difficulties tonight and will not be posting pictures. Argh!

I also attempted to post a reply to the comments from yesterday and it disappeared. I will give it another shot tomorrow.

Edited to add pictures!

11:23 seems to be the time my daughter's class gets to the cafeteria. I stood at the back of the line. The kids were done throwing their trays away, lined up and on their way out the door by 11:36. So the kids that were right in front of me had VERY little time to eat.

I chose the Frito Chili Pie. As far as Frito Chili pie goes, not bad. Corn chips and chili. A small container of cheese (maybe 1 tablespoon?) and salsa was offered. I took them both and put them on the pie.

Corn was fine, although I couldn't tell it was "seasoned". The baked fries were, I thought, better than the tots. They at least had some flavor. And a little crispy. Crispy fries are good in my book. Oh and I found the ketchup! That helped! Though I know that the ketchup added more sugar to the meal.

I didn't get a choice on fruit today. Before I knew it one of the line workers put the canned fruit on my tray. I ate a little, but it felt and tasted like it was in lite syrup.

My observations: The kids like Frito chili pie. I didn't see as many chef salads on the trays today. One student said, "well, I've had the chef salad for two days in a row". I saw on two kid's trays that you could get the chili on the side. One of them chose not to take the chips at all. The other one put the cheese on her chips and didn't eat the chili (she basically had Frito's and cheese for lunch).

So, explain to me how corn chips, corn, baked fries (potato) and sweetened fruit is nutritionally balanced? Oh, I know the district has the whole week to make the meals "nutritionally" balanced . . . but how can this be acceptable? Especially if this is the only meal these kids get today?

It's short tonight. I should have more time to devote to this blog tomorrow. See you then!

Day 4

The menu today:

*WG Pepperoni Pizza (offered) OR

Turkey and Noodles (not offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers

Broccoli

WG Hot Roll (not offered)

Seasoned Broccoli

*Fresh Garden Salad

Peaches and Apricots

*Variety of Fresh Fruit (apple, tangerine, nectarine)

The sign says Balanced Choices -- 1st time I've seen one of these!

The dreaded pizza day. Before this day arrived, I was warned. I was encouraged to pick something else on the menu. Anything else. "Just don't eat the pizza!"

To be true to my personal investigation of what exactly is being fed to the children in the OKCPS district, I daringly chose the Pepperoni Pizza. It's been more than an hour since I ate and I'm still paying for it.

The pizza had a metallic taste to it. The texture and overall looks reminded me of the frozen pizza's we used to get in college . . . Tony's Frozen pizza or something like that. You know, the basic cardboard with some cheese like food sprinkled with unidentifiable meats bits on top that cost next to nothing (but was a step up from Ramen Noodles). Basically the same, just a different shape. Of the kids that chose pizza, a lot of them scraped the toppings off in order to eat the bready part.

There were a lot of chef salads on trays today. With their side of fresh garden salad.

Broccoli tasted good. I'm not sure what it was seasoned with, if anything. It was full of stem pieces, which I personally don't mind, but I am aware that most kids do not like the stem parts. It would go over better if it were mostly broccoli flowers and less stems.

Fruit choice: tangerine. It was delicious!! My only complaint was how cold it was. My teeth hurt biting into the pieces. I would like to have had time to let my fruit come to room temp.

I only mention the temp because the kids don't have time for the fruit to warm up and they are not allowed to take any part of their lunch from the cafeteria. If they didn't eat, they have to throw it away. Today I watched one child try to hurry up and eat the rest of his pizza while walking to the trash can. Walking and eating.

After eating, I stepped into the teacher's lounge. One of the teachers who is on duty during breakfast said I should have had the breakfast pizza instead of the lunch pizza. "It tastes a lot better." What?? Kids that get both of their meals at school had pizza for breakfast AND lunch?? Hopefully most of those kids chose the chef salad for lunch.

This makes me think that at some point I might want to see what they are eating for breakfast for an entire month.

Another tidbit I learned today. Some schools give the meals to their teachers at no cost. Our elementary school charges everyone. I wonder how some schools can do this, but others do not?

I've had teacher friends at other schools telling me they are not getting the same lunch choices we are at our elementary school. This is confusing to me. I thought all elementary schools had to abide by the same lunch menu (within the options above).

Yesterday I received: "Again at my OKC school cafeteria, we had a different meal. BBQ ground turkey or a hamburger, with french fries and sliced strawberries. " I didn't know that BBQ ground turkey was on the menu? And at yet another school: "we had the wannbee bbq turkey sandwich . . .and fries and peas. . and a cup of applesauce. . ."

It would seem that there are two different menus floating around. I pulled my menu directly from the OKCPS Child Nutrition Service website.

What is being served at your elementary school?

Day 3

On today's menu:

Chicken Tenders (was offered) OR

*Hamburger or Cheeseburger on Whole Grain Bun (these surprisingly were not offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers

*Baked Tater Tots

Variety of Fresh Fruit (which included: apple, orange or nectarine)

Mixed Vegetables

*Baked Apple

An asterisk(*) denotes components of Balanced Choices meals that meet strict nutrient parameters for calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, fiber, sodium, and other key nutrients. All Balanced Choices meals include a choice of 1% or less milk.

The lunch line looked pretty good again. This time about four chef salads were on display and as you can see only one tray of fresh fruit.

So far in the adventure, this was the worst day.

The chicken tenders were anything but tender. They were stiff with grainy breading on them. I remembered to pick up some ranch for dip. I mistakenly picked up BBQ sauce thinking it was ketchup. It didn't matter. Neither were able to entice me to eat all of the chicken. I am shocked that I now prefer the chicken rings from last week which were at least soft like you'd expect chicken to be.

The tater tots looked good and like tater tots. Nevertheless, if you had blind folded me and put one in my mouth, I would not have been able to identify it by taste. They were flavorless.

Nectarine was my fruit choice today. It looked so juicy delicious. I saved it for last; my reward for eating the lunch. One bite and my love affair was over.

It was frozen and tasteless and discolored.
Very disappointing.

The highlight of the lunch for me today was the mixed vegetables. Still had on oily taste to them, but was not over cooked.


I've included a picture of another lunch tray with a chef salad. On closer examination, it really looks good. It was colorful, with tomatoes, purple cabbage and some darker green leaves of lettuce (not sure if it was still iceberg or not). I forgot to ask what kind of meat was on it, but probably ham.

I found it interesting that I felt like I was cheating today. I didn't take the milk, but instead took an iced tea. I didn't eat in the cafeteria, but rather went to the teachers lounge. I also had to really give myself a "pep" talk to go back up to the school to have the lunch.

I also want to report that after today's lunch I was still hungry. And remained hungry. I wonder if this was caused because I didn't drink a milk. Maybe that's the reason for the big push for kids getting milk, not only for the vitamins and minerals, but purely for the calorie count.

That's it for today. Join me again tomorrow.

Day 2

The food was not as appealing as it was yesterday. The colorful display of Chef salads were gone and there wasn't as much fresh fruit on the shelf/counter. While I waited in line they had two Chef Salads on the shelf. After I left the line, so did the display of Chef Salads.

Without a visual cue, I'm not sure how the kids (or myself) would know that there is a choice of main course. Unless the line server remembers to ask which item you want.

I didn't make a note of my arrival time today, as the line was rather short and we all got through much quicker than yesterday.

I apologize for the blurry picture. I think you can still make out what everything is. Canned fruit was right next to the fresh fruit today. The fresh choice consisted of banana, plum or (maybe two types of) apple. That silver tray on the top shelf is filled with saltine crackers for the Chef Salad found just to the left of the tray.


Today's meal choices:
Chicken Rings OR Chef Salad w/ Crackers
Whole Grain Dinner Roll
Baked Beans was on the menu. Actually served: peas
Potato Salad was on the menu. Actually served: mashed potato with white gravy
Chilled Pears OR Variety of Fresh Fruit

I chose the Chicken Rings and fresh apple. The lunch tray comes with milk. However, adults (and only adults) may choose to skip the milk and pick iced tea. Today, I chose to take the milk and pay extra for an iced tea. Total cost: $3.10 ($2.60 for lunch, .50 for the tea).

I found out today it's best to bring exact change for lunch. I was holding up the line a bit waiting for change to be made.


The chicken rings were bland. At the suggestion of one of the students (who was obviously an old pro at this), I dipped the rings in the gravy, and when that didn't satisfy, the gravy AND potatoes. I really would have preferred something with more flavor to dip into. Ranch dressing was available for the salads -- next time I will make a point of getting some for the chicken rings.

The roll was tasty but kind of dry. I looked for some butter or butter substitute to no avail. I ended up dipping it in the mashed potatoes and gravy too.

Peas were over cooked and had the feel of some sort of fat (butter?, oil?) on them.

Today I learned that as a student you must choose one of the main courses, and that you must take at least one side item. I watched one student choose the chicken rings, mashed potatoes with gravy, dinner roll and milk. That was it.

I sat near another student who chose almost the same thing, but included a banana. He didn't eat any of it. Not even the banana. He may have drank his milk.

Yesterday I was impressed with the food, today . . . not so much.

Tomorrow is Parent/Teacher Conference day. That means no school and no school lunch. I'll pick back up on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

Day 1

What an adventure it was today.

It was 11:23 when my daughter's class arrived at the cafeteria. I stood at the back of their class line as it moved more slowly than usual. I didn't sit down to eat until 11:47. By 11:55 her class began getting up and throwing their trash away. The entire class was gone by 12:00.

Confusion and the stalled line was caused by "allowing the kids an option of fresh fruit" according to the cafeteria manager. In the past, they simply had a choice between an apple or canned fruit of the day. Beginning today, the kids had the choice of canned fruit, a banana, a plum, an orange or a choice from three varieties of apples. WOW!! It was lovely to see all the fresh fruit and the many lunch trays with fresh fruit on it. Even better, most of the students ate the fruit or at least tasted it.

It was quite chaotic in the lunch room. Our cafeteria manager had three (3) of her supervisors there. Apparently they got word that I was coming to take pictures today. They all pitched in to help get the lunch ready. Normally we have a total of three adults doing all of the lunch prep and serving. Having six must have been a breath of fresh air for the regulars.

A food delivery service showed up while I was in line. He unloaded three hand-truck loads of frozen food while I ate.

Our cafeteria manager just took it all in stride and didn't skip a beat. I on the other hand was overwhelmed by the whole experience.

As for food today? It was a pretty good day. Soft Taco w/ Lettuce, Tomatoes and Cheese OR a Chef Salad w/ Crackers was served. Beans, rice and fruit were the sides. I picked the soft taco. I couldn't stomach the idea of an iceberg "Chef" salad with beans and rice on the side.



You'll notice that the lettuce, tomato (that's that pinkish/orangey stuff there with the lettuce) and cheese were on the skimpy side. That red stuff in the middle was "salsa", looking just like ketchup. The cost: $2.60

It was suggested that I use some sort of criteria each day to make a fair assessment of the lunch. I will contemplate this idea and get some input from others and may start that tomorrow.

Thanks for joining in the adventure. Come see what we have to eat tomorrow.

Can't catch a break

Wait, I did catch a break. Again school closed due to the ice/snow. Looks like I might get to start this adventure on Wednesday Feb. 3rd.

Stay tuned . . .

No school today

I've been given a slight reprieve from my adventure. School was cancelled today due to the ice/snow from last week.

We'll see if I get to start tomorrow . . .