*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.
Posts
Your blog has sparked a lot conversations about school lunch in our home. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI'm still really appreciating the time and effort you're devoting to this! So today doesn't seem all that bad, though I'm surprised they offered pie (basically) as a fruit. They could improve a meal like this a lot for the many kids who struggle with weight by putting things like the gravy on the side - as you suggested. As a parent, I just want to say thank you for helping me get a truer picture of what my child is eating most of the week. Some of it is not as bad as I feared. Other parts... well, there's room for improvement that would probably not take much more effort or cost. The only day my daughter is easy to convince to take a lunch packed from home is the dreaded "Pizza Day"!
ReplyDeleteAnd may I just add, yes!! Please do some breakfasts. Sorry if you end up having to go to a nutritionist to recover via Super Size Me, but last year when I was able to sit with my daughter during breakfast, I was astounded at the amount of fat and sugar and little else that seemed to be a part of the breakfasts. I hope with the good work going on, that situation has improved somewhat.
ReplyDeleteLets talk about your lunch that you had on Wednesday.You wondered how it could a balanced meal and about the corn chips. Well like you said the french fries are a potato and I do believe that would count as a vegetable and even though the fruit was can it is still a fruit.What kind of seasoning would you like to have in the corn? Maybe some salt and buter which adds sodium and fat.We talked about diabetes and food alergies yesterday but do you know that children can actually have high blood pressure? So I'm sure they need to watch their sodium intake. Yeah I know the corn chips probably had some salt and also a fat content and the can fruit probably had sugar. Children need some sugar and fat in their diet for their muscles and energy. The fresh fruit also has sugar in it. You can't totally avoid it.As for the child that only ate chips and cheese. Isn't it better that they eat something on their tray so they are not sitting in class hungry thinking about that instead of what the teacher is trying to teach them? A hungry child can not learn.As for the turkey you had today and a child could not remember having it before. I believe they offered turkey and stuffing at the holidays. It also seemed that you were complaining about the cost of the meal the other day. The $2.60.Where else can you go and get a meal for that price that is a balanced meal and contains all of your protein, fruit and vegetables? No maybe the menus are not perfect but I don't believe we live in a perfect world. Just like the worker that made a mistake and put can fruit on your tray without asking you first.I'm not perfect and I quess they aren't either.Not all of can be perfect. They have a certain length of time to get those children through the line and so mistakes will be made.You even complained about the fresh fruit the other day. It looked so good but was so bad when you took a bite out of it. How was the workers to know it was not good? You even said it looked good on the outside that is probably all they can go by. You probably have those workers ready to pull their hair out by all the complaining you do.Did you think about taking it back to them and telling them it was bad and asking for another piece of fruit instead of taking pictures of it and complaining? I was always told you can't please all the people all the time and some people you can never please.
ReplyDeleteWe had no option of sliced turkey. . .we got nuggets, mashed potatoes and gravy. Some grades got corn, some got peas. I did see fresh fruits. I heard someone say to a teacher that we cut back on how much food was given to teachers due to budget cuts. . .
ReplyDeleteThe turkey and gravy has been served at least 2 times before this past school year. If I remember correctly it was served at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The school I worked at today had a choice between Chef Salad and Turkey w/Gravy. I had seen todays menu at my children's school so I knew they had a choice of Chef Salad, Turkey & Gravy or Chicken Nuggets. I was told the principal would only allow the students a choice of Chef Salad or Turkey & Gravy today (which, according to the manager was the entree' marked on the menu for today). As for the above comment, what does this have to do with budget cuts? I thought everyone was supposed to get a specified serving size.
ReplyDeleteQuilla, I do not have time to do an in depth response to you every night.
ReplyDeleteI purposely avoid talking to much about what constitutes a balanced meal. I am not a dietitian or a nutritionist. I do however, have a lot of common sense.
Yes, potato is a vegetable. Instead of serving tots and fries, why not just serve a steamed red potato? It would be real food and taste better than the "impostor" potato. It wouldn't be put through a machine and changed into a shape. Without looking at the ingredients for the tots and fries, I can not tell what else they include in those "impostor potatoes".
"WE" did not talk about diabetes and food allergies. You did. Since sugar can not be totally avoided, why in the world would we allow sugar in the rest of the food? sugar in cereal, sugar in the canned fruit, sugar in the ketchup, sugar in the BBQ sauce, sugar in the breakfast yogurt, sugar in the flavored milks (yes as much as a soda!), and on and on and on. Really we'd be lucky if it is really sugar. Most likely it is corn syrup. And my guess is that there is sugar/corn syrup in many of the "whole grain" items now served.
Sugar has been put in much of the processed food to increase the calories that disappeared when fat was reduced.
Do you think the food that is served in OKCPS cafeterias are without sodium? Did you eat the turkey and gravy today? I'm guessing it was LOADED. Can't know for sure without an ingredient list. Without one it's hard to know what is ever REALLY being served.
I'm really glad that you are concerned about kids health and school lunches. We need more people looking into the lunch programs and demanding the best possible foods for kids!
Sharlene,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that you too are invested in children and what they eat at school.
I do remember a turkey and gravy being served at both of the holiday meals. I think maybe it had stuffing in it too? or on it? I remember that it looked different. Maybe not. Doesn't really matter. The kids I talked to today did not remember seeing it before. To me that just means they don't remember it. If it's been since December, no wonder they don't remember it.
I've been told by the CNS director that:
a. Cafe managers do not have a say in what is served at school. The choices are picked for them.
b. Principals only have a say in how many entrees, not what entrees.
Sundra, you crack me up! Surely I won't have to go to a nutritionist to recover!! LOL!
ReplyDeleteI can tell you that the breakfast should be better this year. They've worked to eliminate a lot of the "junk" for breakfast. Sugar in cereal is supposed to be reduced. Currently working on doing something about the toast being served with cereal . . . it's a process.
Thanks for the support.
Yeah maybe the turkey and gravy had sodium in it you cant totally cut it out. But why add more to the vegetables when you dont have to. As for serving red potatoes for lunch. What is that child more likely to eat? And those workers only have so much time to get lunch prepared.Like I said they are not only cooking for 5-6 people. And in a 3 person kitchen the manager has to step up and be the third worker. That means that she gets behind on other things that a manager is supposed to be doing.Yeah they do have to follow the menus so why go and take pictures of their lines and tray. Personally I think it is a nice looking line. Set up where the kids can see their choices and look at the color. They also try to make the trays look appealing. We as parents don't have to do all that at home. Do you make 2 or 3 different entrees for dinner and do you always fix everything totally fresh and that doesnt have added ingredients. Do you never fix pizza and hamaburgers for your children? Maybe the pizza is not the best product but I bet budget wise they cant afford to order pizza out for every child and do you know how much time it takes for that much pizza to be made from scratch for that many children? You don't have time to respond to me every night because you are so busy but you have time to go and have lunch everyday at school and take pictures and do a blog about it? Why dont you ask those workers that are there feeding your children how many field trips they can not go on with their children because they are there and how many times they get to go and eat with their child because they are there in my opinion doing a service to their community by feeding the children?
ReplyDeleteQuilla, what I said is, I would not be able to answer you IN DEPTH every night. It has taken me more than a year to learn the answers to many of your questions. I don't feel I can answer all of your questions in a single night.
ReplyDeleteKeep asking the questions. It's how I came to be where I am . . . still asking questions, finding some answers, effecting change and working to make school lunches better. Especially for those children who might not otherwise have anywhere else to eat.
what a fun blog...and very interesting to blog about school lunches LOVE it!!! I will be back
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog...thanks for doing it! Very interesting. I see that you are attempting to communicate to the public the details of what our children are eating when we as parents are not around. That's wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that you, like other concerned parents, are not critical of the people who work in the cafeteria, only of the unhealthy food, often empty calories, that passes as nourishment in our schools.
Many currently accept sub-standard food for our children when we can and should do better. The food is "okay", but why not make it great? I mean, why not? Aren't our kids worth it? Good luck on your adventure. I'll be tuned in!