On the last day's menu:
Sack Lunch: Turkey and Cheese SW (Turkey was not offered . . . it may have been chopped ham??? I wasn't sure.)
Popcorn Chicken (not offered)
Chef Salad w/ Crackers
Baked Chips (not offered)
Carrot Sticks w/ Ranch
Chilled Peaches (not offered)
Variety of Fresh Fruit (apples and oranges)
BBQ flavored potato chips (served, not on menu)
A surprise for this day: The director of CNS came for lunch.
I was totally shocked. I asked why he was there and he told me that he didn't have any fires to put out at any other school, was in the neighborhood and thought he'd stop in for lunch. Since he didn't acknowledge my blog (I believe that's the real reason he stopped in. If you'll recall I posted the previous day wondering if he would come to lunch with me sometime . . . ) I went along with the pretending. I didn't like how this deception made me feel. Not at all.
I also thought it was a very safe day to show up for lunch. Just how bad can a sandwich be??? It's what is served EVERY FRIDAY.
As I noted above, it was unclear what the meat on the white bread sandwich was. It appeared to be chopped ham. I don't normally consume this type of cold cut, so I was unable to tell. The chips were served in a large container (see very top picture) and dished out on the Styrofoam trays. I wonder why they did this? To my knowledge they have always served chips in individual bags. Did they not want us to see the ingredient list? I don't know. One positive thing about serving this way is it creates less trash.
Not a very satisfying lunch. No lettuce to put on the sandwich. Cold cut, cheese "food", white bread. I guess "it's what the kids will eat" struck again. Carrots were fine. Orange was good.
I will post a summary of my month long adventure over the weekend. Thanks for continuing to read!
Posts
I imagine the chips were prob just dumped out of the individual serving bags....I am curious about the change as well, but I like it- I am tired of us providing free advertising for frito lay- it's the new joe camel.....
ReplyDeleteWhat did you want the director of CNS to do? Tell you that he reads your blog everyday and loves how you dog the menus and food.To tell you the truth I'm sure he has more important things to do than sit around and read this blog. Because I believe he too has children and I believe that they probably come first in his life too, not your blog.
ReplyDeleteOh Quila, I am so sad you are taking this so personally. We need for you to be on board. You are such an important part of improving this country's health! Change is difficult, but it needs to happen sweetie. Please do not be offended- this is not an attack on you- it is an attack on disease and early death.
ReplyDeleteGod bless Mrs. Tree for letting everyone see what we feed them.....is it supposed to be a secret?
Mrs. Tree- I have been following your blog, and as an OKCPS teacher- I very much share your concern. I recognize your cafeteria form the pictures (I went to school there as a student)....and here is what saddens me even more:
At my school, pretty much EVERY child eats free lunch...the exception being a few whose mothers deliver their lunches too them daily. We are in the south side- and on the verge of being a food desert. Our kids buy their groceries at 7-11 with food stamps.
The lunch choices at your school appear to be WAY better than at mine- probably because you have parents who will expect it.
At our school, the choice tends to be apple or no apple- rather than which entree.
We have fresh fruit about once a week- if that often, and NEVER are the children offered salad as a choice. NOT once. I eat with my kids sometimes, and I sat with a little guy who begged my salad off of me throughout my meal...then his friend said to me,"Can I try some? I don't think I've ever had salad."
I wanted to cry.
Thank you for doing this blog- I hope it will make a difference.
Signed, a teacher on board.
I have to say most of these lunches don't look that bad. The sandwhich pictured here does not look that good, and wheat bread and real cheese would have been much better, but at least there is a fresh veg and fruit. Nice that chef salad is offered most days as well. After reading the fed up with school lunch blog this stuff looks pretty good
ReplyDeleteThe bread is WHITE WHOLE GRAIN BREAD.Bread does not have to be brown to be whole grain. As for the meat it is either the turkey ham or regular ham. Anonymous as for not offering chef salads it is up to the principal on how many choices the cafeteria is allowed to offer. Some of them do not want a choice offered because they say it slows the line down too much. As far as me not taking this personally. I'm one of those people that get in there and bust my butt to prepare the meals and have people like you come in and say how terrible it looksand taste. We do the best with what we get so yeah I take it personally.It is not easy work in the kitchen. It is hot and we are on time schedules and then you want to gripe because what is served dont please you. If steak and baked potato was served someone would still gripe. Thats nature. So tell those cafeteria people thank you next time you walk by one of them and its 75 degrees outside and hotter than that in the kitchen because they still have the heat on and on top of that they have two to three ovens going.That would probably make it about 100 degrees in the kitchen. Yet they still do their best to smile and talk to the kids as they come through to get their tray because that may be the only smile that child gets that day.Dont come to me about get on board. As far as I see the only thing your complaing is going to do is get the kitchens contracted out and more people will be without a job and then you will really have something to complain about. Because the food more than likely it will be brought in fromm some place else and served to your child with the plastic still over like a TV dinner.And who was it that said that the workers in the kitchen only work for that paycheck when I said they work there for the children. Obviously you've never saw my paycheck and we sure don't stay because the parents and staff treat us so good as you can tell from this blog. When they have dinners for the staff that means the teachers and if they do bother telling the cafeteria people by the time we get done serving the children lunch there is nothing left. So dont call me sweetie thats just another way for you to try and put me down.
ReplyDeleteSeems someone is putting a LOT of words into my mouth. I have a good relationship with the wonderful ladies in our cafeteria- and I do not tell them ANYTHING they do is terrible. I do not blame them for any of this. I know they do what they do because they love their jobs. I DO tell them thank you.
ReplyDeleteThings are very different at our school- our cafeteria staff is usually who initiates our special lunches, and they are most certainly included- and it is not unusual for teachers (as I did today in fact) to give up part of their lunch periods to "scrub in" and help fill those trays. I just wish we weren't filling it with corn chips and cheese sauce. I am sorry if that is not how things work at your school.
And if you think ANYONE checking in here is in favor of contracting out to a company that will bring more processed food in and get you out of a job, you may want to go back and reread. We want MORE staff in each schools, so the work is smoother and the food is healthier. I fail to see why anyone would disagree with that goal.
I'm done here.
Thanks again Mrs. Tree.
Anonymous,I'm so glad that you are one of the nice teachers that do help the cafeteria people when they get behind and that you don't look down on them. There are some very nice teachers that do come and help when we are short handed and know we can't get help and there are teachers that can't be bothered.As for going back and rereading where does it say that you want more staff all it says is that you want healthier menus.You of all people should know what its like to get more people hired or to get better pay.They don't figure how much help you get in a kitchen on how hard the menus are anyway. The cafeterias can't keep help because like Mrs. Tree said they can make more money at fast food places. I've seen people get one paycheck and quit because they say they can't live on what we make and I've saw people walk off the job because they say the work is to hard. Yeah the menus could be better but not all of the menus are bad.Like I keep repeating you have to try and fix something the children will eat also.Its better that child eat something on that tray than throw the whole thing in the trash. As for only serving white milk because of all the sugar in the flavored milks. The children will not take any drink at all. Isn't it better that they take that flavored milk so they get that calcium and vitamins for their growing bones and bodies than doing without.You say "We want MORE staff in each school so the work is smoother and the food is healthier". If we lived in a perfect world that is what we would have and teachers would not have so many children in there classes either.
ReplyDeleteCame here on a recommendation from a friend and I'm glad I did. For the record, I love our lunch personnel (esp. at my kids schools where they are freaking awesome).
ReplyDeleteHere's a fun experiment, get that white "wheat" bread and a slice of white bread and a slice of real whole grain wheat bread and put them in a bowl of orange juice, which simulates stomach acid. See what happens. I did this with 3rd graders last year as part of a unit on Food Security.
Ballenger Thank you when I get a chance I am going to try this and see what happens I like experiments like this even though I was terrible in science as a child.
ReplyDelete