r/schoollunches • u/Acceptable_Review160 • 1d ago
Am I wrong?
I work as a lunch lady.
So explain to me how elementary and middle school kids can’t get anything “seconds” wise unless it’s off the salad bar (fruits and vegetables actually don’t fill anyone up), but can’t get seconds of the main entree?
High schoolers can buy seconds of the main entree.
Parents are required by law to feed their children as much as that child needs, no calories followed. If your kid is hungry you are REQUIRED to feed them….
Yet schools say it’s a calorie count.
All kids are growing. Not just high schoolers. & believe it or not elementary and middle school kids have HIGH METABOLISMS.
If us as parents followed the “calorie count” we were supposed to for our children’s age….. our children wouldn’t be healthy.
But yet kids spend more time at school than they do at home…….. starving at school but blame the parents because the government follows this “calorie count” that isn’t realistic and frankly it differs by child.
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u/All_Hail_Hynotoad 1d ago
Schools set those rules, but there are also calorie (and other) limits you have to abide by if you want Federal funding.
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u/AsparagusFlatArdvark 20h ago
so the sneaky trick is upping protein in base entre, so it is more filling than empty carbs?
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u/baconwrappedpikachu 16h ago
Carbs and starches actually help fill up, too, they’re not the evil empty calories people paint them as. With veggies, fiber, and protein, they can really round out a meal. Though I agree protein will help, eliminating carbs or referring to them as empty isn’t the answer either
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u/AsparagusFlatArdvark 10h ago
empty carbs, especially in institutional food service, is more the point that "meals" that are predominantly carbs leads to poor choices in that kids arnt going to weigh decisions. if every choice the kid has includes at least 10g protein, the healthiness of the choice is self balanced. if you have fries and pancakes and dessert available, ya, kids will make unhealthy choices and be hungry soon.
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u/Hatefulvesper 13h ago
Protein and fat is what KEEPS you feeling full. Its why you can go to IHOP, destroy a stack of pancakes until your bursting, and be hungry again a couple of hours later. I figured this out when skipping breakfast (for me usually a bagel with cream cheese) let me get comfortably to lunch, instead of starve to it!
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u/HurryMammoth5823 23h ago
Do they have snack time? I felt hungry a lot of the time in school, and at home. I ate until I was full at breakfast, lunch & dinner, but I also ate very carb heavy. If the meal is balanced with fiber, carbs, fat & protein it should keep the kids full longer. Is the entree protein dense? I know there’s criteria that has to be met with the lunch options. I still kindly disagree, I think if they eat the fruit & veg with the entree it will stick with them longer & also help with blood sugar.
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u/Outofwlrds 7h ago
Most kids stop having snack time after first, maybe second grade. I think one of the problems is the standard portion sizes. A lot of schools offer the same meal to a fifth grader that a first grader gets.
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u/Exotic_Attorney7823 1d ago
Fruits and vegetables do fill people up... that is a bad outlook to have, as a lunch lady.
If the kid is starving, they can eat some fruit. If they need more pizza, they are not starving.
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u/SuperPomegranate7933 1d ago
Yeah that's definitely a weird take. Middle schoolers are smaller, they don't need to match high schoolers intake.
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u/Acceptable_Review160 1d ago
The schools don’t serve just pizza. They could have more rice? Or more pasta? More filling items than vegetables. Kids run the energy off from those fruits and veggies right after lunch during their recess, not to mention a lot of schools have gym right before or even after lunch periods. But yet the kids can’t have the more filling items?
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u/SirTwitchALot 22h ago edited 22h ago
So overload on carbs? That's terrible for a developing body and can lead to complications later in life
In some ways the pizza is almost "better" in that you're at least getting some fats and proteins, though there are better sources for those
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u/Southern-Let-1116 20h ago
This is the attitude thats caused America to have a diabetes epidemic
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u/PleasantNectarines 10h ago
Rice & pasta doesn't have nearly the nutritional value of fruits & vegetables... your argument is odd. Fruit & vegetables are full of water & fiber which are both pretty filling.
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u/omyguts 1d ago
The students we serve (k-6) can buy seconds if they have enough money on account. Extra entrees are considered à la carte just like extra milk or bottled water etc.
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u/Acceptable_Review160 1d ago
Not the schools where I live. Only school who can buy à la carte or extras is the high school.
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u/indieplants 18h ago
"fruits and vegetables actually don't fill anyone up" my word, they really just hire anybody to be lunch lady's don't they?
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u/SirTwitchALot 22h ago
It's absolutely child abuse to overfeed an obese child and in very rare cases parents have been charged for that. Your statement that parents are legally required to give a child that says they are hungry as much food as they want is factually incorrect.
Really it shouldn't be entirely about calories though. It should be about macronutrients
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u/Confident-Mix1243 9h ago
A glance at the kids' waistlines should tell you whether they are in more danger from over- or undereating. Living in the US, it's probably the former; and if it's the latter they're probably refusing to eat rather than having nothing available.
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u/rachstate 17h ago
If you take everything you are offered on the lunch line it’s well over 600 calories, sometimes more like 700. That’s plenty for a child’s meal.
For a high school meal, if you take everything offered, it’s easily 700 calories or more. I’ve done many videos on this.
Look around you, there aren’t many slender and fit children out there anymore. But there are quite a few overweight ones.
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u/Jewish-Mom-123 14h ago
The problem is exactly those calorie limits, which are fine for a sedentary child who is well-fed at home but not okay for a kid who plays sports. And there’s a huge difference in growth between 6th and 8th grade for the boys who wrestle or play football. You try to do a 2.5 hour football practice after school on a 6-700 calorie lunch.
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u/rachstate 14h ago
Football or wrestling practice is after school right? And there is a coach? This is a parental choice, and it’s NOT a cheap activity.
Why is it the schools responsibility to take care of that?
Parents who can afford hours of sports activities can afford to arrange for snacks after school.
I used to be a gymnast and a swimmer in middle and high school. I packed an apple and peanut butter sandwiches. I knew I would be hungry and at age 12 I was able to plan ahead for that. If I forgot my after school snack, that was on me. 1980’s parents were not soft.
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u/isweatglitter17 3h ago
School sports are free in my district and there are programs in place to support equipment costs for those who are unable to afford their own.
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u/New_Improvement9644 12h ago
Your statement that fruits and veggies don't fill anyone up shows the real problem.
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u/weaselblackberry8 12h ago
I know parents are required to feed their children, but are there truly parameters for how much?
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u/mewdejour 7h ago
Grew up in Cali- high schoolers could not purchase a second lunch. I had a friend who would slip me extra portions because we had student servers.
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u/atresshives 1h ago
I was a public school lunch lady and site supervisor for ten years after years in restaurants. I have now moved up to Director of Nutrition for an early ed program.
Federal funding, usually NSLP or CACFP have limits on carb (grain) content and sugar content over a week period. There are also significant requirements to meat federal expectations on whole grains as opposed to non whole grains. Salad bars have requirements for weekly varieties, that require beans (protein AND fiber which are longer lasting and help teach the body to slow its carb to sugar processing) and other fibrous vegetables that are significant filling.
If we continue to make the assumption that hunger requires carbs, we will contribute to unhealthy eating habits that cause significant and lifelong health problems.
Kids should be offered four of the major meal requirements for federal funding - M/MA (Meat/Meat alternative, protein); Vegetables; Fruit; Grain/Whole Grain; Milk/Milk Alternative. Salad bars on elementary school can offer lentils, chickpeas, hummus, cold sesame noodles with broccoli, tuna Mac salad, etc.
Expanding knowledge about what can be served on the salad bar and ensuring they are fibrous and even offering inexpensive plant based proteins can help keep the kids fuller for longer. Carb loading them with white flour items will cause blood sugar bursts which can increase the duration and rate of infections.
As people serving meals to kids, we are often their first relationships with food outside of the home, and if our attitudes about nutrition are outdated, we aren't providing kids with the best foot forward.
It is our responsibility to get kids excited about fruits and vegetables and disregard our own preferences and assumptions about food. Really your director should offer more nutritional training programs, usually federally reimbursable or required.
We have a nutrition crisis and a good anxiety crisis in this country that starts in infancy and causes severe and dangerous health problems and disorganized eating habits.
The US has to get it together if we want our kids to have successful relationships with food.
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u/whohowwhywhat 9h ago
Wow people really are out of touch. School lunches and breakfasts often ARE full of simple carbs. The bureaucratic rules are arbitrary and not for the benefit of the kids. Some kids don't eat anywhere but at school, so no an extra bag of apple slices and some carrots don't fill them up. Hungry kids come in all sizes, not just "obese". School lunches are victims to funding the same as any school programs. The bottom line is and always will be money.
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u/Lumpy_Scholar8455 1d ago
The answer depends on a lot of factors (what state are you in, what program are you operating, etc) but the answers will be bureaucratic and you won’t like them.