CSD Committee’s Top 10 Items to Remove or Change from School Menus
Decatur Metro | September 4, 2012At the request of Superintendent Phyllis Edwards, CSD’s Ultimate Menu Committee has come up with this Top 10 list of changes they’d like to see to the school system’s lunch menus. The Decatur School Board will be asked to approve this Top 10 list at this evening’s meeting. Here’s the list, which comes from the committee recommendations document, attached to the agenda for tonight’s meeting…
Top Ten Menu Elimination and/or Change items
- Chocolate milk – eliminate in K-3 and propose a phase out for grades 4 and up
- Muffins – eliminate highly processed products, could replace with healthier versions
- Pancakes, waffles and french toast – eliminate highly processed products, could replace with healthier versions
- Chips – eliminate highly processed and/or fried chips, replace with healthier (baked) chips
- Chicken Nuggets – eliminate highly processed products, replace with
- healthier versions
- Shrimp Poppers/Fried Fish – eliminate pre-fried products, could replace with non-fried version, if available
- Dried Potatoes, Tater Tots/Potato Triangles – eliminate highly processed and pre-fried products
- High Sugar Desserts – eliminate
- Peanut Butter: with hydrogenated oil and sugar – replace with product without added oils
- Highly Processed Cheese (i.e. cheese sauces, American cheese, etc) –replace with real cheese
Booooooooooo!
Your kids won’t hit their obesity targets now.
Why do you hate kids?
No more fun of any kind!
What here do you equate with ‘fun’?
You’re being awfully literal this morning, eh? Eliminating chocolate milk, etc. struck me as similar to the dean in Animal House, hence the quote. Maybe chocolate milk isn’t “fun” in the traditional sense but it is a treat, so it is not worlds apart.
By the way, on a somewhat related note, http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/agriculture/study-questions-how-much-better-organic-food-is/nR2nN/
Does this mean that the organic double fudge chocolate chip cookies/brownies I’ve been feeding my child aren’t healthy???
Only if you top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. For the calcium, of course.
I guess it sorta boils down to the question of, when do you allow your kid to make their own totally unbridled food decisions?
I send my kids’ milk to school. The five year old came home from kindergarten with the wondrous announcement that he had bought chocolate milk that day. Chocolate milk is a rare treat around here. I was pretty shocked it was available to kindergartners!
this is just one of the several mentions of choc. milk in Runners’ World…
CHOCOLATE MILK HELPS YOU LOSE BODY FAT
About 30 men and women participated in a four-and-a-half week training program at the University of Texas at Austin that included cycling hard for an hour a day, five days a week. Right after their ride and again an hour later, subjects drank chocolate milk or a carb beverage. The 2011 study found that chocolate milk? drinkers gained more lean muscle and lost more body fat (thanks to milk’s protein) than those downing the carb drink.
ACTION: To help shed body fat and boost muscle gains, follow long workouts with a tall glass of chocolate milk.
Since the recommendations just came out that recess be no less than 20 minutes, something tells me they aren’t following a long run with a tall glass of chocolate milk. More like a morning of sitting in one place followed by a big carton of sugar.
Not weighing in for or against chocolate milk, but – the conclusion of that study should be that a carb drink is worse for you than chocolate milk.
PS – that study was probably funded by a dairy association.
PPS – read “Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes for more on how screwed up our nutritional science process is.
good points, Demanda & TeeRuss
Kudos. Every little bit helps.
Is 1% or 2% chocolate milk available? My kids don’t drink milk, but it’s the only source of calcium for some kids. Encouraging them with chocolate flavor as opposed to eliminating that option may be preferable.
If CSD takes away chicken nuggets, there might be a revolt. I can’t stand that they are available, but a week with chicken nuggests on the menu, is a cause for celebration in the Arriba household.
Agree that low or non-fat chocolate milk has enough benefit in terms of calcium that it is worth the bit of extra sugar. Not sure that the low/no fat versions are available in school lunch-sized cartons. Many a little kid has been fed chocolate milk to ensure adequate calcium intake, especially those who do not like cheese, yogurt, and other diary. There’s calcium-fortified foods, e.g. OJ, but often picky eaters do not like those either.
Speaking of which, for regular milk, which versions are in the school cafeteria? Whole milk? Lowfat? No fat? A choice? One problem is that milk can taste funny if you are used to drinking one level of fat/no fat content but then are served another. No fat milk can taste watery to kids accustomed to whole milk. Conversely, whole milk can taste too rich and nauseating to those accustomed to low fat or no fat milk.
The problem with chicken nuggets is the extremely high ratio of tastiness to nutritional value. They are so addictive. Unlike chocolate milk, they do not have much of a nutritional silver lining. Even healthier (i.e. lower fat, lower salt) versions don’t have much nutritive value other than calories. Completely agree that an entire generation of hot lunchers will protest the removal of chicken nuggets from the CSD menu. But eventually, I suppose, a new generation will get used to the new normal…..
Don’t some nutritional studies claim that nonfat milk is basically nothing but sugar the way the body breaks it down?
Could be. Since it doesn’t have fat, it’s got to have something. It’s got milk protein, lots of calcium, and lactose, a milk sugar. The calcium is what makes milk good for you. Lactose is bad for the lactose-intolerant. Otherwise, it’s just a natural sugar. But its concentration in milk is nothing like chewing a Starburst. The milk protein is a good thing unless you are allergic to it, which some are. The water component of milk is a good thing.
By the way, chocolate milk really shouldn’t taste like a dessert. Kids like it just fine with a much lower dose of chocolate flavor than what’s in commercial chocolate milk. Reducing the amount of chocolate and sugar in the nonfat chocolate milk being served at school would be a goal I could support. Maybe this is an idea for a new business…….healthy chocolate milk! All the calcium of the other chocolate milks with none of the sugar rush!
According to the current lunch menu, the milk options right now are 1%, skim and fat free chocolate.
Fat-free chocolate should stay on the menu. It’s actually healthy in terms of calcium plus there’s little fat. It’s not so high in calories that it will interfere with eating a good meal.
Have you seen how much added sugar is in it? Kids can get calcicum from different source other than milk if they don’t drink plain milk.
I don’t think it’s that bad: e.g. for 8 oz., 130 vs. 90 calories and 23 g of sugar vs. 12 g but it depends on the brand. As a comparison, a 6 oz. container of Stoneyfield Vanilla Nonfat yogurt also provides 30% of daily required calcium and has 100 calories and 17 grams of sugar. I’m not saying it’s great but it certainly isn’t what I’d target first on the school menu. What is a shame is that chocolate milk does not have to taste like a dessert. I like a weaker version much better myself because that’s what my mom made growing up. There doesn’t have to be a lot of added sugar at all. I’m not sure if anyone makes a commercial version that is a little less chocolately and a lot less sugary.
So someone give me some good, tasty ways besides dairy foods to get 1,000-1,300 mg of calcium into kids daily. There’s a reason that women are often told to take calcium supplements–it’s hard to ingest that much calcium without incurring other excesses.
Glad to hear the shout-outs for chocolate milk here. On a number of occasions I have heard moms make very derisive comments about kids drinking chocolate milk. I have one of those kids who is finicky and will not drink plain milk. I’ve always thought (and been assured by our pediatrician) that it’s better she drink chocolate milk than no milk at all.
+1
Agree, but it is less about the fat in the milk than the extra sugar. More and more we are hearing about sugar being a major player in the obesity epidemic – fat helps you to feel satisfied, sugar is just more-ish.
Bingo. Sugar is a toxin, fat is a necessary part of a human diet.
Sugar is a toxin? Even naturally occurring sugars in fruits and vegetables? I don’t think sugars are literally toxins but many people use and eat them in a toxic manner. There’s a difference. It’s like alcohol–moderate amounts may be good for you. But many people use it in amounts that are toxic. (By the way, maltose in beer is a sugar!)
I just finished an unofficial phone survey of Decatur children.
The summarized results: Get rid of yummy, replace with yucky.
Didn’t they just extend recess for K-3? That should help compensate for all the chocolate milk and tasty chicken nuggets, no?
Seriously though, good recs (though I agree with Arriba about kids not otherwise drinking milk).
First they came for the tater tots.
Wow….I just came in here to post that exact sentence. Word for word. Eerie.
Great minds, etc.
and I was going to post “First they came for the great minds and THEN the tater tots.” Even more eerie!
Sillies. First, they came for Chick-fil-a.
And then the mob came for J_T …
Given that half of Decatur’s children get their meals from the local pubs while we, their parents engage in liquid diets, I am sure they will still get their daily allotment of fat, sugar and fried foods. Unless of course the pubs decide to ban children.
Well, as I sip my uber-caloric craft beer, I make a point to tell my kids that food is for sustenace only, it is not to be enjoyed. So shut up and eat your kale. It works perfectly.
Hopefully one day we will eliminate the need for food and will gain sustenance only through government-approved IVs that transmit fat and sugar free nutrients. Then we can all be skinny and finally enjoy life.
That’s great news for CSD. Students drinking chocolate milk and eating unhealthy food have a harder time learning, as their bodies are filled with sugar, carbs, and fat. I applaud CSD for looking into this issue and trying to get it right.
I think this is great news and a step (or 10) in the right direction. I couldn’t believe that chips were showing up on the menu for my elementary kids. The healthfulness of school menus should be better than, not just equal to, what kids are typically getting at their homes.
Do children in grades K-2 even pay attention to the percentage of fat in their milk?
There have been numerous studies of the benefit of low fat chocolate milk. It is the best recovery drink post soccer. Having a kid choose low fat chocolate milk vs no milk is a better option. All the changes have turned my older child off of school lunches (middle school) in addition to saying the portions have been too small. (dang growth spurts) so now I get to make his lunch five days a week.
Kudos to CSD for being proactive on this!! Chocolate milk and the other items on this list are full of sugar, fat, and chemicals. Healthy eating habits start young and kids eat many if not most of their meals at school.
I agree! There are too many chemicals in everything! Especially that pesky dihydrogen monoxide – did you know that it’s in EVERYTHING you eat and drink?! AND in the atmosphere? AND that it’s been PROVEN to be toxic in high doses? And that it can harbor the growth of dangerous bacteria like legionella and giardia? Dihydrogen monoxide can even suffocate you if you inhale too much of it! How is this stuff legal?!
We need to inform the masses and get the Decatur Schools to ban deadly dihydrogen monoxide! I can’t believe the CDC isn’t doing more about this dangerous chemical!
And if you think it’s just dangerous to eat, ask those Gitmo prisoners about dihydrogen monoxide-boarding.
It looks like some similar cutbacks to the cafeteria offerings in NYC ran into issues with not providing students, particularly older students, with enough calories (at least according to federal requriements) . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/nyregion/calories-in-some-nyc-school-lunches-were-below-federal-requirements.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/411888-chocolate-milk-health-benefits-in-elementary-schools/
I wonder why they failed to mention the painful infected swollen udders this glorious product hails from, the pus that flows in, antibiotics, growth hormones, and God only knows what else in it? Probably just an oversight. I’m not a vegetarian but milk is not the only way to get calcium, and what cows have to go through to get milked until they die, is incredibly heinous. Not all farms produce milk in such a cruel manner, but the factory ones are the biggest culprits, and they are the ones producing milk for school lunch programs. Drink up!
Hey now, Livestrong is 100% in favor of growth hormones (and blood doping). It is unfair of you to suggest otherwise.
Thank you. That is why I drink soy milk. Until Rosebud is happy, I cannot support the milk industry.
No yogurt, cheese, kefir, cottage cheese, ricotta, ice cream, frozen yogurt? No dairy?
almond milk is also very tasty!
What is a non-fried version of fried fish? And shrimp poppers? Any substitute would, well, be an entirely new menu item. Why not just call it for what it is and get rid of it?
I suspect that they really meant non-pre-fried? I speculate that the fry/batter increases the mass by 2x and makes it cost effective.
Maybe a breaded and baked shrimp popper? They are actually a favorite of one of my kids. We rarely eat fried food at home, so I haven’t worried about the occasional shrimp popper.
My kids vote for no weekly Fiesta day (perhaps we could alternate Mexican with the cuisines from other Spanish speaking countries).
Maybe a compromise on the chocolate milk? Only on Mondays and Fridays?
I would prefer all milk be fat free and water be offered to those who dislike milk, particularly if chocolate milk is not offered.
I don’t think there were any members of the Math Department on this committee
I was thinking the same thing–is it top 10 or the 11?
Looks like a word processing, not math, error. Item number 5, “Chicken Nuggets – eliminate highly processed products, replace with healthier versions”, got split accidentally and created two items, number 5, “Chicken Nuggets – eliminate highly processed products, replace with”, and item number 6, “healthier versions”. I’m sure that the committee is not targeting “healthier versions” for elimination.
And “11. Highly Processed Cheese (i.e. cheese sauces, American cheese, etc) –replace with real cheese” should be replaced with nothing if it’s a list of 11 things.
Good point. Improving the CSD menu isn’t just about eliminating unhealthy items but also about adding healthy foods.
Wrong part of thread. Sorry.
How about chocolate milk just on Fridays, so that kids both get to have this treat, and learn that a treat is defined by not being available all day every day?
So happy to see the changes, now if we could just get Jamie Oliver…
Kara – Agree. Jamie Oliver’s mission is outstanding. So is the show. But we aren’t close to needing him in Decatur. We are far ahead of some of the schools that he visited. Some of the kids didn’t even know that cheese came from cows!
No way! It must hurt like heck as it passes through their udders.
I always thought it came in powdered form inside macaroni and cheese boxes.
Either way…cheese…icky.
I totally support the effort to make school lunches healthier. As someone who gamely buys a school lunch to show solidarity with the students whenever I eat with my child, I have seen some less than healthy and appealing lunches over the years.
But non-fat chocolate milk per se probably does not belong on the banned list. One cup can provide a third of what kids need every day for calcium, especially important for girls. See Oak Farm Dairy Fat-free Chocolate Milk: http://www.oakfarmsdairy.com/products/flavored-milk/fat-free-chocolate-milk.aspx. The content of this product doesn’t look bad to me.
Serving Size: 1 cup (240 ml)
Calories 130 Calories from Fat 0
% Daily Values
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 5mg 2%
Sodium 190mg 8%
Potassium 12%
Total Carbohydrate 25g 8%
Fiber <1g 3%
Sugar 23g
Protein 9g
Vitamin A 10% Vitamin C 2%
Calcium 30% Iron 2%
Vitamin D 25%
I checked and the only thing that makes the chocolate different from the regular fat-free milk is that it's 130 vs. 90 calories and 23 g of sugar vs. 12 g. I looked at other brands of fat-free chocolate milk and they are similar in composition although some have more sugar–not the ones to buy. As a comparison, a 6 oz. container of Stoneyfield Vanilla Nonfat yogurt also provides 30% of daily required calcium and has 100 calories and 17 grams of sugar.
Full disclosure: Our family drinks regular nonfat milk only and only rarely buys chocolate milk. We do occasionally make hot cocoa in the winter with real nonfat milk, baking cocoa powder, and sugar. I hate the hot cocoa made from water.
All great ideas, EXCEPT the chocolate milk. Better kids get low fat milk, of any flavor, than sodas or sugary “fruit drinks”.
Gotta say to those of you railing against this effort… watch Jamie Oliver’s show… it freaked me out.
If you’re not worried about your kids eating fried and re-fried foods, over-processed chips, nuggets, etc…. God bless you and the health problems that will come with it. There are kids as young as 7-12 years old with full on diabetes because of their eating habits.
They need to develop good eating habits as children to have good eating habits as adults. Look at the statistics, folks. We are the fattest country in the world.
No one wants to take the enjoyment out of food like the ‘eat kale and only kale until the government gives us an IV for all our nutrients’ guy above… in fact, when food is prepared fresh on site without processing, it tastes BETTER. It is BETTER for you. It can be done for the same cost OR LESS.
Clearly logic is not in play for some folks.
Don’t compare nutritional info to the federal requirements as a litmus test… the federal requirements themselves are flawed.
I don’t see a lot of railing against the effort here. Mostly applause and a lot of humor from folks who are bored with cracking jokes about Chick Fil A and Walmart. There is a question of why nonfat chocolate milk with all its calcium would be on the list when things like hot dogs and pizza are not. You have to go over to Decatur Patch to find true railing.
Jeez, I might suggest lightening up a little. I am not sure how you could possibly take the kale and IV thing seriously.
What you are talking about w/r/t diabetes is not going to be the product of a few chips, chocolate milk, etc in moderation. It is the product of significant overeating of that sort of food. And that means the kids are eating that stuff away from school. I don’t have anything against serving healthy school lunches (though outright bans of some of these things is a little dramatic) but doubt it will solve anything. I really doubt that morbidly obese 4th graders get that way because of school lunches as opposed to a lack of parental control at home.
Keep the chocolate milk and add hot dogs to the list. That ranks higher in gross ingredients than chocolate milk.
Yeah, I’m real surprised that hot dogs aren’t on the list. Maybe CSD has already banned them or they already serve the fat-free kind? There’s also the choking danger with hot dogs. A teenager wolfing down a hotdog in the 10 minutes they get for lunch while laughing and walking is an accident waiting to happen.
I let my kids choose which lunches they want from the school menu, so we go through it every month. I do not recall seeing hotdogs on the menus in the last year+ that we’ve been doing this.
In the many years preceding our new strategy, I packed lunches every single day–healthy lunches, to be sure. But the strides that Decatur has taken with the Farm to School effort convinced me last year to give myself a break and let my kids have school lunch a few days per week.
You know life has changed when boiled hot dogs are no longer on the school lunch menu. Wow. Maybe we’ll see tofu-infused quinoa with agave-sweetened rice cakes for dessert soon! I can still remember being in first grade and staring at an enormous tray full of plump, overboiled hot dog, sticky baked beans, canned beet slices, and nauseating chocolate pudding and wondering how would I ever eat all that so I could go outside to recess…….
….that’s another point–Have we also gotten away from the eat-everything-on-your-plate-there’s-starving-children-in-India thing? Making kids eat after they are already full sets up unhealthy, eating behaviors. And if students are leaving lots of food on their plates, maybe we ought to be changing the recipes rather than forcing them to eat.
If you ever have the chance to dine with your children, you will notice how much food goes into the trash. Most children don’t eat enough to sustain them.
The chicken nuggets are so full of pepper, most kids won’t touch them.
The fried items are mostly unrecognizable, the mystery meat is still there.
Farm to school is helping but we have a long road to go.
The lunch ladies are required to put all items on the plate whether they will be eaten or not.
How about removing all processed items?
No item should have more than one ingredient in it.
The 4/5 has a beautiful kitchen but no one who is actually cooking real food.
Seriously? Nothing should have more than one ingredient? What about spaghetti? Or fruit salad? Let’s not go overboard.
By the way, ever look at what comes in those lunches from home? As a veteran CSD cafeteria visitor, I can tell you that the majority of lunch items I saw coming out of lunch containers were not quinoa with almonds and dried cranberries, tofu on whole grain bread, or organic cheddar on rice cakes, or even close. PBJ, Lunchables, chips, cookies, juice containers. I’m not criticizing–it’s HARD to pack a healthy lunch day after day for kids who are picky eaters or easily bored or both. Thank goodness for carrot sticks and apples. So hats off to CSD for how hard it tries to serve healthy lunches.
yum- thanks for the dinner suggestion!
The way my kids report it, every other kid in their class has Doritos and dessert in their packed at home lunches.
And candy. Even though I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed, I’ve seen candy come out of home-packed lunches. Now that’s where I get righteous. Other than for Halloween or Christmas treats, why would anyone waste the family food budget on junky candy? Adding to the needless sugar, obesity risk, diabetes risk, as-yet-to-be-discovered other health risks, is the certainty that it corrodes kids’ teeth. I’m not a Nazi about forbidding it but I do not waste my money on it. And I would be embarrassed to send it in a school lunch–out comes the quinoa salad in the reusable PVC-free container, the organic apple, the bottled water, and the………Starbursts and Skittles!
Full disclosure: I crave truly good, usually European, usually expensive chocolate. But I wouldn’t waste it on kids. Let them grow up and earn their own money and buy expense chocolate for themselves.
I think it might be against school policy to send candy in your child’s lunch.
About time! Pizza should be next
Yeah, the plastic crap they serve currently needs to go…make it with REAL crust and REAL sauce and REAL cheese and maybe it would sell…
No problem with adding healthy choices. I just wish we would also focus on some other important questions like: why in this economy did we spend previous resources sending folks to Cancun for an IB conference? Love IB. great for kids. I just think attending conference in Cancun sounds a bit excessive. I know most of our folks are IB trained. we also have a knowlegeable IB coordinator also wonder if teachers were in attendance?
I’m on the Ultimate Menu Committee and our top ten list asks for removal or *change* for some food items. Shrimp poppers and chicken nuggets will still exist, but the breading will be made with good ingredients, not highly processed — and the items will have whole meat or fish.. and will not be fried but baked. We’re also asking that these foods not show up frequently on the menu (3x a week) but once or twice a month.
We do want to get to the point where parents can feel confident that the lunches served in our cafeterias are healthier and better balanced than a lunch that’s packed from home.
We’re getting there!!
Yes, milk is a source a calcium. That said, there are many sources of calcium other than dairy. Check out a serving of chia in a chia muffin – 5xs the calcium of dairy. This sort of reminds me of suggesting to my wife that blood mary’s are a great source of vitamins. Lets call chocolate milk what it is – Liquid Desert. Asking four and five year old kids to choose between chocolate flavored, sugar sweetened milk and white milk is a comical exercise and it sets up expectations that foods are always sugary.
Somewhere Sarah Palin is seething with rage…
Kudos to Clare and others who have spent countless hours working on our food program. They’ve made great strides, but, as they know, the program has so far to go. I’m THRILLED with the proposed changes. About the milk….it’s not the worst thing in the world, but if our non-white milk drinkers aren’t given a choice of chocolate milk, maybe they’ll actually start drinking plain milk. Imagine that. Thank you to Decatur Farm to School and to the Ultimate Meals committee….and to our school board for being open to menu changes.
I’m in favor of chocolate milk being banned..it really is a dessert. Just give kids the option of water or lowfat milk. If you have a picky milk drinker than load them up with the chocolatey stuff at home.
I wish someone would give this memo to honey boo boo child.
I watched 5 minutes of that show and I could feel my IQ drop…
You should get the TV out of the house and be careful about what you listen to on the radio.
I suspect the people who are all “don’t give them a choice and they’ll drink the regular milk” don’t have very picky eaters to contend with, but I could be wrong. Similarly, most children want to please (not all, but most of the time) and are naturally compliant, and folks with typically compliant children probably also have a tough time truly imagining what it’s like to deal with a strong-willed child, try as they may. My child will eat nothing all day rather than a bite of something she doesn’t want to eat. No one at the school is going to “make” her eat anything (nor do I expect them to). That circle of hell and all its tears and teeth gnashing is reserved for her parents around our dinner table. Of course, we pack her lunch anyways, but it will continue to contain (in addition to the healthiest, most nutritious foods I can expect her to actually ingest), most days, hormone-free, low fat chocolate milk.
Yup. My easy child was first. So I’ve had these self-righteous moments when I’m all “What’s wrong with these parents? You just have to set limits and consequences and be consistent and you too can have a pleasant, compliant, well-liked, polite, caring child.” Then number two was a whole other species and I realize that it’s all serendipity not my well-researched, heartfelt, skilled, consequence-driven parenting. The parents who have two or three easy children probably think they’re parenting geniuses. Maybe those children will later rebel strongly or join the wrong political party or marry someone dislikable. It all evens out in somewhere, somehow, I don’t when.
I had exactly the same experience with Child #1 and Child #2.
For me it was child #1 who is challenging and has been since birth. He will not eat rather than eat a food he doesn’t like. Since he was my first, I didn’t know for years that most children are more easy going, want to please, and respond positively to the parenting methods of the “experts”. Some kids are just wired differently–they are more sensitive, more intense, more everything.
I understand the changes for the lower grade levels, but for high school? Really? Do they not understand that foods like chips and cookies bring in profit? Instead of constantly bugging me for donations, why not let high schoolers be the judge of their nutrition and buy what they want, and bring in the (massive) extra money which can be spend on our school systems. When they still had cookies and other food like such, they sold like lightning. I’m all for healthy food, but at least bring the “fun” food back. If a high school student can’t determine what’s healthy or not, I worry about their future.
wanna guess which kids gorge themselves on sugar once they get to the corner store with money? those who have it as a forbidden fruit. not saying feed kids sugar every day but don’t make things so rare that kids will eat all they can when out of your sight… seen them do it many times. where kids know they have a choice….they can learn to make the healthy choices.. give them the option of white milk vs low fat, low hormone chocolate they’ll drink both.
FULLY support the lessening of the processed foods and other recommendations.
Once again amazed at the direction of the original post…omg + wtcraziness?
I looked at the menu recommendations document from the link above. I says that “salt-free seasonings” were eliminated. I thought salt free seasonings were a good thing. Things like basil, rosemary, dill, garlic…. right?
Also… I guess the ultimate food committee isn’t too keen on Revolution Doughnuts.
Hey, the peach sliders have some redeeming nutritional value–fresh, tree-ripened organic peaches!
Looks like the chocolate milk is safe for now…
http://decatur.patch.com/articles/decatur-school-board-to-study-chocolate-milk-proposal
Is there a good history of milk out there? It seems like such a potentially interesting element of our society. Or how about this, what percentage of the humans on the planet drink milk on a daily basis? Better yet, what percentage of children over 2?
Nick Wilson saves chocolate milk for Decatur children!
Cow’s milk is not a perfect product by any means. But our cuisine is built upon the use of milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, etc. And it’s the most convenient way to get enough calcium into kids that they don’t have problems later in life with bone density. It would be a major shift to move away from cow’s milk.
I wish CSD could make its own chocolate milk. You can do it so that there’s very little added sugar. But that would be work and would have its own food safety issues.
Every day, in my coffee. Most days, with my cereal.
Both me and the 10 year old have a glass of milk every day. 10 year old usually has 2 more before the end of the night.
I’m getting anxious and realizing we aren’t eating well. Could someone please provide me with a 7-day, 3 meals a day, set of menus that are healthy but provide adequate fat, protein, carbs, and nutrients?
How did humans survive before grocery stores!?!
This is great. If we could also expand the farm to school initiative to bring more healthy fruits and veggies to our school lunches, I might actually let my kids buy them!
Good point. Improving the CSD menu isn’t just about eliminating unhealthy items but also about adding healthy foods.
But doing all of that within a very narrow budget and accommodating federal guidelines.
Which means many of the things we may want as parents are simply not fiscally possible. Fresh fruit is best, but spoils quickly in comparison to the canned variety. Married to someone who runs an institutional kitchen (rather than one of the restaurant variety), for me, means knowing the unfortunate reality of cost/storage/production issues.
Interesting comments made by all…however as a parent that has provided more than one teacher appreciation breakfast, there is MUCH donated that falls within the “prohibited” list. Seems that is OK for teachers to have treats and/or choose wisely, but not kids.
I send dessert/some candy every day to school with my child. Without fail, what comes home are the *healthier* chips and dessert when she talks too much to have time to eat everything. Having observed lunch just last week, I was quite impressed with what kids brought and ate. It will never be perfect, and I recognize that. However, let’s remember that kids are kids, and should be allowed to eat junk in moderation. I never thought twice about eating a twinkie at 10, but now I labor over such a choice. I realize that the schools cannot control what kids eat at home, but let’s not reduce them to fruits, veggies and grains only at school. There should be some *fun* options.
Just went for my daughter’s annual checkup yesterday, and the doctor was more concerned about sugar drinks (soda, juice drinks, etc…) rather than chocolate milk.
This reminds me of my childhood. Rode in the back of a station wagon, no carseat or seatbelt. Drank soda. Rode a bike without a helmet. Still survived. I think we all need to chill. Let’s control what we can, and not expect the school to do the job of raising our kids for us.
Good point. If you don’t want your child to drink chocolate milk, pack their lunch with a drink or tell them to drink plain milk. Chocolate milk is not the only option. Many kids follow their parents’ rules even when parents aren’t around.
Of course, most of us survived. But is it our main goal to make sure children merely survive their way into adulthood?
I’m sorry to pick this out, but you say you favor junk in moderation, but send dessert/candy “every day” in your words? It’s absolutely your choice to do so, but that reads as fairly excessive.
Omg. Twinkie!!
My father bought a box for my then 4th grader who insisted on bringing one to lunch. The day before the lunch, said 4th grader found the box in my car and started waving one and yelling loudly to friends to see said twinkies (as they were all unaware of them). Mortified parents abounded.
I didn’t just survive, I received one undergraduate degree and two graduate degrees, all on full scholarship. This being raised on colas, chips and cookies. I played sports for 18 years, including in college.
But, thanks for the judgment. I am quite certain that if I looked into your world, I could find things I deem “excessive”.
My point was intended to be that everything in moderation is acceptable. Kids are meant to be kids, make mistakes and learn from them. We, as parents, are meant to guide, but from a reasonable distance.
I really wasn’t judging you, just questioning where you were coming from. Dessert/candy every day isn’t moderation in my opinion, that’s all.
Feeding children dessert or candy won’t derail their potential for success in life. But as you are doing so day in and day out, you are setting up their eating habits for the rest of their lives. Is every meal, even mundane midday ones, a meal for a luxury such as dessert and candy? Every dinner too?
In our house, yes. We have an active lifestyle that we have passed on to our child. Treats are just that, treats, not rewards for good behaviour. Just as hubby and I may enjoy a glass of wine or a beer with dinner (treat), if our child does a good job with her meal, she may also have a treat. This consists of a cookie or two, or maybe 10 M&Ms. Nothing decadent. We don’t use these things as enticements or bribes, but simply a nice way to end a balanced meal that was enjoyed.
I guess I look at the matter this way: How can I prohibit my child from watching TV when I enjoy doing the same at the end of my day? How can I prohibit my child from wanting to use the computer when I work at home in the evenings? How can I explain that it is OK for me to have my treat (wine/beer typically), but she can’t have hers? I would be more concerned if she had health issues, but she does not. So, I allow her little indulgences, much like I enjoy mine.
Again, I think back to my babysitting days, where one little child in particular would climb the pantry to where the goodies were the minute her parents left. Or my adolescent days when the kids that got in the most trouble were the ones whose parents held the tightest leash on them.
We will just have to agree to disagree on this one, but I DO feel that the end of every mundane meal should be followed up with a treat to enjoy the end of a morning or evening for that matter. I choose to grab on to the positives every day, and celebrate them. If that means a Nutter Butter or two twice a day, so be it.
I’m picturing little pint-sized chocolate milk speakeasies and shot houses where kids can get a boot-legged fix after chocolate prohibition begins.
Look for one to pop up at my house soon, with *gasp* baked chips and banana chips as sides! My child does not care for chocolate milk, she prefers the run of the mill regular variety, but I support kids’ ability to be kids and have fun with their food!
Have to say, growing up, the kids who rebelled against their parents the most (in a variety of ways) were the ones who were the most sheltered living with the most stringent rules. The minute their parents left the house, or they went out with their friends, all hell broke loose.
Re breaking away as an adolescent: And some of our kids seem to start at birth! The natural power struggle that exists between parents and many kids is one reason that it’s nice to have a healthy school environment that mirrors the choices we hope our children will make. By changing the cafeteria environment, we don’t have to have individual battles in homes all over Decatur. But with that power to change the environment comes the responsibility to be careful how we do it. We don’t want to accidentally cause a new problem–e.g. make it hard for some kids, especially the skinny picky eaters some of whom may be on medications that depress their appetites, to get an adequate calcium intake.
So I support the intentions of the Ultimate Menu Committee, commend them for their hard work, especially their choice of a great name!, but think that nonfat chocolate milk should remain an option at school. Maybe there should be an Opt In or Opt Out option for the little kids. Parents could get a permission form, kind of like the forms for use of photos or sex ed, and then opt in or out of certain food choices, e.g. chocolate milk.
Here’s a rather one-sided look at the issue. Love the quote from Cobb’s food program head that peanut butter made without hydrogenated oil is “disgusting.”
http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/entertainment/parents-target-chocolate-milk-and-other-favored-fo/nR59p/