School Lunch

While digesting the Sunday newspaper, I often like to make a stop at the school lunch menus for area schools.  Its interesting to see what culinary mastepiece my nephews will be enjoying in the coming days.  I get an inside view of my nephews' school lunch experience when they visit my brothers' office right after school.  Sometimes I will ask them what they had for lunch and how it tasted.  Menu items that sound delicious often  get a mere "it was OK", while other entrees receive an immediate thumbs down. 
There is a definite difference between menus for public schools and private schools.  The private school students are often dining on tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches or hot dogs and chips, while public school students have more processed foods - nacho boat and french toast sticks.
You may wonder why I have such an interest in school lunch as I am a bit more mature than the average school aged teen.  Well, I remember back in the day when I was a fresh faced student staring down macaroni and cheese and hamburger gravy over instant mashed potatoes.  There were definitely favorites on the menu, like hot dogs and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  There were also infamous lunch choices that no one ate willingly such as tater tot hotdish (or as we called it, tater tot snot squish -- sorry for the squeamish!) and weiner bean hotdish.  Those were the days before government regulated nutrition, salad bars and nachos. 
Cold lunch was not always an option, but occasionally I was granted permission to carry my Strawberry Shortcake lunch box to school filled with a summer sausage sandwich.  Lucky cold lunch students could make trades amongst themselves and sometimes I would even score a twinky!
I have been reading an blog written by an elementary school teacher called Fed Up With School Lunch.  This teacher has challenged herself to eat school lunch for a year while anonymously documenting her meals and taking pictures of her tray on the sly.  Fear of job loss has kept her from revealing her identity, so there is no identifying informtion or school location hints.  I have enjoyed reading her critiques of school pizza, chicken nuggets and kid friendly fruit cups.  From her comments, I have decerned that she prefers organic foods and eats very little meat at home.  Being a steak fan who thinks that organic is code for "expense", I take some of what she writes with a grain of salt. 
However, she makes a great point when she observed that the average lunch break at her school is only 13 minutes long.  Talk about hog and jog!  These children have thirteen minutes to stand in line, get their food, find a place to sit, eat, put their trays away and get back in line to go to their classroom.  I can't even imagine what would happen if they have unpeeled oranges on the menu!
I believe that it's important to feed our school students a nutritious, kid friendly, tasty meal.  I also know that doing all three at once is almost impossible. 
When my after school kids come to church on Wednesday afternoons, snack is the first item on the agenda.  They are ravenous!  We try to provide more than just a cookie or a cupcake because some of the children have passed on an unpopular lunch choice and haven't eaten since breakfast.  Their favorite snack is pizza with a sweet treat on the side.  I have seen them consume everything in sight and come back looking for more. 
I'm sure we all have those school lunch stories -- the good, the bad and the ugly.  So, speak up!  I'd love to hear your thoughts!