I recently had the pleasure of volunteering at my daughters school. It was part of a  program aimed toward fathers in hopes that it can get them more involved in their kid’s school activities. I thought the experience was fantastic. I got to help kids with their writing, reading, and many other things that I didn’t think I would be doing.  I also got to help out for a few hours in the lunch room. That is where things got really interesting for me. As a fitness fanatic and health food junkie, I paid special attention to what kids where and where not eating. Here are a few observations:

• Packed lunches where more prominent amongst the older classes (3rd,4th,5th)
  • This was especially true amongst the girls. Maybe it was because they all had designer lunch boxes.
• The salad bar consisted of mainly broccoli, carrots, and grapes. No salad to be seen.
• The majority of kids drank a flavored milk (sometimes two).
  • I thought this was disturbing. When I was a kid we had chocolate milk one day a week (Friday). Now its being offered daily. Of course kids are going to drink that over regular milk.
  • There was no water option.
• Aside from the “salad” bar, nothing resembled real food.
  • They had the usual school lunches: chicken nuggets, something that resembled a hamburger, fries, etc.
• Very few packers had soda but most had other sugary drinks.
  • The drinks where very mixed. Everything from Sunny D to Power Aide.
• I only witnessed a small handful of kids with homemade lunches.
• Parents that stopped in to eat with their kids always brought fast food…and soda.
  • The fast food of choice was McDonald’s.
• Kids are allowed to go back for seconds regardless of what is still left on their plate. Most kids went back for the dessert.

Not a lot has changed since my days in school. The lunch options are more but the quality of the food looks the same.  Kid’s get more food but less time to eat it. Grains seem to be the prevalent food group amongst all the days I witnessed. If you didnt like the main course, your backup option was Uncrustable Sandwiches. Yum.