Comments on: Lunchlady Laments http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/05/22/recess/ a look at how America squanders nearly half of its food Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:39:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: CityTeacher http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/05/22/recess/#comment-21080 Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:49:54 +0000 http://www.wastedfood.com/2007/05/22/recess/#comment-21080 Recently, I came to appreciate how awful the waste is in elementary school lunches, especially federally funded free lunches. Students are given an allotment and can't refuse items they don't want to eat and aren't allowed to bring food home for later, so the food goes into the trash cans. During a rainy day last week, I watched the students as they ate in my room. Then I watched as students toss nearly complete lunches into the trash bag. They ate maybe a bit of something, or just the meat patty, not the bread, or maybe just had the juice. I asked why, they didn't like it. Why didn't they get something else? This was all they had in terms of choices. Fish patty or chicken patty for the day, and neither was very popular. The salad and fruit trays went straight into the trash bag unopened for many of these students. Why did they pick it up if they didn't want it? The lunch lady made them. On the other hand, a couple of my students were gorging themselves on the food and asked classmates for more. These are the students I know may not get dinner at home. I'm not sure why these federal rules are set up, but there must be a better system. Recently, I came to appreciate how awful the waste is in elementary school lunches, especially federally funded free lunches. Students are given an allotment and can’t refuse items they don’t want to eat and aren’t allowed to bring food home for later, so the food goes into the trash cans.

During a rainy day last week, I watched the students as they ate in my room. Then I watched as students toss nearly complete lunches into the trash bag. They ate maybe a bit of something, or just the meat patty, not the bread, or maybe just had the juice. I asked why, they didn’t like it. Why didn’t they get something else? This was all they had in terms of choices. Fish patty or chicken patty for the day, and neither was very popular. The salad and fruit trays went straight into the trash bag unopened for many of these students. Why did they pick it up if they didn’t want it? The lunch lady made them.

On the other hand, a couple of my students were gorging themselves on the food and asked classmates for more. These are the students I know may not get dinner at home.

I’m not sure why these federal rules are set up, but there must be a better system.

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