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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Oh, I interpreted it as everyone eating the same thing, which I think is beneficial for everyone. I would hope that if everyone ate the same thing, parents, administrators and the community would put pressure on those providing the lunches to make them more nutritious.
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I used to work in federal nutrition policy and the food stamp program. Universal free breakfast and lunch and free summer lunch programs are generally better for the school population as a whole - meaning overall the kids are going to be better behaved, learn better, be healthier, etc. But essentially we are striving for some kind of average or median. Whether it's the best option for your kid or the best option possible is not the objective of the programming. It's to give access to a meal that meets government standards.
I agree that making it universal would probably push some parents to agitate for better meals, but I think it's something policy wise the public has to decide - cater to a mean/average or have this tiered situation many places have now.
Furthermore, there ARE schools with salad bars and fresh fruit and hot fresh meals, but often the kids won't eat them and the food waste is tremendous. Tremendous. Any parent of a toddler who has to scrape uneaten veggies into the garbage at night understands this reality and pain. Is it worth offering the option and throw it away, like we do for toddlers? Or is the a la carte packaged option better for efficiency/cost/waste sake? Again, a policy decision the public will have to decide.
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@gingerbebe: I mean, thinking back to when I was in middle/high school, if my parents gave me money to buy lunch, I'm obviously getting pizza/fries/fried items! So a universal lunch would probably be a healthier option for me at least!
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@snowjewelz: if you attended a school with universal lunch you could still get that stuff now if it were on the menu. The lunch room doesn't look different if you have universal lunch, you aren't required to go through the hot line if there is one, etc., it is still pretty much a la carte. Which is why at least in my experience the "hot line" options are a lot more like fast food than cafeteria food. More like buffalo chicken wraps, grilled cheese, etc., not the chicken fried steak or spaghetti, etc., that used to be on the menu. The difference is just the amount of sodium in the buffalo sauce, the whole wheat wrap instead of the white bread wrap, sweet potato fries instead of white potato fries, the cheese might be 2% instead of full fat, etc. That's the nutritional difference. At our school the vending machines had all been outfitted with low cal snacks, and school fundraisers couldn't sell food for an hour before, through, and after lunch to cut down on access to other food. One bizarre thing I saw was that parents would sometimes pick their kids up lunch out and deliver it to school and the main office got so backed up with lunch delivery that they had to make a policy against lunch delivery. I don't think that was a consequence of any particular school lunch policies, but just supports the idea that if kids want junk food, they'll somehow get it, and it becomes a PITA for the school to manage student access to junk food.
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@Mrs. Sketchbook: Ahh, I see!
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@gingerbebe: I think the public has already decided. I mean, we are where we are and there are people that think we're spending way too much money in the education space as it is and they don't believe in investing in the future. I don't know what has to happen to change it.
I've long said the issue that needs to be addressed is poverty. If that is addressed, then only can we see real gains in closing the achievement gap. Meals at school only partly solve the problem.
I think it's also worth looking at what happens around the globe. I can only speak to Europe, where most children attend public schools and don't even eat lunch there. They go home, but society is set up to support that. My MIL is a lunch lady, but it's only for a small subset of kids that don't go home during the lunch hour. She buys all the food locally and prepares everything. The government has strict guidelines about what she can serve and how many times a week. Everyone eats the exact same thing, there is no choice.
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Can I ask a dumb question--do all public schools serve lunches? I went to public school in Canada and we brought our own food from home until highschool. At that point there was a cafeteria with some "fast food" type vendors and we had the option to purchase.
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I thought we were maybe more laid back here in the Great White North, but apparently not.
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@sunny: good question, i would have to look it up to get a firm answer.
Where I live, school is full day, campuses are closed and lunch and breakfast is served.
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