What kind of meal does $1 buy?
The government provides $2.68 for the kids qualifying for a free lunch, $2.28 for a reduced price lunch, and $0.25 cents for all other kids. That sum includes the overhead and facility costs associated with the meal, which leaves just $1—or less—for the food itself. Clearly not enough money to fund from-scratch cooking or quality fresh produce.
A study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, based on a sample of almost 400 public schools and about 2,300 students, grades 1 to 12 looked at what’s served and what kids actually eat while in the school cafeteria for lunch.
It is a worrying picture.
Here’s the menu:
- Milk: Milk is offered in practically all schools—the majority of milk offered is flavored (i.e. sweetened).
- Fruit: 94 percent of schools offered fruit or fruit juices but only 50 percent of it is fresh fruit--the rest is canned fruit or fruit juice.
- Vegetables: This study considers starchy vegetables such as white potatoes a vegetable. By that classification, 96 percent of kids had a vegetable offering at lunch. But note that while 45 percent of high schools offered French fries (!) only 39 percent of schools offered lettuce salad, only 29 percent offered orange or dark green vegetables, and only 10 percent offered legumes.
- Grains/bread: The vast majority of grain products (bread, rolls, bagels, crackers etc.) were made of refined white flour. Only 5 percent of grain offering was whole wheat.
- Combination entrée: The most commonly offered combination entrée depended on age; in elementary school, 28 percent of combination entrees were peanut butter sandwiches, followed by meat sandwiches; in middle school the most commonly offered combination entree was pizza with meat, followed by cheeseburgers and sandwiches with breaded meat or poultry.
- Dessert: Those were offered in 47 percent of high schools, 41 percent of middle schools and 37 percent of elementary school. The leading deserts were cookies, cakes and brownies.
This is what the kids actually ate for school lunch:
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