Moms, we made it. Another summer under our belts -- thank you very much -- and now we are racing around in these last days trying to get these rascals out the door and back to school. There are many decisions to make:
Ride bike or bus?
What to wear?
New backpack or last years'?
Decisions, decisions.
A big one is: lunch. Do you buy the new lunch box and pack it every night? Or just send the money in and have them eat the school lunch?
In an effort to do extensive research for this very scientific post, I went to my kids' school menu for the first week of school:
Monday - Chicken Tenders w/ Gravy
Tuesday - Corndog
Wednesday - Beef and Cheese Nachos
Thursday - Pizza
Friday - Spagetti w/ Meat Sauce
Average calorie count per day?
707 calories per lunch
I must say it -- HOLY CRAP.
Being that the average child between the ages of 4 and 8 need only 1, 400-ish calories a day and an older child between 9 and 13 needs around 1,800 calories a day -- this is sabatoge! It is no wonder that 1 out of 3 children are overweight in this country when we are offering them over half of their calorie intake in ONE MEAL! If all of us moms ate this food for lunch every day, we'd be dealing with some serious extra poundage. I know when I taught school, it was well known among teachers to stay far away from the cafeteria if you wanted to save your shape.
Some say, "Well, there are some healthier options offered". Agreed. However, I guarantee you that when I visit my daughter at lunch and eat with her, no first grader has chosen the Chicken Chef Salad option when there is hot, greasy pepperoni pizza in front of their face. It does not happen.
This a complete injustice to our children: to preach and teach health and nutrition them to feed them Steak Fingers (what are those?) with mashed potatoes scooped with an ice cream scooper onto their plate by the hair netted lady. Too many calories, fat, salt and sugar. We don't do this to ourselves, so why is it OK for our kids?
So, I know we are busy, tired and don't need one more thing on our list. However, consider this plea to bring back the lunchbox.
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3 comments:
Oh, I'm so on the bus w/ you Mandi! I cringed when I saw the daily calorie numbers on the lunch menu last year... but one thing I do have to say, is that most kids don't even touch their food. LOL They eat a few bites, and they're done. ha! I love lunchboxes... and this year I made sure Maddie picked a box SHE wanted (rather than the one I wanted her to have) b/c I have a theory that the more she loves her lunch box, the more she'll want to take it. Let's hope iCarly makes Maddie want to each lunch from home! :)
the Fonz capped off this message nicely- you just cant argue with that.
i agree, but have a few more years before hitting this issue :)
Gross!! I agree. I do let my kids splurge and have school lunch once a week, but I know they just eat the junk and dump the rest! Now that my daughter is in middle school, there are "a la carte" items to choose from too - yikes!!
Additionally, I purchased the 25 pack of individual chip bags a while back. I grabbed one for myself one day and noticed it seemed larger than usual. I looked at the back and it said it served 1 - but it was a 3 oz. bag and had 300 calories!!! I was SHOCKED!! I'm packing my own chips from now on!!
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