Catholic school nutrition

[Cricket2]

I hope you understand that the responses you get here are an indicator of what you will face at the school.

If you respond like this you will soon be one of “those” parents who nobody wants to work with. You might be unintentionally creating a situation where your daughter becomes ostracized as well.

Tread carefully. As you said yourself, you’re not from around here and have been welcomed into a new community.

Why should he have to tread lightly? Maybe it is this kind of approach that has allowed so much of our society’s sense of morality to be trashed. I for one am tired of having to walk on “egg shells” all the time because someone might be bent out of shape over what I have to say.

This parent is right to be concerned about the quality of the food being served at the school. And if administrators, teachers or volunteers find this as a reason to “ostracize” his daughter for it they should be fired and/or removed from volunteering. I am tired of that nonsense as well.

This “treading lightly” mentality is part of what I often call the new standard of excellence this country seems to have accepted: mediocrity. For heaven forbid that someone should have a spine and speak up, or expect true excellence anymore. After all it just might bruise someone’s false ego.

Yep: my quote: “Mediocrity is the new standard of excellence.” And we wonder why everything is going down the tubes.

 

[Cricket2]

You have to pay the workers to do the prep and the “cooking.” And you have to satifsy a million government regulations to be allowed to do food prep and cooking for people who are paying to eat that food. That means that someone in the organization has to be in charge of “quality control” and get paid for that responsibility.

Money, money, money!

I work in a microbiology lab, and a lot of food poisoning happens when people eat fresh raw fruits and vegetables that have somehow become contaminated. No thank you. When it comes to food served in large institutions (like schools), I personally would prefer canned and NUKED! Safer!

No one ever gets food poisoning from Cheetos.

Well now how difficult can it really be? They used to do it say 40 years ago when I was a kid. Balanced meals, and you had to eat your veggies if you wanted desert. All you need is a kitchen supervisor who makes sure everything is clean, well and properly prepared and can manage people. We have intellectualized too many things in this country. Hire a good cook or two, inspect your own kitchen daily and demand excellent work and dedication. It does not take a science degree to know how to handle foods properly, cook them correctly or follow a healthy diet plan. Where did all the common sense go that allowed the old timers to survive long enough to give birth to my generation?

 

[Corki]

Well now how difficult can it really be? They used to do it say 40 years ago when I was a kid. Balanced meals, and you had to eat your veggies if you wanted desert. All you need is a kitchen supervisor who makes sure everything is clean, well and properly prepared and can manage people. We have intellectualized too many things in this country. Hire a good cook or two, inspect your own kitchen daily and demand excellent work and dedication. It does not take a science degree to know how to handle foods properly, cook them correctly or follow a healthy diet plan. Where did all the common sense go that allowed the old timers to survive long enough to give birth to my generation?

Not difficult but expensive. When my kids were in elementary school, the lunch room “staff” was one person and sometimes a helper for serving. She wasn’t formally trained in kitchen management - she had worked there for over 20 years. Replace her with “a kitchen supervisor” plus “a good cook or two” and you have tripled the cost. Since most Catholic schools operate on very tight budgets, this will be a hard sell. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done. But the school is going to need a whole lot more reason that the fact that one family wants the menu to change.

 

[aloe]

For those who defend highly processed quick cheap food like products being consumed in the US because “we are just fine” consider more research. There are lots of statistics on the SAD (yes, it is actually called that and stands for Standard American Diet) and they are troubling statistics. Life spans are being cut shorter than the previous generations, obesity in all age groups is prevalent and all sorts of diseases, obesity, diabetes, and cancer are skyrocketing. The information is out there, solid, reputable, and well published what eating a less processed diet can do for individuals of all ages. Furthermore, food has changed since you were little. For instance, GMO’s. Check into it.

As a parent I can say I would not tackle the entire lunch system at a school (check out Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution for more information about this). That is mainly because I have another option, I can pack a wholesome lunch. I would however challenge when a school system I pay large sums of money gives my child all sorts of junk food day in and day out. That is not healthy and not their job.