Pardon my Absence..UPDATE coming soon!!

          Let me start by apologizing for my absence on the blog, Senior year is much busier than I originally imagined it would ever be! Between scholarships, work, homework, and everything else in between, I have neglected my blog.  BUT, the subject of school lunch is still important, so I have finally decided to do a School Lunches Suck! Blog UPDATE!!

         

          Many of you know that there have been some changes to the rules and guidelines governing school lunch, and I will make sure to post about that in the near future!!

          Also over the next few posts I will get updates from our guest posters, so watch for those too!!

Again I am very sorry for my abrupt absence, but please WATCH OUT for the update from the School Lunches Suck! Blog!!!!

Tuesday, September 25th, & LUNCH PRICE POLL RESULTS!

     What's for lunch Tuesday, September the 25th? Salami hoagie with broccoli salad.

     Here is a breakdown of what I ate for lunch on Tuesday the 25th.

• 1 salami hoagie with cheese
• 1/2 cup cut watermelon
• 1/2 cup apricots
• 1 can tomato juice-----------30 calories
• 1/2 cup broccoli salad
• 1/2 pint 1% low-fat milk-----100 calories
• Miracle Whip----------------15 calories

     On any day that I don't want or like what is served for the hot entree at school, I can get a sandwich.  I probably eat a sandwich two or three times a week, just because I know what I am getting and know what to expect with it.  In the last couple of weeks, there have been many cucumber, broccoli, and cauliflower salads, all of which are very good.  They almost taste like my grandma made them!  This particular salad had cut broccoli, diced onions, crumbled bacon, white raisins and some sort of mayo based sauce.  I will probably be getting this quite often, when it is available.

     The results from the poll, Lunch Price, which asked the question, "How much does a lunch in your or your child's school cost?" are in!!  With a total of 68 votes over 7 days, here are the results.  

$ 3.25 and above	5 (7%)
$ 2.75 - $ 3.25	9 (13%)
$ 2.25 - $ 2.75	39 (57%)
$ 1.75 - $ 2.25	10 (14%)
Free - $ 1.75	5 (7%)

     The price with the biggest number of respondents was $2.25 - $2.75, with 39 votes.  Free to $1.75 and $3.25 and above have the same number of votes, 5.  Do you have a suggestion for the next poll on The School Lunches Suck! Blog? If so, email me or comment below with your idea!! 
     If you are aware of what the High Plains Journal is, Trent Loos wrote an article in his column, The fight against the path to starvation, and he mentioned the blog in it!! How cool!!

-----Thanks to the many readers, The School Lunches Suck! Blog now has over 12,500 page views!! Thanks to you for your support!!  Don't forget to check back often for more posts from The School Lunches Suck! Blog, and to 'share' the blog on Facebook with friends and family!!!

'We Are Hungry' YouTube Video!

     This week, I was told of a very interesting YouTube video titled, 'We Are Hungry'.  If you haven't seen it yet, definitely check it out below!

   

     Immediately I knew that it would be a hit.  When I first viewed it, it had over 15,000 views in two days, and as I am writing this post, it is just shy of 50,000 views!!  I was so interested in the video, I contacted the person who posted the YouTube video to ask a couple of questions.  The video poster, blk5348, was happy to answer my questions.  I was most curious about why blk5348 posted the video, and how the idea was created.

" I am one of the few teachers that still occasionally eats lunch at school. Partially because I have a really short amount of time to eat, so it's just easier to eat there. I'm very active during the day and have a high metabolism and burn through a lot of calories and protein in a day. One day I went through the line and asked why we weren't getting meat. I was told the cheese that was in the breadstick accounted for the protein allotment so they weren't allowed to give us meat in the sauce. I was pretty upset, so I took a picture of my meal and posted it on Facebook with the story. The response and conversation was overwhelming."

With a little help from a fellow teacher, blk5348 was able to come up with the video idea, and with the lyrics from her colleague, they talked to kids to see if they would be interested.  

"From there, we talked to students and parents, got it approved by the administration and the rest is history." 

     What an awesome video!! 

-----There is still time to give your answer in The School Lunches Suck! Blogs poll: Lunch Price, so head over there and vote today!!  Did you know that you can receive The School Lunches Suck! Blog in your email inbox? Just use the 'follow' tool on the right side of the page!!

2nd Guest post from LUKAS!!!

Lukas sent me over another guest post this week, I hope you enjoy reading it!

Hello again,
In the past few weeks I have noticed an increased popularity on the subject of which we are fighting for, school lunches. Many of those fighting are farmers, they understand the importance of a healthy meal, not to mention the fact that what they raise is being used to feed our youth.  Do you think that Mr. Obama is eating 800 calories per meal? My guess is definitely not. One carton of 2% white milk is equal to 100 calories and has 8 fluid ounces of content. A handful of the students at my high school are just getting out of Physical Fitness and are not only hungry, but also thirsty. If you drink 16 ounces of milk you already have 200 calories of your lunch which is equivalent to ¼ of your meal. One baby carrot supplies you with just 5 calories.

On this lunch plate there are 7 carrots shown, with 35 calories for the total. The average sized muffin resting there on my plate has 180 calories, I honestly think my mouth is big enough that I ate it in one bite. The cup of pineapple on my plate has nearly 50 calories, but there interesting part is the potatoes. Now as I’ve said before I have been on a farm all of my life, and I’ll tell you this; we LOVE our mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, buttered bread, and roast lunch! After we eat, we head out the door to continue working in the 100⁰ heat, or the freezing cold snow, and I am yet to gain a pound. But isn’t the main point of being a student, to get an education? How are we supposed to focus with the bare minimum amount of fuel sitting in our tanks? None the less, this portion of mashed potatoes and gravy is packed with 400 calories. Let’s add all this up.



Milk:100
Pineapple:50
Carrots:35
Muffin:180
Main Course:400









That equals up to a grand total of, 765 calories! I know that on an average practice of 45 minutes I burn 700 calories. That doesn’t include the calories I burn trying to recover, which continues to add up all day long. An teenage boy, who DOES NOT play sports is supposed to attain 3,000 calories per day. If practice is at 6:30 a.m. I burn over 1,500 by 9 o’clock! These meals are outrageous! In the next few days I will be contacting a Senate Representative and a man who writes articles in the High Plains Journal, to speak of this issue and way they could possibly help us win the battle. Until then, find a vending machine.

-Lukas

-----Be sure to give your answer in this weeks poll: Lunch Price, which ends Sunday. After that, I'll make sure to post the results!! Tomorrow, I will be meeting with the food service director at my school, so we can talk about the blog. Be on the look out for a post about that, and soon an interview with some of the people involved in the YouTube video We Are Hungry!!!-----

Garden City guest poster...Legit Lindy!

I am very excited to announce that The School Lunches Suck! Blog is going to start featuring another guest poster, Lindy! Like me, Lindy is a senior in high school who is not very happy with the new federal guidelines regarding school lunch. Be on the lookout for more posts from Lindy, and later this week another post from Lukas!
Enjoy!

My name is Lindy and I am an unhappy and underfed senior at Garden City High School in Garden City, Kansas.  This year, I will be a member of the first graduating class out of our district’s brand new, $97 million high school.  I will also be a member of probably the most underfed senior class that’s ever had the privilege of being a Garden City Buffalo.  Seriously.

Until this year, Garden City’s juniors and seniors had the 
privilege of leaving campus for lunch.  For most, that meant a quick run home for a bite to eat, a walk across the street to Subway, or a mad dash to one of the many nearby fast food restaurants.  But, our new school came with new rules—one of those being that we are now all stuck on campus for lunch.

Honestly, the majority of my school’s 2000+ students weren't really very worried about it.  Although we were being stripped of one of the few privileges of being upperclassmen, we were promised that we would have more lunch options and a higher quality of food coming out of our brand spankin’ new kitchen.  Boy, were we in for a surprise the first day when we walked in the cafeteria and saw what they had to offer!
Everyday, we pretty much have three options: hamburgers, pizza, or some type of Mexican food, and don’t forget a handful of soggy, half-baked French fries.  The quality of the food isn't exactly the greatest, but the portions are even worse.  I don’t participate in sports, but I do lead an active lifestyle.  By the time I get home from work, I’m STARVING.  I can’t even imagine how hungry the football players, volleyball girls, or cheerleaders are after they get done with practice.  When high school students are being fed the same portions as grade school students, you know that you have a problem.

The majority of our school’s athletes survive by eating multiple meals.  It’s not uncommon to see a football player eat three school lunches in one sitting.  With our school lunches ringing in at $2.30, that means that the football players are paying $6.90 every day just so they aren't hungry.  Wouldn't it be more reasonable to feed us one meal that actually fills us up?

What’s on the menu today? 9/18/12
-One Beef Enchilada
-Handful of Tortilla Chips
-Salsa
-Packaged Fruit
-Milk



My fellow students, it’s time to speak up.  If we don’t tell them that we’re unhappy, nothing will ever change.  We’re the ones eating the meals, we should have a say.  Let’s do something about it!

Until Next Time,
Lindy

Thanks, Lindy!!!

-----Make sure to share The School Lunches Suck! Blog on Facebook, and to 'Follow' on the right side of the page to receive the blog in your email inbox!!-----

Keep sending in your pictures of your or your childrens lunch, for the post Lunch from Alabama to Wyoming!! Pictures can be sent to teubks@gmail.com

Until next time, stay full!!

Monday, September 17th, & OBP UPDATE!!

     What's for lunch Monday, September 17th?  Pepperoni hoagie with green beans.  

     Here is a breakdown of what I ate for lunch on Monday, September 17th.

• 1 pepperoni hoagie with cheese
• 1/2 pint milk.................................100 calories
• 1/2 cup green beans
• 1/2  cup mixed fruit
• 1/2 cup bell peppers
• 1 juice box...................................100 calories
• Miracle Whip ..............................15 calories

     Today, a sloppy jo on a bun with french fries was offered for the hot item at lunch.  I do not necessarily like sloppy jo's, so I got something from the hoagie line instead.  The fresh green beans were actually pretty fresh, and much tastier than green beans out of the can.  These are the kind of green beans that I can definitely live with.  The pepperoni hoagie, on the other hand, was something quite different.  I opened up the bun to put on some Miracle Whip, and was shocked at how few pepperoni there were.  I counted six small slices on the sandwich.  With a slice of cheese too, there went my  2 daily ounces of protein.  It seems a bit ridiculous to me that the USDA decided on 10-12 ounces a week for protein at lunch.  What were the deciding factors on the limit anyway?  Hopefully I can address that in a future post.

     Remember last week, when I wrote about Operation: Paper Bag?  Well, Jack and a couple of other students of Allentown High school had a meeting with a few administrators from their school, and representatives of their food service provider, Chartwells.  They came to an agreement, which is not yet 100% final, but a decision nonetheless that is a 'win' for the students of Allentown High.  A post on the Operation: Paper Bag Facebook page updates followers on how the meeting went.  

     ". . . one of the available and best rounded options at the time would be to release ourselves from the government program. What that would mean is that the portions would increase back to the size of lunches last year. However, to make up for the funding that the government *used* to give, Allentown would have to      increase the current prices."
Jack, who I talked to last week, was pleased with the results.  "I feel like it's a good solution, and everyone is happy with it," he told me.  Keep posted on more updates from Jack and OPB!

-----If you are a student in a any school across the country, or a parent of a child in school, take a picture of lunch and send it to me, for our post Lunch from Alabama to Wyoming.   Pictures can be sent to teubks@gmail.com-----

'Share' the School Lunches Suck! Blog on Facebook with your friends and family, and thank-you for your continued support!!

Until next time, stay full!

     

Poll: Lunch Price

     For this week's poll on The School Lunches Suck! Blog, we asked the question, "How much does a lunch in your or your child's school cost?"  Answer below!!!

-----The School Lunches Suck! Blog has over 9,000 views, thanks for your support, and keep it up!! Help spread awareness by sharing the blog with your friends and family, and by following the blog with the tool on the right side of the page!-----

     Send in your pictures for our post, Lunch from Alabama to Wyoming, so we can get a picture of lunch from every state in the USA!!! Pictures can be sent to teubks@gmail.com  



How much does a lunch cost in your or your child's school