Disappointed by healthier offerings, more kids skip school lunches

by Nicole Weston, Posted Nov 6th 2006 @ 1:01PM

Although some children will be quick to point out which foods are healthy ones to their parents, not all children have reacted so positively to the recent changes in school lunches. At least, they haven't in the UK. The BBC conducted a survey of secondary schools (middle and high schools) and found that at 60% of them, there had been a drop in the number of students that were opting to buy the school-provided lunch since the switch to a healthier menu. Only 10% of schools had an increase in the number of students taking lunch since the change.

It's too bad that there isn't any US data on this phenomenon after so many schools and school districts have placed restrictions on what types of food are appropriate for kids to have access to during the day, but it seems likely that the problem would be a similar one, especially with older kids who can easily leave campus or go out after school to get the fries and pizzas that they have always had access to at school until now.

The problem is one that will gradually go away over time, as the kids who were used to the "old way" of doing things graduate and the number of students who think that they are entitled to something greasy and unhealthy will decrease compared to he number of children who might actually look forward to a healthier lunch.

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Filed Under: Cooking With Kids, Trends, Light Food
Tags: bbc, british isles, children, fried, greasy, healthy, kid, kids, light food, lunch, lunches, meal, school, schools, survey, survey bby, teachers, trend, unhealthy

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-06-2006 @2:53PM Dawn said... Yeah Right! Kids will wait to eat to get home or eat a big breakfast.
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11-07-2006 @8:22AM PghEats said... School cafeterias are not known for the tastiness of their offerings. If they make not-very-good-but-edible pizza, just think what they do to healthy food. I can just imagine the overcooked zucchini swimming in a mixture of margarine and water. Yuk. You can't blame the teens for not wanting to eat that stuff.
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11-07-2006 @8:39AM nat said... that's horrible!!
how i wish that my school would go through some health reform! i would kill for better food, better nutrition!!

well i guess the 'health culture' needs time to set it. hopefully given time, kids will learn to appreciate their health more.
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11-07-2006 @10:10PM Adriane said... It's understandable- I love veggies but at my old college (a state school with food from Sodexho, mind you)the prepared veggies were swimming in butter, steamed to death or had extremely odd flavor combos- I ended up not eating any veggies other than the salad bar- and that gets old real quick.
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