"schoollunch" news and stories

Last year I picked the 8 best school lunch items I remember from my school days (admittedly, a long time ago). But what about the lunches that a lot of kids hate? Here are my choices:

1. Mystery meat: What exactly was this? I'm trying to go through my mental Rolodex and I can't remember. Was it meatloaf? Salisbury steak? I'm not sure, but it just seemed to be this mass-produced glob of grayness topped with lame gravy. The days I saw that this was the lunch were the days I just had something to drink and maybe a bag of chips.

I'm not sure if LunchBox software will help solve child obesity, but it can't possibly make things worse.

Some school districts in South Carolina will start using LunchBox this school year. Parents will be able to track their kids eating habits and restrict what their children eat. The system works by issuing students PIN numbers that are entered each time a purchase is made. Mom and Dad can then monitor junior's purchases from home.

From looking at the company's website LunchBox seems to be a POS/inventory/ordering/sales tracking solution that's trying to get parents in the loop.That's all well and good, but parents can't possibly track everything their kids eat at school. My folks never knew about the pints of Ben & Jerry's I scarfed during my free period in high school.

More school lunch tracking:

• Texas schools use technology to track lunches
• Fingerprint scanners to monitor what kids eat
• Healthy school lunches only, in Australia

Source

Ah, the lunch lady. That classic American worker who stands behind the counter in the school cafeteria and spoons out the sloppy joes and the mystery soups. Actually, I liked school lunches when I was a kid. Not everything, but the pizza was always good, I liked the hamburgers (even if they were a little gray), and I absolutely loved the fluffy, pink dessert they used to serve. What the hell was that stuff anyway?

Archie McPhee is selling a Lunch Lady Action Figure! Comes complete with not only a counter, but removable food stick-ons so you can change what type of food she's serving. She looks exactly like a woman who used to serve food in my school cafeteria. Though I don't remember that woman's arms being so muscular and mechanical.

Yes, it's full of high fructose corn syrup, and added in huge quantities to your burger, ketchup might contribute to childohood (and adult!) obesity. However, the condiment hasn't been banned from an Arizona high school because of fears of nutrition. The cafeteria actually allows students to take three packets of ketchup per hamburger.

However, extra ketchup can be purchased for 25 cents each. Students can bring ketchup packets from home, but bringing bottled ketchup to school is not allowed because it violates health codes. A student has been disciplined because he brought it to school two days in a row.

The limits were placed after students were caught stomping on ketchup packets, leaving messes in hallways and on sidewalks.