School Cafeteria Lunches vs Home-made Lunches

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Is a home-made lunch better than a school cafeteria lunch?

Since publishing this page months ago, a home-made school lunch has come under attack, and the result was a healthy home-made turkey sandwich lunch being replaced by school cafeteria chicken nuggets. This caused quite a stir in the media, as it should have.

On the other hand, when you hand your child money each day to buy lunch (assuming your school doesn't have a free school lunch program) you never know whether they are going to choose the healthiest choices in the cafeteria, and you never know whether they'll skip the lunch offered by the school all together, and choose to buy candy and soda from vending machines that are available in some schools. I know, I've experienced this with my children.

What is a parent to do? How do you feel about the issue of home-made lunches vs. school cafeteria lunches?

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Claudia a/k/a happynutritionist
Updated 4/20/12

Contents at a Glance

Does Your Child's School Have a School L...
Do you make school lunches at home or gi...
Press Coverage of the Unhealthy -v- Heal...
Lunch Wars!!
Old photo of my daughter and I at her sc...
Share your lens, site or blog post with...

If no, then I guess there isn't much to discuss

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Do you make school lunches at home or give your child money to buy?

Has anyone ever challenged your food choices?

When you start typing in the text box, the choices will appear. I have a feeling the story about the girl who had her turkey sandwich replaced with chicken nuggets was a rare occurrence, at least I hope so. Share your school lunch stories, and we'll see.

Home-made vs School Lunch Program

I make school lunches at home and have never had my food choices challenged

OrganicMom247 says:

Home-made is still better.

teriann says:

Having worked in a lunchroom at one time I prefer to home lunches for my kids and so do they.

teriann says:

We prefer making home lunches. Having worked in a school lunchroom at one time I saw first hand some of the things that were offered and how they were prepared. I know what my kids are getting from home lunches and mine seem to prefer lunches from home.

sandyspider says:

Majority of the time I made my daughter her lunch. At least I knew what she is getting.

jmsp206 says:

Defiantly home- made lunches.You know whats going in that luch box.

MoiraCrochetsPlarn says:

School lunches are not very safe. Just one mistake and the whole school population could go to the hospital, or worse, morgue. When you prepare the lunches of your kids, you do not only keep them from harm, you also express how much you love them.

bygproductions says:

Mine were homeschooled, so unless we ate out all their lunches were homemade. Now that they are in college, I offer to buy them things that they can take to school and try to keep it healthy and convenient. But, often the opt to buy food out.

Comfortdoc says:

Actually my kids make their own lunches. I read somewhere that they are more likely to eat lunches that they pick for themselves from healthy food options in the house. Occasionally they do the school lunch program.

Kris10P says:

I make my kids' lunches. The oldest one hates school lunches. The middle child says his cafeteria always runs out of food before he gets there. The youngest child will only eat in the cafeteria on certain days, so it's easier just to make a lunch every day.

happynutritionist says:

I made lunches for my children all the way through grammar school, and often in middle school...letting them buy once a week on Friday.

In High School I was a little freer with letting them buy as there was more peer pressure related to having "mommy" send lunch along to school with you.

It was nicer when I could make their lunches, because they were healthier.

I give my children money to buy lunch because...

LissaKlar says:

My daughter likes the food and if she doesn't, she will not buy lunch that day, I'll just pack one for her. I've volunteered in our school cafeteria and I know they really care about the kids and follow nutrition guidelines as set forth by the government.

grandmamarilyn says:

I know that my grandchildren are going to get good food. The problem is that we don't know that they ate it all. We have come up with a solution that the children look at the menu and pick the days that they don't like them. Those days, the children take a lunch so we are sure they eat.

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Press Coverage of the Unhealthy -v- Healthy School Lunch Conflict

Updates every hour

Some articles may not apply

Lunch prices to see small hike next school year: She said that because the USDA ruled too many unhealthy grains were being served, the school is forced to move from a bigger bun that costs eight cents per bun to a smaller bun that costs 11 cents per bun. Countless jests followed as the board grasped ...
Stop complaining and make a difference: Her actions ultimately made her famous, but what sparked her decision to act was something that is depressingly common: unhealthy food in a school lunch. Nine-year-old Martha Payne?who lives and goes to school in Argyll, Scotland?started a food blog ...
Where To Get a Free Summer Lunch in Hillsborough Schools: These sites are in geographical areas where 50 percent or more of the children qualify for free or reduced-price meals during the school year. School officials fear that without the program, children are left searching for unhealthy foods to eat when ...
The RamPage: Time for a Change In Our Eating Habits - Start in School!: For residents of Coachella Valley Unified School District, the various complaints of the school lunch is very well proclaimed. The negative comments overlap the positive ones. Many argue that there shouldn't be any type of denotations said about it, ...

Lunch Wars!!

Join the Revolution

Lunch Wars: How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Children?s Health

by: Amy Kalafa

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Old photo of my daughter and I at her school lunch

Parents were invited to eat lunch with their children once a year

Yes, that's money in my daughter's hand. When she was this young, one day a week, usually on Friday when they had Pizza, I let both my son and daughter buy lunch...it was a special treat...but I made lunch the rest of the week.

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Social Media Chatter about School Lunches

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If there are a lot of lunch boxes to choose from, than I can assume there are still many who send their children off to school with home-made lunches.

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OrganicMom247 Apr 8, 2012 @ 12:28 am | delete

Most people are too busy to prepare home-made lunches for their kids. We just have to make sure that our kids buy health food at school.

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mypotlpeople Aug 18, 2011 @ 11:39 pm | delete

When I went to elementary school I had homemade lunches, but it didn't always equal a healthy lunch. I think learning about foods at home or school is a great idea.

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teriann Aug 18, 2011 @ 1:39 pm | delete

Great topic, love the pic of you and your daughter. At our schools parents are permitted to come have lunch at any time. Fun stuff. Sadly my kids have reached the age they don't want their mother there any more.

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teriann Aug 18, 2011 @ 1:25 pm | delete

Love the pic of you at school with your daughter. At our school we can have lunch with our children any time we please we just need to let the teacher know and we even get to set at a special table. School lunches are a real bugaboo for me having once work in a lunchroom. Great lens!!

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sandyspider Aug 18, 2011 @ 9:38 am | delete

Great debate about school lunches.

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LissaKlar Aug 17, 2011 @ 12:53 pm | delete

There should be the offering of healthy lunches at school, following government guidelines, as schools should be. I feel this way because there are children whose parents don't care to pack them lunches, or cannot afford to do so and can get a reduced lunch price. If there was no lunch system, a lot of kids in the public school system would not have anything to eat at lunch. Great lens. Great debate!

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happynutritionist Aug 17, 2011 @ 2:11 pm | delete

Thanks so much for your input from the perspective of someone who has worked in school lunch program. I agree with you as far as providing for those who don't have parents that care enough...I had that thought in my mind a few times while making this page.

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jmsp206 Aug 16, 2011 @ 4:50 am | delete

I remember those days.I think its important to show children that not all food is take away.

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happynutritionist Aug 16, 2011 @ 2:39 pm | delete

You are a good teacher...your children will thank you one day if they aren't already.

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grandmamarilyn Aug 16, 2011 @ 12:11 am | delete

Love that picture. My daughter goes to the school lunch when she is invited. But, her daughter doesn't want her there. She goes for her son though who does want her.

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happynutritionist Aug 16, 2011 @ 2:38 pm | delete

Thank you, Marilyn. My daughter was still young enough not to mind, though I think she would have been fine with it until sometime in High School maybe...we got along very well...but those teen years they just like the distance...I remember being the same way.

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Heather426 Aug 15, 2011 @ 11:39 am | delete

Love the pic of you and your daughter!! I think home lunches are way better and you probably could guess that I only let my kids eat the Pizza Friday lunches too. Otherwise, Mom fixed the lunches so they would be healthy.

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happynutritionist Aug 15, 2011 @ 11:45 am | delete

LOL, I'm losing track of the things we have/do in common...the list is getting way to long:-) Thanks for stopping by! Oh, my daughter's name is the same as yours, btw.