Fast food safer than school lunches

[Louisiana1976]

Yes, that's right, According to Good and USA Today the quality of meat from Jack in the Box is of a better quality than that served in lunches everyday in our public schools.

As standards at fast food chains have had to improve to allay the public fears of contaminated meat because of past scares, school lunch standards have lagged behind. I guess kids don't complain as much as fast food customers and public school cafeterias don't have to worry as much about their bottom line.

And this is nothing new, USA Today also reported in September, GAO audit: Schools slow to get alerts about tainted food.

As a result, the audit says, some of the 226 students who got diarrhea and other salmonella-related symptoms "may have consumed the (tainted) products in school." About 46 were hospitalized.

snip

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/10/812790/-Fast-Food-Safer-than-School-Lunches

[Taverner]

1. You CAN actually get a healthy meal at McDonalds

Seriously

Get the grilled chicken sandwich. Get the vegetable salad. Drink Water.

[Echo In Light]

2. More Uniquely American evil.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Our school has terrible meals

the hamburger is like wet mushy cardboard, the pizza is greasy and disgusting. The whole school smells of french fries. Ugh.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Lots and lots of schools are hooking up with local, organic farms

This is a biggie -- and it is likely to get bigger, not just elementary and high schools, but colleges and universities, too.

A couple of links:
http://www.farmtoschool.org/

This site is more general for the whole scene of clean food is burgeoning, but it has links:
http://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/

[kiva]

5. A round the world school lunch tour:

"Japanese schoolchildren eat lunch in the classroom, and students take turns serving the meal and cleaning up afterward. Their teacher eats the same food with them -- typically rice, soup, fish and milk -- and pays close attention to manners.

Lunch in Japanese schools is part of the curriculum just like math or science. The midday meal is meant to improve student health, but also to 'foster correct eating habits and good human relations' according to the Ministry of Education. Schools send home a monthly menu that outlines the nutritional value of each meal, lists the ingredients and discusses the benefits of the foods served, many of which are locally grown and produced." Wow. Using lunchtime to teach students about good nutrition by feeding them food that's good for them? What a concept.

<snip>

"Here's what students in one Paris school district ate for lunch last Tuesday: cucumbers with garlic and fine herbs; Basque chicken thigh with herbs, red and green bell peppers and olive oil; couscous; organic yogurt and an apple. For snack, they had organic bread, butter, hot chocolate and fruit.

Like the Japanese, the French take school lunch seriously. The mid-day meal is supposed to teach students good manners, good taste and the elements of good nutrition. Recommendations from the French government assert that eating habits are shaped from a young age and that schools should ensure children make good food choices despite media influence and personal tendencies."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marlene-h-phillips/school-lunches-around-the_b_206802.html

I want to go to one of those French schools just to eat lunch.

[FarCenter]

6. The noon meal is a more important meal in a lot of other countries

As it should be here.

Skimping on lunch and having a big dinner in the evening is a poor health habit.

Better to go back to the old breakfast, dinner, and supper convention.

[immoderate]

7. I spent some time in France...

What is served in a typical employee cafeteria would blow your mind. I also did some work for a French company subsidiary here. The chef who ran the employee cafeteria was brought over from Paris. Yum.

--imm

[kiva]

9. As I reheat last night's dinner (minus the salad and bread)

in the microwave at work, I whimper.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Three words: Fast Food Nation

I'm uncertain whether one can say one is better than the other.

More like each one has its respective vices that the other lacks.

[HopeHoops]

10. Yeah and saturated fat is better than trans fat.

They both are still bad for you, and school lunches and fast food both suck the naughty bits of a bull moose.

[Mopar151]

11. I've seen both sides

The lunch ladies in grade5-7 were AWFUL. One month, the only meat served was hot dogs - in every conceivable form. There were weevils in the crackers, bread was all bottom grade stale white. Some of us kind of cornered the principal (a good guy) when we found the weevils - a little while later, the whole crew was fired!
The district lunch director stepped in, and she was a marvel! We ate acres of homemade pizza, mostly made of USDA surplus foods. Any day we did not have pizza, or fresh baked sandwich rolls, we had a big, fresh, hot, buttered dinner roll with our mac 'n beef.
Institutional food is not easy to do, but it's worth devoting resources and good people to doing it right.

And the motives of the fast-food chains is hardly altruistic - they cannot afford to put out bad food these days. A few bad burgers can cost million$ in business - and when you buy as much as they do, you can beat the P*^% out of your suppliers.

[SpiralHawk]

12. "I've looked at lunch from both sides now..."

Hey, that could be a hit song...

It could be the flip side of my other sure-fire smash hit:

"I met my baby while she was multitasking during the webinar."