The “Not So Hot” Lunch
Why you should be getting “cold” feet in the hot lunch line
Looking back now…it’s clear that I was spoiled.
I grew up in a household with the good fortune of getting to live with my grandparents (as well as my dad of course).
My grandfather was the typical old-school Italian perfectionist who just couldn’t stomach the thought of me leaving for school every day without some homemade sandwich and brown-bagged healthy, fresh lunch.
Gramps…I know you’re looking down right now and to you I want to say a heartfelt “Thanks” and “Holy crap you saved my life!”
Because after glancing at some of the hot lunch menus just recently, that anyone can pull up on a quick search of google, unfortunately turned up just that…a lot of crappy food choices that frankly are worse than when I was in high school some 15 years ago!
With all we know now about the link between nutrition and mental and physical performance (both on the field and in the classroom) you’d think that this would have improved in recent years. Ummm….not the case.
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at these two actual menus that I pulled up. The names of the schools will be withheld for their protection. Though the food cops might want to add them to their “MOST WANTED” asap
Sadly, the best day in those entire three weeks was Friday April 2nd…when there was NO SCHOOL!
The first week alone offered up the following four entrees:
1. Popcorn Chicken on a Roll
2. Quesadillas
3. Corn Dogs
4. Pasta of the Day with a Breadstick (or the Bratwurst sandwich if you would rather have some “healthy” protein!)
Actually, of these…the pasta would seem like a non-offender. However, take a look at the sauces that are being offered on the pasta and you might be able to start holding swim team practices in the amount of grease that’s in them!
Popcorn chicken? They’d be better off serving just the popcorn (hold the fried chicken please).
Corn dogs? It might just be wishful thinking, but I could have sworn that these babies had gone the same route of SPAM (meaning…almost extinct!). Man was I wrong. Not only are they not gone, but they are being served on multiple menus and in major metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
But it doesn’t end there. Philly Cheesesteaks, Calzones, Macaroni and Cheese, and more variations of pizza than there are names that end in vowels in Italy. In fact, you’d have to wait for the 15th until you could get anything close to a top protein recommendation in the grilled chicken sandwich. While coaches and parents may be dreading tax day…at least their young athletes looking to fuel their bodies with “productive” calories had something to finally smile about!
Look, I’m not trying to bash any one school system….because again, there isn’t just one offender. With the internet these days and all the information that is accessible through it, we can literally see the menus of thousands of high school cafeterias across the country and they all look eerily the same.
My question for you is…is this the BEST we can do?
Do you feel like me that we’re doing a disservice to our young athletes by serving the types of menus that would be more likely found at an 8 year old’s birthday party than on the daily menus of a population in their most significant growth years? Remember the saying, you are what you eat. Can we possibly be creating the best athletes by providing them with the worst meal choices?
I think you know how I feel.
So parents, break out those brown bags. Pack them full of last night’s leftovers on a sandwich (trust me it’s good….think pork tenderloins, chicken breasts, baked chicken cutlets, etc) with a piece of fruit, a low sugar yogurt (throw a portable chillpak in to keep things cool) and you’re good to go. Again, it doesn’t take much time to prepare, but the extra 5 minutes can go a long way towards keeping your athlete feeling strong for much longer than that…day in and day out!
Stay Strong,
Jeff
Filed under Sports Nutrition by on Jun 3rd, 2010. Comment. 
Leave a Comment
Comments on The “Not So Hot” Lunch
Hi Jeff – I’d like to share this information with our team and their parents. Can I post it on our website and credit you or could you edit out the word ‘crap’ so I can link directly to your blog?
Just being politically sensitive to my young audience.
Hello Jeff and as usual you are right on target with the offensive nature of our menus across this so called educated country. We feed trash to our athletes at school because so many as in our school system in Mena, Arkansas feel like athletics is a gross waste of school (academic) time and don’t even realize the harm being done to the learning process in the class room. What a shame and maybe if we keep hammering at this injustice things might begin to change. One thing I can control is what my own young athletes consume and when the school starts losing revenue from the cafeteria because nobody is buying the lunches, maybe they will get their act together. Talk to you later Jeff, your friend Larry Wood.
Hi Jeff
Busy reading your blue print between training hockey players. So far great material. loving it!
Thank you,
Edgar
I would say that those kids are eating off the “kings table”. Our school “John Mills Junior High” canteen only serves one type of food- rice. Fried chicken is served for a majority of the week. stewed chicken or stewed peas are served only occassionally. Some athletes don’t come to school with any lunch money. Some will rely on the “bulla cakes” and milk provided by Nutritions Products Limited’s school feeding programme. Yet we are 16 years unbeaten in the championships even producing quaslity athlete such as Olympian Kerron Stewart.
Thanks Jeff! 100 % agree here. I provide your Teen Nutrition Blueprint to the athletes I work with and I hope it has enlightened some of them on their food selections as competitive athletes with high hopes in sport and in the weight room…
I have been on our towns comittee to create healthier school lunches and sadly, not much changed. The only thing that came of it was a salad bar — next to the pizza and corn dogs. I would love to create some kind of change. I heard of a man in Chicago? that changed the school systems menu’s in a very unique way. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name or the details of what he did. I would love to get ahold of that program and insitute it in my state.
Disgusted with the ‘food’ we feed our kids
I agree with you totally! My children attend parochial school here in MI and our menu looks pretty much the same. I asked my husband, who chairs the day school board, what we could do to get some better food choices on the menu. I was told that if you take gov’t $ and you offer the free and reduced $ lunches you have to take the food the gov’t program sends you. This food is not worth the box it is shipped in. Prisoners in this country receive better meal choices than our kids do! I’m still doing research on how we can have a self supporting hot lunch program in our school and still keep the cost per meal reasonable for families.
I really enjoy your emails and nutrition information. All of this is very important for the young athletes. As a coach of middle school basketball and track I find this info very useful. Thanks for your efforts and keep up the good work!