Effects of Allowing Kids to Purchase "Junk" Foods in School Everyday

The elementary school I sub at has items on ala carte, however, most parents have restrictions on the account code and the children can't get it. Many parents opt to pack the children's lunches and avoid the lunch line altogether.

I believe it teaching good eating habits begins at home and by parents modeling those habits. I don't think forbidding certain things will do anything except make someone want it more.

Moderation is the key. I know my 16 yr old will eat fruit anyday over chips or candy etc but it is how she was raised.

I agree with you. It's hard when we do everything we can at home to offer healthy choices & instill good habits, then they go to school and there's one b-day party or holiday party after another, and unhealthy food served in the cafeteria. Maybe the district's wellness policy needs to be changed? Best of luck to you.

You have a right to insist your kids not buy that, and to follow up with them, but another parent might not have a problem with their kid having a treat, and for many low income kids this might be the only treats they get. I am tired of everyone trying to force what they think is healthy or best on to everyone else.

Well guess what my middle schooler gets to "choose" for lunch EVERY DAY... chicken nuggets or popcorn chicken and a hamburger and offered EVERY DAY. Sure, they also offer a few other things, usually, like a PB & J... but no salads. My son LOVES salads. He told me last week, "Mom, I think the school lunch is making me fat." He is 12. He of course chooses the most palatable item daily... the fried chicken nuggets/popcorn chicken.
Lovely. Isn't it?

If they would just offer a decent salad with a piece of grilled chicken breast meat on it it would make my son VERY happy (and me too!). Wouldn't be that hard, I wouldn't think...

Both our HS and MS used to have a wonderful salad bar option with lots of raw veggies, fruits, soups, etc. It was nixed with budget cuts. Mostly I went back to making lunches every morning, but they bring in money sometimes and get the standardized chix nuggets, pizza, sandwich of the day.

Personally, while I think the salad bar was a WONDERFUL idea, I also this it's the school's job to academically educate my children. It's MY job to instill a positive healthy relationship with food. To me, the point of school lunches is to get something anything in their gut so they don't have a slammin' headache and fall asleep in Trig.

High quality healthy consistant school lunches are INCREDIBLY expensive, and especially now, taxpayers do NOT want to hear about increases. So my advise is send them with a lunch of YOUR choice. We all have that option.

:)

Your the parent of your child, you need to tell them it is not allowed and hope they follow the rules, They will learn/need to learn to follow the rules everywhere even if you are not around. This is a part of growing up, they need to have the choices, and you need to pray that they choose right, I don't see anything wrong with those options along side of the main meal. Think of all the kids whose parents pack a lunch and include a cookie or chips, they are just giving those sam eoptions to 'hot lunch" takers You can also just make your own lunch. also if you do not like what they surve the option of you making the lunches is always there and honestly a better choice. You can make a salad and sent it with your child, or a sandwich, or soup...etc and if you wish on a few days a cookie or chips or let them go up and get a snack item every few days. You cannot choose what others feed their kids or the options that they have. I really don't see any issue with ice cream, chips and cookies. who doesn't have a snack now and again.

Do not give your kids money to buy that junk.. Also just tell them they are not allowed to have it and you trust them not to purchase it.. Parents are the rule makers..

Otherwise go to the school board and voice your concerns..

Yes, we are teaching kids to make bad choices. You can join the PTO, run for school board, become active in local or state politics, join or contribute to organizations that support healthy/local foods. More immediately, you can discuss food with your kids, model a healthy, varied and local diet at home, and brown bag their lunches.

The thing to remember is that schools get their food supplies in bulk as cheaply as they can. It's amazing that your school even can afford low-fat junk food. I'm sure if you look at the school menu, you will find out that it is probably higher in fat than their junk food. You also have to remember that you can't force kids to eat. While some might get hungry and opt for the only food available, (I'm thinking having the school totally ban junk food idea.) others will just not eat at all and skip lunch making the problem even worse. They are the skinny picky eaters. Not all kids who eat junk food are fat. It's actually the amount the kid eats and the amount that child exercises/is active to burn off the extra sugar and calories. I do think the school should have fresh fruit and a salad bar as an available alternative rather than ban the low-fat junk food. If the salad bar good, the kids will eat it.

If you ban the junk food for school age children, you're not teaching them self control. What happens when they get into college or in a situation where junk food is available? They pig out. The best thing a parent can do is to teach their children about nutrition and exercise AND set an example. If you deny your child goldfish, but the child sees you sitting there drinking sweet flavored coffie and a danish, what do you think goes through their heads? Remember you can always pack your child's lunch, if you don't like what the school's serving up. The school's lunches are not organic, so there are chemicals in them. You can make the time to pack your child's lunch by packing certain items the night before and getting up earlier. (It will not hurt you to get up at 5:00AM.) Exercise with your child. You can get fun dance videos for times you can't go outside. You can take up a kung fu or fencing class with them. They can skateboard while you roller skate or do old fashioned exercises outside. Create vegie/fruit art together. There is so much you can do. Your child is only young once, so enjoy the togetherness learning about nutrition and exercise can bring. Make it fun!

I don't mind my kids having a snack with lunch occasionally. We have a school lunch account and i can see if they got an extra snack/dessert. For the most part, my kids eat the healthy options. They like the apple slices, carrots, mini salad...lots of good things. What does bother me is the elementary school offers iced tea. My kids were confused when they saw an "adult drink" at their school...lol!

If a lack of healthy options is a real problem at your school you can visit this site for ideas on making changes.
http://www.letsmove.gov/community-step-2.php

I very much agree with you. They had those items at my middle school as a kid and I couldn't get enough. I spent the money my mom gave me for a REAL lunch on that stuff everyday. My mom was not with me at school and had no way to stop me from doing this. You would never believe I'd turn into the health nut I am now, haha.

I think the schools like to keep those items available because they make money. Otherwise I can't see the necessity for kids having chips and ice cream at school. I think if parents don't mind their kids having chips and ice cream snacks they are more than welcome to send their kids to school with that stuff. I guess I'd just like to see the school promote healthy food as normal food and not something that you have to force yourself to eat.

That being said, my parents did teach (relatively) good eating habits at home and when I moved out of my parents house when I was 19 I found that most of those had stuck. When I had the chance to stock my own refrigerator, it was filled with mostly healthy stuff. I do agree with you though. Diabetes runs rampant in my family which is my main motivation to keep my son eating healthfully. We try to teach him that something is a "treat" rather than to be eaten on a regular basis.

The thing is, it's not school allowing the kids to purchase these foods. The parents are giving their kids money to buy snacks. at least your school has lower fat versions. The fact is most kids do eat some junk foods, and their parents do allow it. I allow some junk food but no one is required to buy the snacks at school and they dont' come with the state funded school lunch. I work in an elementary school and sometimes I am blown away by the things parents send in to school with their kids in addition to what kids can buy at school. I worry less about the optional snack purchases and more about the actual meals - breakfast and lunch, served at school. I realize that with state funding and the meals that school is required to provide for the lower income students, they are limited in what they can purchase with state assistance. In our district, Food Services is an independent entity, not funded by the district but self funded, so all those snacks they sell hep to fund the department.
I do see the point though - if things are offered in school, it may be assumed that they are good for you, just like when hospitals send new parents home with formula, it makes the parents think that formula is recommended by medical authorities.
I think most kids are already trained to think of chips and cookies as everyday snacks.

I don't think schools should be allowed to sell cheeseburgers, fried chicken, french fries, pizza, ice cream, etc. on a DAILY basis. I do not have any issue if they are offered only once in awhile, while mixed in with healthy balanced meals, fresh food, and salad bar options. As long as these high fat and high calorie junk items are available a la carte DAILY, and the cafeteria takes cash, there is a concern, in my opinion. Parents can only control so much. Nearly all kids, especially by middle school, can scrounge up enough change for a bag of french fries. It is way too tempting for this to become a regular habit when the food is right in front of them daily and parents are not. Some kids are self-motivated enough not to overindulge, but certainly many, many will develop horrible habits. Sure parents can say they pack a healthy lunch but kids will add to that with cheeseburger, throw out most of the parent-packed lunch. I've seen it. And young kids feel invincible to the health risks. I remember eating bags of fries and big slabs of greasy pizza MANY days in junior high because I could. My mom had no clue. I would say less than 10% of the kids actually ate the school hot lunch. I am glad my daughter's middle school does not even sell a la carte items. I would suggest to any school that they at limit the junk food sales to once a week instead of every day. I wouldn't argue that kids can and have a treat every once in awhile, but I don't know ANY parent that would say, yes, my kid needs access to ice cream/chips/cookies every single day.

Honestly I'd prefer full fat junk food over low fat for my child..the low fat stuff tends to have more "fake" ingredients - unless its just a low fat dairy product that is low fat b/c it uses 1 or 2% milk. But even those can tend to have a lot of other processed ingredients. Yogurt, ice cream, cheese, you have to watch the ingredients. Anyway...I think its great you are trying to incorporate more healthy choices into the menu, however, I don't agree with eliminating the so called "unhealthy" choices, perhaps making sure the unhealthy choices are more natural would be a good start though. What you want your child to learn, teach them at home and that includes being confronted in the real world with unhealthy choices (not only food, but it can really equate to all "vices") I try to teach my child about portion control, having a diet of balance and variety, trying as many foods as possible and then deciding if you like them or not, being open minded and most importantly to exercise! I also try to lead by example...it all starts in the home. My son see's us eat well but he also see's us not eat well, he knows and understand when and why mommy goes to the gym or out for a walk and he knows he's lucky his exercise is playing and that as we get older we unfortunatley don't always get to play as much so we have to make sure we keep moving! School can do all they can, but it will never be enoug! If if the foundation isn't started at home, it won't matter. Its our job to teach our children and send them out in the world so they make smart decisions. Once out of school, they aren't going to be living in a world that makes the choices for them by limiting their choices, we want them to be strong and conifident and prepared to look at an unhealthy snack and healthy snack and choose the healthy snack. My son eats his shares of junk but he will also choose a yogurt or unsweeteneed applesauce or a cheese stick for "desert" too and he is darn happy to do it...over cookies sometimes b/c I do give him BOTH as a choice...so limiting there choices for to long may only lead them to a point where they may lose control in the real world once they get a taste of what they've been missing...again though, I choose REAL ingredients - even if in junk food over the fake stuff they put in to make it all seem more healthy when its really not!

Hi G.-

My kid's are a January Birthday and a March Birthday so I didn't have the choice that you have, but I do know that my sister has twins that are November bday's and she put them in at 5 and then regretted it later. They seemed ready at the time but really had issues when the other kid's are reaching puberty and they weren't, and especially with sports, because most of their opponents were so much older then them. My sister had another child and he has a August Bday and she waited, and it's been a positive experience. I also know from volunteering in my kid's classes that it seems like most kid's are starting later so having a young child, especially a boy, really seems to be at a disadvantage.

Good luck with what you decide. Whatever it is will be right for you and your family.

It is a disgrace. I know it's Michelle Obama's big thing along with Jamie Oliver. You can do something, but it takes time. You are right - you don't teach kids to make choices by giving them a bad and a good one and see what they do - gee, they chose ice cream instead of an orange. Gee, every time.

You can take care of your own children - send in lunch, not money. Even if you qualify for a free lunch, make it yourself. And give them good stuff for bfast, snack and dinner - real oatmeal instead of packaged, real eggs instead of McDonald's. Add some whole wheat flour when making pancakes from scratch on the weekend. Don't buy frozen food or canned food. Fresh fruit for snack everyday. Vegetable (green - not white) every night for dinner. Serve the veggie as a first course - no pasta until the veg is eaten. No soda or juice in the house - just plain water and low fat milk (unflavored - not chocolate or vanilla). You can do it.