Feature
August
11
School Lunch 101
by Debbie Melvin, M.S., C.F.C.S. Extension Agent (Nutrition), Lafourche Parish, LSU AgCenter
The kids are back in school. That means it’s also back to routines, homework, extracurricular activities—and preparing lunches. Give me any of those tasks, except those dreaded school lunches! Many parents feel this way and want to throw up their hands in defeat. Coupled with finicky kids and seemingly limited imagination, parents succumb to PB and J sandwiches, and kids simply sigh. Here we go again this year.
Granted, it is a challenge. The first concern should involve the choice of the food items and how they can be kept safe. School systems in other states have ruled against lunches brought from home after temperature-testing them. Nearly 90 percent of students had lunches that were unsafe to eat. Lukewarm meat sandwiches, and other risky food items, harbor harmful bacteria that can make your child sick. Symptoms of foodborne illness mimic a stomach virus or flu. Could it be that some of the so-called viruses going around can be traced back to an unsafe school lunch?
Here are some tips:
- Have a lunch plan for the week. Cut-up fruit and vegetables are more likely to be eaten. Portion other items into small bags or rigid containers so they are ready to grab and pack.
- Make and refrigerate lunches the night before so everything will be very cold before packing in lunch boxes or insulated bags.
- Freeze reusable bottles of water to pack next to the food to be kept cold. Put the frozen water bottles in clean socks to absorb “sweating.” The water can be consumed with the lunch.
- Shop for sturdy containers to avoid squishing sandwiches and other fragile items. Look for containers with snap-in ice packs. Purchase small containers for items like cut-up fruit, pudding and yogurt, as well as very small ones for dressings and dips. Other containers have compartments to keep items separate, with a common lid. A host of colorful cold foods can be stored in portion sizes and can be quite appealing when the lid is lifted by a hungry child!
- Remind your students to store their lunch in a cool place as soon as they can.
- Choose foods that will be safe at room temperature, such as whole-grain crackers, string cheese, baked chips, dried fruits, graham crackers, granola and nuts (if allowed). Try nut butters, other than just peanut butter, for variety.
- Look for thermal containers for foods to be kept hot. Fill them with boiling water and let set a few minutes before filling with the food. Metal containers will hold the heat better than plastic ones.
- Ask kids after school if their lunch was cold, or hot, when they ate it. This will give you an indication of whether your packing precautions are working.
For the best performance at school, children and youth need a healthy start—a good breakfast containing carbohydrates for brain food, protein for staying power and delaying hunger and a healthy fat for satisfaction. Then, follow the same guidelines for lunch so that what they eat can sustain them for the rest of the school day. After school, when they are ravenous, provide healthy snacks to help them last till dinner. You got this!
