In the Netherlands we don't have school lunches.
There seems to be a lot at stake though with the so called school lunches.
Isn't there a saying : '' you are what you eat ''
If students are not used to eating healthy foods at home;they won't
eat healthy food at school too.
It is hard to change these bad eating habits;people are litterally poisoned
with all this pre fabricated ''food''.
''School Lunches: How The Food Industry Controls Student Meals''
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/school-lunches-how-the-fo_n_1129951.html
''An increasingly cozy alliance between companies that manufacture processed
foods and companies that serve the meals is making students — a captive market
— fat and sick while pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
At a time of fiscal austerity, these companies are seducing school administrators
with promises to cut costs through privatization. Parents who want healthier meals,
meanwhile, are outgunned.''
''Each day, 32 million children in the United States get lunch at schools that
participate in the National School Lunch Program, which uses agricultural surplus
to feed children. About 21 million of these students eat free or reduced-price meals,
a number that has surged since the recession. The program, which also provides
breakfast, costs $13.3 billion a year.
Sadly, it is being mismanaged and exploited. About a quarter of the school nutrition
program has been privatized, much of it outsourced to food service management
giants like Aramark, based in Philadelphia; Sodexo, based in France; and the
Chartwells division of the Compass Group, based in Britain. They work in tandem
with food manufacturers like the chicken producers Tyson and Pilgrim’s, all of
which profit when good food is turned to bad.''
www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/school-lunches-and-the-food-industry.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
''The Government-Industry Conspiracy that Promotes Crap Food in School''
Industry and government work together to promote everything from fast-food
pizza to sugary milk in schools.''
''Dairy lobbyists are ever present in Washington, and their efforts usually pay off.
For example, last year when the IDFA implored the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) to give dairy foods a pass in the new snack food guidelines for schools,
the agency capitulated, opening school doors to even more junk food, such as
YoCrunch Lowfat Yogurt with M&Ms.''
''This is just one of many examples I uncovered in a report I published last month,
" Whitewashed: How Industry and Government Promote Dairy Junk Foods" (PDF).
The dairy industry, propped up by government, has convinced us of the health
benefits of milk and other dairy products. The assumption that eating dairy is
essential to the diet has obstructed our ability to criticize federal government
support for unhealthy dairy products, of which there are many.''
www.alternet.org/food/dirty-secret-behind-dairy-junk-foods