We were part of the free lunch program with our school district this summer. Normally it’s not something I participate in since we’re homeschooling, but this year I figured it would help ease the burden of feeding the horde of monsters that fill my life, with having a new baby and all.
Honestly, we won’t be participating again.
While I appreciate the idea of nutritionally balanced, it functionally doesn’t mean much when the kids refuse to eat their whole grain oatmeal raisin bars. I mean, that’s really asking a lot of them.
ANYway, my main complaint is actually the fact that absolutely everything is ‘fat free’. Like, hey I really don’t approve of the assumptions that you’re making.
I, for one, do not believe that,”eating fat makes you fat,” I do not think that drinking 8 ounces of whole milk a day is going to cause childhood obesity. Maybe the insane amount of juice and soda pop that I’ve seen parents give to their kids, but not things like milk, ranch dressing, and mayonnaise.
I do, however, believe that fat is essential for physical development. I don’t appreciate feeling like I need to supplement meals that are supposed to be nutritionally balanced, because they go out of their way to eliminate such an important element.
And seriously, what sort of person actually thinks that children are going to wash down their whole grain oatmeal raisin bars with skim milk?
The end result has me feeling guilty about the amount of food we’ve thrown away, and I’m grateful that homeschooling is an option for us so my children aren’t stuck eating like that all year round.
By Autumn Rain 
Seriously, why does everything available to kids have to be fat free? I understand the problem with obesity, but not every kid is obese and not every kid is going to turn out to be obese. It’s the same problem I have with my kids, especially when we go out (we used to bring our own whole milk). They’re a far cry to even being at risk, but everything is fat free and so “healthy” they may as well be eating cardboard. I don’t blame them for not eating the free food. It’s a gross overgeneralization that makes every kid out to be the exact same as another. Before schools closed, my son’s school gave every student breakfast, and he only ate the coffee cake.
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It doesn’t matter how “healthy” something is if you can’t get kids to eat it. There were days when it felt like the lunches were meant for an adult on a diet, instead of for children.
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I used to peruse the breakfast and lunch schedule my son came home with every month. Even I wouldn’t eat most of it if I were on a diet. Couldn’t even figure out what some of it was.
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