Lunch Participation Rates - The Kids Need Time to Eat

As we discussed here, we should all support our much improved school lunch program in two ways:


1. Buy lunch - you can review the menus online and check here for more information on ingredients. I think you can easily find lunches this year you can feel good about.


2. Talk to your kids about taking - and at least trying if not eating - the fruits and vegetables served with each meal.  The school receives a small amount of federal money for each complete meal they serve. Plus, your kids will get a much healthier meal that will last them much longer.

All in all, our students get a healthy lunch and the lunch program has additional funds so that we can make even more improvements in the quality of the  ingredients and the number of foods we can make from scratch in our schools.


But I think there is one big barrier to having more kids buy lunch -- they need time to eat it.  Kids complain very consistently that by the time they are able to get their lunch and sit down, they don't have enough time to eat it. Better facilities might be a necessary long-term plan but for right now, I think we need the school to focus on what they can do to get lunch to kids a little faster.  I think we could start with just some simple time studies of how long it takes to get through the line and how long they have left to eat.

Sara