Joel - FB IM sent, see if that works for you.
ronnie_suburban wrote:Jennie Berkson at Evanston Rountable wrote:The cafeteria serves name brand products such as Tyson, Land O’ Lakes, Pepperidge Farms and Frito-Lay.
There's your trouble.
=R=
Ronnie, you're exactly right - another parent brought this up to me a while back, and I've been kicking myself for missing it as an obvious part of the problem. Not only do they serve brand-name factory-foods, there is a LOT of product placement: take a look at the posted menus upthread. In addition, the kids get the chips, etc, in their branded packaging. Many of these branded items are pure empty calories. I am guessing that this is the way that schools can afford packaged junk food: they must get them cheaply because the food companies are well aware of the exposure they're getting (all of them have special "food service" versions.)
Case in point: I'd never heard of Goldfish crackers when I was a kid, but suddenly they are the accepted "healthy" kids' snack, even though they have minimal nutritional value - the power of product placement.
I'm really annoyed that I didn't think of this before we contacted our Congresswoman, but it's something that should be part of the Child Nutrition Act.