School Lunch--The Past Few Weeks

It's been several months now since I started eating lunch with some of my kiddos.  It's only once a week, but that's often enough for me!

4 weeks ago, they had Chicken & Noodles over mashed potatoes.  I was already sitting at the table with the other "sack lunches" when the hot lunch kids came over to join us.  On their trays was the Chicken and Noodles, mashed potatoes and milk.  Nothing else.  I asked how they were able to get away with not taking any of the other food (fruit, veggies, roll) because when I was in school, we had to take a certain amount of the food.

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Turns out, they had run out of the fruit, veggies and rolls by the time our grade level came to the cafeteria.  The students claimed "it happens all the time" and I was worried they were exaggerating. Nope.  They were left with only noodles and potatoes for lunch that day.  After talking with several parents, they also attested to the cafeterias running out of food before all the kids went through the line.  It's been known to happen on any given day--just not when that particular day's lunch is "popular."

WTH?   I especially feel for the students who depend on the school for their meals.  Some kids can go home and have a hearty after-school snack to hold them over until supper, but that's not true for a large number of our students.  Regardless of one's socioeconomic status, it's ludacris that they're running out of food.

Enough of my rant...

The next week was Quesadillas.  I have to admit, at first I had no idea what it was.  I thought maybe it was a sliced calzone--there was a crust on both the top and bottom with a cheesy filling in the middle, served in slices.  Nope, it was a quesadilla!  Once I found that out, I could somewhat see a resemblance...but it still didn't quite look like a quesadilla.

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After some brief questioning, I learned that some students love the quesadilla while some students can't stand them.  Pretty typical of school food!

Then this week...I was actually excited for this week!  I had seen in our daily announcements that Thursday was Papa John's pizza with various side dishes.  Heck yes, sign me up!

It's fair to say that I had psyched myself up to actually EAT the school's lunch.  I went to the ATM so I could pay for my lunch and I was mentally prepared for the hives and headache that would come with eating the pizza.  I was ready to spend some time interacting with the kids while standing in line!

Come to find out, I was duped.  It was Papa John's Day at the school where my office is...NOT the school I eat at!  I was not even smart enough to develop a Plan B so I was stuck eating the school's lunch--tomato soup, cold ham & cheese sandwich (no mayo), fresh broccoli, carrots, mixed fruit and Cheez-Its.

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I have never liked tomato soup--let alone, school tomato soup.  It was this weird, frothy consistency.  However, I was starving so I ate my sandwich, broccoli and carrots and returned the uneaten bag of Cheez-Its.  Needless to say, I was happy when work was over so that I could grab a snack and take my Benadryl!