I was one of the poor kids but I worked in the cafeteria to earn my lunch. The day we had orange juice bars was a BIG day for everyone!! Beings we had to clean the tables and eat last, we got two bars if there was enough. Oh, was I in my glory!!

Our kids in school here get a cheese sandwich if they don't have money for lunch whereas they used to get peanut butter sandwiches.

My girlfriend manages the middle school cafeteria and it is a challenge to make a nutritious lunch that they will eat. I have eaten with my grandkids in the elementary cafeteria and there's more food thrown away than there is eaten. Infuriates me.

Diane

I too had those one meal menus. "Rib" sandwiches on fridays.mmmmm. If they don't want anything store bought then what exactly do they want??? Do you live on a farm because as far as i'm concerned eggs and milk and sugar etc. come from the store. lol I understand the concept of allergies but there are vegetarian and other recipes out there for almost any allergie. Many people can't do homemade either. So what about chocolate??? Can you bring in chocolate lolipops? Or would that not be accepted either because it comes from a bag or box??? If it was me I would buy a bag of dehydrated fruit and put 'em on a tray and tell them they were homemade. I put them on the tray and put lovely plastic wrap and a big bow. I made it at home and it's healthy. LOL. It is true though a lot of the food we eat has crap in it that'll make anyone sick. The meat "mad cow disease", the spinach, down to the medications made frome lead, paint, etc. What is the world coming to? We will never be safe. I'm just going to buy those mre's they give the military in war times. They are getting fed dehydrated foods from ww1. It'll leave you constipated but they are yummy.

We must come from the same era...I can still remember Tuesday's "offering"...some gluey, gelatinous mess they called gravy with a mystery meat they claimed was hamburger mixed in and poured over instant mashed potatoes. YUM!




OMG! I Loved that lunch... I am so glad I don't know what is in it!!!

I personally don't mind "from a box" style goods when it comes to a bake sale. Bake sales are just about everyone coming together and doing their best. Some people just don't have experience with making things "from scratch", so there's nothing wrong with a little store-bought help. Most bake sales are basically trying to raise money for a good cause, so I tend to praise anyone who contributes something from their oven.

Craziness, just, craziness. I worked in daycare for a few years and when we had a kid with a food allergy, their parent would supply something different on the days we had something they couldn't eat. There was one in particular who was allergic to everything. NO ANAPHALAXIS EVER, but he always had a runny nose. Even after they altered his diet. All the antibacterial stuff and little personal skin sanitizers drive me nuts too. MIL FREAKS when I insist she just let my child swallow the jelly bean from the floor he's already sucked all the germs off of anyway.

As far as the whole boxed thing goes, I constantly hear the "OMG your cake was the best cake I've ever put in my mouth" as I thankfully accept the compliment and chuckle to myself "thank's DH and Pilsbury."

I had emailed the organizer of the whole event 2 days ago...but still haven't heard anything.
Maybe I'll see if I can find someone else to email. I really want to know more information about this whole thing...

I'll let you know when I find something out!

Your right I thought I hit two on my computer, my bad I should proofread before I post. LOL. But yeah they are good in a wierd way. I loved the cheese tortellini, jambalaya, oh and the ribs. tHEM cheese and vegetable crackers helped curve hunger. YUMmmm and now they make breakfast ones!!!!!!!! I told hubby we have to lock them up because if I don't feel like cooking i'm going for the Mre's

This is half on and half off of the subjest but my mother does the marketing for a pizza company here in Houston, she sets up accounts with schools. The schools not only have pizza( not frozen, delivered from the store!) but they have Chick-f-lay, Subway,Starbucks, and a bunch of other food chains that sell in the schools. The reason the schools allow it is because they get a certain percantage of the daily profits from food sells.
When I was in school, not that long ago we had a "Mexican Line", Italian Line" Home Cooked Line" Deli Line" " Fast Food Line" "Pizza Line" where they had their own pizza oven and you could special order a pizza with your choice of toppings. , "Salad Line"and wait for it ..... a bakery!!!!
If you wanted you could go in the morning and order a whole cookie cake, chocolate or white cake or a dozen cupcakes and you could get stuff written on them like " would you go to prom with me" and stuff like that.
I kinda of miss lunh time in school, I could get a little bit of everything and still spend under 3 dollars!

where did you go to school????

Sadly, sometimes you don't have to eat something you're allergic to to have a reaction. There are people who are so sensitive that simply being in the same room could cause an anaphylactic shock.
If I'm around shellfish my lips and tongue go numb and my throat gets scratchy. That can happen if I walk by the seafood counter at the grocery store. I don't have to eat it to react.
I think everyone forgets that school districts are held liable if ANYTHING happens to a child at school. They have to try and protect themselves in this sue happy society on top of trying to keep all the kids safe and healthy.
As to "no box mixes"...well, they wouldn't get a donation from me!

My brothers class in school was the first that did something "different" in our school system. AT the beginning of the year, everyone sent in 2 bucks and that would buy your "birthday" cupcakes for your birthday. When that day came around, the whole class went to the cafeteria, donned gloves and the class made the cupcakes with the ingredients that were "bought" from the cafeteria. That way ensuring that nothing was brought from home, but it was still "scratch"

Before that, you were allowed to bring in homemade goods-get this-- "IF YOU SENT IN THE DISPOSABLE GLOVES THAT YOU USED TO MAKE IT!!!!"

the neighboring town used to have a HUGE potluck...one year almost everyone got sick from spoiled salads, now they have ppl donate jars of mayo or boxes of macaroni and they make it all that day and keep it in the fridge while they are serving.....crazy crazy.....

could you imagine if they outlawed every single fast food/convenience food store becasue the world wanted everyone to cook from scratch? im sure some ppl would starve! just my two cents..

If I'd had a child with special dietary needs I'd have provided lunch from home so I'd know what he/she was getting. My daughter does what I did, pack the girls home lunches and les them eat school food once in a while when it's something special. Personally I don't think the schools should be expected to provide for every individual's particular dietary needs like a hospital. My sis tells me how much food goes into the dumpster at her school because every child has to have everything that's provided on their tray. It's shameful, the waste.

I'll bet the reasonf for the scratch is to be able to hype up the sale to make it more "high class". I don't agree, but I see where they are coming from.

I do think sometimes parents are too worried about germs. And there definately is an over use of medications. However, saying that "we did it when we were kids, and we are fine" is not really the best route I think.

Think about it, I was never put in a car seat and I am fine, but would I allow my babies to roll around int he car? Never. My mother smoked like a smoke stack while pregnant, would I do that? Never. Sometimes we do need to learn from our past.

Another thing we might want to consider when talking about requiring all children to go with the no allergen diet is this (well 2 things). How sad is it that the one little kid has to sit at the peanut table all alone. How lonely for them. And then if the school is not peanut free I can see the problem. How well does your kindergartener wash his/her hands? So they eat the pbj and then go back to class play with the toys and then so does the allergic kid. Then they get sick.

The other thing is....say your kid has the allergy. Each kid brings in their cupcakes and every single time they get the cool theme decorated cupcake, your kid gets the one from home. Kind of sad for them. I know it is not everyone elses responsibility to protect other kids feelings, but i hate to see the sad kids for no reason.

I think the problem is we want to protect our kids so much, that in the end we might cause them more problems than not.

I guess I am on the fence about the issue.

Well said acookieobsession. I'm kinda on the fence about those issues also.

Diane

Wow, I am so behind in posting because it took me four years to read all these replies!! Some of you are too funny! I love hearing about everyone's varied opinions and experiences!!

I am intrigued about the 'no mix' requirement. I just have to wonder what their thought process is! Can't wait to hear it!

Allergies suck! I have a nephew who is allergic to many things and it's hard sometimes! You just want to be nice and give him a treat, but what the HECK can he have!! You wouldn't believe how much stuff has Red Dye #40 in it!! Why on earth does something BLUE have red dye in it?? And sometimes GREEN stuff has it!! WTF!?!?!?! I went through Art in school and on the color wheel Red was never required to make Blue or Green!!

A little more off the subject here...

Here is my opinion on a bake sale in general: You could not PAY me to eat anything from one. Not unless I personally knew the person who made it! I am one of those people who practically makes myself gag watching SOME other people cook... you know... pet the dog, roll out the cookies... no handwashing in between. Oh, now their head itches, and they can't get their underwear out of their butt... now they are going to handle those veggies with (again) no handwashing!! YUMMY!!! Of course I know that not everyone does that, but I have a sister who I will not eat anything she has touched!!! I gag at the thought of it! (So how do I handle eating out?? I REFUSE to think about it!!!) Hehehe

I am also always impressed with the people that bake treats that taste like burnt bricks! I agree with the person who said they weren't trying to make it sound like they were the worlds gift to baking, but they were shocked by the crappy treats. I have that happen with my in-laws. They are terrible cooks and bakers and yet they compliment each other like the food is gourmet. And then they try to down play my cooking and baking to make themselves feel better. Except my Aunt in-law. She is not shy about raving over my cooking (she's the only one in the family that likes me...) but she is always saying how I make the best food she's ever had etc And the rest of them kind of sigh and roll their eyes. They'd argue the point, but their mouths are too crammed full of my 'average' food!

On the homemade issue:
My MIL has a home business called "Homemade by (her name)". She makes cakes and cookies and bars and other items like pasta bakes completely from scratch, but she uses store bought pie crusts and frosting. Not even a mix, I'm talking take out of the package and use as is. I have given her no end of crap since I found this out, and it drives her crazy. I always tell her that she can't call her business 'homemade' if she uses store bought items, and those two things are two of the easiest things to make!
She wanted some decorating pointers, so I gave her a quick lesson one day with some left over frosting I had, and her first reaction was, holy crap, this is COMPLETELY different than the stuff I use, no wonder I have so many problems. I told her it would make her cakes taste better too. She didn't think that was funny at all.

Hopefully there will not be a double post, my computer didn't send my quick reply,
BlueRoseCakes - do you have a special insurance policy "Death by MIL"???

Personally, I can't wait to hear the final outcome of this one!! This thread is a great diversion from all the political debating going on these days !

Since we're on the subject of bake sales....I learned something just a couple of years ago. In our school/community we usually use the 'cake walk' to raise money since at $1 a person we are guaranteed to get $10 per cake. One of the Mom's suggested a bake sale and we all lamented about how little money we normally make. She informed us we weren't doing it right . She said instead of pricing items just ask for donations. She was right! People who would normally be reluctant to 'buy' a treat for $1 would easily hand over $20 for 2 cookies and then say "Keep the change" ! There were even people who didn't even take a treat, just made a donation. We made $600 in 3 hours ! And that's in a super small community. Just thought I'd pass that along, it's such a great idea.

I taught for 30 years in a public school system, happily they didn't have any "no homemade treat rules." The cafeteria at my school used to make some of the best food- OK, some of it was typical 'cafeteria food' but their soups were excellent, then the federal Government add a few rules about requiring low salt soup bases and the soups were tasteless. Same recipe, different base, both the faculty and student body stopped eating soups. Follow that by budget cuts- fewer workers etc. And then the farming out the food service to a profit making company and during the last two years of my teaching career the food was very poor quality.

Concerning the bake sale, that's the APT province, as a teacher, we might get hit up for donations but no way would we have had the time to run one. Frankly, even though I can bake - generally from scratch- my reaction was to offer them ten or twenty bucks and call that good.

About just taking KFC to a potluck- I did just that 40 years ago. I was headed to a family reunion. I took my dutch oven with me to the KFC and told them to put the twenty-one pieces in it. They looked pretty startled at the the KFC, but did as I asked. I did tell my mother when I arrived at the potluck. She snickered when I told her and thought it was hysterical when some of the great aunts started telling her what a good cook I was. I think she responded, "Yes, she can put a good meal on the table."

Bake sales are not allowed at our school, nor are parents permitted to send it cupcakes, cookies, etc, for parties, events, or for any other reason. If I was a Mom of a child with severe peanut allergies (for example) I would never trust a stranger's cooking to be peanut free since so many ingredients state "may have come in contact with nuts."

It is more than the allergy issue with our school, it is a "healthy eating plan" put forth by our government that all schools have to follow. No more deep fried foods in the cafeteria, no more ice cream, chips, bars, etc. available. I think it is a really great thing!

Sorry for going on a tangent...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Win

It's so much more than nuts now... people have issues with glutens, etc. Soon, bake sales will be a thing of the past because of the regulations! I noticed the original post did say that they require an ingredient list. What is the school going to do with the items donated that were picked up the night before at Walmart? Don't tell me those are "scratch."