Food service @FCPS worse than Mickie Dee's?
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fat kid with good throwing arm
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Date: October 30, 2011 07:18PM
But, in a crunch, are the foods FCPS serve
our children better projectiles than burgers and fries from McDonald's?
VIENNA, Va. (WUSA) - What are your kids eating at school? Does their lunch food come pre-cooked in plastic bags and then warmed up in an oven? That's how most of the hot lunches are prepared in schools these days. But two Fairfax County moms are trying to change that.
"It's a sad day when I'd rather my kids eat at McDonalds than their school's cafeteria," said Jocelyn Hsu, a certified nutrition educator.
She's referring to the 34 ingredients in the Fairfax County School's hamburger. The list of ingredients can be found on a link on the FCPS website. It's a bit difficult to read, but we could make out caramel coloring, vegetable protein, potassium chloride and copper gluconate.
The two women would like to see the school burgers be made with just beef, salt and pepper, like a McDonald's burger, but better. However, That would entail cooking.
"They have taken all the stoves out. Everything comes in plastic bags," said Hsu, who explains that the meals are pre-cooked and are only warmed up.
Hsu and JoAnne Hammermaster. two Vienna moms with children in Fairfax County Schools, have started the website Real Food for Kids to encourage a change. They want to see every school have a fresh vegetable salad bar, they want the system to get rid of processed food in favor of whole foods and foods that are cooked in the school kitchens.
To the criticism that all the cooking and fresh foods would be too costly, the women point to other school districts that are doing it.
D.C. Schools have made huge changes in their food service, thanks to the director of Food and Nutrition Services, Jeff Mills.
The D.C. School website lists the 13 farms in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey where all their fresh vegetables come from.
Mills says it you go out and find local produce, it will taste better, and be cheaper to transport than if you order it from across the country. "And if it tastes better, they'll eat it," he said.
Fairfax County Schools say their lunches are nutritious and that they strive hard to also make them appetizing, often holding taste tests in schools before introducing new products.
A schools spokesperson also says they are open to suggestions from parents and are working with another grass roots organization for changes to the school lunch menu.
Written by Peggy Fox