Here’s the school lunch menu – breakfast was so good, I wouldn’t miss lunch for the world! I would have hoped that the nutritional information on the school’s website would have been more forth-coming but it was pretty hit and miss.

• Fiestada (could find nothing on this at the school’s site, but was able to find information online.)
• Black Beans (could find nothing on this at the school’s site – but can’t look it up online because I don’t know what kind/brand.)
• Pineapple w/ Mandarin Oranges (This seems to be a mix of two different fruits, in which case the serving size would probably be smaller than if it were a serving of pineapple and a serving of mandarin oranges. They could mean either or, or they could mean both.) I could find nothing on the school’s site and was unable to look it up because I could find no information on kind/brand..
• Juice Cup (Turns out this is a frozen juice cup full of additives.)
• Chocolate Milk – Not listed on the menu and I could find no information on it because there is no information on the school’s ingredient’s menu. The parent’s menu states skim or 1 percent milk will be served.
  

Note on the nutritional totals for the lunch menu, from the School District’s website:  Cal 1045, Chol 45, Sodium 2110mg, Fib 14mg, Prot 48, Carb 157, tot fat 23.50, sat fat 2.50, trans fat 1.50.  

• Sodium:  A child 4 – 8 should have 1,200mg of sodium a day, 9 – 18 should have 1,500mg.  Lunch, alone, far exceeds the daily intake. 
• Calories per day recommended for an elementary age child is 1,200 to 2,000 depending on gender and activity level.  (The higher being a very active male.) Lunch, alone, is nearly the whole recommended caloric intake for the day for many elementary children.
  

Fiestada

FIESTADA 5.59 oz, cal 410, chol, 25 mg, sod 1110mg, fib 3g , prot 17g, carb 38g, tot fat 21g, sat fat, 1g, trans fat 1.50g

• My note: A fiestada is listed nowhere on the school district website nutritonal information that I can find. I don’t like that it has 1.5 grams of trans fat. Glad this is changing next year with the new law. There is no way to find out what is in a fiestada or what additives are in it unless, luckily, Wikipedia can tell me! It’s made by Schwans. It’s frozen.
• My note: Nutrition information found on a school site in Colorado, thank you Olathe district. I wonder why I couldn’t find it on my school district’s site!  Allergens Contains Milk, Wheat, and Soy. Ingredients: Crust: Enriched Flour (Wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid) Water, cornmeal, yeast, whey protein doncentrate, toasted corn grit, contains2% or less of isolated soy protein, sugar, vegetable oil (soybean, cottonseed, corn and/or canola oil) salt, vegetable sortening (palm oil, soy lecithin, butter flavor) dough conditioner (whey, ammonium sulfate, l-cysteine) Sauce:  Tomatoes (water, tomato paste, not less than 28 percet soluble solids) sat, contains 2% or less of chili seasoning (spices, dehydrated garlic) sugar, maltodextrin, modified food starch, garlic powder, paprika, fumaric acid, beet powder.  Cooked beef pattie crumble mix (ground beef, water, textured vegetable protein (soy flour, caramel color) salt, spices (including paprika) granulated onion, soy protein concentrate, dextrose, garlic powder, sodium triplyphosphate, citric acid.  Toppings:  Low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese (pasteurized milk, cultures, salt, enzymes) mozzarella modified food starch, rennet casein, sweet why, nonfat dry milk, sodium aluminum phosphate, salt, carrageenan, magnesium oxide, ferric orthophospate, vitamin a palmitate, niacinamide, zinc oxide, pyridoxine hydrchloride, cyanocobalamin.  Cheddar cheese:  Pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, enzymes, salt, annatto (color)

BLACK BEANS Ca; 95, chol 0mg, sod 519 mg,fib 6g, prot 6g, carb 17g, fat 0, trans fat NA

• My note: trans fat says NA, but in this case with 0 mg of chol, I’m guessing there is no trans fat here. There is no information on the school’s site as to what kind of beans, nor any way to find out additives. After reading about the fiestada, I’m assuming the worst!

PINEAPPLE CANNED 4 oz, cal 70, chol 0, sod 10mg , fib 1, prot 0g, carb 17g

• My note: the ingredient list for the school does not have this particular pineapple listed – they list another packed in Indonesia and packed in natural juice. That is NOT this pineapple. The nutritional facts on that packaging compared to the nutritional facts on the menu for February show it CANNOT be the same product. There is no way of knowing how many other ingredients are in this, and I can only guess this is no added sugar because I looked up a few different canned pineapples on the web and they have about the same amount of carbs as this. I can make an assumption, but only after independent research.

MANDARINE ORANGES ½ cup, cal 70, sod 10mg, fib 1, prot 1g, Carb 17, Calc 20, Sugars 16g

• My notes: These are Wide Horizon from China. I was able to find the information on the school’s ingredients list. They do have added sugars, which I found on the ingredients PDF and added above. They contain orange segments, water and sugar.

SHAPE UP HOLIDAY THEME CUP 1 cup – cal 70, sod 10mg, fib 3g, calc 14g, carb 18g

• My notes: Information is on the school district’s website (sideways, but there): 3 ounces per serving, this is a frozen product. Ingredients, apple juice from concentrate, sugar, fibersol2, maltodextrin, natural and artificial flavors, guar gum, cellulose gum, carrageenan, citric acid, ascorbic acid, modified soy protein, FD&C yellow #5, FD&C blue #1, and FD&C red #40.

MILK, CHOCOLATE 8 OZ (1% or skim available) 8 ounces cal 130 chol, 5 sod 190mg, prot 8g, carb 25g,

• My note: Milk trans fat is up to .49 mg, and is naturally occurring. The school completely left off the fat amounts:  The total, amount saturated and the trans fat.  Where there is cholesterol, there is fat.  There is no information on the district’s website saying what kind of milk they use, and no information if this is skim chocolate milk. Next school year, all flavored milk is skim. There is no way of finding out what additives are in this milk, and there are usually a lot in flavored milks. It’s 20 more calories than 1 percent milk. Land O’ Lakes is the cheese they use, so if I assume it’s Land O’Lakes chocolate milk, TruMoo, which pretty closely matches the given nutritional information, we’re looking at 10 – 12 grams of added sugar. About a tablespoon. Would be nice if the parents of a a diabetic or prediabetic child could see this somewhere on the school district’s website? Some skim chocolate milk has high fructose corn syrup, and this one might, too. There is no way to tell. Most chocolate milk contain additives like these: Natural and Artificial Flavors, salt, corn syrup solids, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, propylene glycol monostearate, mono and diglycerides, lecithin, carrageenan, and on and on. Some contain trans fats.

Hmm, one thing I see is that most of this food is filled with all kinds of things that scare me to death! Not to mention if my kids were in school, their meals would primarily based on items I wouldn’t even allow in my own home! I wouldn’t have a stroke if they had some of these things now and then, but they would get them every day, day in and day out, year after year – they would eat more meals at school than they would eat at my house for the months school is in session. 

Next publishing, I think, will be a description of all these additives!