School lunches are gross

Yesterday I went to the elementary school to have lunch with my daughters.  This is something that I never made time for / had time for as a working mom.  The girls had been asking if I could come for lunch for awhile, so I decided to go.  I had packed my younger daughter's lunch: crackers, laughing cow cheese, and popcorn.  My older daughter wanted to buy her lunch, which was chicken nuggets. 

I met up with my older daughter, Olivia, as she was going through the lunch line.  There was a huge basket of a dozen different kinds of chips.  There was also a freezer full of ice cream sandwiches and assorted ice cream bars.  Right at the cash register was a basket of cookies.  Impulse items for the 12 and under set, I guess.  Now what child is going to pass these up?  Heck, I could barely pass these up.

We sat down and I looked at her tray: 5 chicken nuggets, a cup of grapes, a bag of baked chips, and a chocolate milk.  It was a sad looking lunch.  Where was the vegetable?  Olivia said that there was broccoli and a baked potato on the line, but those looked "gross" so she didn't get them.  The chips didn't come with the lunch, and cost extra.  A school lunch is $2.25 here.  The chips were $1.00 extra, for a total lunch cost of $3.25.  In Omaha the school lunch costs $1.65, with no extras for sale.  I can look up her extra purchases online, and have told her this.  I see her buying an extra cookie or cupcake just about every day, even though I ask her to limit it to once a week.  I guess my alternative is to take the money out of her account and send her a packed lunch every day. 

Whatever happened to the school lunch tray that you were just handed?  When I was a kid the only choice you could make was whether you wanted white milk or chocolate milk.  There was no option to skip the vegetable.  There was no freezer full of ice cream. 

Today's school lunch is Salisbury steak.  Both daughters agree that sounds gross.  So I packed lunches for both of them.  After I took them to school, I came home and noticed that Olivia's lunchbox was sitting on the counter.  Sigh.  So like a good stay at home mom, I took her lunch to school on my way to the gym.