My School Lunch Experience

As superintendent of schools for Hopatcong Borough, New Jersey, I have been asked to do some interesting things. Last month in response to some rather limited student complaints about the new federal food serving guidelines (ie: the “bland” taste of school cafeteria food) two School Board members and I ate several meals in each of our schools for a week. The experience was generally very positive. It’s been awhile since I dined with six and seven year old children and found the companionship to be very enlightening to say the least.



The primary reason for my culinary endeavor was to taste the food which I found to be delightful and very healthy. Over the course of several days I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, taco salad, fruit, a chicken sandwich, a vegetable wrap, fruit, a hamburger, fruit, vegetables, more fruit, carrot sticks, even more fruit, celery sticks, and sampled some baked pizza. They even let me have an ice cream sandwich with my chocolate milk one day for dessert!



The energy and activity in our school cafeterias is beyond description….kids are generally happy and very interactive people so I got a healthy dose of socialization. By and large I was welcomed if not an anomaly in the typical school cafeteria setting. But most importantly I was sampling freshly prepared healthy meals. They were not mom’s home cooked vintage meals, but rather institutional food prepared by local moms who happen to work for our school cafeteria service. The nutritional guidelines are very strict and limit any enhancements (like salt) or deep fried foods, hence we cannot compare to the local McDonald’s restaurant as we are not permitted to serve similar type foods prepared commercially.



But I will attest to the fact that the food we serve meets all the federal guidelines for calories, fat content, nutrition, etc., and by most standards is very good. My School Board members and I agreed that we felt satisfied if not “full” after each nutritious meal. In fact, I even lost a few pounds that week! Just in time for Halloween.