Reply #16: I hear your concerns, and some are valid.

[napi21]

I've raised my kids already, and they have their own kids now.

About the Taco Bell (or whoever) in the schools. I can go back 2 generations of school lunch programs, and they used to have exactly what you are asking for. I can't cite exact amounts here, but it's fair to say that a lot more than 50% of the food was thrown away! The kids didn't like it! When my sons were in school, they began to introduce pizza to the menu, and the kids were thrilled! They too were very unhappy with most of the other offerings.

I suppose you can blame that on the parents for introducing their children to the wrong foods, or simply spoiling them instead of teaching them to eat good food and not to waste it. I don't know what went wrong, but it's not only important to serve nutritional meals in the lunch program, but have it be something that the kids will EAT!

As to making food from scratch as you call it, it may take 2 extra minutes to make your own hambur patties from bulk packaged gr meat. It may take an extra 5 minutes to cut the chicken legs apart to make thighs & drumstix. Is it quicker to stop at the deli and get the already made fried chicken? Of course! Can you make your own hoagies at half the cost and better ingredients? Yes you can, and it would take 5 minutes!

Take 1/2 an hour to watch 30 minute meals on FoodTv. You'll see what I mean. Something has put the idea in our minds that everything talkes a long time if you don't pay to have it partially done for us, and it's just not true. Sure, you can't make your own bread every day and still have a full time job, but that's not what I mean.