Tag Archives: school lunch

Texas sues USDA over LGBTQ protections

Here’s the story, which I’ll get to in a minute. It might be best to try to summarize this more accurately, because this is one of those technical situations where it takes a lot of qualifiers to get at what’s … Continue reading

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School could be out for awhile

We got the news on Thursday that HISD schools were going to be closed until March 31 due to coronavirus. (This week is spring break, so the kids got an extra day off before the start of break, then a … Continue reading

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Sid Miller confirms that he’s a joke

Sadly, the joke’s on us. Across the U.S., officials waking up to the nation’s obesity epidemic have been moving to cut down on unhealthy food in schools. Not in Texas. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced Thursday that schools around Texas, … Continue reading

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On selling junk food in Texas schools

Every session, there’s at least one bill that gets passed with little to no notice that has completely unforeseen effects. The Lunch Tray breaks a story about one such bill from this past regular session, which has to do with … Continue reading

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Well, at least they’ll be able to burn off the calories

News item number one. Papa John’s pizza, Blue Bell ice cream, and fluorescent-colored Slushies. For some kids, those may be the ingredients of a perfect school lunch. But for at least one Houston school district trustee, they may be the … Continue reading

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New school food coming

No more mystery meat. School lunches, long saddled with an unhealthy reputation, are getting a makeover. Instead of salt-doused fried foods, highly processed white bread and sugar-laden desserts, cafeteria trays will be carrying whole wheat pizza, leafy green and orange … Continue reading

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Another reason to support local food

Bettina Elias Siegel of The Lunch Tray takes to the op-ed pages to give another reason for supporting local businesses, by changing HISD’s practices for how school lunches are provided. Food service management companies (FSMCs) like Aramark are, above all … Continue reading

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What do they have against food?

The Lunch Tray is peeved. The Associated Press reports that late Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved an agriculture appropriations bill which would essentially gut all of the recent, hard-won legislative victories to improve the health of Americans, especially children. … Continue reading

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The state of school food

Bettina has a feature story in Houston Family magazine about the current state of school food, which takes into account recently passed legislation by Congress and what’s going on in HISD. She also has a report from an HISD “Nutrition … Continue reading

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“Lunch Line”

Want to understand the history of the school lunch program and what’s going on with it today? Then you’ll want to see the documentary “Lunch Line”, for which The Lunch Tray is, fittingly enough, a sponsor: Here’s a trailer of … Continue reading

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Donating unused school food

If you spend any time in a public school cafeteria, you will see a lot of food getting thrown out. Much of it is stuff that has to be thrown out, of course, such as all cooked food. But that … Continue reading

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Still more on the new school lunches

Bettina Elias Siegel, the lady behind The Lunch Tray, gets her op-ed on HISD’s healthier lunch choices published in the Chron. One critical piece of the puzzle is student food education. But HISD now has only about 15 dietetic interns … Continue reading

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More on the new school lunches

The Chron published a Sunday story about the changes to school lunches that we can expect this year. Among the items debuting on Houston-area school lunch menus this academic year: yams, Brussels sprouts, acorn squash, edamame and bok choy. Sushi, … Continue reading

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What your kids have to look forward to in the cafeteria this year

Today is the first day of school for HISD and other districts around the state. Among other things, this means a whole bunch of kids will be eating school food at least some of the time again. For HISD at … Continue reading

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