Lunchtime Learning Needed

Back to school discussions usually revolve around clothes and implements for learning. One lesson more recently under discussion is lunch — whether to send it from home or rely on low-budget, but well-meaning cafeterias.

Concerned parents may have read reports recently from the University of Texas about the poor conditions in which packed lunches are kept. The challenge, then, is ensuring lunchboxes remain healthy — and safe — from the time they are packed until they are consumed.

With more schools conscious of nutritional guidelines and parental preference for healthy meals, retailers may need to shift their approach to maintain their share of the market. Cheap, mass-produced factory food is on the way out in many schools, reports the New York Times.

The more schools reinforce the healthy eating message, the more parents are likely to look at all the options, including encouraging schools to take better care of lunches sent from home.

Based on visits to "nine pre-school child care centers on three occasions, measuring the temperatures of hundreds of sandwiches, yogurts and other perishables with a heat gun," the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported scientists’ findings. Having found the vast majority were not stored at sufficiently low temperatures, the study stressed the high risk of food-poisoning bacteria thriving. E.coli, salmonella and staphylococcus aureus were all cited as possibilities.

Although there is no direct way of linking packed lunches to a specific proportion of annual food poisoning cases, the study was described as an "eye-opener for the public" by Fawaz Almansour, who led the research team from the University of Texas. Recommendations were offered for  improvement, specifically that, "Education of parents and the public must be focused on methods of packing lunches that allow the food to remain in the safe temperature zone to prevent foodborne illness."

The opportunity for food retailers could be summarized as education, education, education — working with parents and schools to make sure that healthy, high quality, easy to assemble packed lunches leave the house and stay that way until the kids eat it.

BrainTrust

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions: Is there a profit opportunity for retailers to encourage safer, healthier lunchboxes? How can they turn what seems to be a health threat into an opportunity and get more parents on board?

Poll

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Max Goldberg
Max Goldberg
12 years ago

The lunchboxes my family uses all have pouches for ice packs, which we use every day. Retailers can help educate consumers about safe food storage and handling, but I don’t see this as a big profit opportunity.

Tim Cote
Tim Cote
12 years ago

I wonder how my classmates and I survived growing up.

Larry Negrich
Larry Negrich
12 years ago

Lunchables, packaged snacks, power/health bars, ultra-pasteurized-non-refrigerated milk, juice boxes, bottled water, packaged nuts, thermal lunch boxes/bags, reusable cooling elements and more options. Plenty of options available today for the thinking parent but if it tastes good and is fast to pack there is always opportunity to help the frazzled parent deliver a better meal to their children.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
12 years ago

Another non-isssue to not worry about. But I think “beavertontim” and I should join other members of RW for a moment of silence in memory of the millions…thousands…well the possibility that someone, somewhere is no longer with us because their PBJ sat at room temperature for a few hours.

M. Jericho Banks PhD
M. Jericho Banks PhD
12 years ago

In a brand-new, four-year, experimental high school in Kansas in the early 60s, we had the best lunches ever. (The experimental part was taking all the best teachers from the area, carpeted everything in a beautiful new air-conditioned complex, and a non-graded system that assembled academic classes based on test scores only. Freshmen with Seniors, etc., based only on ability. My personal coming of age.)

But back to the lunches. The school was located in a fairly rural community, underscored by the fact that we had a two-week vacation in the Fall so farm kids could go home to help with harvest. Although I was the son of the boys’ Guidance Counselor, I also earned a few bucks working in the fields to add to my stash from lifeguarding all summer.

We had a huge, totally-blinged-out, from-scratch kitchen that made the best yeast rolls you ever ate – the kind with the three-section “clover” tops. You know what I’m talking about. Anyhow, lunches were free and all-you-could-eat. The food was fantastic, guided by a certified chef/nutritionist. No mystery meats for us. In fact, to thank the school for allowing the September harvest break, farmers would regularly back up trucks to the cafeteria delivery door with free meats and produce. We had all-you-can-eat fried chicken (sublime) at least twice a month.

And we were all skinny. I remember only two or three obese kids in my four years in high school. We ate well and we worked hard. We also had every kind of physical extracurricular activity you can imagine. (At least for the 60s. We didn’t have ribbons-on-sticks gymnastics, for instance.) And nearly everyone participated. We were well fed and fit.

If retailers and manufacturers want to help kids, fund the schools so they can again begin offering recess in the younger grades and complete physical programs in later grades. I used to represent OlympKidz, a free program for schools to provide physical activities and equipment for elementary school students. I visited hundreds of schools, and in most found that their recreational stash was the equivalent of a single deflated volleyball. Our objective was to get retailers, through their suppliers, to pay for the program. We couldn’t get it done because the retailers simply didn’t care. They’d rather sell Twinkies to fat kids. I’m talking about you, Northern and Central California. You know who you are.

Here in NorCal the general recess time in elementary schools is about ten minutes daily (if at all) with no equipment and no organized activities. Our test scores are down and our kids are fat. Regardless of what kids eat, if they don’t exercise they’ll continue to be fat and adopt the habit of inactivity for life.

Odonna Mathews
Odonna Mathews
12 years ago

Retailers can promote consumer education on safe food handling and become supporters of the Partnership for Food Safety Education which provides numerous materials. Retailers can also promote insulated lunch boxes, gel packs, and shelf stable, healthy foods for lunches throughout the year.