Causes.com
| 3.21.23
Lunchables Will Soon Be Sold in School Cafeterias
Do you support Lunchables being sold in schools?
What’s the story?
- Lunchables will be sold in school cafeterias starting this fall as the product is updated to comply with government nutritional guidelines.
How will Lunchables change?
- Kraft Heinz, the company that makes Lunchables, said they would offer two options with “improved nutrition” — Lunchables Turkey and Cheese Cracker Stackers and Lunchables Extra Cheesy Pizza. Both options were designed to meet National School Lunch Program guidelines, which limit sugar and sodium in school meals.
- However, nutritional experts are not convinced. Meghan Maroney, federal child nutrition programs campaign manager at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is concerned about “copycat” foods, which are made to be a healthy replicate of popular unhealthy foods.
- Maroney said Kraft Heinz has been advertising Lunchables in schools for several months. She said:
“They’re really marketing foods to parents when they do this. It’s confusing to parents and kids.”
Lunchables controversy
- Lunchables have been a go-to option for busy parents and kids since they were first introduced in 1988, as they require little preparation and are easy on the wallet. While being a meal beloved by kids nationwide, controversy has grown as nutritional health has become a higher priority.
- Critics of the lunch option argue that they’re unhealthy, as they are highly processed, often contain high amounts of sodium, fat, and sugar, and lack fruits and vegetables. Many say they have a negative impact on children’s diets as kids may become accustomed to pre-packaged and processed meals over fresh ones.
- Some also say the company markets the meals to children, who are susceptible to advertising tactics, contributing to the development of unhealthy eating habits. Opposers to Lunchables also highlight the plastic packaging of the meal and its environmental impact.
Do you support Lunchables being sold in schools?
-Jamie Epstein
(Photo credit: Facebook/The Krazy Coupon Lady)
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Why not just cut the costs of this and ship raw packs of sugar and salt tablets, along with a little left over bacon fat. Perhaps it could be made a bit more palatable by soaking the ingredients in used and other discrded institutional cooking oils YUMMY.
We can do better for children in the USA!!!
Actually, we can do MUCH better.
I said yes, only because I know the kids would love it. But it's something that's real garbage and kids shouldn't be eating more than once in a blue moon. Its basically an on the run snack. For the car or whatever.
'' won't somebody please think of the children''
Children need healthy, real food, for free, so not to shame the poor. don't sell them food products from a box.
In a functional society, we feed all school children so they can learn better, and grow up healthy. where is the outrage from the ''pro life'' types? don't they care about feeding the children?
Need a maybe on this one as most would not consider Lunchables a nutritious meal but they do meet the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) guidelines and the "whole grain" criteria, and are better than letting children go hungry.
I can see the reason why a nationwide rollout would use this product like many parents do because it's convenient with everything in one box, it's has a reasonable cost, it's shelf stable for 3-4 hours making it logistical easy to implement, and Kraft is a large company with the means to supply schools nationwide.
While better than letting kids go hungry we can do better and need to update NSLP guidelines, and contractual requires with Kraft. Maybe Kraft could improve its product nutrition for both its commercial & government business which is a win-win for everyone?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64956083
Yes, I do. A lot of younger children like lunchables, and will eat them, therefore, I support them being sold in schools.
Prepackaged foods are good they are nutritious. Children don't like to eat nutritious food they want pizza and pizza. Find a way to get around it. You spend time on other stuff. Spending a lot of time on this side. Kids are going and getting very unhealthy.
LACKING FRUITS AND VEGATABLES!!
IF "SOLD" AT SCHOOL MANY STUDENTS WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PURCHASE.
I THOUGHT HEALTHY FREE LUNCHES WERE BEING CONSIDERED IN MANY SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
Unfortunately, I don't think most people know what is actually healthy food anymore. They feed this stuff to their own children at home too. The marketing of what is healthy or not is all over the place and I don't think many know what it is healthy anymore. We don't teach it.
Too much processed food. No fruits and veggies.
This sort of food appears to be acceptable to those who are forcing women to have babies but doing nothing to protect them once they are born. Vote them all out of office and protect our future!
The preservatives and sodium plus other chemicals used in the making of these foods is NOT HEALTHY. Freshly prepared foods from local markets would be much better option regardless of costs. These young people are the future of humanity and should be fed properly not necessarily cheaper which "Lunchables" are not cheap. Wonder who is going to profit off this idea.
From what I see younger people no longer cook. School lunch may be a child's only shot at a hot balanced meal. Let's not take that away from them.
This is not the sustanable zero waste solution we've been looking for.
absolutely not! Lunchables are shitty food, as is most/all of packaged food. I believe that part of the function of providing food to children in schools should be to provide healthy options that they might not otherwise have.
Fake food, to go along with the fake education too often purveyed at some schools. Anything with Oreo cookies (made with "chocolaty" as opposed to real chocolate) is not appropriate.
CAUSES ASKS: Do you support Lunchables being sold in schools? ME: No way! Reading from the ingredients lised on the Pepperoni Piza, why over-the-top sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars? Where are the veggies? 20 grams of cholersterol in the Chicken Dunks? 21 grams of sugar? No wonder nutritionists give these a thumbs down. I do too. They may be cheap, but they are in no way healthy for our aleady obese children (around one in five and rising) already in marginal good health.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-07-25/obesity-rates-continue-to-climb-among-u-s-kids-teens#:~:text=During%20the%20decade%2Dlong%20span,from%2017%25%20to%2021.6%25.
That's all we need. More unhealthy fatty, high carb food to exacerbate overweight youth and an excessive high number of diabetics. Sad part, this is all that many will eat because that is all they know because of the cost of healthy food and what they eat at home. A healthy school lunch, that students will eat, is essential to a healthy and secure country and society.
Children need and deserve fresh food, not more processed foods and sugar
No Lunchables. Go back to peanut butter and jelly as was served in my school in the 70's. Cheaper and more nutritous.
High processed food leads to obesity in children and not to mention the amont of salt and preservitives with chemicals of unkown origins and worst of all these are GMO products with no long term studies to determain if they cause serious illnesses . When I went to school children had regular cooked meals with local food products that were healthy for growing children . I say no to what's not healthy for any children anywhere here in the United States or anywhere else in any country around the world.