Consumer Reports called on the Department of Agriculture today to remove Lunchables food kits from the National School Lunch Program. CR recently compared the nutritional profiles of two Lunchable kits served in schools and found they have even higher levels of sodium than the kits consumers can buy in the store. CR also tested 12 store-bought versions of Lunchables and similar kits and found several contained relatively high levels of lead and cadmium. All but one also tested positive for phthalates, chemicals found in plastic that have been linked to reproductive problems, diabetes, and certain cancers.
Man, what the fuck happened to LUNCH LADIES. Let them goddamn cook!
what? paying someone an actual salary for actual work instead of just microwaving lead to kids?
wont you think of the economy
In California they’re actually quitting to work in fast food, because the minimum wage doesn’t affect govt workers.
If true LOfuckingL and I’m so not surprised.
I was listening to the radio yesterday about all the school boards now suing social media companies. It’s great and I applaud it but let’s get real, government is shirking their damn job if school boards are expected to reign in corporations.
We got this bad because of laissez faire attitudes around a free market and letting companies do what they damn well please.
it’ll be intresting to see how raising the minimum wage for fast food workers specifically impacts the low income job market. I suspect that fast food will have no trouble hiring and other low paying jobs will.
also it’s fucking sad that teachers are quitting to work at fucking taco bell. real morale downer for both the students and teachers. I’m well into adulthood now but even back then I regret working hard at school. kids these days seem to be learning that in time. I just hope they put in the effort at self-education instead
Entitled kids, don’t they already get enough lead in school from their peers‽
It’s crazy. We had full kitchens in our elementary/middle school and high school. I can’t remember them ever actually doing anything other than reheating precooked frozen food.
my experience was closer to the opposite, elementary was always reheated packaged stuff and after that the quality improved a bit. I think the real problem is it seems pretty random if it’s good or not
What? Lunchables are expensive as hell and have practically no nutrition!
Sounds like someone’s palms were being greased to get them in schools.
I used to love lunchables, but now that I’m an adult, I can’t believe we were allowed to eat that trash.
I’m in my 30s and I still love them. When I’m really sad I get one and it makes me feel like my life is simpler than it is and helps calm me down, gives me something to do with my hands while not requiring me to be functioning well enough to actually cook. They are trash though can’t argue that lol
Get a block of cheese, crackers, and some kind of lunch meat. Only tool you need is a knife. Plus, you can add variations, like tuna or cream cheese or whatever you want. You pay more up front but get more food out of it and reduce plastic waste.
I appreciate the suggestion and I’m not trying to say it’s bad, just explain what I mean. Actually making my own cheese and crackers is already more steps and a dish into the mix. I don’t love lunchables because I think they’re fine dining I love them because some days I have the capacity to do exactly two things, and that might end up being “buy lunchable, open lunchable”. The nostalgic ‘life is simple’ feel they give me can sometimes boost my mood enough to get more done in a day which is unique to just a couple of foods for me. When I am normal sad I do things like you’re suggesting and I’ve lived with a chef for over a decade so I’ve got a lot of great value to effort knowledge there
Marketing, TV Ads got me as a kid. I feel bad for my mom cooking me real food and my kid self being brainwashed complaining about wanting corporate toxic waste Lunchables
I feel bad for my mom cooking me real food
Why do you feel bad? That’s what parents are supposed to do.
Finger food that wasn’t messy and exploits the fact that kids haven’t yet lost all their taste buds.
Any kid between about 4-11 loves making little food stacks like that.
Given that charcuterie boards are pretty popular I think many people still like making stacks of food.
No reason to be feeding that crap to our kids nationally.
To be clear, this is a subset of the lunchables brand specifically manufactured and sent to schools for lunches, which has a higher sodium content than the retail variety you can buy. They don’t want to ban all lunchables
So, it’s either the school-variant with high sodium, or the store variant with lead, cadmium, and phtalates, then?
They did say “similar kits/products” implying it much not be lunchables, which feels an awful lot like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
They said “Lunchables and similar lunch kits”, and CR has a reputation for using honest language, so I don’t think there’s any reasonable confusion here about whether or not Lunchables are affected.
