The food is gross. The only thing my high schooler will eat is chicken patties.

The other reason is the prices for drinks food and extras. 1.50-.15 for a 20oz of gatorade is craxy I can get 2 32oz for $2

Did you mention the fruit flies? Food laying around will attract those kinds of things.

Too many kids leave school for lunch because no one likes the cafe food..So get an outside company and get them to pay rent..profit with less work and probably better food...

The cost of thier food is ridiculous especially for the crap of it and now My daughter been telling me she sees mice in the cafteria.for that reason, Now my daughter doesn't want to eat in school anymore she rather have salad that you can make your own... Think it is time to listen to the kids and their opinions for once they are the ones that are going to eat....

OES doesn't even have a kitchen. The food is brought in from other schools. Ever eat lunch that has been sitting in a steamer for God knows how long???

My high school son tells me the cafeteria food is DISGUSTING!!!!! That's your answer.

What do you people think a private company is going to sell?They have to sell the same food as mandated by the state.The cafes in the past sold Dominos pizza,sold tons ,now it has to be healthily so the pizza has wheat crust.It tastes like a piece of cardboard,so nobody buys it.The same with all of the bread and rolls are wheat,and taste like 3 day old bread,even the fries are now baked so you you can imagine how they taste.Let the kitchens have some slack to sell what kids want within reason.

When kids are used to eating junk at home of course they say the food is gross. If all the people feed their kids is fast food and pre-packaged junk, vegetables will seem gross. So the answer is bring in a contractor that will again provide fattening food with little or no nutritional value. Is it any wonder our obesity rate is so high? Its a loosing battle the school will never win because the responsibility lies in the home and the children are brought up that way.

I have to agree with some of these comments,my son goes to VMES and he refuses to eat the lunch in school he says it is gross.So not only do I have to buy him lunch from Pathmark like lunchabales that gets to be very expensive,so if i buy him five lunchables @ 3.99 round that to 4.00 times 5 that is 20.00 dollars a week,I know what some people are going to say don't buy him lunchables thats fine then what does he eat.I understand the state has guide lines for food but seriously maybe the state should come in and eat the crap that is being served in the schools and to our children.

Why not treat this as an opportunity to get the kids in the food service/cooking voc-tech programs to work with local farms/suppliers to create a menu that is healthy, tasty and within budget? It would use all the skills they are being taught. As for the issue with mice/flies one answer fire the people running the kitchen - that is a sign of a dirty badly run kitchen.

Other states have come up with some creative ways to improve their lunch programs. Why is Brick so lazy?
http://blog.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/2011/09/16/whats-the-best-school-lunch-program/

How about you take care of it yourself and we close it down all together. Either that or stop complaining. Your kids are all fat and obese from eating crap, when food is healthier it will taste different. Do yo really need your kid to have a large Gatorade anyway which is a scam and not healthy for you at all. Just as sugary as a soda.

@Raymond Guyre....Everyone should question you giving your child lunchables and if you know its prob not the best then why are you doing that to your own child...Why haven't you skipped that and make fresh fruit and vegetables mini platters which can easily be prepared on Sunday for the whole week..If its so hard to feed your child something other than lunchables and your only having to deal with one child with no state guidelines then how do you think these cafeteria workers with 100s of children and State guidelines are going to get your child who is taught to eat processed crap all week to eat the "healthy" stuff the state wants them to prepare.......I understand not all cafeteria workers have the same work ethic or morals as others but that's the whole world at any job so I understand the complaining but as another comment brought up the State makes them throw away good food while our kids with parents who are struggling are going hungry...Many of these workers go around things to help these kids because they are from the town and they care....As for the comment and link to those schools serving all those things which I find to be great for kids as lunches their was not one topic on the school budget and how much was given to the cafeterias....What you need to think about is do we need all these Admin. making crazy amounts of money while the cafe budget gets cut...Pretty sure the system should be for the kids not all these people with high paying jobs...

I work in a HS cafeteria is KS. I am originally from Brick. The kids here complain that they are still hungry. Only 850 calories allowed to serve per student. Many play sports and will burn those calories up fast. Some buy two lunches or go to the snack bar. Now the school has added a salad bar which the kids do like.

My wife and I raised five kids who all went through the Brick system. Except for rare occasions she would make lunch for them every morning, and if she couldn't do it (being ill), I would make their lunches before leaving for work. It's called being responsible for your offspring. Maybe if more parents were responsible, this discussion wouldn't be necessary. And the argument about being a working single parent and not having time is no excuse. It only takes a few minutes to put together a sandwich, throw in a healthy snack and a piece of fruit. Wake up, people…. you can't let the government do everything for you!

Ive been out of school for 11 years now, and when i was in school the only good thing that came out of the cafeteria was french fries. The rest of the food was gross. I wouldnt feed it to a homeless person.

Point Boro had awesome food! High school did at least..deli section and the hot food...I'm thinking it was because they didn't want kids driving to places for lunch...safety and tardiness issues

I think in general, we simply have a huge culture problem in the country when it comes to food. First, it's the fact that big bucks take priority over everything. Why? Because they are supported by a an unhealthy culture. It's a culture of garbage fast food or prepackaged, processed, and microwavable "foods." Then, there is the lack of exercise that is plaguing the country as well. So, in brief, if cafeterias are losing money due to maybe a change to be healthier, many kids won't eat healthier because they have most likely been eating cafeteria junk. The only solution is learn how to eat healthier and live a healthier lifestyle for you and your family, because big business doesn't care if keel over as long as you buy their garbage.

I agree and would add that the culture of corruption in our politics is taking a real toll on our health. Over the last 30 years the govenment has been HEAVILY subsidizing corn crops beyond what the market needed, so they had to find new "markets" for all that corn - enter high fructose corn syrup. Just for giggles next time you are in a supermarket try to find products not loaded with the stuff. It's in everything - even stuff you don't think of as sweet. We Americans consume tons of excess sugar this way just to justify a bloated manufactured demand for corn that would not otherwise exist. Good luck finding any mid-west politican to stand up and change this - they are too busy with their hand out for fat subsidies for their states. The whole thing has become a self licking ice cream cone....and the taxpayers are paying an enormous cost for it.

Its said to say in some cases the crap food in school may be better than nothing at home..It maybe the cases...so sad...But they have to do something with school food even the teachers don't eat it...Brown bag or deli sandwiches...

my kids also HATE the new menu. My high schooler only eats the chicken patties. He says its as close to real food as they have. My grade schooler says all of the food tastes like cardboard. He usually has 2 applesauce containers from the lunchroom. Oh and check this out. He brings snack and water to school daily. He was bringing goldfish (pepperidge farms). One day he brought in Doritos. The teacher told him he could no longer bring in the Doritos as they aren't nutritious enough. I checked the labels and the Doritos are more nutritious and have more vitamins than the goldfish. I tried to argue with the principal, but he has not returned my phone call for 3 weeks now. So, I sent him in with mandarin orange slices, peach slices and pear slices, on different days. I didn't tell the teacher that they were in HEAVY syrup. How funny. She has no clue. What nuts we have in this school district.

If you think the kids are fat, you should see their mothers. Half the moms at Vets Middle school can barely fit through the door. Sad. Very sad.

Totally agree with you Lew. One of the worst and most damaging things to happen to this country was when the SCOTUS basically permitted that life could be patented via genetically modified crops. I don't think many in the public understand the damage that ruling has done. It has resulted in chemical companies buying up seed companies and given corporations a strangle hold on our food supply. Initially thought to yield bigger, drought resistent crops GMO crops have not delivered. They actually have required more not less pesticides (sold by the same company as the seeds) and often more water and in some cases produce less per bushel then conventional seed. How or why would farmers grow something less productive? They are protected from feeling the loss via subsidies. This has also lead to a sharp downturn in biodiversity. Where once farmers developed their own seed to suite their soil and growing conditions the great use GMO seed has reduced this practise opening our food supply to risk of new pests and disease (think potatoe famine of the 19th cent.). Farmers have also come under attack since they can be held liable for theft if their neighbors GMO seed gets blown onto their property. Also no real studies have been done on the saftey of the increased GMO crops and pesticides needed to grow them. Chemical companies have pulled funding from universities that have dared to do studies on them. We have become guniea pigs to see what damage the long term effects may be.

oBAMA strikes again

Actually, Dingleberry Lew has not stated "nothing but hate" anywhere in his comments. God forbid that any adminstration ever try to do anything to improve the quality and standards of the school lunches being served, why they should stay the same FOREVER and never be tampered with because the wost thing in the world would be that tax payers subsidise healthy food. See that is not hate it's sarcasm.

Food Fight

having children in middle school & high school & knowing a lot of their friends. it seems to me that only kids that get lunch from school on a regular bases are kids that get free or reduced lunch... if they are getting Free lunch and don't like it the parents need to pack their lunch ( because if the are getting free lunch means they are also getting food stamps... nothing like a little double dipping) Like the rest of us have too, My kids 90% of the time have to pack P&J & a bottle of water... not sure why someone on food stamps cant do that too, instead they are getting the free lunch & most times throwing it away, tax payers $$ down the trash...But its cool cuz they have 180$ sneakers on... & they don't have to worry about where or how they are getting their next meal...

@Bricktown Lew - Wow you brought back some memories. I still love School House rock. At the risk of sounding like a geezer harping on the faults of the younger generation I have to say I find the trend of "helicoptering" by today's parents kind of weird. "Play dates"??? Can kids just not make friends on their own anymore and must every day of a kids life be scheduled to death? I always find it a little sad when I see kids 'pan handling' in front of supermarkets on sunny summer days so they can raise enough money to 'play'. Why can't kids just get together in their neighborhood to play ball with each other after school - must it involve expensive uniforms, away games and hyper coaches? Okay so those Libbyland kids TV dinners were probably pretty vile and unhealthy but I didn't need a schedule to play the calories off. Geezer rant over....

BTW I don't think any of us died eating white bread,whole mike & actually having a soda now & then, the difference is NOT the Food the lack of activity most kids have ( or lack of)

Here is a great article from the Asbury Park Press with excellent lunch ideas (copied below) http://www.app.com/article/20120919/NJNEWS15/309190035/School-lunches-snap
Maybe if the school lunches were more like these the kids would like them? We eat a heart healthy diet at my house (in an effort to bring our cholesterol down) so wheat bread/pasta/pizza crust/waffles/pancakes doesn't seem "gross or dry or stale". Once you make the change, really, you get used to it. We also don't eat beef or pork anymore or full fat cheese. You get used to it all and if you use more seasoning, really it becomes the new normal. Then when you do have a special treat-like Carrabba's white bread dipped in oil-it really, really tastes special.
LUNCHES THEY WILL LOVE (excerpted from above mentioned article)
Dip Day: Carrot, potato and cucumber coins, green beans, whole grain chips with Greek yogurt-based dip, hummus, fresh fruit and veggies.
Bento Box (a lunch box filled with variety of separate containers of things to munch on): Hard-boiled egg, cheese squares, trail mix, applesauce, whole grain crackers, grape tomatoes.
Chinese Takeout: Chilled veggie or shrimp dumplings with low-sodium soy sauce, shredded cabbage with Asian dressing, pineapple chunks, fortune cookie
It’s a Wrap: Turkey, spinach, and low-fat cheese wrap, broccoli with ranch dip, blueberries.
Italian Feast: Mini meatballs, cheese tortellini, marinara sauce for dipping, black olives, fresh fruit.

Amazing how far our society has come. Providing breakfast in school??? What's next…. let the kids stick around for dinner, too? I must have grown up in the "dark ages", where kids had breakfast at home before leaving for school. You know (or maybe you don't), where kids had a bowl of cereal… corn flakes, cheerios, raisin bran, etc. In the winter it was a hot cereal like oat meal or cream of wheat, or even a soft boiled egg. All quickie meals. Most of the time we made our own breakfast. Maybe if we spent more time teaching the basics instead of feeding and pampering them our kids would come out of school a little smarter and with more self-reliance! Just my opinion.

As someone who attends brick township high school. The lunch is friggin disgusting. The fries are baked and taste like crap (Thank god we got tater tots now), the chicken patties are the only saving grace, and the drinks are more expensive than what they retail for in a store. The lunch staff does this thing now where they close the kitchen like 15 minutes after the lunch period starts, and they keep the doors closed throughout the day, whereas a few years ago they would leave it open and if you were hungry you could PURCHASE food at any time.

I've seen the food get worse and worse every year. The food used to be decent when I was in elementary school, but now it's just turned to crap and it's embarrassing. I have a friend who attended a school in another state and their food was fine dining compared to what they serve here. Privatizing the school food can create good things. I'd imagine they would have to follow code but at least it's not government funding that supports them. I don't know what happened but what I can infer is the funding went down the shitter.

I'm old enough to remember when there were only one or two "fat" kids in my grade. By today's standards, they probably wouldn't even be considered overweight! For lunch I typically had a PB&J sandwich, a piece of fruit, and on rare occasions a small piece of cake. That;'s also what most of my classmates ate. Once every two weeks or so I bought the school lunch, especially on pizza day. At lunch time we ran around outside for nearly an hour and had two 20 minute outdoor recess periods per day. Yeah, I'm freakin' old, but still in good shape, due no doubt to lifelong habits of physical activity and good diet.