Rising food prices hit school lunch menus

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Ah_so at 10:37 PM JST - 11th July

I had some superb lunches as a JET. I remember some lovely stews filled with quails eggs. All for about 290 yen.

It kept me nutritionally balanced as a young man otherwise leading an unhealthy lifestyle.

The only one i dreaded was "bread day".
Ivespoken at 07:43 AM JST - 12th July

You Japanese people are lucky compared to America's school lunches LOL. I know first hand how bad the food taste here in America... We don't even get beef... or steak, like you guys! We get chicken on Monday.... we get chicken on Tuesday... we get chicken on Wednesday.... we get chicken nuggets on Thursday... and then on Friday it's back to chicken! LOL
westing at 09:20 AM JST - 12th July

come on, take Chinese foodstuffs, dont be too serious
dammit at 10:25 AM JST - 12th July

Packed lunches aren't an option for elementary school kids in our part of Tokyo. The kids have to have the school lunch when it's provided, and that's that, so there's little point people coming here saying that we should all insist on our kids having packed lunches. As for the suggestion of a PBJ on wholemeal - even if the wholemeal is the real thing (and how can you be sure? In all countries they try to fob people off with substandards and false claims,) peanut butter is WAY high in salt - jelly is way high in sugar - so why use it as a comparison with "high salt" J lunches?

But maybe our kids are getting better lunches than yours - our school has it's own kitchen, including steam ovens for cooking fresh bread. Shame the price of flour is shooting up so high then. Our area did used to have a centralised cooking station for school lunches, but the quality of the food deteriorated so much during transport that it had to be scrapped.

Frankly, I've been waiting for prices to raise or quality to drop for a while now, what with the cost of living going up, but so far nothing dramatic has happened - although maybe they use bread less frequently, a quick glance shows just 4 bready days out of 17 this month.
sabinuki at 10:31 AM JST - 12th July

The fact that kids can't choose their lunch, by either bringing it to school or having a menu to choose from, is just another means by which harmony is enforced and the group comes before the individual - be the same, cos difference is too difficult to deal with - or perhaps it has something to do with economies of scale, a couple of giant pots for everybody, as Japan has to be the most expensive poor country on Earth.
Zen_Builder at 10:34 AM JST - 12th July

The school lunches in japanese schools are more than just food, kids have to take turns to serve their class-mates, tidy up, etc.

As for growing veggies/plants it seems to a common activity in schools here. Each grade grows something different, my son(2nd grade) is growing mini-tomatoes at school now. We get to eat them too, now during summer holiday he has to continue caring for the plant at home and write a report.

They also got annual trips to a farm close to school(in tokyo) to harvest potatoes, etc which they take home. Last haul of my son was 4kg of potatoes.
timorborder at 01:06 PM JST - 12th July

Seen some references here to the UK and its lunch program. Based on what I know, school lunches at public schools in the UK have never been much. Evidence of this can be seen from a very unusual source. During the First World War, height requirements to join the British Army were a minimum of only 5ft 3 inches in 1914 (before losses saw the height requirement lowed to 4ft. 10 inches). This was a lot shorter than the requirements put forward by both the Australian and US armies.
smithinjapan at 09:12 PM JST - 12th July

Many elementary schools have gardens in which kids and teachers alike share in growing vegetables, but these never go towards school lunches. They can't, because school lunches are produced by and brought to schools via 'school lunch companies'. They cannot, therefore, use the fruits/vegetables they grow in their gardens for their lunches. Now, perhaps something could be done by which the school lunch companies collect any fruits/veggies that have ripened and use them in subsequent lunches. They have to drop off the lunches and pick up the dishes anyway, so why not take what vegetables they can from the schools and give them back in the form of lunch?
RepublicofTexas at 09:26 PM JST - 12th July

Many elementary schools have gardens in which kids and teachers alike share in growing vegetables, but these never go towards school lunches.

In American schools with gardens (at least the ones I know), the produce that is grown by the students is taken home by the students as a token of their work and is not eaten at lunch either. The amount of food students grow could nowhere near meet the demand.
dammit at 09:54 PM JST - 12th July

At our local elementary school the food they grow is either prepared & eaten in class, brought home, or used as part of the school lunches.

One of the benefits of preparing food on the school grounds.

Apparently, the 6th graders recently harvested the potatoes they'd grown, some were turned into crisps/potato chips as part of classes, some were taken home, the rest became part of the 6th graders lunch. Even in Tokyo prefecture the school meal situation obviously varies widely.
Zen_Builder at 05:44 AM JST - 13th July

Dammit.

At my sons school they also prepared and ate some of the grown food. No garden though everything is grown in pots/planters. I think it is part of social/cultural studies for them.

Agree that school lunch systems vary widely not just between wards but also between private and goverment owned schools.

At my sons hoikuen(same ward) all the food was cooked and prepared on the premises. Even at the hoikuen they had one day/year for harvesting some foods at a local farm. Some foods were also prepared in class with the kids partaking doing things like slicing veggies, etc.

One thing I am happy though about school lunches, no junk-foods sold at the schools.
ca1ic0cat at 02:22 AM JST - 15th July

yeah, back here in the states the kids can pick pizza or deep fried foods every day. The junk food companies compete with each other to place fizzy drink machines and other snack food crap in the cafeteria as well.

There are some places where a little Japanese style regimentation would be good for a kid. Lunch choices is one of those!
sabinuki at 03:39 AM JST - 15th July

There are some places where a little Japanese style regimentation would be good for a kid. Lunch choices is one of those!

Yeah but you can't really have your cake and eat it too, I mean you either live in the conformity capital of the world or you don't, so once the kids have finished lunch they all have to brush their teeth in unison to an announcement over the PA. I'm not joking they actually do this...brush upper teeth to the left, now to the right, now everybody let's brush the lower teeth to the left...

It's no wonder they have few opinions about anything with so few opportunities in which the situation is not dictated to them and they are to think for themselves.
ca1ic0cat at 02:41 AM JST - 17th July

"Yeah but you can't really have your cake and eat it too..."

lol, when I was a boy....seriously, you had choices in our school cafeterias but they were all balanced meals. The kids from low income families qualified for free lunch and in some cases breakfast as well. That way it was known that they were getting at least some decent nutrition. Hungry or junk food fed kids have trouble learning. Don't ask me to remember the studies but I have read them.

Now that the corporations have their snouts in the public trough and the school systems have to cave in to save money in a tight budget the kids are the ones who will suffer. In both the US and Japan, I'm afraid.

I wonder how this works in Germany? Alles in ordenung?
candyapple at 06:21 AM JST - 20th July

I personally was the cook at my childrens primary school for 8 years and we only had chicken once or twice a week in the form of Chicken fahitas and nuggets. Our lunches were very good and nutritious and low cost. I know food cost are rising but maybe they sould consult a chef like Gordon Ramsey, I bet he could really show whomever is in charge alternatives to serving sub standard food to the future of Japan.