School lunch, circa 1935.

Congratulations, Jamie Oliver, your healthy school lunch crusade just might be killing school lunches.  Over the summer, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) revamped their lunch menu, adding more fruit and vegetables and reducing the amount of salt, sugar, and other junk from the menu.  Healthy food, healthy children, right?  Well, not so much.  Healthier school lunches in Chicago have lead to a decline in students eating lunch.

From September until December, the school lunch program in Chicago’s public schools has seen a drop of about 5 percent in terms of participation.  That means kids are buying 20,000 less lunches per day, according to numbers.  That’s quite a bit of leftovers!  Still, eventually, these numbers are going to reverse because either schools will stop offering extra goodies and force kids into eating lunch or parents will get tired of preparing food for kids in the mornings.

“We are thrilled that 70 percent of CPS students choose to eat lunch at school,” said Louise Esaian, overseer of the Chicago Public Schools’ food service program. “While there has been a slight decline in participation, it does not reflect the measurable and positive gains we have made as a school district in making improvements to the nutritional quality of our school breakfast and lunch programs.”

Tags: school lunch, healthier school lunches not as popular, unpopular school lunches, healthier food is not as popular, healthier school lunches unpopular, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Public Schools, Louise Esaian, healthier school lunches means a decline in students eating, food trends, school lunch food

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