Popular Lunchables, served in schools?
By Marie Coyle
@MarieCoyle (28871)
April 11, 2024 6:08pm CST
It seems Lunchables are finally being called out for what they are--a highly processed little plastic tray, with a plastic film, and overly processed food, which can contain somewhat high lead levels and sodium content.
I never provided these for my children. One look at the package and the price will tell anyone that it's incredibly overpriced, and you are paying a lot just for convenience, and I suppose the ''cuteness'' factor. Last year, Lunchables were approved to be distributed by school cafeterias. I suppose that was due to lack of lunch employees, and hey, we can just toss out the containers, because they are plastic.
Why are we teaching and promoting items like these? I feel they are somewhat toxic and add the exorbitant price of the processed contents and then the plastic factor, shows just how lazy we have become. How hard is it to cut some meats and cheeses? During the charcuterie craze of Covid, I recall there were people proudly proclaiming they had built their charcuterie board entirely from Lunchables. Oh, good grief!! If people are that silly, we are in huge trouble.
Anyway, there is a movement to remove the Lunchables from school menus. Of course, Heinz/Kraft, who make Lunchables, are defending their products with all they can muster up. Schools are now using literally millions of these a day. Millions!
High levels of lead and sodium evidently mean nothing compared to convenience. We need to get back to school cafeterias serving REAL food, food to sustain our children and grandchildren. Food that really does taste good, and is good for them, if that is even possible.
OK, that was my soapbox rant for the day!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lunchables-lead-sodium-consumer-reports-kraft-heinz/
19 people like this
18 responses
@marguicha (215687)
• Chile
12 Apr
I just can´t understand why people are not able to fix a simple lunch for their children. If you are lazy, you can buy a chicken and put it in the oven with just salt and butter. Then, when it is done, take out slices of meat and fill sandwiches. Or make a roast beef and do the same. I have an electric knife to slice the meat thiner. The oven does it all. And you don´t need plastic. They can be taken in a Tupperware.
2 people like this
@marguicha (215687)
• Chile
12 Apr
@MarieCoyle I don´t use them either. I now go to the supermarket with a fabric bag. And when I buy groceries online, they bring them in compostable bags.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
You and I would do that, and many other moms and grandmothers. Some people would just decide it's too much trouble, and go buy the Lunchable.
And no, we could live without all the plastic. I remember the sandwiches my grandmother and I made for my sister and I, for our school lunches. We made them, wrapped them in waxed paper, and that somehow worked, they were still fresh at lunch without being wrapped in a ton of plastic.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
@marguicha
It really makes a person feel badly to think about the amount of plastic ending up in landfills. Funny, our ancestors managed to live their lives without all of that!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (458730)
• Switzerland
12 Apr
We should stop to produce plastic and those are the silly decisions that authorities take.
Those lunchables are not good for kids. They need to go back to real food served in the school cafeterias.
This is the wrong way to go, they learn to eat garbage food.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (458730)
• Switzerland
12 Apr
@MarieCoyle When I went to school, we had a canteen and the nuns cooked. May be it was healthy but surely did not taste good. Even my Dad agreed that the worst food he ever ate had been prepared by nuns.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
@LadyDuck
The schools I attended didn’t have nuns cooking. Sounds like they shouldn’t have been in the kitchen!
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
When I was young, schools had cooks. Good cooks, ladies who knew what they were doing and made good, hot and nutritious meals. Now more than ever with the way the world is, our young people need that meal to be a good one. For many children, that could well be their main meal of the day.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
If school lunches are actually the main meal for so many students, it should be a nice hot meal. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but it would be a lot better meal than lead/filled food wrapped in toxic plastic. 
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
@sallypup
People need to do their research. So many foods are pretty much toxic. I realize it's a personal choice to eat what you want to eat, but kids that are fed badly will just continue to eat that way. At least they should be able to get a good example of a good meal at school.
1 person likes this
. How is that "lunch" anyway?@much2say (53945)
• Los Angeles, California
14 Apr
@MarieCoyle Right - that's more dumped plastic 
. I will tell you the stuff they serve in school is not even particularly nutritious nor filling . . . school meals need a huge overhaul!
. I will tell you the stuff they serve in school is not even particularly nutritious nor filling . . . school meals need a huge overhaul!1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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14 Apr
@much2say
My two middle grandsons are 12 and 14. Both of them pack their lunches and take them. I have heard enough about the food and the choices to know that the food isn't good, they do have pizza at their schools--if they kids want it, they can have it every day! What kind of diet is that, to eat pizza every day?
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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14 Apr
I can't imagine that fueling an active child who is playing, studying, etc. They need a decent lunch, not junky stuff wrapped in plastic!
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (95522)
• Marion, Ohio
11 Apr
I hope they stop them. I have looked at them and wouldn't buy them
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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11 Apr
I always thought they were just ridiculous, now they are even more so.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (95522)
• Marion, Ohio
11 Apr
@MarieCoyle Many of those easy snacks are.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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11 Apr
@wolfgirl569
They really are.
Sticks of cheese, all individually wrapped up. We evidently no longer have the knowledge or ability of buying a block of cheese and cutting it up, it's just too hard a job. Convenient, i suppose. But how long would it take to actually cut a block of cheese?
1 person likes this
@sallypup (58046)
• Centralia, Washington
11 Apr
Those Lunchables look like teeny snacks to me. Not enough in them to keep a teen or kid going- plus zero fruit or vegie. I just saw that food benefits will now include canned beans. My question is WHYweren't beans on food stamps to begin with??? Each can of beans has a ton of vitamins and minerals in it plus fiber to stave off intestional ailments.
1 person likes this
@sallypup (58046)
• Centralia, Washington
12 Apr
@MarieCoyle My husband gave me a Dutch oven for Christmas. I put some dry garbanzos in there the other day and within just an hour or so those beans were soft. We're going vegetarian more and more in our household.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
@sallypup
I love my vegetables.
I had a ton of almonds given to me. Whole almonds are hard on my teeth. So I processed them into almond flour and put them to good use!
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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11 Apr
Beans have always been part of my family's meals. We have all kinds of beans, make soups, etc. They have a lot of benefits, are healthy. I don't buy many canned ones as I usually cook mine from the dried state, but it doesn't matter how we get them.
I realized the other day that more than ever, the cards for food assistance are...wrong? You can buy endless chips, candy, sodas, Little Debbie snack cakes, donuts in a box, and sugared cereal. junk..you cannot buy any deli ready to eat foods. You can't buy TP, paper towels, any cleaning products, shower soap, nothing like that. But hey, you can buy a cartload of junk food!
Make it make sense.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118521)
• Gainesville, Florida
12 Apr
They were discussing this on the morning radio show as I was driving in to work. This is sad what our food service system has become. I never gave my kids those things either when they were growing up.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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13 Apr
I didn’t either. I would like to think we as parents could do better than the Lunchable thing, Jeff.
1 person likes this
@JESSY3236 (18957)
• United States
16 Apr
I didn't know that schools were distributing them out. I never had one. I did hear about high lead in them. Yeah they need to stop giving them out.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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16 Apr
I truly do think we could do better for the kids than Lunchables.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (326100)
• Rockingham, Australia
12 Apr
I agree with everything you're saying. We have just phased out plastic coffee cups. I don't like the coffee they sell anyway so I don't know what the cups are made of now. I know most of the takeaway cutlery now is made from bamboo.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
I think the plastic forks, spoons, and knives are horrible for the environment. A plastic fork is a plastic fork for 1,000 years before it degrades. And many millions are used and thrown away every single day.
The Keurig cups are terrible but people buy them. Wildly expensive and so bad…I used a Keurig when I moved here that was given to me—with a little plastic thingy you filled with coffee grounds yourself, washed,and reused. I donated it. I prefer to make an actual pot of coffee.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
@JudyEv
Not sure why, but I have not ever been fond of it. If I make it really strong it better. I like my coffee strong! 
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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15 Apr
Thank you. I feel it's important to give our children the best chance to have good health.
@LindaOHio (156807)
• United States
12 Apr
Lunchables are the worst thing to feed to kids. Have a good day.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
I would imagine the Kraft people will try hard to claim that the Lunchables are just wonderful. We know they aren’t.
I hope your day is a good one, too.
1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (58153)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
12 Apr
They may not be the best things for kids to eat but if it gets the kids to eeat. Let them eat it. That may be the only meal that kid gets that day.
1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (58153)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
12 Apr
@MarieCoyle I get where you're coming from, but you have to approach it as a kid. IF that's the only meal they are going to get for the day, they want that lunchable, because they know its going to be filling and it tastes good. To them at least lol
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
I think a lot of people do not realize that there are many children out there who count on school lunches being their main meal for the day. That’s the reason I wish it was a better meal than a Lunchable.
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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13 Apr
My kids took their lunch for years. It was not hard to fix a lunch.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (48500)
• Canada
12 Apr
Hopefully they stop having these in schools.
Any time that I ever looked at them, which was years, well actually decades ago, I was amazed at how little they contained, and how pricey they were. I never ever bought one because of that, my son had a good appetite and the quantity of food in those was pathetic.
Good, and healthy foods come in attractive packages by nature, the beautiful red sheen of a ripe apple, the familiar shape of a slice of bread, the colour of peanut butter, these are healthy foods which our children require.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
I agree, my own sons would have scarfed up a Lunchable in no time and looked around for more!
I guess some adults were raised on stuff like this. My kids didn’t seem to want junk, although I must admit they all loved pizza, homemade desserts, peanut butter, and fresh fruit. they still do.
1 person likes this
@just4him (306724)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
12 Apr
Wow! That's horrible to have such high sodium and lead contents in what they eat.
I've seen these in the store and was never tempted to buy them. I don't do processed food.
The government should be interested in what schools serve children in the cafeteria. The local school districts should be interested in what they serve children in the cafeteria. It's shameful!
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
I agree with you, Valerie. The kids need better food than Lunchables.
1 person likes this
@MarieCoyle (28871)
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12 Apr
Evidently the school lunch rooms are actually serving them to the children there, so it’s not just packed in some lunches. And,you are correct. They are terrible.
1 person likes this
