Unlucky Charms at Lunch

This is National School Lunch Week, so be sure to ask your children what tasty cafeteria food they've been eating lately—and if they mention Trix or Cocoa Puffs, don't be too surprised. Even as legislators have banned soda from schools, some cafeterias have begun adding cold cereal to the traditional noontime repast of pizza, PB&J and pork rolls.

The main company behind the cereal-for-lunch menus is Chartwells School Dining Services, a company serving nearly 550 districts nationwide. Margie Saidel, Chartwells' director of nutrition, defends the move, noting that most schools are using wholesome cereal like Rice Krispies, Cheerios or Raisin Bran—and the ones offering sugary brands like Trix, Cocoa Puffs or Cinnamon Toast Crunch, she says, are using low-sugar, whole-grain versions containing just two grams of sugar per serving. Alongside the vitamin-fortified cereal, students receive fresh fruit, yogurt or cheese, and low-fat milk. Together, these meals exceed government requirements. And while too much traditional cafeteria food winds up in the garbage, cereal is something most kids actually want to eat. "This is a power-packed meal that I would stand behind any day," Saidel says.

Some nutrition experts disagree. "Junk food is junk food, even if you drown it in milk," says New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle. Parents, meanwhile, differ on whether Trix are for kids at school. Allison Staton was horrified last fall when she discovered her twin kindergartners were lunching on Lucky Charms with chocolate milk at their parochial school in Dedham, Mass. This year, she moved her children into a public school that also serves cereal for lunch, but she has prohibited them from buying it. "I thought we were all in this together to teach healthy habits," she says. "It's just way too tempting to put sugar cereal in front of a 6-year-old." But in Windsor Locks, Conn., Margaret Waterman never heard anyone complain last year when cereal was served for lunch at her children's school. "I'd rather let them have something in their bellies than for them to be in class starving," she says. But even Waterman is concerned about a new entree that showed up on lunch menus this fall: an oversize soft-pretzel meal (which includes yogurt). "Everyone is wondering about the pretzel-for-lunch," she says. "That just seems wrong." But to a lot of kids, it sounds oh-so-right.

—Daniel McGinn and

© 2007