How Lunchables ended up on school lunch trays
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, “Post Reports” goes back to school, to the cafeteria, where something has changed. Reporters Lenny Bernstein and Lauren Weber bring us the backstory of how ultra-processed foods ended up on lunch trays, amid growing concerns about child nutrition.
When students in Robeson County, N.C., returned to school this fall, a new choice appeared on the lunch line: Lunchables. Kraft Heinz reformulated the grocery-store favorite so it would meet school nutrition requirements — and now, school districts across the country are deciding whether to buy in.
For many health experts, the availability of Lunchables and other processed foods in schools runs counter to the effort started over a decade ago by former first lady Michelle Obama, to overhaul school lunch diets amid sharp rises in childhood obesity and other chronic health problems.
So what happened?
Today on “Post Reports,” we venture into a cafeteria, a food trade show and dig behind the scenes — into the history of Lunchables itself — to find answers.
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Read more:
How Lunchables ended up on school lunch trays.
Many of today’s unhealthy foods were brought to you by Big Tobacco.
Why many ultra-processed foods are unhealthy.
USDA announces rigorous new school nutrition standards.
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A previous version of this podcast included a slogan for Otis Spunkmeyer and misattributed it to C.H. Guenther & Son. The audio has been corrected.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | you've always wanted to what I've always wanted to talk to and I'm lucky day man I'm |
| 0:13.6 | Lenny Bernstein I'm Lauren Weber we're health reporters here at the post and today we're |
| 0:19.3 | going on a journey into the world of school lunch we're starting in the school cafeteria |
| 0:25.3 | in Pembroke North Carolina how's school going so far this year it's the beginning of |
| 0:38.9 | the school year and I'm with Alana Gordon an audio producer at the post someone's |
| 0:44.0 | wave to us so we should ask that who's waving to us yeah who wants to talk with us oh I'm |
| 0:49.5 | jealous I couldn't be there for this trip can we talk to you can we record you and ask you |
| 0:54.5 | what's happening okay what's your name see Anna Marie Jacobs how old are you eight now seven are |
| 1:03.6 | you hungry yeah and what's your favorite lunch food lunch we my name is Pini Chavis my |
| 1:13.7 | cafeteria yes it's 22 years Penny's grandkids here in pre-k you know I was talking about the |
| 1:21.9 | story with my mom and she told me that the cafeteria workers told her that my brother threw away |
| 1:27.9 | his food all the time at lunch and so dear God these people see a lot and they look out for the kids |
| 1:37.1 | Penny's job this morning is prepping the ground beef for tacos lots of ground beef |
| 1:42.7 | 140 pound of hamburger meat yes it is work well first of all we put the hamburger meat on |
| 1:51.9 | their eight o'clock and let it cook then we smash it and make sure it's really good enough for |
| 1:58.7 | the children not to eat chunks this penny loves working here it's been awesome this is their face |
| 2:07.7 | it's excited when it's lunch time to see what they're having for lunch it's also really intense |
| 2:14.2 | they just have a couple of hours to get hundreds of meals together for the kids and then working |
| 2:20.6 | here in the kitchen you're gonna hear a whole lot of banging doors Harrison branch and nutrition |
| 2:26.5 | supervisor is prepping peaches from big cans into hundreds of individual containers we're dipping |
| 2:33.1 | the cup it up and then we put it in the cooler and then when the kids come through at lunch we have |
| 2:38.5 | it out on the line waiting for them to take with their lunch all in all they've got about 10 cafeteria |
... |
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