"Someone here hates children." He showed them the school cafeteria menu.
Author: Paula Komendarczuk • Source: Rynek Zdrowia • Published: September 19, 2025 21:33
September brings children back to school and heated debates about school menus. These don't always align with the expectations of parents and students. A Wrocław-based food blogger recently sparked controversy by sharing his child's menu, which he described as inedible. Online discussions reveal that creating a healthy and appealing menu for children is a real challenge.
- School menus are controversial because children often reject healthy but lesser-known dishes, often without even trying them.
- Taking children's preferences and allergies into account in the menu increases the chance that children will eat a nutritious meal.
- Experts remind us that nutritional education for children is not only about giving them what they know and like, but also about teaching them to try new products.
"What do you think about a school menu like this for kids? [It's] probably some kind of challenge to throw away as much food as possible in one day. Basically, my older son eats almost everything, but I bet if I ask him if he ate lunch at school today, he'll say, 'No, it was disgusting!'" wrote Piotr Gładczak, the author of the "Wrocławskie Podróże Kulinarne" profile, in a Facebook post.
The school menu includes:
- Brussels sprout soup with potatoes and dill,
- spiral pasta with chicken and broccoli in spinach and cheese sauce,
- mixed salad with rocket, carrots and leek.
As the blogger noted, these dishes seem healthy at first glance, but the question remains whether children will even want to eat them.
A discussion started under the post on Facebook.
Brussels sprout soup? Someone hates children, one commenter said.
There were many similar voices to be found.
Well, that sounds like a nightmare worse than math! This menu is designed for the payers, i.e., parents; no one here is thinking about the children, we read.
However, there were also a few positive opinions.
"I'm more concerned that the standard menu for children in restaurants is: nuggets, fries, pierogi, pancakes, and pasta with tomato sauce... Is this how all children eat, or is it just the restaurateurs who think children eat? Then it becomes a vicious cycle," admitted one mother.
It turned out that the menu in other countries is much worse.
Hahaha And you in Poland still complain about school food. It's beautiful. Believe me, there are worse options, like at my son's school in the US, where they list pizza sauce under the vegetable category," we read.
A dietitian specializing in children's nutritional education also weighed in. She pointed out that parents largely shape their children's eating habits. However, they often make the mistake of transferring their own prejudices onto their children.
As a parent, I have bad memories of Brussels sprouts, spinach, etc., they are not good, I am traumatized, so I will not give them to my children because they will not eat them either - he gives an example.
The expert assessed the school menu positively .
As a specialist, the menu looks great to me. It's also important to remember that creating such a menu isn't the easiest task; you have to consider specific nutrients, variety, the amount of specific ingredients per week, and a low budget for ingredients, notes the expert.
In her opinion, nutritional education isn't about giving children only what they know and like. Hiding disliked vegetables in a sauce or blended soup is also a huge mistake .
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