I know that BEEF is on everyone's mind these days and I wanted to share with you the care we take as a company with our food supply. We understand and appreciate your concerns.

The Lunch Lady does not purchase any BEEF that originated at the Brooks Plant of XL Foods in Alberta and our kitchens are unaffected by this recall.

However, things do happen in the food industry from time to time. This is a reality and it is always important to be prepared and act quickly when they do.

At the Lunch Lady we can tell you the origin, content and nutritional content of every food product on the shelves and in the freezers at each Lunch Lady kitchen. We research the company, it's history, safety record, allergy management policy and give preference to made in Canada product and wherever we can we source regional products. We in turn, limit the foods that can be purchased to these approved suppliers and individual products. This applied to everything from portion packs of ranch dressing to chubbs of ground beef

We are very careful because it is your children we are serving and we take our committment to their health and well being very seriously, every day, in every Lunch Lady location.

We have a full time Food Procurement and Nutrition Manager on our staff who monitors our food supply on a daily basis. Her name is Jessica and she can be reached at allergymanagement@thelunchlady.ca

There are times over the last 20 years that we too have been affected by a recall. Within hours of any recall, we can track the product through all our locations and pull any suspect stock immediately from our shelves and freezers and provide safe substitutions.

We want you to feel free to contact us should you have any questions or concerns at any time.

sincerely Ruthie Burd Founder of the Lunch Lady Group

This is a great Post from #SchoolFoodRules and I wish I knew the origin of the information - sincerely Ruthie

Tips for Getting Your Kids to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables Let's face it: many kids are picky eaters. Fortunately, it's possible to get even the pickiest eaters to eat their fruits and veggies! Here are some tips to help get children to eat healthier foods:

Talk with your child about the new meals at school. Ask what they had for lunch, what they liked, and how it could be better.

Share constructive feedback with your school food service.

Serve more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains at home to help reinforce the changes at school.

Adopt appealing ways to present fruits and vegetables. Try putting them on attractive plates, serving them with a low]fat dip, cutting fruit rather than serving it whole, adding an interesting, low]calorie sauce, or sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese. Find interesting vegetable recipes online to add flavor and appeal. Too often we put more time and effort into the entree than the side dishes.

Talk to your child about the importance of a healthy diet to growing up healthy and strong and avoiding health problems in the future.

Bring your child to the grocery store or farmersf market. Point out different fruits and vegetables. Discuss your favorites. Talk about the different colors and textures. Let your child pick out something new.

Cook with your child. Let your child help pick out a healthy recipe and prepare it together. Kids are more likely to try a new food or meal if they are involved in the process.

Put out cut fruit or vegetables for kids to snack on while you're cooking dinner. Get the fruits and veggies in when they're hungry!

Be a positive role model. Let your child see you enjoying fruits, vegetables, and whole grains at meals and snacks.

Give healthy meals and dishes fun and appealing names. Instead of "Eat your zucchini!" it might be, "It's time for Zippin Zucchini!

Keep fruit in a bowl in a prominent place in the kitchen or on a shelf at eye level in the refrigerator so it is readily visible. The bottom crisper drawer is out of sight and out of mind.

Don't be discouraged if your child doesn't immediately like a new food. Children are naturally resistant to new foods. Just because they don't like it the first time, doesn't mean they won't eat it ever again. Reintroduce foods every once in a while and try preparing them different ways.

Surround your child with healthy choices. If you give a child the option between an apple or a cookie, most will choose a cookie. But if you give them a choice between an apple and grapes, they will choose an apple or grapes . and both are great options!

IN a recent article entitled Chicken Nuggets: Good Intentions Gone Bad? published for the American Institute for Cancer Research, Author Karen Collins MS. RD. CDN., addresses our shift away from red meat to chicken, including the ever popular Chicken Nugget. Children love Nuggets but should children be eating them? Are Nuggets the first step on the road to obesity and poor health? I am not a nutritionist or a food professional but after spending nearly 20 years encouraging healthier alternatives for children attending elementary schools, I am concerned that we may be getting caught up in the Good Food, Bad Food Controversy. We have been shifting the blame for our tendency to get heavier with each generation from one food to another without solving the problem. What “not to eat” can be just as much a fad as “what to eat”. There is no weight gain mystery. We eat too much and too often! I believe that the simple solution may be to worry less, eat more fruits and vegetables and eat smaller portions of everything else. Collins writes “The complete answer about chicken nuggets can’t be found simply by comparing them with various alternatives. The nutritional impact depends on how the overall meal is put together”. When we begin to demonize certain foods this may be the one critical factor that we overlook by focusing exclusively on a single food item. It’s the overall fat, calorie, sugar and sodium impact of whatever we eat that makes the difference. At the end of the day, Chicken Nuggets are just one little piece of a huge Food Smorgasbord. It’s how many you eat at one seating that counts – whether they are bakes or fried or deep fried. If five Baked Nuggets is a reasonable serving, then maybe you should cut back on the serving size if the nuggets are deep fried, regardless if they are purchases out or made from scratch at home. Even if you are baking a store bought product, remember that all nuggets are not all created equal so it is important to read the box to check the nutritional content and serve accordingly. Filling 2/3 of the plate with cut up veggies and a whole grain roll will fill up the plate if you are worried that it looks too bare! So are chicken nuggets bad? I don’t think so but I do believe that what truly matters is how we put our food together and as time goes by, I realize that some of those old clichés our parents were fond of, like, “everything in moderation” [except fruits and vegetables of course – we need more of those] still make sense.

Ruthie Burd began the Lunch Lady in 1993. Today it is Canada’s largest franchised provider of individually catered hot meals to elementary school chikdren. She is both passionate and practical about encouraging kids to make better food choices while providing their busy parents with an alternative to the home-packed lunch. You can visit the Lunch Lady anytime at www.thelunchlady.ca or contact her at 1-800-603-6656.

Over the last few days CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) recall reports have been extended to include more familiar grocery store brands. PLEASE NOTE that our beef burgers are not affected. The Lunch Lady Group monitors its entire food supply independently. We have our own food and nutrition manager. We use trusted brand name products because we are able to properly audit the food supplier who prepared the product and do a proper allergen screening:

Click the link below to learn more about the investigation:

Food Safety Investigation - E. Coli in certain frozen beef products

The Lunch Lady is proud to be a supporter of Breakfast for Learning, working together to supply funds, nutrition education and support to Canadian Children in need. Each time you order one of our FUN MEALS, we donate 10 cents to support Breakfast for Learning in northern Canadian communities. Thanks for ordering these popular meals.

Breakfast for Learning in a non-profit organization that empowers Canadian communities to start and sustain school nutrition programs to enhance learning and the healthy development of children and youth. Last year, they served over 46,000,000 nutritious meals and snacks to more than 267,000 children and youth in over 2,300 nutrition programs.

Donations to Breakfast for Learning will be directed towards three communities that the Lunch Lady has committed to support in Northern Manitoba and Nunavut. A short introduction to each of these communities is provided below. If you have any questions regarding the new partnership please don't hesitate to ask.

We will keep you posted on the rollout of our new ordering system that will support the donation process; it is currently in the final testing phase. We are excited to see this partnership take off!

Breakfast for Learning programs being supported by the Lunch Lady Group:

South Indian Lake, Manitoba

Oscar Blackburn School is a k-12 school with 317 students. 97% of them are First Nations Cree children. The community is semi-remote being 320 km. from the nearest largest community of Thompson, Manitoba.

The community has some employment including the school, the OPCN Cree Nation, the South Bay Construction Company and temporary construction jobs with outside contractors. There also exists commercial fishing and trapping. many people rely on Social Assistance.

Oscar Blackburn School runs a breakfast program which serves 160 of their students 5 days a week.

A number of school staff volunteer every morning while yet another teacher oversees the ordering and inventory for incoming food.

Breakfast is served through a large serving window that faces our multi-purpose room. The breakfast items are laid out cafeteria style and all students are welcome to take all or some items depending on their choice for breakfast.

“Our students benefit so much from your donation. Not only does BFL get our students off to a great start, but for some, it may be their only nutritious meal of the day”. – Jim Robson, Principal, Oscar Blackburn School.