This is the fifth and final installment of Woodridge Patch's "What's for Lunch" series. Get an overview of District 68's school lunch program, see how District 68's food compares with its fast food counterparts and hear from parents and students in our previous installments.  Ask school districts near Woodridge School District 68 how they handle their school lunch programs, and you’ll get different answers.  Valley View School District 365U in Romeoville prepares all of its food on-site in school kitchens, employing district employees to do so.  Community High School District 99 and Center …

This is the fourth edition of a five-part series about cafeteria food in District 68. To Diane Moca, the mother of two at Willow Creek Elementary School, the food served in the school’s cafeteria constitutes “carnival food.” “They’re things that they know kids will eat,” Moca said. “But I don’t necessarily consider them healthy choices.” She said she prefers to pack lunches for her kids, but her kids don’t eat them. “My kids are picky and if I pack a lunch for them, they don’t eat it,” she said. “They complain that the strawberries are mushy or the sandwich isn’t fresh.” So her kids eat lunch…

 Preferred Meals provides the food for Woodridge District 68's school lunch program. We took a look at these meals and how their nutritional value measured up to similar meals at well-known fast food chains: McDonald's, Subway and Papa John's.  How does the food compare? Watch the video to the right to find out. You can see full ingredient lists for the school and the fast food chain's food by clicking here.  Below are links to charts comparing certain Preferred Meals foods with their fast food counterparts:  District 68's Crispy Chicken Fillet vs. McDonald's McChicken Subway's Ham Mini-Sub …

The opinions of the students are listed in the order I talked with them. There is one student I talked to and did not get a photo of. Trevor Smith, a seventh-grader at Jefferson, said he eats hot lunch every day because it's convenient and the food is okay. "It's not bad, but it's not the best quality," Smith said. He and his friends said the pizza can be burned a lot and the chicken and rice dishes can be hot on the top but cold on the bottom. The food District 68 serves in its schools meets the requirements set by the National School Lunch Program. The program allows the district to be …

What's for Lunch? is a five-part series taking an in-depth look at District 68's school lunch program. This is the first installment. Learn more about the full series by clicking here. As the nutrition and quality of school-provided meals has been called into question in recent years, Woodridge School District 68 is trying to address the issue by finding a balance between healthy food and bulging budgets.While the number of children attending school has increased dramatically in recent decades, schools have had to adapt the way they feed students. With the increase in childhood obesity and …