Minneapolis school calls gas station snack "lunch"

Should schools serve kids the rations of truckers and road trippers?

​Sure, adults might pick up a Slim Jim--along with a Mountain Dew and a bag of Cheetos--to fuel a long night of driving, but should schools be serving the shrink-wrapped sausages to impressionable young stomachs?

A parent of a fifth-grader at Marcy Open School in Minneapolis says she's upset about today's school lunch: a "beef snack stick," crackers, peaches in syrup, and yogurt, which was listed as a "fun lunch" on the menu. "This sounds like something you get when you are drunk and only have $.59 at the Holiday Station, not something to feed children who do not/cannot bring a nutritious lunch from home," she said.

When the mother stopped by the school, she found another reason to be concerned: The beef sticks had been made by a Milwaukee-based company that has issued recalls of their sticks as recently as this fall over concerns that the products may contain foreign materials. (She also says that she saw many kids who passed on the beef sticks.)

Minneapolis Public School attendees rely heavily on school lunch--approximately two-thirds of all children attending are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Does the city need Jamie Oliver to come beef-stick-whip its lunch program into shape?