Change in schools takes a long time, but what you can do is pack your own lunch. - Katie Kimball, KCRF Creator

No one has to say school lunches are good or bad, healthy or unhealthy.

That’s not my point today – although I think school lunches could use some improvement. 🙂

Today let’s talk about picky eating specifically – could school lunches potentially contribute to or exacerbate picky tendencies for certain kids?

I think so.

Today I’ll explore 10 reasons why school lunch might not be friendly to your picky eater. Some might apply to your family, others might not. Let me know what you think!

If you’re struggling with a child who isn’t a very adventurous eater, I’ve got just the invitation for you – please join me in the No More Picky Eating Challenge kicking off October 1st and 2nd, 2024! It’s a totally free, 5-day challenge with quick video lessons and action steps each day.

Over half of the kids in the challenge try new foods in just 5 days, but that’s not even the point. The point is to create a less stressful environment at the dinner table, and that happens for 85+% of participants!!

Join here!

Find all the episodes of the Healthy Parenting Handbook here, or wherever you get your podcasts:

Don’t forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts too! Thank you!


Can’t see the video? Watch The Connection Between School Lunch and Picky Eating here on YouTube!

No time for the video? Here are the notes!

  • 1:23: I’ve worked with thousands of parents worldwide on how to help their kids build a healthy relationship with food.
  • 1:52: Despite what many people think, parenting styles can’t create a picky eater. However, kids do start off with some innate tendencies. Things like the way we parent, the words that come out of our mouths, and the environment we create at the dinner table can help our kids build a better relationship with food, or exacerbate picky eating tendencies. Here’s my TEDx talk.

The Impact of School Lunches on Picky Eating

  • 3:10: What happens when kids eat school lunches? This would also apply to daycare lunches. Today I want to share 10 reasons that school lunch could contribute to picky eating tendencies.
  • 3:39: Disclaimer: These are not all going to happen for all kids and these are not all going to happen in all schools, it’s just 10 possibilities I’ve noticed.
  • 3:46: If you don’t have any background in what I teach about picky eating let me share that I run a No More Picky Eating challenge twice a year. During and after the five days of the challenge, 85% of parents feel less stress at the table.

The Role of Highly Processed Food

  • 5:33: The first point I have is the biggest one. When kids eat food that always tastes the same, that is monochromatic, and that has no surprises, they learn to expect food that is always the same. Fresh vegetables will taste or feel a little different each time depending on how the growing season went and how long it’s been since harvest. Highly processed foods, however, are made in factories, and they’re formulated to be exactly the same every time.

When kids eat food that always tastes the same, they learn to expect food that always tastes the same. -Katie Kimball

  • 7:31: We need our kids to be used to variety. We need our kids to expect that when they take a bite of food, even though it’s the “same” food that they had the week before, it might have a little bit of variation.

Limited Variety of Vegetables

  • 8:35: School lunches include a fairly small variety of vegetables, and worse, they’re generally cooked in the least exciting way. This makes sense logistically when considering the scale at which school lunches are made, but maybe it’s encouraging kids to dislike vegetables. 10 ways to serve vegetables to encourage kids to try them.
  • 9:45: Continuing on the theme of vegetables, let’s talk about what they count as vegetables. Potatoes and corn are common vegetables on the school lunch menu. These might be easier on the palate but they’re also less nutrient dense.

  • 10:29: Many foods served in schools (starchy vegetables, processed grains, and sugars) turn on kids’ dopamine systems with quick energy hits. Picky eaters usually crave those comfort foods because they want that dopamine feedback loop. Eating those foods daily at school just reinforces this.
  • 11:41: A friend of mine who works at daycare said it feels like every Monday through Friday is the same. Monday is chicken nuggets, Tuesday is spaghetti, etc. Those kids are getting a fairly small variety of foods, and when someone tries to break their routine pattern, it can be very difficult for them.
  • 12:21: Picky eaters tend to go on food jags. Jagging is eating the same food every day. Sometimes a child will go on a food jag and then drop that food for a while. This can be very risky because the fewer foods a child eats, the less nutrition they’re getting and there’s the risk that the child won’t bring the food back. When a child eats less than 20 foods, it’s considered problem feeding rather than picky eating and this is a serious problem.
  • 13:59: Now, I actually have my kids take a yogurt almost every day. However, I make homemade yogurt so it’s not the precise consistency of highly processed foods, and we mix up which fruits we include with it.

The Importance of Parental Oversight

  • 15:56: When kids eat at school, they aren’t getting positive modeling from adults on how to approach food with curiosity instead of fear. Also, you don’t get the chance to observe your child and their eating habits, so it’s harder to troubleshoot when there’s a picky eating problem. Learn more about the benefits of family dinners here.
  • 17:32: Many school lunches are full of gluten and dairy, two top allergens. I think that many kids are walking around with undiagnosed gluten and or dairy sensitivities. If kids aren’t feeling their best after eating, it can contribute to picky eating.

Portion Sizes and Visual Overwhelm

  • 18:30: I’ve heard from teachers recently who say kindergartners and 5th graders are served the same amount, resulting in a ton of waste from the kindergartners and 5th graders not getting enough.
  • 19:24: How can this contribute to picky eating? For our kindergartners, a full tray they can’t possibly eat can be overwhelming and shut down their appetite. They’re also more likely to eat only the couple of items they like best, reinforcing that feedback loop I mentioned earlier.
  • 20:50: An excessive amount of kids’ calories are coming from sugar. Sugar replaces nutrients that kids need.

Sugar is a beast. I think it's a huge problem in our society. -Katie Kimball

  • 23:14: Kids can drink milk to fill up, and they are often drinking their sugars. When I send school lunches, I don’t I don’t send a drink with calories–because I want my kids to get their calories from their protein sources, their fruits, their vegetables, their grains, etc. It’s way too easy, especially for a picky eater, to fill up on milk and eat nothing else.
  • 24:09: Many of these issues apply at daycares as well as schools, but daycare has the potential to be very different, because they’re often independent units that make their own policies.
  • 26:15: I don’t think change is quickly possible in public schools. It’s a big, systemic problem. So what can we do? First of all, don’t say things like school lunches are unhealthy. Let’s make sure that we don’t allow our children to disparage or criticize the school lunch food in front of other kids. Other kids may not have options, and kids who really need those school lunches, don’t deserve to have any stigma put on it. Here is the Instagram account I mentioned, kids.eat.in.color.

Practical Solutions: Packing Homemade Lunches

  • 28:04: What can you do if you don’t want your child to have that school lunch every day? You gotta pack your own lunch! I think there can be a balance. Maybe you let your kid choose one day a week, or a certain number a month to eat school lunch.

Kids don’t need plastic knives. They need real skills.

Teach safe technique, focus, and confidence in the all-time fav lesson from our kids cooking class! (ages 2-12)






Or find out more about the free knife class here.

  • 28:54: If your child needs to have that school lunch every single day, then I encourage you to create a feedback loop so that you’re at least talking about the school lunch and talking about the choices they make, and beginning to understand what that feels like for your child.

Advocating for Systemic Change

  • 29:19: If you have the energy try for systemic change. Can we get more real foods in our school lunches and less ultra-processed foods? Can we get some gluten-free and dairy-free days where kids’ bodies get a little break from the gluten and dairy?
  • 29:46: If you’re at a charter school or a private school, change can happen much more quickly.
  • 30:04: Here are some of my resources on packing school lunches. I have a book, videos, and blog posts.

Resources We Mention for Picky Eating