You Probably Don't Want To Know What's Actually In Public School Chicken Nuggets

You Probably Don't Want To Know What's In Public School Chicken Nuggets

Turns out the chicken nuggets being served in one of the nation's largest public school districts don't contain much actual chicken at all.

Earlier this month, Chicago-based WBEZ food reporter Monica Eng reported that her attempt -- made via a Freedom of Information Act request -- to retrieve an ingredient list for the chicken nuggets served in Chicago Public Schools cafeterias was met with a curt response after weeks of delays: The lone ingredient of a chicken nugget was a chicken nugget, the district wrote.

After the Illinois Attorney General's office intervened, CPS -- which reportedly did not "know the ingredients" of the nuggets its caterer Aramark serves to district students -- released the list of 28 ingredients making up the processed nuggets, minus their breading.

Considering about 84 percent of CPS students qualify for either free or reduced-price lunch and 87 percent of the district's approximately 400,000 students come from low-income families, it's likely that far too many CPS students get all their meals for any given weekday at school.

And those meals, Eng reports in a followup published Monday, remain dominated by high-sugar processed food with little to no nutritional value while some caterers say low funding is to blame for the limited options available to students.

For more examples of what's being served to students in cafeterias today, DoSomething.org gathered submissions from students throughout the nation:

Pike High School, IN

Show Us Your School Lunch!

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