I know this is somewhat OT, but I think this is very indicative of where we are headed as a country, if people do NOT speak up and make some changes!
Just so y'all know, this is the kind of thing I expected to happen with all the hoop-la with the nutritious school lunch under the microscope at the WH. How much sense does this whole thing make to you?
A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home.
NC Pre-K (before this year known as More at Four) is a state-funded education program designed to “enhance school readiness” for four year-olds.
The mother, who doesn’t wish to be identified at this time, says she made her daughter a lunch that contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips. A state inspector assessing the pre-K program at the school said the girl also needed a vegetable, so the inspector ordered a full school lunch tray for her. While the four-year-old was still allowed to eat her home lunch, the girl was forced to take a helping of chicken nuggets, milk, a fruit and a vegetable to supplement her sack lunch.
The mother says the girl was so intimidated by the inspection process that she was too scared to eat all of her homemade lunch. The girl ate only the chicken nuggets provided to her by the school, so she still didn’t eat a vegetable.
The mother says her daughter doesn’t like vegetables and – like most four year olds – will only eat them at home under close supervision.
In an interview with the Civitas Institute the mother said “I can’t put vegetables in her lunchbox. I’m not a millionaire and I’m not going to put something in there that my daughter doesn’t eat and I’ve done gone round and round with the teacher about that and I’ve told her that. I put fruit in there every day because she is a fruit eater. Vegetables, let me take care of my business at home and at night and that’s when I see she’s eating vegetables. I either have to smash it or tell her if you don’t eat your vegetables you’re going to go to bed.”
The mother added, “It’s just a headache to keep arguing and fighting. I’ve even wrote a note to her teachers and said do not give my daughter anything else unless it comes out of her lunchbox and they are still going against me and putting a milk in front of her every day.
“Friday she came home and said ‘Mom, they give me vegetable soup and a milk,’” said the mother.
“So I went to the cafeteria to make sure she had no fee and it’s not being charged to her account yet,” she continued, ” but what concerned me was that I got a letter from the principal and it says students who do not bring a healthy lunch will be offered the missing portions which may result in a fee from the cafeteria. So if I don’t stay on top of her account on a weekly basis there’s that opportunity that charges could be put on her account and then if I let it go too far then it’s like I’m going to have a big battle.”
The principal of West Hoke Elementary, Jackie Samuels, says none of the children’s parents were asked to pay for the school food. While the parents may not have to pay, it was still an expense for the school to provide the extra food. A phone call to the Hoke County Schools Superintendent to inquire as to how much additional expense this would impose on the school was not returned.
The mother, who lives in Fayetteville, sent a statement to state Rep. G.L. Pridgen (R-Robeson) detailing her complaint. Pridgen says he was shocked to hear it. Pridgen has since learned this is a nationwide practice based on federal guidelines.
An assistant to Pridgen says the girl’s grandmother was also upset and asked, “This isn’t China, is it?”
The government inspector was from the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised program at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The program gives schools a grade based on standards that include USDA meal guidelines enforced by the N.C. Division of Early Childhood Development.
The nutrition standards for pre-K lunch require milk, two servings of fruit or vegetable, bread or grains and a meat or meat alternative. The school didn’t receive a high grade from the January assessment because the home-made lunches didn’t meet those guidelines. The mother points out the only thing on that list her daughter’s home lunch didn’t have was milk, so she doesn’t understand why the girl was given a complete school meal as a supplement.
The mother says her next step is to sit down with the principal and if nothing is done then she plans to go to the school board.
Sickening isnt it? Some schools in Chicago have even banned packed lunches,
*insert sarcasm font here*
because obviously they know more about what's good for the kids than parents do. Duh.
Please note this quote from the above linked story:
I do think child nutrition is important but most cafeteria food is not good nutrition. I'm not familiar with that school system but I live in NC and our school lunches are terrible.
In state funded programs, the state does inspections of schools and if they see a lunch, even one packed from home, that doesn't have all the components they have listed as being essential to what they say a nutritious meal is, they can cite the school, and the school's funding can be in jeopardy. It seems ridiculous that a lunch a parent packs for their own 4 year old is a problem, but it's simply the school trying to comply with the state requirements.
This is simply more erosion of our liberties. Once it becomes systematic to force us to feed our children a certain way in school, they will expand that to the home. It will start with taxes on things the government determines to be unhealthy (salt, sugar, saturated fats). Making these things more expensive will cause people to buy them less often. It will proceed from there by disallowing certain foods being purchased by food stamps. This will of course be needed because under healthcare, these foods are causing diseases, and therefore rising health costs. But shouldn't all Americans eat healthier? Of course those on FS will be the biggest voting block to assure that all Americans cannot purchase unhealthy foods, otherwise that would look like we are saying poor people can't make good food choices, but those better off can. So these foods will then be banned altogether. More items will be added to the banned list until it becomes futile to ban foods and less bureaucratic to simply ration foods for each person. This will assure the exact amount of food necessary for each individuals needs of caloric intake as well as their number of recommended allotments of fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and fats. What a wonderful thing this will be in controlling health care costs!
It is one ones business what I use to send my kids to school with food wise.I think kids should eat healthy but food police.NO!
Quoting Mamawto4:
This is simply more erosion of our liberties. Once it becomes systematic to force us to feed our children a certain way in school, they will expand that to the home. It will start with taxes on things the government determines to be unhealthy (salt, sugar, saturated fats). Making these things more expensive will cause people to buy them less often. It will proceed from there by disallowing certain foods being purchased by food stamps. This will of course be needed because under healthcare, these foods are causing diseases, and therefore rising health costs. But shouldn't all Americans eat healthier? Of course those on FS will be the biggest voting block to assure that all Americans cannot purchase unhealthy foods, otherwise that would look like we are saying poor people can't make good food choices, but those better off can. So these foods will then be banned altogether. More items will be added to the banned list until it becomes futile to ban foods and less bureaucratic to simply ration foods for each person. This will assure the exact amount of food necessary for each individuals needs of caloric intake as well as their number of recommended allotments of fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and fats. What a wonderful thing this will be in controlling health care costs!
I've always said when someone else gives you money to eat, they will eventually tell you what you can eat, where to buy your food, how many times you can eat it, where you can eat it and what time you can eat it.
We can thank Michelle Obama for all this BS!
Yep - let's give them processed chicken nuggets full of sodium instead!
I'm all for checking to make sure kids have food but obviously they went overboard! Please note that they didn't take her sack lunch away - they supplemented it.
The mother, who doesn’t wish to be identified at this time, says she made her daughter a lunch that contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips. A state inspector assessing the pre-K program at the school said the girl also needed a vegetable, so the inspector ordered a full school lunch tray for her. While the four-year-old was still allowed to eat her home lunch, the girl was forced to take a helping of chicken nuggets, milk, a fruit and a vegetable to supplement her sack lunch.
Where were the food police when my brother ate 14 servings of canned school lunch spinach for 5 cents a pop (and yes, he did throw up and it was green)?
Quoting 4kidz916:I do think child nutrition is important but most cafeteria food is not good nutrition. I'm not familiar with that school system but I live in NC and our school lunches are terrible.
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on Feb. 15, 2012 at 12:30 AM