Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The government has a role. It's role is NOT to question what parents feed their children. It is an invasion of privacy and an over reach by government into the lives of citizens. The content of the lunch does NOT change this.
Since I am my child's parent I get to decide how to feed him. NOT the USDA. NOT the government school. NOT any government agency.
That is really what is at issue here. Let's not confuse ourselves.
I merely raise this point as I spend enough time in the kids school to see the result of poor parental nutritional choices. Guess who has to deal with it, the teachers, and OUR children. The classes are disruptive, and it hinders the learning process of OUR children. Is that okay? Obviously I am not talking about a turkey sandwich, but one of my daughter's classmates, who is exceedigly hyperactive anyway, brings as her morning snack every morning a big bag of M&M's. Chaos ensues shortly thereafter. So no one should be able to say anything about that?
So then you agree that if the parent wanted her child to have peanutbutter and strawberry jam, then no government agency has the right to forbid the child to enter the school and consume that peanutbutter and strawberry jam.
Good deal.
I now bring you to the next topic: allergies and schools.
Allergies are big issue with food in school.
There are many ways this needs to be addressed.
Children with allergies need to be taught how important it is that they dont accept food from anyone that isnt approved.
Children without allergies need to be talked to not only at home but also at school that they are not to share their food with anyone.
There are pn butter tables, where children who bring pn butter have to sit, which i dont agree with, as they are ostracized. Anyone who is allergic to pn butter shouldnt have to be seperated either. All children should be taught proper interactions with allergies, and school faculty need to also be educated in the proper way to address a child having a potential allergic reaction.
Im sorry and may draw fire for this but pn butter is an excellent protein alternative for children who dont like or who dont eat meat and schools should not outlaw entire types of food because of allergies.
Our school sends out notices every semester about what kinds of lunches and snacks are encouraged and which are Not Allowed- like potato chips- but I've never heard of anybody taking food away from a child. On field trips we have to pack juice boxes as they are not going to carry extra milk for the sack kids.
I do like the policy of not letting the kids share their food and what they don't eat from their sack lunch is packed up and brought home. our school lunches use as much local produce as possible and i appreciate that alot.
Allergies are big issue with food in school.
There are many ways this needs to be addressed.
Children with allergies need to be taught how important it is that they dont accept food from anyone that isnt approved.
Children without allergies need to be talked to not only at home but also at school that they are not to share their food with anyone.
There are pn butter tables, where children who bring pn butter have to sit, which i dont agree with, as they are ostracized. Anyone who is allergic to pn butter shouldnt have to be seperated either. All children should be taught proper interactions with allergies, and school faculty need to also be educated in the proper way to address a child having a potential allergic reaction.
Im sorry and may draw fire for this but pn butter is an excellent protein alternative for children who dont like or who dont eat meat and schools should not outlaw entire types of food because of allergies.
I started a thread not too long ago about how we should be talking to our kids about these allergies. The schools do a pretty good job of educating but it should be enforced at home not to tease somebody because of allergies and to never offer part of your lunch to another student.
I started a thread not too long ago about how we should be talking to our kids about these allergies. The schools do a pretty good job of educating but it should be enforced at home not to tease somebody because of allergies and to never offer part of your lunch to another student.
I absolutely agree that people should talk to their children at home. Education doesnt end at the bell ringing and that includes all sorts of education. But I think that isolating children who have allergies or isolating children who eat things that people are allergic to is just not realistic in the real world at large.
People are allergic to eggs, gluten, pnuts, strawberries, chocolate, food dyes, milk etc. Not all are deadly but can be. We can possibly eliminate all of these foods, and looking at the menus from area schools they dont seem to even bother trying. At the local elementary school the lunch alternative is pb&j
The government has a role. It's role is NOT to question what parents feed their children. It is an invasion of privacy and an over reach by government into the lives of citizens. The content of the lunch does NOT change this.
Since I am my child's parent I get to decide how to feed him. NOT the USDA. NOT the government school. NOT any government agency.
That is really what is at issue here. Let's not confuse ourselves.
Obviously this is just not true.
While I think YOU are a good parent, and would make good choices for your children, it is obvious that is just not true for all children. Parents do not own their children and as a society we have decided that at some arbitrary (and frequently situationally determined) point society steps in with the best interests of the child.
Many children in the type of programs like the one the child in the article attended, specifically are geared towards low income children who are frequently malnourished. Do I think that was the case here? Absolutely not.
But considering the fact that for many children, the only real meal they get is the one during school hours, it makes sense to try to make it a balanced one. If the reality is, as has come to light recently, that all that happened was this child was told she could get a milk, that really is not an issue.
The exact same argument for over reach can be made in many of the cases of "abuse". So while I agree this was likely a gross over reaction on the part of a teacher or cafeteria aide and then a ridiculously gross over reaction of the general public, it is just not true that parents should expect to be the sole determiners for what is or is not right for their children.
I merely raise this point as I spend enough time in the kids school to see the result of poor parental nutritional choices. Guess who has to deal with it, the teachers, and OUR children. The classes are disruptive, and it hinders the learning process of OUR children. Is that okay? Obviously I am not talking about a turkey sandwich, but one of my daughter's classmates, who is exceedigly hyperactive anyway, brings as her morning snack every morning a big bag of M&M's. Chaos ensues shortly thereafter. So no one should be able to say anything about that?
My son's class is allowed to bring a mid-morning snack. Some kids don't eat breakfast, or they eat junk, and the teachers deal with children running on empty. So they get a snack. The only thing they are allowed to bring for that snack is a fruit or vegetable, cut up. I suppose some parents might view that as overbearing, because if I want to feed my son Cheez Whiz on saltines with a side of Twizzlers for a snack then by golly I am gonna!
I am off to investigate that special ranking the school holds and the consequence of those infractions.
I can't copy the link from my phone, but if you find the link to Mark Thompson's blog, you'll see the update from today. This is a state-subsidized preschool for low income and disabled children, AND the little girl is part of an opt-in program. The program has to meet certain criteria, including nutrition, as part of its certification. And now it sounds like the reason the mom is mad in the first place is because she thought she would be charged for the extra food (she wasn't).
The letter makes perfect sense now. Parents are being warned that they are not meeting the requirements, because the school could lose its status and presumably its funding. If you want to feed your kid whatever you want, don't voluntarily join a program that has requirements about what your kid needs to bring for lunch.
Ok, I have held my typing fingers until now....but I just have to say.....people.......this is for a federally funded Pre-K program that happens to be housed on a school campus. It is not about school aged children. At all. There is no reason for people to be so up in arms about this happening in "schools".
In ANY program that provides meals for preschool aged children there are nutritional guidelines that must be met no matter what kind of program it is. Anyone who has used a preschool, child care center or home child care has already been subject to these guidelines, whether they realize it or not.
Even my home child care program has to offer the required amount in order for me to claim the meals/snacks on my taxes as deductions and I don't participate in the food program. I have to document it in order to prove it if ever audited.
It is quite likely that most here didn't use a facility who participated in the food reimbursement program or a program that is funded by federal grants or they would have already been very well versed in what was required to be offered as it would be part of their contract.
Those programs who are reimbursed can lose their payments if they are audited/inspected and found to not offer what the guidelines require. Those who are funded by grants can lose their entire program.
So this Pre-K program that is housed on a public school campus could potentially lose it's funding and the program would close down completely over non compliance of meeting nutritional guidelines. The school has nothing to do with it and no power to affect it and it has no affect on what goes on in the rest of the school.
Therefore the program has to have oversight in what the children are being offered in order to avoid losing funding. This should be clearly stated in the information the parents get before their child is accepted into the program. The program is not open to every student, they must meet certain criteria in order to be accepted because it is funded by grants.
Having said all that......even though this is said to have been way overblown and seems to actually be a non story, this exact scenario happens all the time. A parent send in a lunch and it doesn't meet the guidelines and the provider must offer items to bring it up to the requirements.
Let's say this child had a typical sandwich with meat, cheese and bread, along with the banana, chips and juice. I can say with pretty good measure that it probably did not meet the requirements and adding milk would have easily taken care of it.
Why? Because in order to meet what is required there would have to be at least 1.5 oz meat on that sandwich which is close to 1/4 of an 8 oz package of lunch meat in order to get the required protein amount. And to meet the dairy quota it would take 2 slices of cheese and not one.
Very few people put that much meat on their own sandwich much less for a 4 yr old and I can't imagine many adding 2 slices of cheese.
However.....the cheese could count as protein IF there was milk added to the lunch and the protein requirement would have then been met. (Cheese cannot count as both dairy and protein)
The whole banana would cover the two required servings of fruit/veggies. The 2 slices of bread would cover the grains.
All kinds of foods can be offered as long as they fit the amounts required in each category.
Please note all along the word offered is used because that is ALL that is required....that it be offered. The child may have been made to take the milk, but they certainly don't have to drink it.
If you want to feed your kid whatever you want, don't voluntarily join a program that has requirements about what your kid needs to bring for lunch.
Exactly! This is not the free public school that everyone has access to.....it is a whole different thing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
