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.
I understand encouraging healthy eating and not selling unhealthy food. When my kids were young, I was mortified at what constituted a school lunch - frankly it was a bunch of processed and packaged ...*crud*. We packed lunches for the most part. I think teachers taking away food from a child crosses the line. Healthy eating is best looked at in a larger perspective than one snack or one meal and as others have mentioned, the things that pass for healthy are often worse (or at least no better) than the offending food. It's also worth noting that when I was young, a typical packed lunch from home (for most people I knew) looked like this: bologna and cheese on white bread, a bag of chips, a few carrot sticks and a twinkie. Not much healthy there (and, other than the twinkie, it would pass the inspections described here). We did buy milk at school. The difference? We walked to school, had PE and recess, walked home then played outside. Schools doing away with PE and recess and loading up on homework in order to outscore the next district on standardized tests are at least as much of a problem as unhealthy lunches.
I had an especially strange experience with lunch inspection at one school in particular. I would pack a lunch consisting of fruit (grapes, apple slices, orange, etc.), veggies (like carrots or peppers or tomatoes), a cheese stick, multigrain crackers, hummus and a cookie. In addition they had two snack periods so I also packed two snacks. This was more food then my child could manage to eat during the short lunch period yet the school expressed concern because there was not a sandwich. The school could not figure out if the lunch was a snack or a lunch. This was the one time where I spoke to the school about it because they were causing my child to have anxiety over the contents of her lunch box and they were causing anxiety over a healthy lunch. It was mind blowing.
The problem is people don't realize the food is 90% of the problem.
You can't outrun your fork.
You can't exercise away your nutritional deficiencies.
Our food has become more calorie-dense and nutrition-deficient.
This is a very bad combo.
I echo the poster here who was talking about the asinine concept of 'kid food.' Wtf is kid food? Kids will eat whatever food you give them. If you acclimate them to crap, that's what they will want to eat. Seriously, like no other culture does this. Kids eat what everyone eats. It's just food.
This is so true. My oldest grandson is 4, and has never been to McDonalds, or tasted mac and cheese from a box, chicken nuggets, french fries, goldfish crackers, or snack cakes. DD cooks from scratch, and feeds them only an organic, whole food vegetarian diet with little to no sugar, and absolutely NOTHING processed. Treats like homemade cookies are sweetened with honey or maple syrup. He is very slim, and he and his baby brother are tall for their age and active. There is no way DD is ever going to let them eat cafeteria food.
The elementary school aged son of a good friend of hers attends school in a district where the entire class was automatically fed breakfast every morning. His mother always gave him a healthy breakfast at home (same organic whole foods, unprocessed diet as my DD feeds her kids). She was appalled to find out he was made to eat a second breakfast at school...chocolate milk, poptarts, breakfast pizza, whole wheat donuts, etc. He told the teacher he'd already had breakfast, but she still herded him down to the cafeteria to eat with the others. Granted, he didn't complain (he was getting poptarts and chocolate milk, right?). She specifically TOLD the school not to feed him breakfast, but they just said it was policy for the class to be served breakfast at school. I can't believe NONE of these kids were fed at home. If not, what does this say about parents, where they depend on the school to feed their kids?
Bear in mind, both of these girls were best friends growing up. DD's friend's mother never cooked much...dinner at their house was usually take out pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, canned ravioli, etc. I cooked better meals at home, but DD still ate truckloads of junk. Now, she and her friend are fanatically health conscious, and allow their kids no junk food whatsoever. In her defense, DD does own a health food store...she just practices what she preaches. But I laugh when I remember those two listening to "Hansen" and scarfing entire packages of Oreos and Doritos.
Last edited by Mrs. Skeffington; 03-09-2018 at 10:13 AM..
I see you misunderstood. I understand (and to some extent agree) that the school/teacher should not be taking away food that parents have provided. I think I said that already.
I was asking for a cite supporting that the intent is for schools to exert authority over parents and has nothing to do with health.
When teachers take away healthy foods from kids, what is the intent?
When teachers take away healthy foods and then GIVE the kids unhealthy foods instead, what is the intent?
When teachers arbitrarily allow kids to eat unhealthy foods, what is the intent?
Is it about health?
Or is it about AUTHORITY?
When teachers are instructed to arbitrarily enforce rules that have nothing to do with healthy standards that is about authority. Not health.
When teachers have been given no instruction regarding what is a healthy food and what is not, it is about authority, not health.
And when teachers OVERRULE parents and take food away from kids that parents have packed specifically FOR their children, that is about authority, not health.
Pretty easy to see. No citation necessary, unless you want someone to tell you what to believe.
Yes; our school district has had an issue with this for years. It's one thing to exchange junk food for healthy food ... but OMG; you have to know how to do it right!
Sometimes this can take years. My mom went completely vegan when I was growing up but she was very determined to cover all the bases & also serve food that tasted good & would appeal to people. She studied Macrobiotics at the Michio Kushi Institute & one of her several degrees was in Nutrition. It took years of trial & error & then for 10 years she taught cooking classes out of our home.
I have seen it all; the metaphysical, new-age "healers" who would dangle sacs filled with herbs over your body, worked with my parents at organic food, hippie co-ops (way before whole foods!), trudged up & down the base of Pikes Peak once a week to fill jugs with natural spring water, hung out with a bunch of people in turbans & robes in an Aspen commune because mom "just wanted to see how they ate!"
Her "groupies", AKA cooking class students were an unusual assortment of elderly women, MD's, DO's, cancer patients, people living with MS, in wheelchairs, even the "Coconut Oil Doctor" from the Dr. Oz show used to come over every week for years. Crazy. But at least it was good food that was good for you.
Our school district seems to think that it truly must taste awful to be good for you. And it's a shame because our district serves a population where over 50% of the students qualify under the federal free/reduced lunch program but then they serve stuff that is honestly almost uneatable.
Supposedly, this was due to the former First-Lady's (Obama) campaign against childhood obesity, so hopefully they will ease off now & maybe try it again after they have had the time to do a little research.
After this program, or schools started serving more produce and fewer processed foods. The problem was produce does nto keep well. They were offering moldy and rotting fruits and vegetables even moldy bread. If the kids complained, they just wiped or cut off the mold/rot and told them to eat it. I share our home they will start using common sense and ease of the stupidity. However our last child is now a senior so there will be no impact on us directly. still I woudl like to see kids get decent food in a resonable and well reasoned way that is possible under hte ocnditions of school food service.
IDK, I guess I find it rather incongruous that we (general "we") cluck our tongues over the increase in childhood obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, while simultaneously crowing about a "parent's right" to pack Doritos, HoHos, and YooHoo for their kids' lunch. Can we really have it both ways?
I'm not on board with confiscating unhealthy lunch, but I'd be fine with the school supplementing it with something wholesome.
It's also about the increased quantity of convenient food and decreased activity. I was not using the boloogna and cheese sandwich as an example of good food. On the contrary. But it was typical and we didn't have the obeisity epidemic we do now. My own kids lunches were more healthy than the lunches I had as a school aged kid. We learn. But, most people (and I think you know this) aren't/can't pay tuition at a fancy-schmancy private school with locally sourced, organic menus. We can pack healthier lunches and demand our public schools provide healthier options. Teachers confiscating a bag of granola with a few M&Ms and giving a bag of fruit flavored gummies or goldfish crackers doesn't do any real good.
The food is actually not the same as it was 30 years ago. And no amount of increased activity can keep up with the added sugar that is in literally everything.
Yeah, I brown-bagged it when I was a kid (bc cafeterias served the same drek back then), and my mother put the healthy food in the brown bag.
I don't think anyone is arguing that the teacher substituting one form of crap for another is a good thing.
IDK, I guess I find it rather incongruous that we (general "we") cluck our tongues over the increase in childhood obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, while simultaneously crowing about a "parent's right" to pack Doritos, HoHos, and YooHoo for their kids' lunch. Can we really have it both ways?
I'm not on board with confiscating unhealthy lunch, but I'd be fine with the school supplementing it with something wholesome.
And cutting back PE and recess, taking away recess as punishment is criminal. Kids need to run to burn off energy as it makes them better able to pay attention during class time.
But, hey what do I know. Take away those homemade organic cookies. Yeah, that will teach kids to ... mumble mumble something. /eyeroll/
The elementary school aged son of a good friend of hers attends school in a district where the entire class was automatically fed breakfast every morning. His mother always gave him a healthy breakfast at home (same organic whole foods, unprocessed diet as my DD feeds her kids). She was appalled to find out he was made to eat a second breakfast at school...chocolate milk, poptarts, breakfast pizza, whole wheat donuts, etc. He told the teacher he'd already had breakfast, but she still herded him down to the cafeteria to eat with the others. Granted, he didn't complain (he was getting poptarts and chocolate milk, right?). She specifically TOLD the school not to feed him breakfast, but they just said it was policy for the class to be served breakfast at school. I can't believe NONE of these kids were fed at home. If not, what does this say about parents, where they depend on the school to feed their kids?
My daughter read about a school district that does this on a parenting board she belongs to. The reason is to remove the stigma associated with getting breakfast; only the poor kids get breakfast. Although in that particular district, the vast majority kids are free/reduced lunch anyway. The reason that the food served is crap, is because they are more concerned about the kids eating then what they are eating.
Our school used to serve Bosco sticks on Friday. basically "processed Cheese food (another name for cheese flavored Crisco) breaded and fried. The kids loved it and ate it, but it is not food. Which is better not eating their food, or eating non-food?
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.
