This just in from the Food Police Chronicles ….
A state employee required a preschooler at West Hoke Elementary in Raeford, North Carolina on January 30, 2012 to eat chicken nuggets during lunch because her lunch brought from home was not nutritious enough.
The child’s lunch contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips, and apple juice.
The state agent decided that the girl’s lunch did not meet USDA guidelines and required that the child be given a “healthier” alternative. Â Furthermore, the state agent apparently inspected all the children’s lunches that day in the four year old classroom. Â No word if other children were asked to eat chicken nuggets as well.
USDA guidelines mandate that all children’s lunches contain one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables even if the lunch comes from home. Â The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires child care providers to supplement children’s lunches with whatever compulsory items are missing.
The mother of the child who ate the three chicken nuggets, who prefers anonymity fearing retaliation, said she received a note from the school warning her that her child’s lunch was not nutritious enough and that noncompliance in the future could result in fees from the school cafeteria.
Since when are industrially processed chicken nuggets (aka “pink goo”) fried in genetically modified, rancid vegetable oils and nuked in a microwave healthier than a turkey and cheese sandwich and a banana brought from home?
School cafeterias don’t even qualify as real kitchens in most cases as cafeteria workers only have access to giant microwaves that quickly heat up the overly processed, factory fat laden, genetically modifed, agricultural dumping ground food they serve.
Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, says that bureaucratic rules require that schools buy food only from the cheapest bidder.
The sad truth is that only the cheapest, most nutritionless, most highly processed garbage food makes the cut for the school lunch program.
Many parents are choosing to pack their children’s lunches until better food is served at school, but apparently these efforts are being thwarted by the Food Police who are determining that homepacked meals are not up to snuff.
This story is yet another outrageous overstep by an overly aggressive, nanny style government increasingly insistent on raising our children according to its own standards while ignoring our own.
Only a lawsuit is going to stop this sort of thing from progressing and getting worse in the future. Hopefully, this mother can gather her courage and file a legal complaint immediately to force these overzealous government workers back in their bureaucratic box.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
This is so freaking sick. Federal agents inspecting the lunch of a four year old?
And giving her crappy chicken slime soy garbage microwaved nuggets that even a dog should never have to eat? Because the lunch her mother packed does not meet their one size fits all definition of what every single child should ear?
What gives them the right to do this? Do we have a constitution, or do we have nothing?
They did not do this even in Soviet Russia. Freedom? Democracy? What a pathetic joke. We are a herd of slaves with no choice, no freedom, no rights.
Other than the local school district purportedly following USDA guidelines, federal agents have nothing to do with this story. The story is bad enough without unnecessary hyperbole.
The state employees were enforcing FEDERAL regulations, issued by the Department of Agriculture. Since they were enforcing FEDERAL regulations, they were acing as FEDERAL agents. Since they were acting as agents of the FEDERAL government, they were FEDERAL agents, as a matter of law. The Federal Government often uses state and local employees to enforce its regulations. While they are enforcing these regulations, they are acting as agents of the federal government..No hyperbole at all.
I heard this on the radio earlier today. This is disgusting!
Parents are the only ones who can say what their child eats, NOT the school, NOT the government.
If a parent sends lunch with their child, the school has no right at all to tell the child to eat a different lunch that they “approve” of. From what I heard, the girl’s meal was “relatively” healthy and contained everything the girl’s mother knew her daughter would eat.
What if the girl would have been allergic to whatever the school force-fed her?
This is crazy and unbelievable and I hope she sues the school. I would sue, but first I would take my son out (I’m very ready to anyway).
Thank you for the article!
Sue the public schools (which you pay for, out of your taxes, and thus you will end up paying MORE for as a result of the lawsuit) and taking your kids out – the modern American Way. Why not rally and protest until something is CHANGED? Why are people so quick to sue or quit everything they don’t like instead of fighting to make it better these days? We’ve become so lazy we can’t even support the health and education of our children unless it’s getting a lawyer. Go to any local PTO, PTA or public school board meeting and unless some hot button issue has recently been exposed, you’ll find few parents attending. But when a major issue arises (that has been going on for some time) the first response is “I’m suing!” even though they never had any problems with the same policies before. I don’t know this particular woman’s school handbook for her child, however if it was school policy, why didn’t she read it? If she read it and didn’t like it, why did she wait until something happened to get upset? Why didn’t she protest it from the beginning? If it WASN’T school policy, a. she should fight the charge for the meal, b. she (and other upset parents) should fight to make sure a policy is written to prevent a similar situation in the future. Hopefully, she will.
Wow, just wow! I do not understand how schools can think that the child’s lunch was not nutritous enough and more so that chicken nuggets were a better option? I don’t even see how it was lacking by their standard. I mean the kid had meat, dairy, fruit, grain…ummm veggies..if you stretch the potato chips. So why the nuggets?
I agree, I’d still support the mother no matter what was in the lunch box however. I understand that schools are probably just trying to make sure that no kid goes hungry but when a mother does pack a lunch it should not be tampered with.
Just makes me all the more glad that we homeschool. I like having my rights.
I agree Brittany; that is why we homeschool also…freedom. Yes, even if it was full of candy; that is THEIR business! I have already tried to email the principal of this school and for some unknown reason..MAILER DAEMON! Hmmmm, I know the principal is not to blame, but he better realize the implications of this and get some back up before they start down this slippery slope! If you live in North Carolina and have a way to make your voice heard in this, please DO! Maybe everyone could contact this school and just let them know that we ARE watching and we aren’t going to be quiet when we see injustice!
Wow. I’m so glad we are a home school family.
Meeeee too!!!
Homeschooling may be only a temporary protection. The Feds could be checking your pantry door to door in the future. This type of intrusion on personal decisions and parental rights must be stopped now.
Actually, there have been reports that government agents in England have actually inspected parents refrigerators, especially if a child is considered overweight. While I do not believe this is common, yet, it could happen here. And it will, unless we find a way to let our rulers know that the sheep are looking up, and will not tolerate this kind of direct government control over our families and every single aspect of our lives.
It makes me nervous and sad. Our refrigerator is FULL of raw milk, kefir, yogurt, eggs and grass-fed meat. And yet, those are the very things that the government says are unhealthy!
While I do not think it’s the government’s business-PERIOD. It adds a sad depth to realize they think I should replace all of the above with low fat, pasteurized, homogenized milk, GMO wheat products and rancid oils.
Ooooh, the topic gets me going! I taught school for five years before staying home with my kids. Now I have three kids in school. The garbage I have seen over the years that passes for food appalls me. I also will add that some of the packed lunches I see when I substitute teach appall me, as well. But I do not want the government telling me or any other parents what our kids HAVE to eat. My family’s food values are not the same as the government’s food values. Oh, this is not good.
This is downright infuriating.
In my son’s special ed preschool here in the most notorious of school districts, Chicago, the food I’ve seen served is downright inedible. Low fat chocolate milk. Cereals loaded with sugar. Poptarts.
Yup.
The government has NO place dictating what we eat. The food plate is meant to serve Big Agra and Pharma. Not the best interests of our health.
Most of the students in Chicago are on free lunch.
It’s so heartbreaking.
I hope that mother sues the school, to set an example.
If the family pays school tax to the school district, then at the very least the parents should have their say in what the school chooses to serve to their child(ren), if not to all of the children. I cannot imagine paying someone to feed me only to be told by that person what I must eat. That is utter insanity.
Just for the record, I would support this mother even if her child’s lunch was full of candy. The mother has the right to put whatever she chooses in her child’s lunch. It is none of Uncle Sam’s business.
Well said, Sarah.
Amen!
I agree completely!
Amen Sarah! The government has no right whatsoever to do this. This is a sign of what is coming. What the government thinks is right( even though we know better) will stand. This happened at a school less than 30 minutes from my home. How sad!!! And it makes me steaming mad.
I completely agree!
In total agreement! I don’t know why I’m surprised, but this really gets under my skin! So what are vegetarian children supposed to do? I would have been LIVID if they made my child eat chicken nuggets! Or anything I didn’t pack!
My son is only 17 months now, but this just makes me want to consider homeschooling or a private school that has values I can trust, if there is such a thing. Ugh, this is just so disgusting. We must take control of our lives – the government has no right to do so for us, but will continue to if we sit by and do nothing.
Homeschooling is one way to take control! If you send your child to public school, you are turning him over to the government.
INDEED!
Amen!!! This is outrageous!
Okay, so let’s say you did put only candy and the teacher’s or school employees saw this and your child’s health begins to take affect. Should the teacher’s stand by and allow it because, hey, that’s what you wanted? Or should they try to step in for the sake of your child? What if your child had a healthy lunch but on the way to school they switched it out with, say a package of donuts and a soda from a friend. Should the teachers sit by and ignore this? If they were not witness to the exchange and assumed it was brought from home, and therefore never stepped in to question the lunch, you would have no issue to find out that for the entire school year this is what your child was eating and no one said anything to you?
Making a statement like this just proves the reason why the government thinks they need to regulate people and does nothing to help the real issue.
Why should it be the government who is concerned about that? Seriously, the government. If the teacher was concerned, she could speak with the child’s parents and if the parents were concerned, they could take action if necessary.
You aren’t paying attention to the point. Public school policies are made by the officials and administrators that we elect and pay for. If we don’t trust them to do their job, it is OUR job to show up at the meetings, the voting booths, etc. and get them out and get the policies changed. No one does that anymore. This is NOT federal government law. Depending on a school’s policy, a teacher CAN’T simply go talk to a parent about an issue that they PERSONALLY feel is not correct, but only if there is a policy surrounding the issue. And, based on the comments here about how kids should get to eat whatever the parents want to let them have, then it wouldn’t matter if a teacher was allowed, the parents are more concerned with their “right” to send whatever they want than the health of their child, which is ridiculous. That has nothing to do with government, it has to do with being selfish.
Do you have any children? If so, would you be okay with their school changing out their lunch in favor of something they believed was better? (Whether or not what they are supplying truely is better is not the debate, but rather the principle of this idea.)
I don’t understand how it is being selfish to want to decide what your child puts into their body? There is much more to this issue than a child be given chicken nuggets, as you understand. But what is outraging people is that many simple freedoms are being taken away…slowly but surely.
To say that “no one” goes out to do their part in pushing for policy changes is a pretty broad statement. Could there be a bigger push for policy changes on behalf of American citizens? Yes, I believe there could be. But my issue is with being told what I can and can’t consume. Is stepping in ever warranted in these types of situations? Sure, I can imagine so. Are there kids going to school with horrendous lunches? Of course. Unfortunetly this isn’t an issue without its gray areas, but to me, the main issue is being told that you can or cannot eat something because someone else knows better.
While I can only imagine that I would want to step in if I saw a child being sent to school with candy & soda everyday, if I could mention something, I would definitely try to find a way, but it shouldn’t be my job to step in & change the child’s lunch. If it was the school’s policy that certain food groups be sent with the child, from the article’s standpoint, the child had meat already, so where was the justification in forcing the child to have school lunch? And then threatening the parents with having to pay for it if it happened again?
Parents should be concerned with their rights when it comes to their children. Can this principle of “asserting our rights” be misused? Most definitely. (I wouldn’t agree that it was a parent’s right to beat their child into unconsciousness, for example.) But I’ll be damned if I will be told that my child MUST eat according to a certain food plan, or MUST be vaxed with certain chemicals & foreign substances, or cannot take certain vitamins, etc.
None of this is far fetched & is what the government is currently pushing for. I don’t feel that I am selfish for feeling this way.
I definitely understand some of the points you are trying to make, but I think there is a fine line between policies being made to truly help the public & forcing the public to do something that is decidedly “better” for them without being given a choice.
Technically this standard is at federal level and does apply to all states, it all started with this “Healthy living.” BS and some people are to lazy or to stupid to care that the government is now passing bills and such against certain lifestyles. We are losing rights at a rapid rate. You are right though its our own faults for not fixing it so half the problem lies with corrupt and idiotic politicians the rest and the most horrible part of blame belongs to every man and woman who voted these dumb asses in and the ones who didnt vote at all to stop it.
a parent shouldn’t have to go to school board meetings to try to retain their God given parental rights!
I would disagree with this comment if the school lunch was actually more healthy than the box lunch from home. But I know this is rarely the case. Of course if any such policy exists the parents should be informed of it in advance, giving them the option of opting out.
To be fair they are recognizing that there is something amiss in children’s diets. Unfortunately they are misinformed about what is a good diet.
You make a very good point Shirley. Both parents and school employees are not informed enough on REAL nutrition. Someone below commented they send their child Subway and if the school didn’t let them,they would pull them out because they won’t let their child eat the food at the cafeteria. The irony there is, the food from Subway is far from “fresh” and involves alot of processed items. Even people who *think* they are educated really don’t know enough of the background of what they eat. Unfortunately, because of that, school officials who have been given guidelines and statistics think they must know better than the parent. It isn’t malicious (we won’t get into profit from big corp, as someone else already addressed that) on their behalf, but they are just as misinformed as the parent who sent the lunch. One of our high school Ag Department began growing fruits/veggies and these are now incorporated into the cafeteria meals. So many of the kids noticed a difference in taste that they started several student groups to maintain the produce throughout the summer months to store for use during the school year. It couldn’t have been done without the help of involved parents and it’s been a great program that has offset the costs of school lunches that they are able to buy more fresh items that they would not normally be able to afford (and can’t grow due to climate).
I will be right there with you Sarah.
THAT is what I wanted to hear you say!
TRUE THAT!!!! I think that’s what irks me most about this story…even more so than the nutritional aspect of it!
Agreed!
I read the article on Carolina Journal and apparently the girl was given more than just the “Monsato Pink-Goo Nuggets” as I call them. She was given a full cafeteria lunch, but told her mother all she ate was the nuggets because she didn’t like anything else. Now, I’m not saying the school is in the right. Far from it! Having grown up on school lunches, I can assume that her vegetable was probably nuked, canned green beans or something. What was her grain product? The breading on the nuggets?
Heck, when I was in school, I would always choose the chocolate milk because the milk was usually warm and going bad. The chocolate at least covered the rancid flavor some. I remember many a student complaining of tipping the carton only to get a mouthful of curdled milk.