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
True. My two oldest children attended two schools for 2-2.5 yrs and the teachers and the principal at both schools routinely looked and commented on what they brought to school. My boys took grassed beef, fish, salads, soups, herbed rices, homemade pasta sauces, home baked breads, avocados, pomegranates……they really made the school lunches look bad. The other kids often did not know and had never eaten the fruits and veggies that were in my son’s lunches. The oldest graduated and the younger returned to homeschooling.
This is my son’s first year in “brick & mortar” school since preschool, and we pack his lunch about 90% of the time. I’m constantly irked by the comments he tells me the other kids make about his lunches. I try not to send things TOO off-the-grid just to keep the teasing to a minimum, but I’m also prone to push it a little and inadvertently introduce his classmates to
“new foods”.
I don’t know how I’d feel if it were the grown-ups making commentary…. :S
This is an outrage. If we don’t unite and stand up for our individual rights we will have nothing left. More reason I am home schooling even if it means working 7-3 and schooling 4-9. I don’t care!
I saw this last night. Incredible that this is happening.
This was a huge factor on why we chose to home school as well. I was so mad at our school district here in Missouri. I sent my daughter with a turkey sandwich with just turkey and cheese. I put in there cucumbers, carrots and a small container of some ranch. She also took a mango and some gluten free paleo brownies. They told her she wasn’t allowed to bring the mango again because some kids are allergic to it.
Every day it got to be more and more stuff. Nothing with peanuts at all, nothing with nuts at all, no dairy. It was ridiculous and we pulled her out and now she is at home with us starting her own foodie blog for pre teens and younger kids showing them it’s fun to make the types of food we eat and it’s good.
Since when did the LIFE of another child become less important than the choices/preferences of YOUR children? Once again, proof of why the government has been allowed to intervene. Children have died from food allergies in school. Those parents and others who want to prevent a similar tragedy have had no choice but to come forward and fight for their kids’ lives because others simply don’t want to be inconvenienced, no matter what the possible outcome. Your child won’t die from skipping a mango for lunch. A child with these allergies can become severely ill or die. Should they be denied a public education and just stay home because your kid wants to have a mango? To say it is ridiculous to take precautions for the life of another child doesn’t make you sound like a very compassionate person. Another example of how selfish our society has become. It’s this attitude that has driven parents to fight for the government to intervene which always does way more damage than it solves because once the government gets involved it’s all or nothing.
In my son’s cafeteria, they have an allergy table. All the kids with food allergies sit together and have become close friends, and the rest of the school isn’t restricted on what they’re permitted to bring, short of classroom treats (birthday cupcakes and the like). As someone who lives with a severe, life threatening food allergy, my medical issue should not be everyone’s problem, should it? I think my son’s school has handled this issue very well.
My diagnosis should not infringe on your wanting to eat a mango. With a little consideration, I can stay healthy and you can be happy.
Wow, what about personal responsibility? Are you saying that no one should be permitted to have anything to eat that someone else may be allergic to? If your child has a life threatening allergy, you had better be doing some serious teaching about what they are not to eat and why – or else keep them where you can monitor their foods until they can be responsible for their choices!! Teach them to only eat what you give them. This is a far different cry than a teacher or cafeteria person requiring them to eat something; you are saying if you (or your child) can’t handle it, no one should have it. When I think of the number of things someone somewhere may be allergic to? Ridiculous!!
At my daughter’s school, we have 2 students with life threatening allergies to peanuts. They asked is to make sure our kids do not bring anything with peanuts to school and and no shared snacks from facilities that also process nuts. My daughter loves peanut butter, so I just swapped out peanut butter with sunflower seed butter. She’s happy and her classmates are safe. Kids in other classrooms and different grades don’t have restrictions. Only those that have a high probability of contact with allergic students. I’ve. Been grateful for heir efforts to protect students while being as fair as possible. The biggest issue I had was with snack week. Snacks have to cone from the store. I made some nutritious oatmeal cookies and try were sent home. Then I sent fresh fruit from the farm where we get all our food and that was sent back. If I bought and cut up fruit from the store it would be OK. But fresh organic fruit from our farm share is not. Crazy! I also mentioned I did not want my daughter to use the hand Sanitizer or the antibacterial soap and sent some Washy Wafers to school with her. I sent several unscented packages for theekids to use figuring it would be mess free. They were sent home because soap has to be approved by the school district. They did let my daughter keep a package of soap in her desk for personal use, but she’s not allowed to share! And don’t get me started on popcorn Fridays!
I read the article and was very upset because the government took control of the lunch the mom made, which to me is healthy, and then they charge her for the lunch. Chicken nuggets, really! That’s more nutritious than the lunch the mom made her?
I just read this in another feed, and am floored…when will the revolution begin, this is disgusting….
My son was told he had to eat what he was given, when he was in preschool. He told them he didn’t LIKE egg salad. They made him eat it anyway. He threw up on the teacher. Solved that problem. I’m so grateful I homeschool no and don’t have to deal with this crap!
What would have happened if this child had a severe allergic reaction to what was given her??? They’re lucky she didn’t. But I still thnk a lawsuit is warranted.
Agreed. I hate all the out of control litigation, but it might be the only thing that curbs this kind of behavior.
Wow! That state employee needs some nutrition education. Chicken nuggets aren’t considered healthy by pc nutritional guidelines. But then that is always what I found amazing about Jamie Oliver’s tv programme in the U.S. The state officals over the schools always seem to refuse to admit that school dinners in the U.S have no nutritional value what so ever. At least in the U.K they were willing to admit the kids were getting fed rubbish.
Sorry I lost it. We do have a constitution, and we do have rights. Time to contact our representatives, and ask them to enforce one of the most basic human rights, the right to choose food for our children. No government program should go this far.
Actually, we keep confusing ‘government’ for ‘corporate’. We have no government anymore.
Indeed, they are one and the same.
This brings to mind that paraphrased Thomas Jefferson quote:
If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.
I sure understand how you feel. But if enough people raise hell with their representatives, they will still back off.. This happened recently when seven million people protested a bill that would have thrown internet freedom under the bus. Of course, a number of large corporations were also opposed to that bill.