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
I cannot find the original story anywhere. Has it been removed? All I can find, doing a thorough search, is commentary…. Thanks for bringing this up.
Remember, a lot of these “rules” from alphabet agencies are not laws enacted by elected officials. What’s to prevent one of them from deciding that there should be in-home nutritional inspections for homeschoolers? That’s where this mindset eventually leads. No conspiracy necessary. It’s just a continuation of the path we’ve been on for a long time.
Whether intentional on the part of bureaucratic busy bodies or not, what things like this teach children is: your parents do not know what is best for you, and are not the authority in you life – the state is.
So, I’m wondering if the school gets a bonus or some kind of bigger discount on the food, the more that kids purchase. Because why else would they be forcing kids to eat the school food? They don’t care about the child’s well being on nutrition or else they would be encouraging more kids to bring in there lunch from home. Or the other side of this is, it just goes to show how uniform people are to whatever the government says or thinks. Brainwashed into thinking a certain way based upon what other people “say” rather than research themselves to find out what they are serving in schools isn’t really food at all. This is not right and if it we’re me, I would go into the school and give them a piece of my mind, and probably some research to read as well
@ Kristy- I write a column for my local paper and I dipped my toe into the very subject you suggest. There are kick backs out there in this industry and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this is why the government insists on our kids eating crap. The corporate take over of America becomes more frighening by the day! Here’s my column if you want to take a gander…..
They do. The USDA reimburses the school for the number of children that they feed. My theory is that the school doesn’t use all the money for making good nutritional choices, so they can make a profit on the extra money that’s given. I think in most cases, people just don’t have a clue about nutrition, and these are the ones choosing the school menu. It’s not just the USDA’s fault, but I think there’s pressure from the higher-ups at schools to get more children eating the school lunch. More kids eating the lunch = higher numbers reported to the USDA = more money for the school.
I haven’t had time to read all the comments yet, but if someone else mentioned this already, sorry! Now, I’m NOT supporting vegetarianism, but what would happen to the lunchbox of a child who is being raised vegetarian or, worse yet, vegan?? I wonder if Uncle Sammy Boy has thought outside THAT box. Prolly not. But it will happen. And if it were to happen with the child of a very wealthy family (think Steve Jobs, not that his kids went to public schools – they probably didn’t but stay with me here) who dcided to file charges against the school. A scenario like that might just be a ticket out of this *infringement of our rights* mess. Schools are now able to waaaaay overstep the bounds of common decency in letting parents be parents. And then our gubbment wonders why the parents take no responsibility? It’s a double-edged sword we’ve got here folks. The really sad part is that’s true with more than just foods. Our schools want to control our children in lots of ways that is really none of their business. Vaccinations, sending them to a “doctor” for a supposed hyperactivity disorder (which 99% of them don’t have anyhow), teachers who monitor (and write down) how often a child asks to use the bathroom and then tells the parents they should take him/her to a doctor because the kid might be diabetic because he pees too much (that happened to us back in 1993 or so with our youngest). I told her he pees a lot because he drinks lots of water from home (filtered) and it’s a good thing – she went totally blank as if she didn’t understand the concept.
It’s scary. No wonder homeschooling is becoming very necessary, not just fashionable.
A much preferable solution than litigation. I have hope that things can change through more effort and less legal action.
Thank you Zoya and joD! Schools were meant to be a reflection of the community. We need work to take them back and make them better, not sit back and watch them fall and then sue.
i’ve been saying this for years.. we have no freedom.. the answer to this is not home school… the answer is a revolution.. its this type of regulation, corruption, interference and lack of freedoms that led to the revolution in the first place.. this is about so much more than food.. it is a global grab for power and its about keeping the top at the top and the dumbed down idiot masses at the bottom.. but i better be careful.. with the passing of the NDAA, the government can arrest and hold me forever without cause or any trial, just because they see me as a threat.. well whats to stop them from holding me because they dont like my opinions; or my eye color?? just like the food safety bill, it is sold to the people with safety as the punch line, but it has nothing at all to do with that.. its about control and the money funnel that runs to the top.. people have got to unite on things like this.. nobody worried about hitler at first.. good people stood by and did nothing and what started small almost took over the world.. i’ll ask again, how many people have to jump off of the cliff in front of you before YOU decide to step out of line??
as always, fed up…
-jason and lisa-
I agree Jason and Lisa……. you nailed it on the head….
Heartening that other people see the big picture. Nobody is interested around me. When I try to spell out what’s going on and the SCALE of it — yawn. Must be why it’s business as usual and the crimes keep layering and the freedoms keep withering.
how about having another real tea party? let’s dump the forced school lunch into the harbor.
Good grief.
This isn’t just about opting to homeschool. This is about our rights as parents and choosing what to feed our kids being taken away. And they are doing it slowly so we slowly get use to it. It’s wrong!!! People should not have to choose to homeschool just so they can keep their freedoms and the ability to raise their kids and feed them what they want.
I think you all are missing the bare bottom unspoken assumptions here. All of you (me included!) responding to this post (and article) have an underlying bedrock belief/assumption that your children are YOURS. Therefore you get outraged that your “rights” are being ignored and trampled. What you don’t realize is that Big Brother does not share your core belief. They are fully convinced that children belong to the government and that parents are only temporary caretakers and have no say as to how the governments children should be raised. In their view, they are the “parents” and we are little more than temporary babysitters. This is BEYOND outrageous!!!!! If we are ever to change this course of behavior, we need to go back and bring awareness / change to peoples’ underlying assumptions.
Yes, I agree. We need a Parental Rights Bill passed and we need it yesterday.
Isn’t the Canary Party acting on this?
http://www.canaryparty.org
There is a group out there trying to pass one right now. We need to talk more about it. http://www.parentalrights.org.
Yes, Kate you beat me to it. Everyone please contact your representatives about the parentalrights.org bill! Its gaining support and we have to keep it going.