I am appalled that schools are commenting on the proper food for children to bring to school for lunch. I think parents know best what lunch to send for their child. Every time I hear of this happening, the person doing the judging has no professional training about what is nutritious. More importantly, the person has no idea what the child will eat and what the child will not eat.
Most importantly, the person has no idea what the child had for breakfast, or after-school snack, or dinner. I tried to balance nutrition over the whole day, not dividing up the nutrients for each eating occasion. I did try not to be all carbs one day and fruit the next.
Some days, my children wanted school lunches. Other days, they insisted on a lunch from home. One little boy traded all his food for sour kraut. My son knew on kraut day, his best friend would give him a cookie for his kraut. Teachers did not take the extra cookie from my child. No one worried one little boy ate nothing but kraut and many servings! I wonder if schools monitor these trades now.
When I made lunches, you had better believe I was taking orders since no two of the three liked the same thing on a sandwich I was making. Okay, maybe they did once in a while. I had rather they take a pbj sandwich than a balanced, nutritious lunch from the cafeteria that they would not eat.
Since my youngest was a very good little girl in the lunchroom, certainly no one was watching out for her when she only had a bagful of cookies for lunch! After school in the car, she asked me very sadly why she "only had cookies for lunch". Well, I sent her a turkey sandwich and a piece of pumpkin pie for snack. I think she had grapes, too, that day--the day after Thanksgiving vacation. The teacher did not notice her eating cookies. Obviously, back then there was no monitoring for bad lunches.
She showed me the cookies in the car. I turned around and went right back to school and found her post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich that I thought might be too warm for too long for her to eat. The dog got that sandwich. I was upset for my child's lack of a proper lunch and really sad because she was so sad not to have a good lunch. She knew better!
I have sent sausage balls for part of the lunch. After all, this is milk and a sausage biscuit in a different form, more of a party form, but the ingredients are the same. My children loved to take a hamburger I had grilled the night before when we had them for dinner. I wonder if it would be shamed now.
When my mother sent us a pineapple sandwich, we also had a boiled egg. I wonder if my lunches as a child would have been okay with the present-day lunch monitors. ???
This article is about a high school girl who was told in front of the class and by an aide with no training that she had too much food. I thought it was a rather good lunch. The fat content and calorie count was not high. This school examines all lunches from home. I think that is rather invasive! I would object!
I rather like the puzzle sandwich.
Your turn
Do you know of schools that check all lunches and monitor, sending home notes or shaming children in front of the class? Did you ever send a lunch long ago that might not pass muster today? Did your mother ever send a lunch for you that might not be okay today?
My son was homeschooled until senior year, but if his lunch had been rejected, I would have pulled him from school. I have raised a boy with food allergies who eats gf grain, dairy, protein, veg and fruit. I did not make a mistake. They should defer to loving parents.
ReplyDeletePatti,
DeleteThen, they have the burden of determining who is the "loving parent." As long as people don't send sodas and candy, what does it matter? They should defer but prefer to judge and control. It's ridiculous. You would be correct to remove him from school. I hate it when people question eating choices, mine or anyone's.
I don't think our school system "examines" lunches, however there is the occasional child that only has a bag of chips in his lunchbox and the teacher will bring them up to us to get a full meal. Sometimes kids will eat their sandwich at snack time and not have it for lunch time. We do not encourage sharing because of food allergies. We have some kids that can't have anything with nuts, or soy, eggs, dairy, etc. We even have a child allergic to chicken and we often have to make him a separate entree. Now we have a special needs child that needs to have her food pureed. So, we really go the extra mile to accommodate our kids.
ReplyDeleteLorraine,
DeleteI would bet that child with chips packed his own lunch. My children often were hungry at snack time and ate a lot. I had to pack more food, sometimes even a sandwich for snack and one for lunch. Allergic to chicken? Wow! The one child I knew that needed pureed food brought it from home. Of course, there may have been other issues and the parent wanted to make sure of the food. I wonder now.
Special needs children often qualify for free or reduced lunch, so we have to do whatever is necessary to accommodate their specific needs. If it was a private school that was not getting funding from the government, then they could probably do or not do whatever they wanted.
DeleteLorraine,
DeleteThat may be the case here, too. However, I think these parents would puree the child's lunch even if they could get it done at school. Come to think of it, they sent baby food for him. I had forgotten that until just now.
My kids rarely packed their lunch- they ate the school lunch or sometimes in HS waited until they got home. Who does the policing? Any school cafeteria I've been is was loud and chaotic!
ReplyDeleteNAN,
DeleteI don't think there is a cohesive code. It appears this was in the classroom.
Linda, when I saw your headline I thought you were referring to the practice of taking lunch from kids who had delinquent accounts. I know those stories will be coming. As long as a child has something to eat it really is not their business. I loved the sauerkraut story, of all things!
ReplyDeletecarol,
DeleteI really cringe when I hear a child has had lunch taken away and THEN thrown in the garbage. None of my children like sauerkraut. It's probably an allergy thing as I am allergic to it. Every time I cringed when son said he ate a whole plateful of kraut.
I have seen a lot of that here. My friend made healthy cookies for her son to take to school. The teacher threw them in the trash and sent a note home to the Mom. I would not send mt kids to that kind of school.
DeleteBarbara,
DeleteI am appalled a school would throw out food. At least, feed it to a dog or something. There would have been repercussions if that happened to my child! How dare they? Are we on the verge of major judging of our movements and motives by people who like the power? Thanks for sharing that! The teacher would have been thoroughly questioned about the nutrient contents to show she made an informed decision, not just a knee-jerk reaction to "cookies."
I understand the need for nutrition, and I fully supported attempts at the federal level to encourage healthy eating. My concern is frankly, with these kind of idiots, that it may sometimes be all m om and dad can afford, so you are shaming doubly.
ReplyDeleteBarbara,
DeleteChildren feel the shame doubly when they know the parents have no more to spend on lunch. I encouraged good nutrition and supported it. However, putting something nutritious that a kid will actually eat in a lunch can be difficult sometimes. I am against the govt getting into my lunch business. How can it go?
The federal govt should stop at educating people and making sure things like catsup is not listed as a vegetable. Probing lunches is beyond what I can accept.
Today I sat next to one of the special needs adults where I volunteer. She had peanut butter which she dipped with chocolate chip cookies. Good for her!
ReplyDeleteAnne,
DeleteIt sounds great to me! I am glad there is no one to chide her about choices.
Seems like a tempest in a teaspoon to me. It's one unverified report of a single incident with few details, and from the language it sounds like it happened in the UK. A third-hand report of one person's comments doesn't indicate policy to me.
ReplyDelete