Posted on 02/15/2012 7:20:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The nanny state tramples on parental prerogatives over kids 'diets' stories are irresistible blog fodder, arguably even tastier than the legendary 'dubious taser use by police' viral vids. Remember last year when a Chicago school flatly forbade kids from bringing in homepacked lunches? A school in North Carolina has a different approach: You can bring the lunch mom packed for you, but if it doesn’t meet the USDA guidelines, you’ll be marched to the cafeteria to eat a “healthy” lunch instead — and mom will be billed for the extra expense.
The punchline? Mom’s lunch actually did meet the guidelines in this case.
The girl’s mother — who said she wishes to remain anonymous to protect her daughter from retaliation — said she received a note from the school stating that students who did not bring a “healthy lunch” would be offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the cafeteria, in her case $1.25…
“What got me so mad is, number one, don’t tell my kid I’m not packing her lunch box properly,” the girl’s mother told CJ. “I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn’t really care for vegetables.”
When the girl came home with her lunch untouched, her mother wanted to know what she ate instead. Three chicken nuggets, the girl answered. Everything else on her cafeteria tray went to waste.
“She came home with her whole sandwich I had packed, because she chose to eat the nuggets on the lunch tray, because they put it in front of her,” her mother said. “You’re telling a 4-year-old. ‘oh. you’re lunch isn’t right,’ and she’s thinking there’s something wrong with her food.”
Watch the Fox News clip below to see how the mother’s lunch measured up to the USDA guidelines. Ready for another punchline? When the school forces a “healthy” lunch on a kid, it doesn’t take away the lunch that mom packed. The child could, if he/she is hungry enough, presumably eat both, which is an … interesting strategy for reducing child obesity. And of course, the final punchline: The little girl in this case still didn’t end up eating any vegetables despite having two lunches in front of her, which, of course, is why mom didn’t bother packing any veggies in the first place. So we end up not only with a bunch of wasted food but with a kid who didn’t get the basic nutrition that her mother’s own meal would have provided her. Perfecto.
Said the girl’s grandmother, “This isn’t China, is it?” The Civitas Institute notes that this is a nationwide practice based on federal guidelines, but I’m as surprised to learn that as the “shocked” North Carolina state rep whom they contacted for comment. Question for our readers with kids in public schools: Has your child ever been hassled before over the lunch you’ve packed for them? I assume these guidelines are very loosely enforced, precisely because parents get angry when the state starts micromanaging their kids’ diets.
If we went ahead and banned Happy Meals and pulled potatoes out of school cafeterias and regulated sugar like it’s cocaine or something we might not have these problems, you know. Two clips here, one from Fox and the other via Breitbart TV of a school official in Michigan reminding parents that they do not, in fact, know best.
Update: I replaced the Michigan video with a version from the MRC.
It’s not food that’s making our kids obese, it’s video games, computers, Television, MP3 players and smartphones...........
1) There's no constitutional authority for the federal government to be involved in what children eat for lunch.
2) It also defies common sense. Does it really make sense to have someone in Washington DC determining what is a proper lunch for a child in say, Oregon--3000 miles away? Isn't there some limit to micro-managing our lives?
Education official Debbie Squires in the MRC video looks like she needs somebody more knowledgable to plan HER lunches.
Bump
I wonder if Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity program has any relation to this...
RE: It’s not food that’s making our kids obese, it’s video games, computers, Television, MP3 players and smartphones...........
OK, the government should regulate those too /s
Since it is a federal program, I would definitely think it is related.
If my child went to that particular school, the next lunch would of been a Five Guys hamburger, fries, Little Debbie snacks, a Chocolate shake, a picture of a park they play at/burn calories, and a copy of the Constitution.
I think it goes beyond mere federal government involvement. I believe there’s a 4th Amendment violation in that it is an illegal search and seizure. I pray for the day these storm troopers are behind bars. sd
Roger that. If that had been my kid treated like that I would have been with her the next day and every day thereafter as long as it took to be sure she never got humiliated by some “adult” punk at that school again. They would not like me having lunch with my kid in that cafeteria.
My son once misplaced/lost/had stolen his 6th grade math book. When he asked the substitute teacher for help in obtaining a replacement, she told him he’d have to wait until the regular teacher (on extended medical leave due to a double mastectomy) returned. He damned sure didn’t wait that long. I wasn’t carrying a black flag or a knife, but they were lucky they couldn’t look into my soul at that point. I hate “adults” that bully children.
This kind of action from the government is a natural continuation of existing government health policy.
Instead of just providing information, government attempts to modify what it sees as risky behavior to a more healthy one.
The government has already be given the green light to do this w/smoking by heavy taxation, and regulation, such as prohibiting it in bars. It is even prohibited in open air in some places now, like beaches, or NYC’s sidewalk and park ban.
So don’t be surprised as government begins to tackle obesity. Heart disease is, after all, the number one killer. Much more than smoking related illnesses.
So if it’s ok for the government to try to keep people from smoking, it’s ok for them to try to keep people from bad eating habits with methods such as this article describes or with a soda tax.
What if they found cigarettes in that lunchbox? No problem w/the state stepping in in that case right?
I prefer that this kind of thing be dealt w/with the parents, not the state. But enough people have already allowed the state to step in for our own protection.
this smacks of agency toads trying to ingratiate themselves with the moochs’ signature cause
her manicured fingertips are ALL over this
intrusive insanity - not to mention sending parents the bill for the unconstitutionally mandated intrusion
(wonder how many empty calories mooch and barry enjoyed last night over valentine dinner of lobster tortellini and chocolate truffles .. did the kids stay home and enjoy pink-slime-chicken nuggets?)
Had this been my child said food inspector would have found out what chicken nuggets taste like after they’ve been “recycled.”
My Gawd, Man... we should be stampeding our representatives and blasting them... this goes way beyond the mandates of the Fed Gov... I will be blast my MO reps today!!!
I’d teach my 4-year old to say “Do you have properly executed search warrant?”
And if they won’t allow for them to be put behind bars,
they’ll be decorating lampposts.
The JFK quote comes to mind -
When you make non-violent change impossible,
you make violent revolution inevitable.
Just one more way that government schools resemble prisons.
Prisoners get state issued institutional food. Now kids get state issued institutional food.
The entire **goal** of government schooling is, and always has been, to produce compliant and docile prisoners of the state.
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