Ban on homemade lunches at school!! N/C

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Doc

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I can't believe some of the things that they "outlawing" at different schools.


Chicago school bans homemade lunches, the latest in national food fight
By Liz Goodwin
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EmailPrint..By Liz Goodwin liz Goodwin – Mon Apr 11, 12:29 pm ET


Students who attend Chicago's Little Village Academy public school get nothing but nutritional tough love during their lunch period each day. The students can either eat the cafeteria food--or go hungry. Only students with allergies are allowed to bring a homemade lunch to school, the Chicago Tribune reports.

"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," principal Elsa Carmona told the paper of the years-old policy. "It's about ... the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke."

But students said they would rather bring their own lunch to school in the time-honored tradition of the brown paper bag. "They're afraid that we'll all bring in greasy food instead of healthy food and it won't be as good as what they give us at school," student Yesenia Gutierrez told the paper. "It's really lame."

The story has attracted hundreds of comments so far. One commenter, who says her children attend a different Chicago public school, writes, "I can accept if they want to ban soda, but to tell me I can't send a lunch with my child. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????"


For parents whose kids do not qualify for free or reduced price school lunches, the $2.25 daily cafeteria price can also tally more than a homemade lunch. "We don't spend anywhere close to that on my son's daily intake of a sandwich (lovingly cut into the shape of a Star Wars ship), Goldfish crackers and milk," Northwestern education policy professor Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach told the paper in an email. She told The Lookout parents at her child's public school would be upset if they tried to ban homemade lunches.

"I think that lots of parents at least at my child's school do think that what they pack is more nutritious [than school lunches]," she said.  A Chicago public school teacher started a blog to protest the city's school lunches, and last year the schools tightened their nutrition standards for cafeteria-served school lunches. Every lunch must contain whole grains, only reduced-fat salad dressings and mayonnaise are offered as condiments, and the meals must feature a different vegetable each day. Meal providers also must reduce sodium content by 5 percent annually. About 86 percent of the district's students qualify for free or reduced price school lunches because their families live close to the poverty line.

Change in Chicago's school cafeterias feeds into a larger effort to combat the country's childhood obesity epidemic. About a third of America's kids are overweight or obese, and since children consume at least 30 percent of their calories while in school, making lunches healthier is seen as one way to counter that problem. Poorer kids are also more likely to be obese or overweight than middle class kids, and to consume a bigger proportion of their calories while at school. Forty-four percent of American kids living below the poverty line are obese or overweight, according to a 2010 study published in Health Affairs.

While we haven't been able to track down another school that bans homemade lunches outright, many smaller food battles have been playing out in cafeterias across the country. As principals try to counter obesity in their schools, healthy intentions can come across as overreach, occasionally sparking parent and student anger.

Alabama parents protested a school's rule that barred students from bringing any drinks from home, as ice water was provided at lunch. East Syracuse, New York schools have outlawed cupcakes and other desserts. And schools around the country have kicked out chocolate milk and soda vending machines. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin even showed up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with dozens of cookies to express her disdain for a debate in the state about recommending teachers limit the number of times per month the sugary treats are eaten in classroom birthday celebrations.

Tucson, Arizona's Children's Success Academy allows home-packed lunches--but only if nothing in them contains white flour, refined sugar, or other "processed" foods, the Arizona Republic reported in a story last year. The school has no cafeteria, so some parents told the paper they struggled to find foods to pack that meet the restrictions. Many schools ban fast food or other take-out meals.

Soon, cafeteria offerings across the country will all be healthier, whether students like it or not. Last year's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, calls for higher nutritional standards to serve the 32 million kids who eat lunch every day at school (most of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches through a federal government program). For the first time, the USDA will set calorie limits for school lunches, and will recommend they contain more vegetables and whole grains, and less salt, USA Today reports. French fries should be replaced by vegetables and fruit, the guidelines say.

The bill also calls for stricter food safety checks on cafeteria food.

 

knabe

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why not just outlaw parents.

prospective parents should have to get a license to be fertility enabled.

think of the revenue.  one could charge them and not turn on fertility.
 

JWW

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as a student that regularly played athletic in all of school, the lunches are no where nears the requirement for a student athlete... they call them "healthy" because they blatantly lack any amount of volume and calories and are balanced... i was raised on 3# packages of burger from our own beef and it barely lasted a meal with my family of 5 ... and for a school lunch to fill me up took about 2 or 3 ( so 2.75 x 2 meals = $5.50). it was nice we had open campus and could go up town to eatand the pizza buffet was $5 -- no brainer  ( i weighed about 200# and 6'3 in high school and was pretty thin anyway) - for football games on Friday mom would cook my brother and i burgers and bring them in for lunch ...
this sounds like the administration is a getting a kickback of some kind.. JMO that there was never a more nutritious meal at my school than what i could get at home


JWW
 

JbarL

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arernt these elected school officals ( school boards and such) that are the ones calling the shots here ??....like most school districts with there own  politics..........cronieism...and greed....its the ole squeeky wheel theroy.... with those in the wheel getting greased.....one mans nutritional values and views on school lunch for  his kds ....is just aonther school  board members cash flow....ironic these people  are elected....then promot administroators in between to carry there water...and justify there means with something like this.....jbarl
 

justme

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more kids eatting school lunches=more $ for the schools.  In turn means more kids turn in the paperwork for free or reduced lunch which also means more $ for the schools.  My kids mark the school menu at the beginning of each month so we can plan when they are packing and buying.  My kids would starve by the time they got home at 4:30 off the bus if they weren't able to pack there lunches on days they do not like the schools menu.  It even ticks me off that I pay for a lunch and if they don't eat this or that they can't touch the rest of there lunch.  I paid for it, let them eat what they like.  It makes me sick to see kids throwing away parts of there lunches that they would eat, but can't because they don't like what they are served.

I sub at the area schools.  They can't be meeting the nutritional requirements.  Since when does taco meat (which is nasty and looks and possibly tastes like cat food) a bag a fritos, a cookie, and a milk meet the guidelines?  I know I'm old but what happened to the lunch ladies actually cooking?  Everything our cafeteria gets is premade even the occassional chef salad (they don't even boil the eggs for it).  You'd think the sodium levels would be terrible in these foods.

I think its time to let us parents be the parents....  Ok off my soap box and quit preachin' lol
 

frostback

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I think its time to let us parents be the parents....  Ok off my soap box and quit preachin' lol
[/quote]



You hit the nail right on the head Justme  [size=10pt]BUT[/size]

These are inner city kids. I think they are being sent to school to be raised not educated. Not saying I agree with the decission but again this is the place where childhood obisity is raging out of control. Maybe trying something new is a good thing.
 

linnettejane

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when my daughter was in preschool, i was not allowed to pack her lunch, she had to eat whatever they were serving in the cafeteria...reason i was told, because i might actually pack something in her lunch that was better than what the rest of the kids had to eat...yeah...for real...and that wasnt fair to them...that and they said it would help her to try new foods (she is a very picky eater)...well needless to say, one year later after eating school lunch that whole time, she didnt eat any new foods...and was usually hungery as can be by the time she got home

shes in a new school this year and i love it...i pack her lunch everyday and if there is something she likes in the lunch line that they are having, she can get it, not a whole tray, just whatever she wants...for example, she can eat her weight in corn, but wont eat the other stuff they usually fix with it, so for $.50 she can go thru the lunch line and get her a bowl of corn and she doesnt have to get the chicken nuggets...its really less wasteful this way...she can even go back for 2nd and 3rds...which she usually does on chili day...
 

SeannyT

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I don't think this is the way to go. The issue of affordability to some families comes to mind, as well as defeating the purpose by going hungry for others. To get healthier children don't target mandatory lunches but rather change vending machines to healthier options. Also, kinda touching on what JWW mentioned, try making phys ed or sports mandatory before making meals mandatory. Just my opinion-the healthy options in the vending machines worked for my school.
 

knabe

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the issue isn't the food.

it's control and lack of consequences.

it's the same old subsidize failure and penalize success.

kids are able to figure this out at an early age.  adults for some reason have a problem with this.
 

ba

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Boy I am on a roll tonight! Local school got on this health kick was trying to take cookies from the kids that brought thier lunch.


                          IF YOU THINK YOUCAN TAKE MY COOKIES GIVE IT YOUR BEST TRY
 

knabe

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ba said:
Local school got on this health kick was trying to take cookies from the kids that brought thier lunch.

wrong. they got on a control kick.  hitler would be proud.  maybe brown shirts are next.
 

kanshow

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That is crazy! 

It really doesn't matter how much they try to control... the kids will still figure out a way around it.    My overweight nephew is one example...    He went almost half a semester eating 3 breakfasts and 2 lunchs.  It wasn't until his lunch money for the semester ran out that it was caught.    He was eating breakfast at home, and then because his parents both worked early, he'd get dropped off at grandma's til the bus came.  Grandma would feed him breakfast and then often pack him lunch because he didn't care for what they were serving.    So then when he got off the school bus, he'd go in to eat breakfast at school.      He would then eat the school lunch and at some point eat his packed lunch...   
 

JbarL

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knabe said:
ba said:
Local school got on this health kick was trying to take cookies from the kids that brought thier lunch.

wrong. they got on a control kick.  hitler would be proud.  maybe brown shirts are next.


i was lucky enough to travel to s. africa in 99....a  month of a lifetime.....in school,.unifroms are mandatory ( with hat for ladies) from k-12....all the same...continuing education format , 12 month school year with intermittant "holiday" periods of time off, slower students remain at there speed and level and the rest move on between holidays.........no band...no football.no golf or wrestling..no chour..no cheerleading...  .there is plenty of football..musical arts and drama groups, golf, wrestling with very talented kids...but it is all  aside from anything to do with the school system...nothing...nada...school is comoletely dedicated to education, and charactere building......uniforms or not...it seems to work elsewhere.....teachers here  know it too...control is what weve lost....educate em/feed em/ educate em somemore/send em' home......jbarl
 

chambero

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This gets forced on school districts from state boards of education.  You also wouldn't believe how ridiculous daycares/babysitters are regulated.

In our school, you can't send homeade cookies to parties - only deserts bought in a store - the super high sugar cookies are allowed.

I'm all in favor of a major book burning involving all parenting and marriage counseling books (slightly off topic).  There are quite a few young mothers in my office (20 somethings).  One that works for me refused to ever let her infant son cry, always handed him everything, etc.  The kid has issues because he never developed muscles to stand, crawl, walk, etc because he didn't have to.  Another girl in my office got married a few years ago.  Two weeks after getting married, I noticed a book laying on her desk entitled "How to Relight the Fire in Your Marriage".  Really?

I don't care what anyone says, dirt is good for kids.  And if you let kids play in the dirt, you don't have to worry about them getting fat from sitting down all the time.  Food ain't the problem for kids (or adults for that matter) - its lack of physical activity. 
 

kidsandkows

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I totally agree with knabe, it is about control! For whatever reason, there are many reasons they might want control probably financial or political. But it is truly sad to hear something like this.I am generally not an in your face type person, but lately I am starting to believe that if some of us don't start speaking up we are going to be sorry. Its really hard, because I am usually a keep to myself person, but we all need to start talking to our elected officials and get involved. My guess is most of you already do. But this is something I am going to make a better effort to do.
 

knabe

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in general, a higher percentage of liberals than conservatives are in your face.

but, maybe it's different in CA

as long as it's someone else's money, they feel more empowered to do with it as they see fit.

of course there's the fake conservatives who are actually liberals who take subsidies, tax breaks etc.

on the other hand, any subsidy a conservative gets is a subsidy a liberal doesn't get.
 
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