School “lunch inspector” replaces child’s healthy lunch with “nuggets,” bills mother
They have a “lunch inspector,” but they’re a few fries short of a happy meal. A North Carolina mother was perturbed when she learned that the healthy lunch she packed for her 4-year old was replaced by cafeteria food, most of which the child wouldn’t eat.
Carolina Journal Online reports,
A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.
The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day.
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.
When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones.
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.
Did anyone miss the obvious (besides the state bureaucrat)? Not only was the move intrusive and arrogant, it was wrong.
Turkey = 1 serving of meat
Cheese = 1 serving dairy
Bread = 1 serving of grain
Apple juice + banana = 2 servings of fruit
But hey, I admit, I am no certified lunch inspector.
The mother was admirably miffed:
“What got me so mad is, number one, don’t tell my kid I’m not packing her lunch box properly,” . . .
“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. . . . 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.”
A state bureaucrat reviewed the situation and decided the answer to the first bureaucrat’s misjudgment was for the bureaucracy to get more involved: “It sounds like maybe a technical assistance need for that school.”
Fox News covered the story with Megan Kelley arguing that “the point” is “get outta my kid’s lunch bag. I’ll decide. . . .”
I have another suggestion: the “point” is, quit trusting your kids to tax-funded bureaucrats in loco parentis and then complaining when that person usurps the role of the parent. There’s only one way to ensure your parenting decisions are honored, and that is be there yourself.
Continue Reading on www.carolinajournal.com
A State worker? But, they're on crack! I know; I've seent them.
This what happens when you let incompetence receive more than minimum wage. I think parents are really going to have to seek alternative education avenues. Either Charter, private, or homeschool. It's that or this. The question for most parents would be – is what your doing during the day really helping your child while he/she is at school? It's not just the alternative education, but maybe a different lifestyle for your child's sake.
The dang gov’t needs to get it’s big fat face out of our kids lunches ! And out of our lives ! This is becoming a communist country ! Remember Ronnie?? (reagan) he knew even then !
Well, then stop depending on the government. Get your kids out of that school. They're only doing it because you're depending on them.
What a bunch of BS. This is totally misleading. First of all, it happened at a daycare, not a public school. And of course Fox spun it – they lean right. And American Vision, like Fox, is funded by the fear-mongering right.
With all of the funding cuts, there is now way public schools can afford to have a "lunch inspector". Please.
When you read stories like these on "news sources" such as this, I think it's important to know where your news is coming from – and who funds it.
Nancy-West Hoke Elementary sure sounds like a public school. If not, then who authorized an incursion like this in a PRIVATE business?
Poor Nancy. You just cannot bring yourself to accept what are facts. No one spun this. It is a government school (West Hoke Elementary School). About Fx, SOMEBODY HAD BETTER FEAR-monger. Our children belong to us NOT the state and definitely no bureaucrat from any level of government is to be usurping our authority as parents.
This is what happens when the citizens let things slide and believe it is for the "good of the people"…Planned Parenthood is a great example. I cannot tell you how livid and violated I felt when my daughters told me, years after graduating HS that they could get the pill from this disgusting, usurping, pocket lining slime.
Should they have contracted a disease or become pregnant, would the state then take care of the situation…or is the parent responsible for any disease contracted at the subtle urgings of a parasitical group such as this. No, why don't you start varying your news sources? I recall CNN reporting on the Tea Party very early on…they panned in on someone having a holster and gun..only that area of the body. Later, Fox showed the same picture and then panned up…what do you think we saw? A Security guard.
Have you seen how chicken nuggets are made ,what they look like before they get BLEACHED? "Soilent Pink" anyone,stuff is made @ rendering plants by illegal aliens.
Twenty-five years ago, I would have bet the ranch that this situation would never happen.
What is going on in America? Get the government out of our personal lives because the people involved are liberal idiots without an ounce of sense, common or otherwise.
West Hoke Elementary School a daycare? It was a pre-school program at a public school. The school didn't hire a lunch inspector, it was one employed by the state…despite receiving state funds, school employees are considered employees of the local district, not the state.
So yes, the government is intruding on this parent's right to feed her child as she sees fit. However, I would say that any parent who hands her 4 year old child over to people who are essentially strangers for an entire day has given up all her rights anyway. The schools legally become the "parent" from the moment your child enters the school and you have NO legal rights regarding decisions affecting your child. I wish more people would realize this and take their children out of public schools.
Take our children out of public schools…and the Chinese will continue to laugh at us! They are prepping their kids to "take over" in terms of skill sets. They are investing heavily in science and technology…and we want to PULL our kids out of public schools – where higher level sciences are taught in lab settings? They start kids in "public" schools at 3! They learn a second language – English – starting in kindergarten. They learn to work in groups from a very young age – without the help of mommy or daddy. I'm not saying that homeschooling is wrong…but to think that it is the panacea for issues like this teaches children one thing – don't work together to solve community problems and to run away from anything that "scares" you.
People don't agree, people have different views. I for one will not teach my kids to run away from it. Instead, I will teach mine to stand up to it, research the problem and come up with a better solution that will benefit everyone.
My husband is a public school teacher, and we homeschool our children. The idea that homeschool children are limited in what they study compared to public schools is laughable. Even in our rural area, there is a college professor who teaches science classes to homeschooled children. As we know what is being taught at the public school, the homeschooled children here are are more advanced in science knowledge and comprehension. They even have access to better equipped labs!
My husband is very aware of the difference in vocabulary, language usage and reading comprehension between our children and the children he sees at school. My children laugh that someone as old as 10 might find "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" enjoyable. My 8 year old chose to read "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma" for pleasure, they were not assigned.
It's not the curriculum at school that is failing, it is the culture present among the children. Peer orientation reigns and academic achievement will never be the top priority for the majority of children in public schools.
We didn't "run away" from something that scared us, we pulled our children out and "ran to" a method of teaching that sincerely has the best interest of each child as a priority. We didn't want our children limited academically (there is nothing that we refuse teach, unlike public schools) and so we teach them outside of the walls of a government institution.
Schools have to make decisions based on the majority or what works best for the system. No one but a parent will do what is best for his or her child no matter what personal sacrifice is required.
Erin – I never said that homeschooling is wrong. But to home school because of "fear" is wrong. Please don't misunderstand me. You are doing it for the right reasons (especially the religious part – I agree!) – yet so many do it for the wrong ones. I have seen it! I know a family who yanked their child out of our public school who were then homeschooled (because of fear of middle school "culture" – they were afraid of it!) Do you know what happened? She felll behind – and then when the parent became "overwhelmed" and put her back in public school as she entered HS, she had a lot of catching up to do skill wise.
You have a public school teacher in your home! You know available resources and probably have a "research" mentality. So many parents simply don't. They do it for the wrong reasons.
Personally, I would rather see parents QUESTION the teacher and school system as to why they DON'T encourage kids to read "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma" for pleasure. Why DON'T our school systems raise the bar? When I send my children to my local school (which is outstanding), I plan on being very involved in my child's education.
I also hope that your husband sets a very high standard for his students and works within the system to challenge some of the low standards he sees.
Nancy, I appreciate your experiences as I have seen it, too. I would say it is the exception rather than the rule.
Again, our local school doesn't have "low standards". It is a fairly wealthy district, an excellent school with tremendous parental involvement. And yes, my husband does challenge his classes. He is a good teacher, most of them at this school are. Standards are determined by the federal government, there isn't much leeway to deviate from or add to what is required by the government in ANY school in the country. My children are not geniuses, they are normal children. One reason why their language and reading skills are so different from their public schooled peers is our English curriculum is from 1911-pre John Dewey. Before you place your children in public school, I would suggest you spend time researching how he changed public education in the US and why he was determined to do so. While discovering this information didn't lead us to homeschool, it certainly helped tip the scales. I would also spend time quietly observing in the hallways, the cafeteria, the school bus as well the classroom. You might be surprised at what you see and hear.
For what its worth, my "real teacher" husband doesn't have much to do with any of the curriculum choices or teaching that happens in our family. In addition to teaching, he coaches and works construction part time so he just doesn't have the time to be involved academically. So having him here serves more to placate non-homeschoolers than to enhance the education of our children ;-).
I agree that some who homeschool aren't prepared for the tremendous amount of effort it takes, especially with children who have been "institutionalized" at public school. That was the biggest challenge I faced as one of my children had an extremely difficult time adjusting to the self governance and real thinking required when you are no longer spoon fed information and just moving through your day according the the ringing of a bell. The bell system is exactly like what prisons use, as are the school buses. Children just don't have the shackles. It is less challenging to teach my younger children who have never spent 7 hours a day, 5 days a week in a government institution, reading government approved materials, and eating government approved food.
Both my husband and I used to be vehemently opposed to homeschooling. Then we saw how it changed our older children, even as early as kindergarten. The biggest change that we saw was the shrinking of their vocabulary. I was taken aback by the absolute drivel that our young children were bringing home from the library. I can assure you that Jane Austen isn't on the shelves at most elementary schools. That led to a year of researching the history of public schools and the phenomenon of "peer orientation". Despite the controversy it would cause, we knew we must pull our children out of public school.
Again, the education of your children is primarily your responsibility and I wouldn't hand them over to strangers before I thoroughly researched what was going to be happening at the government institution in which I would be placing them. The hearts and minds of your precious children will be greatly influenced by whatever choice you make and I urge you to not only research John Dewey, John Jaque Russeu, and the Prussian Model of education used today, but to also watch the documentary "Indoctrination" for a thorough history of public schools in America. Even as a homeschooler, I found the movie full of new and valuable information.
Nancy, it might be a daycare and not a public school but it wasn't the daycare that did this, it was government regulators overstepping the rights of a parent. And of course the mainstream press didn’t even cover this – they lean left. The main stream press, like MSNBC, is funded by Pro government, fear-mongering Socialist.
With all of the government expansions now there is or will be mandatory public schools “lunch inspector” coming. Please stop spinning this and redirecting the attention to a news network and lets keep it on the real issue.
Okay Nancy, I googled the story and read the articles from sources other than Fox and American Vision. The story was no different.? Where is your information coming from? Is the daycare at the local public school?
I think you are probably just pissed off that anyone would look at this story from a different perspective than yourself. Now, how Un- American is that?
Stephanie, so, who funds those news sources? I've received three links to this story from right leaning friends on FB…all from different sources – yet ALL of the sources are far right leaning publications.
Not un-American to question where your news is coming from – left OR right?
BTW – please spare me and don't call me un-American…many family members in the military, here.
So Nancy, in your view, any right- leaning news source is bound to be wrong, ignorant and biased?? And to automatatically be taken as truth to you, it must come from a left-leaning source? Now how biased is that??? You immediately jumped on the authenticity of the story by claiming it to be BS because of YOUR ignorance of how the school system works and didn't know that public schools now serve 4 year -olds. Guess what…the school I worked in for 31 years as a certified teacher housed 2-3 year olds considered to be at-risk. In addidtion, many schools in our state serve children from BIRTH to graduation-publicly funded child care and education for 22+ years. I am proudly a "right-leaning" American but I listen to all news sources to get a full picture of the current events. Biased individuals such as you speak with disdain about news sources such as Fox News but most do not even watch that source. How much of MSNBC, Rachael Maddox, and other MSM do you question??
Um… Did you read my post above? I said that I question both – left (MSN and related networks <Comedy Central, which airs The Daily Show and Cobert> and right (Fox and related media outlets).
Can anyone say it is time to start kicking the hell out of a few people?
oops I had a typo on "automatically"….wouldn't want Nancy to think I'm ignorant.
But you think it's ok to think that I am? Classy…
Maybe a old fashioned Georgia a55 whopin is in order for this 'inspector.'
this is yet another example of why government schools are not working.
Based upon the rear measurements of Government workers I strongly suspect they do not understand the their biggest
problem is gluttony. Their respective backsides indicate that they need to be on diets themselves. As for as some of the
teachers inspecting the food I prepare for my child, I would tell them that they should look in their own back yard before they
become administrative Nazi party members. Parents prepare the food for their children based upon what they have to work
with. With all the so called free breakfast, lunch and supper meals prepared everyday for school kids at tax payer expense
this is getting beyond the pale of senseless stupidity.
Whenever the government gets involved every thing gets screwed up. PARENTS KNOW WHAT IS IS RIGHT FOR THEIR CHILDREN NOT SOOM FRUSTRDATED GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL, WHO KNOWS NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can thank first lady Obama for this jack boot treatment of children, with her eat what I say while I eat what I want attitude (she crows about eating french fries). What next, checking work place lunch rooms? Maybe checking how we feed our pets?
Why doesn't she correct her husband when he pigs out on junk food in public?
By the way remember that so called garden at the white house that produced food overnight and in huge farm quantities? Hum, were those late night trans-planters of ready to harvest produce — green card holders or were they illegal alien farm laborers? Anyway if the economy is so bad where did the money come from to pay the food cops?
All I say is that they will have to pry my cold dead hands off my pogey bait (junk food ) if they want to inspect my lunch bag.
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