Should schools be allowed to "Lunch-shame" the food a parent packs for their ch

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  1. Stacie L profile image88
    Stacie Lposted 8 years ago

    Should schools be allowed to "Lunch-shame" the food a  parent packs for their child?

    Recently, a  Colorado mom was 'lunch-shamed" by her daughter's school for packing Oreos.
    School officials sent home a letter:
    “This is a public school setting and all children are required to have a fruit, a vegetable and a healthy snack from home, along with a milk. If they have potatoes, the child will also need bread to go along with it. Lunchables, chips, fruit snacks, and peanut butter are not considered to be a healthy snacks.
    Is this going too far in your opinion?

  2. Mr. Happy profile image70
    Mr. Happyposted 8 years ago

    Children need healthy food. From my own experience being hungry while attending school does not work well - can't focus with a stomach gurgling lol

    Yet, some people don't have money so, maybe the schools should provide lunch on top of just criticizing (which is not terribly bad either ...)

    1. Stacie L profile image88
      Stacie Lposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I guess I should have said that the Oreos were here snack and not the whole meal.

  3. Kirsty O profile image71
    Kirsty Oposted 8 years ago

    I suffer from selective eating disorder and would physically not have been able to eat a lunch that conforms to their standards. I would have gone hungry before eating a fruit and a vegetable and whatever they deem a 'healthy snack'. It was bad enough that I was never aloud to leave the lunch hall to play because I hadn't eaten everything on my plate, I couldn't eat their weird consistency potatoes so I sat nearly every day till the bell rang because I wasn't allowed to leave.

    I don't think the school has a right to say what can and cant be in a lunch box, perhaps banning certain things like energy drinks I can understand, but to state what a lunch box must contain is ridiculous. Perhaps the reason the child has a packed lunch in the first place is because they cannot eat these things maybe because they are like me or maybe because they have allergies or any number of other reasons.

    On a side note is the idea of cold potatoes in a lunch box a bit odd to anyone else? and why must they have bread if they have potatoes? I dont get why that would be the case

    1. Stacie L profile image88
      Stacie Lposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I couldn't understand the potatoes with bread comment either.
      thanks for commenting

  4. profile image0
    Stargrrlposted 8 years ago

    No.  School lunches are horrible for the most part.  The kids just throw the vegetables and fruit out on the daily.

  5. someonewhoknows profile image74
    someonewhoknowsposted 8 years ago

    Junk food should be recognized as harmful to children. Face it! Oreo's are pure junk food.Potato chips too.Fruit snacks can contain too much sugar but, they contain real fruit at least.Fruit alone or with a non fat and -or sugar free yogurt would be better. Lunchables or luncheon meats are not all that healthy. We need to take what is generally considered unhealthy with a grain of salt. (Pun intended)   Peanut butter may or may not be healthy depending on what peanut butter we buy. Hydrogenated oils and oils such as canola and or other hydrogenated oils such as cottonseed oil used to replace the peanut oil are not healthy. Even too much peanut oil is not healthy.Remember that saying "everything in moderation"? Well, not everything is good even in moderation. There so many chemicals in our food these days as well as substitutes for what is in the food naturally and replaced with inferior substances that are definitely unhealthy. Discrimination is the key to knowing more about the food we buy and feed ourselves and our children.To say the least!

    1. Stacie L profile image88
      Stacie Lposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      so the answer is to ban all home brought lunches and require all children to eat school lunches?

    2. someonewhoknows profile image74
      someonewhoknowsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Please ! You should know better than to say that! I certainly know that's too simplistic an answer to the problem.

    3. cat on a soapbox profile image95
      cat on a soapboxposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think all of this wonderful passion should be directed to the FDA. Perhaps it will bring about a ban on the junky convenience(processed) foods that fill most of the grocery shelves. It's not the job of schools to inspect our kids' lunch bags.

  6. LoisRyan13903 profile image61
    LoisRyan13903posted 8 years ago

    I saw a video about that too and I think that is utter B.S.  Do they think potatoes and bread is healthy?  I guess the school doesn't know that carbs are not always healthy.  If I was the mother I would have wrote a note back to them especially mentioning how the parents are sometimes to provide candy and the like for a party.  What got me irked is that they should have allowed the girl to eat the oreos and not let her go home hungry.  Peanut butter-what is wrong with that?  That is very healthy.  Sometimes a person does not have enough money to get healthy food-fruits and vegetables can add up and the mother just did not have any in the house.

  7. FeniqueS profile image69
    FeniqueSposted 8 years ago

    Yes this is going WAY to far.   I've yet to see a school cafeteria lunch to be healthy.   I had to pack my kids lunch because they would get sick when they ate the food.

  8. pagesvoice profile image73
    pagesvoiceposted 8 years ago

    This is a clear example of the school overstepping their bounds. I am so sick and tired of the "food police" and those who feel that their ideas of "healthy choices" are the best ideas. I remember going to a country school and they served frozen peas. As a child I hated frozen peas. They tried to force me to eat them and I flatly refused. I had to sit in the cafeteria with someone harping at me and still I couldn't choke even one down my throat.

    I've known joggers who have dropped dead while running. I had another friend die of an aneurism while on a treadmill and I worked with a seemingly fit man who died of a massive heart attack at 35. Cemeteries are filled with "healthy people."

    1. LoisRyan13903 profile image61
      LoisRyan13903posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I remember having spring milk at school and it had a strange taste and they made me drank it and it made me sick.  I can't stand drinking milk even today

  9. Phyllis Doyle profile image92
    Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years ago

    Yes, it is going too far. Most parents do their best to provide healthy and filling lunches for their kids. Schools have been forced to comply with Michelle Obama's eating rules and it is very unfair to children and their parents. Government and schools have no right to interfere in the family food issues.

    Some families can barely afford the lunches they fix for their children. To shame the child about their lunch is uncalled for. Some kids only get a PB&J for lunch because it is inexpensive and kids love it.

  10. R K Beran profile image60
    R K Beranposted 8 years ago

    I don't understand why public schools care what students bring from home for their lunches.

    LIFE: "If you want to make bad choices, the consequences are on you."
    DOCTORS: "If you don't take care of yourself, expect to die young."
    MARRIAGE: "Don't want to commit? Fine. We're getting a divorce."
    CAREER: "If you can't meet 'X' expectation, you're not hired/fired."
    COLLEGE: "Didn't come to class and do the homework? Fine, you fail."
    PARENTS: "You deliberately disobeyed us; now you're grounded."

    PUBLIC SCHOOL: "Oh God! We won't allow you to eat THAT--you'll get FAT!

    Funny how one of the only things kids encounter in life which aggressively fights to keep them from experiencing the consequences of their actions and learning from them...is the public school system.

    Oreo's don't make you fat, anyway. Not burning off the calories they add to the diet does. And they think peanut butter isn't healthy in moderation? Wow. That's sad.

    Mom: 1
    Public School: 0

  11. cat on a soapbox profile image95
    cat on a soapboxposted 8 years ago

    This is going WAY too far and is a shameful form of bullying. Schools should be teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills, so kids can grow up and make wise choices for themselves. Instead, it seems that all the decisions are made for them, and sameness rules. Brains become lazy when someone else does all the thinking for them.  A child's diet is an issue between families and their pediatricians , and the school should keep its nose out of anything that isn't served in the cafeteria.

  12. tamarawilhite profile image86
    tamarawilhiteposted 8 years ago

    Absolutely not, especially if you watch the Twitter feed of horrible lunches served by the schools.

  13. Penny G profile image61
    Penny Gposted 8 years ago

    Parents should be raising Children, schools need to know their place, educating them.

 
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