Food Police...

[ElliottCarasDad]

I wonder what others thoughts are on this...

http://www.prisonplanet.com/food-police-reject-homemade-lunch-force-preschooler-to-eat-cafeteria-nuggets.html[/url]

 

[GavinH]

This is just another case of our government overreaching. When they declared that pizza was a vegetable I knew that there was no longer any hope of finding intelligent life in DC (or our local leadership). If we are not careful we, as parents, will have no rights or authority left at all.

Vote the bums out .....

 

[Incogneato]

I'm not sure what her substitute meal consisted of, but I don't know why they didn't let her eat her normal lunch and just supplement it with whatever they thought she was lacking...

 

[Father_0f_7]

I think it's the most ridiculous thing in the world and I would be absolutely livid if someone "substituted" my children's lunch because "they" didn't think it was appropriate.

(When) I pack my children's lunches I pack them what they NEED, what I KNOW they will eat. I pack what Billy needs based on his blood sugar that morning. I pack Kaitlyn's lunch based on what I know she will eat, or else she won't eat anything...she's stubborn like that.

 

[ElliottCarasDad]

I think it's the most ridiculous thing in the world and I would be absolutely livid if someone "substituted" my children's lunch because "they" didn't think it was appropriate.

(When) I pack my children's lunches I pack them what they NEED, what I KNOW they will eat. I pack what Billy needs based on his blood sugar that morning. I pack Kaitlyn's lunch based on what I know she will eat, or else she won't eat anything...she's stubborn like that.

That was my thoughts exactly.

Its one meal out of the day. Anything a parent could throw in for protein is better than a generic chicken nugget

 

[mom2many]

I honestly am at a a loss for words...chicken nuggets are better then a turkey and cheese sandwich? What about the department of Ag agent? Shouldn't he be out inspecting our food chain and not worrying about the lunch of a kindergartner?

I will decide what my kids do and do not eat. Not the government, If I want them eating lunch at school then that is what I will do. If I want to pack it then that is what I will do. These are my choices to make...not the USDA's. which are a bunch of idiots half the time anyways.

 

[bssage]

I agree but the full story finished with

The note explained how students who did not bring “healthy lunches” would be offered the missing portions and that parents could be charged for the cost of the cafeteria food, the Journal reports.

Maybe the little girl was offered and accepted the nuggets. I also saw that the policy suggest they would supplement what the student brought. Saw nothing about replacing what they brought.

The story kinda implied that they food was replaced by the worker. While that may be the case. Its not the policy I see in the article.

 

[TabascoNatalie]

i wonder how would they respond to a vegetarian or vegan lunch

 

[ElliottCarasDad]

i wonder how would they respond to a vegetarian or vegan lunch

That's probably child-abuse and social services would be called in

 

[Jeremy+3]

Some of the lunches I see make me genuinely think that some parents are mental, you get things like chocolate spread sandwiches, or sandwiches with reformed ham in which is water, sugar, additives and a teeny weeny bit of ham, mmm nutritious!

Or you get the children with cheese sandwich, bag of crisps, biscuit and a bottle of pop, here we come type 2 diabetes!

The fact that schools now have no choice but to ensure certain nutritional levels is met isn't bad, the fact that we have to do it is bad, if people can't even be bothered to feed their children properly they aren't likely to be excelling in any areas.

 

[TabascoNatalie]

Or you get the children with cheese sandwich, bag of crisps, biscuit and a bottle of pop, here we come type 2 diabetes!

Tesco's meal deal for 2.50 i guess

It is very sad that decent food these days is really *expensive*

 

[bssage]

we could pack ribeye steaks. The kids only eat the snacks out of their lunch most day's

 

[Jeremy+3]

Tesco's meal deal for 2.50 i guess

It is very sad that decent food these days is really *expensive*

Yeah, so many parents, poor but eat at KFC...nice logic they're using! Hey, Tesco's can get even cheaper now they rely on government slaves to work for free!

 

[Mom2all]

Chicken nuggets and patties are made from mechanically separated chicken is what you get when you grind an entire chicken through a sieve, soak it in ammonia, and add artificial flavor. Thats just gross. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat it, but we don't.

We buy organic, farm raised when we can and eat frozen veggies not canned. We try to find only hormone free food. What we put in our mouth is pretty important in our family. I would be livid if the school decided to fed my children and then have the audacity to charge me for it. Again.. gross.

That being said, they can choose if they want to buy the nasty stuff if they'd rather. It doesn't happen very often. Pizza days are the exception.

NBC[/URL] news reports that the FDA allows for a percentage of "Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans," says that filth is "objectionable matter contributed by insects, rodents, and birds; decomposed material; and miscellaneous matter such as sand, soil, glass, rust, or other foreign substances."

I guess we should all feel lucky the powers that be are looking out for our best interest.

 

[IADad]

I mean, I understand that if a completely substandard lunch was sent, that someone might counsel the parent on nutrition, but substituting a fried chicken product what seems like a perfectly decent sandwich seems ridiculous.

How about the USAD worry about the lunches they oversee and let parents provide our own where we see fit. It's crap like this that makes me want to ditch the whole system and start over.

 

[ElliottCarasDad]

Well, sorry, I guess I jumped the gun with that one. Turns out the facts arent quite what was posted with that one...

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/02/15/that-story-about-government-agents-forcing-a-kid-to-eat-chicken-nuggets-instead-of-the-lunch-her-mom-packed-for-her-yeah-thats-bogus/[/url]

But it still raises some interesting questions as to parents rights in public schools and public programs.

 

[MomoJA]

It is very sad that decent food these days is really *expensive*

It is really bad when an apple costs more than a candy bar or a bag of chips, and milk or orange juice cost more than a soft drink.

 

[Mom2all]

It is a shame that healthy food cost more. A few years ago we started our our garden. Its about 4x times the size it was now. Last year we added our our chicken coop for eggs and bought our own pigs. For us, it wasn't about the money as much as it was that most foods are filled with hormones that I don't particularly want my kids digesting and the fact I hate the thought of our meat coming from animals raised in small inhumane places. This last part, the actual harvesting of meat, was quite a experience for us all.:yikes: Knowing what I put on our plates make it worth it.

 

[Jeremy+3]

It is really bad when an apple costs more than a candy bar or a bag of chips, and milk or orange juice cost more than a soft drink.

There not actually more expensive in the UK, it is just used an excuse here by mainly ignorant people, if we were to feed our family on processed food, ready meals etc it would cost probably 1/3 more than we actually spend on our food. There is also the fact that some people don't actually know how to cook or think they don't have time to cook for their family, but they have time to watch tv, spend time on computers etc.

If you want a ready meal it is £2/£3 per meal, so if we were all to have a £2 ready meal that would be £14 for one meal and ready meals are small as well, so it probably wouldn't feed us, that is a lot of money for a meal, with meat we spend typically about £7-9 per meal for the family.

Or if you look at things like McDonald's I'm not sure how much they cost elsewhere, here an adults medium meal is £4.19 and a happy meal is £2.29, so that would be four adult meals for us and three children's meals which would be just over £23.

When you can get a whole stew pack, carrots, onion, parsnips and swede for £1 then all you need is some stock and a cheap cut of meat, shove it in one saucepan and leave it for a few hours and its done. The only expensive fresh food is out of season fruit, but there are always so many things in season that you don't need to buy out of season stuff.

 

[Jeremy+3]

It is a shame that healthy food cost more. A few years ago we started our our garden. Its about 4x times the size it was now. Last year we added our our chicken coop for eggs and bought our own pigs. For us, it wasn't about the money as much as it was that most foods are filled with hormones that I don't particularly want my kids digesting and the fact I hate the thought of our meat coming from animals raised in small inhumane places. This last part, the actual harvesting of meat, was quite a experience for us all.:yikes: Knowing what I put on our plates make it worth it.

Food standards are very different aren't they, in the UK the practices of your country wouldn't be allowed, but I'm guessing a few of ours wouldn't be allowed over there either.

Here animals aren't given hormones and if they are ill and need any form of medication there must be at least 30 days between the medication being stopped and the animal slaughtered, hormones and medications cannot be added to food either, nor can a vegetarian animal be given animal products as feed.

Things can be bad, but they are better here than some places, a company tried to build essentially a cow factory, they would always be inside and basically constantly milked but it was not allowed, not only due to the suffering of the animals, but also as having so many animals in such a small place would be a danger to human health as well, so workers would be in appalling conditions.

Very few supermarkets here stock non-free range eggs and battery hens are being completely banned here (I'm not sure if it is EU wide or not) and most brands e.g. hellmans mayonnaise use free range eggs as well.

It is quite interesting how farming practices differ so much between developed countries, one thing that happens here is non-free range chicken breasts in supermarkets are soaked in water to increase their size and therefore increase the price the supermarket can charge for them.