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Chicago School Bans Lunches From Home
I first saw this on the What's Cooking? board. What do the ladies here think?
Copy & Paste of This Article:
Fernando Dominguez cut the figure of a young revolutionary leader during a recent lunch period at his elementary school.
"Who thinks the lunch is not good enough?" the seventh-grader shouted to his lunch mates in Spanish and English.
Dozens of hands flew in the air and fellow students shouted along: "We
should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch! We should
bring our own lunch!"
Fernando waved his hand over the crowd and asked a visiting reporter: "Do you see the situation?"
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.
"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception."
Carmona said she created the policy six years ago after watching students bring "bottles of soda and flaming hot chips" on field trips for their lunch. Although she would not name any other schools that employ such practices, she said it was fairly common.
A Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman said she could not say how many schools prohibit packed lunches and that decision is left to the judgment of the principals.
"While there is no formal policy, principals use common sense judgment based on their individual school environments," Monique Bond wrote in an email. "In this case, this principal is encouraging the healthier choices and attempting to make an impact that extends beyond the classroom."
Any school that bans homemade lunches also puts more money in the pockets of the district's food provider, Chartwells-Thompson. The federal government pays the district for each free or reduced-price lunch taken, and the caterer receives a set fee from the district per lunch.
At Little Village, most students must take the meals served in the cafeteria or go hungry or both. During a recent visit to the school, dozens of students took the lunch but threw most of it in the garbage uneaten. Though CPS has improved the nutritional quality of its meals this year, it also has seen a drop-off in meal participation among students, many of whom say the food tastes bad.
"Some of the kids don't like the food they give at our school for lunch or breakfast," said Little Village parent Erica Martinez. "So it would be a good idea if they could bring their lunch so they could at least eat something."
"(My grandson) is really picky about what he eats," said Anna Torrez, who was picking up the boy from school. "I think they should be able to bring their lunch. Other schools let them. But at this school, they don't."
But parent Miguel Medina said he thinks the "no home lunch policy" is a good one. "The school food is very healthy," he said, "and when they bring the food from home, there is no control over the food."
At Claremont Academy Elementary School on the South Side, officials allow packed lunches but confiscate any snacks loaded with sugar or salt. (They often are returned after school.) Principal Rebecca Stinson said that though students may not like it, she has yet to hear a parent complain.
"The kids may have money or earn money and (buy junk food) without their parents' knowledge," Stinson said, adding that most parents expect that the school will look out for their children.
Such discussions over school lunches and healthy eating echo a larger national debate about the role government should play in individual food choices.
"This is such a fundamental infringement on parental responsibility," said J. Justin Wilson, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Center for Consumer Freedom, which is partially funded by the food industry.
"Would the school balk if the parent wanted to prepare a healthier
meal?" Wilson said. "This is the perfect illustration of how the
government's one-size-fits-all mandate on nutrition fails time and time
again. Some parents may want to pack a gluten-free meal for a child, and
others may have no problem with a child enjoying soda."
For many CPS parents, the idea of forbidding home-packed lunches would
be unthinkable. If their children do not qualify for free or
reduced-price meals, such a policy would require them to pay $2.25 a day
for food they don't necessarily like.
"We don't spend anywhere close to that on my son's daily intake of a
sandwich (lovingly cut into the shape of a Star Wars ship), Goldfish
crackers and milk," education policy professor Diane Whitmore
Schanzenbach wrote in an email. Her son attends Nettelhorst Elementary
School in Lakeview. "Not only would mandatory school lunches worsen the
dietary quality of most kids' lunches at Nettelhorst, but it would also
cost more out of pocket to most parents! There is no chance the parents
would stand for that."
Many Little Village students claim that, given the opportunity, they would make sound choices.
"I would bring a sandwich or a Subway and maybe a juice," said seventh-grader Ashley Valdez.
Second-grader Gerardo Ramos said, "I would bring a banana, orange and some grapes."
"I would bring a juice and like a sandwich," said fourth-grader Eric Sanchez.
"Sometimes I would bring the healthy stuff," second-grader Julian Ruiz said, "but sometimes I would bring Lunchables."
Re: Chicago School Bans Lunches From Home
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
Decorate This
Holy sh#$. This is real?? I'm too appalled even to put together a coherent response. It reads like something out of The Onion.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
All I can think about is last year's Food Revolution where Jamie Oliver went into WV schools and looked at what they were serving - it wasn't healthful! I have no idea what Chicago schools serve, but I would be curious to see their menu.
I think it's ridiculous, but I did just want to point out - something like 99% of the kids at that school qualify for free school lunch, so the school isn't forcing the parents to pay 2.25 a day (we've had this debate on other boards.)
But anyway, yeah, it's ridiculous - it'd be ridiculous pretty much anyway, but considering the nature of school lunches, it's even more so.
I can recognize and respect the intent - to help encourage children to make better food choices. I think the school's role in that is removing the snacks, sodas and sugary juices from the vending machines, examining what's on/in the menu they offer, and teaching classes in nutrition.
But to tell me I can't make my child a lunch because they presume I don't know how to feed her a healthful meal? That would tick me off somethin' fierce.
I was in on the WC discussion but, basically, I'm against a school telling parents what to do with their kids. There have been lots of off-shoot discussion about school lunches, milk and Jamie Oliver and some of the examples of school lunches out there appall me. Mozzarella sticks as a main dish (cheese = protein) accompanied by french fries (vegetable), breadstick (starch) and jello (fruit) is just sick. I don't know if this is what the Chicago schools are serving but this is a real lunch out there for some school kids.
I understand that this school is mostly low-income, mostly on subsidized lunch and sometimes the kids bring even unhealthier things for lunch from home but that does not mean a school can take away a parent's right to choose what to pack their kid for lunch. If there is even one parent who would pack a turkey sandwich and carrot sticks (and likely for less than the price of a school lunch) then that parent should be allowed to do so. It's paternalistic and unfair to take that away.
Our Share of the Harvest:How a couple cooks from a CSA share. Pick Up Day Week 15
I can recognize the intent of this - just like I could recognize the intent of taking any decision regarding my own child out of my hands and putting it in the hands of someone who thinks they know better. But I can't respect it. I can put together a long list of devil's advocate reasons behind a choice like this but nothing would support forcibly taking away a parent's right (and responsibility) to make the right decisions for her own kid. That father up above who thinks school lunches are the only way to control what his own child eats is the perfect example of the sort of lazy "it's the school's job" parenting that this sort of policy promotes.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
Just to play devil's advocate here- if some kids are bringing in soda and bags of crap filled w/ artificial dyes, etc. their behavior in the classroom may be affected, therefore affecting their education, as well as the educations of the children who eat a "healthy" school lunch, since the teacher would have to give more attention/focus on the child who is flipping out in class after eating a bag of skittles washed down by a Coke.
This isn't an issue that was really touched upon in the article, and I know it's a HUGE ? as to whether the school provided lunches are actually healthy, but many children have strong behavioral reactions to artificial dyes. The FDA is currently reviewing a link between hyperactivity and artificial dyes, so it's not some hippy sippy sh!t I just made up.
In all honesty though I would be livid if a school pulled this.
I really can't figure out where I come out on this.
I'm sure the school lunches are crap and they are also way expensive. And, somebody is getting a kick back for sure. Its a corrupt system - period.
But, on the other hand, I've seem kids at DD's daycare whose parents pack fast food for them on a regular/daily basis - I'm talking about toddlers! McDonald's biscuits or pancakes for breakfast; KFC or a Happy Meal for lunch - would those kids be better served w/ the school lunch than the crappy home lunch?
Is somebody supposed to inspect all the foods that kids eat?
Yeah...this was pretty much at the top of the devil's advocate list that I was alluding to and it's the only argument that gets much sympathy from me. Still, for me, it doesn't hold a candle to the argument against. This isn't the government's business and, even from a collective/collateral harm perspective, it's a lot more dangerous, IMO, to promote/validate certain parents' thinking that they aren't the ones responsible for their own kids' wellbeing.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
I could have written this. Except I had a juice box instead of buying milk.
I could only buy lunch once a week if I was lucky.
5 cats. 1 baby.