They're from the government; they're here to help

Discussion in 'Freedom and Liberty' started by tulianr, Feb 15, 2012.


  1. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets”
    NC State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food instead

    By Sara Burrows
    Feb. 14th, 2012

    RAEFORD, NC - 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.

    "I don't feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home," the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.

    The girl's grandmother, who sometimes helps pack her lunch, told Carolina Journal that she is a petite, picky 4-year-old who eats white whole wheat bread and is not big on vegetables.

    "What got me so mad is, number one, don't tell my kid I'm not packing her lunch box properly," the girl's mother told CJ. "I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn't really care for vegetables."

    When the girl came home with her lunch untouched, her mother wanted to know what she ate instead. Three chicken nuggets, the girl answered. Everything else on her cafeteria tray went to waste.

    "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," her mother said. "You're telling a 4-year-old. 'oh. your lunch isn't right,' and she's thinking there's something wrong with her food."

    While the mother and grandmother thought the potato chips and lack of vegetable were what disqualified the lunch, a spokeswoman for the Division of Child Development said that should not have been a problem.

    "With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that's the dairy," said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. "It sounds like the lunch itself would've met all of the standard." The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.

    There are no clear restrictions about what additional items - like potato chips - can be included in preschoolers' lunch boxes.

    "If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child," Kozlowski said.

    Ultimately, the child care provider can't take the Coke and Twinkie away from the child, but Kozlowski said she "would think the Pre-K provider would talk with the parent about that not being a healthy choice for their child."

    It is unclear whether the school was allowed to charge for the cafeteria lunches they gave to every preschooler in the class that day.

    The state regulation reads:

    "Sites must provide breakfast and/or snacks and lunch meeting USDA requirements during the regular school day. The partial/full cost of meals may be charged when families do not qualify for free/reduced price meals.

    "When children bring their own food for meals and snacks to the center, if the food does not meet the specified nutritional requirements, the center must provide additional food necessary to meet those requirements."

    Still, Kozlowski said, the parents shouldn't have been charged.

    "The school may have interpreted [the rule] to mean they felt like the lunch wasn't meeting the nutritional requirements and so they wanted the child to have the school lunch and then charged the parent," she said. "It sounds like maybe a technical assistance need for that school."

    The school principal, Jackie Samuels, said he didn't "know anything about" parents being charged for the meals that day. "I know they eat in the cafeteria. Whether they pay or not, they eat in the cafeteria."

    Pridgen's office is looking into the issue.
     
  2. Redneck Rebel

    Redneck Rebel Monkey++

  3. Sapper John

    Sapper John Analog Monkey in a Digital World

    Looks like MOOCHELLE's food Nazis have already been deployed...This is a step in the wrong direction!
     
    oldawg, Seawolf1090 and Nadja like this.
  4. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Ah....for the good old days....

    When I used to trade my nutritious continental delicatessen foods (blood sausage, cheese and sour gherkin sandwiches (on Esthonian Sweet and Sour Bread), roll mops (pickled herring) etc.........for fairy bread (white bread with butter spread with hundreds and thousands), vegamite sandwiches, and peanut butter sandwiches.

    since when does the girl's turkey with cheese sandwich not be considered a serving of meat, milk and grain, respectively.....all they have done is substitute one white bird meat for a different white bird meat (the chicken nuggets having additional fats as a nutritional bonus).

    A country is in deep crisis, when a child's lunches have to be minutely inspected prior to consumption....methinks it's operant conditioning to shape the young mind to submit to any kind of inspection / interrogation for any reason without question, by those who "want to help". "Welcome little girl...this is your Pavlov's Dog Lunch program in action...now may I please have a look into your lunch box?"
     
    Sapper John, STANGF150 and oldawg like this.
  5. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    time for mouse traps in the brown bag....
     
  6. gunbunny

    gunbunny Never Trust A Bunny

    Home- School

    [monkeyeating]
     
  7. Alpha Dog

    Alpha Dog survival of the breed

    Or a nice pile of dog pooo let her reach in and grab a hand full of that, I bet she will think twice next time.
     
    Cephus likes this.
  8. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    "They" have NO right to tell us how to feed our kids, so long as they keep soda vending machines in the schools......... [cow]
     
    TnAndy and chelloveck like this.
  9. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    current claims are blaming the teacher... the complain was lack of dairy ni the meal.... it's possible that the individual did not know that cheese is a dairy product... but then why are they teaching/inspecting...
     
  10. Redneck Rebel

    Redneck Rebel Monkey++

    Even in the event the cheese were missing, overlooked, or what have you, I think handing the kid a 35 cent carton of milk would have sufficed.
     
  11. TnAndy

    TnAndy Senior Member Founding Member

    My wife had run a local county school system's lunch program for 30 years now. She would tell you all kinds of tales of USDA and State weenies and their volumes of ever changing regulations, but also tell you nobody under her supervision would have done such an idiot thing.

    It had to be some visiting State fool, or idiot school supervisor, or individual cafeteria manger, or principal, that "went off the reservation" on the regs and made this crap up on their own.....because there is no basis for it.

    The USDA does require certain VERY SPECIFIC things in the way of the foods and amounts served in order for the local schools to participate in their reimbursement program...but doesn't force schools to even participate ( other than the money incentive, and the free commodity foods given )

    The whole reason that school lunch ONLY costs the kid $1.25 is the taxpayer is reimbursing the school about that much again for each meal that qualifies as a "reimbursable" meal.

    Most likely what happened here is: In a search for more money, this particular system has gotten way too zealous in the hunt to sell "reimbursable" meals.

    She will also tell you her retirement date is fast approaching, and none too soon.....every year, they heap on more and more BS regs at the State and Federal level. Several years back, she got pretty much forced into a breakfast program, and now has to provide "after school feeding" for the babysitting program they have instituted.

    And then there's the "take a backpack full" home for the weekend program....

    AND if she'd give into it, there would also be a summer feeding program where she would have to run mobile food trucks to take it around to "po" neighborhoods.....kinda like the old ice cream truck, only with hot food.

    Apparently, as time goes on, there is less and less parental involvement and responsibility once the kid slips outa mom. We should all take note, as this is going to be WAY more of a local problem when the SHTF than any black helicopter or blue helmet from the UN.

    And Seawolf: Wife has found, unsucessfully, the vending machines in the schools for all of her 30 years. Those are too much a source of a slush fund for the individual school principals for them to give them up.
     
    Sapper John likes this.
  12. Midnightblue72

    Midnightblue72 Monkey++

    I am wondering when "Re-education classes" will be required by the school for the parents and children. Dear Lord, 1984 is alive and well.

    All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
     
    Seawolf1090 likes this.
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7