As promised, I said I'd post an update: I called the principal to find out exactly what was up with being charged for fruit .... and that my kiddo was sent to school with an appropriate lunch prepared for him each morning. He said they do not check homemade lunches to see what everyone is eating. I probably sounded a bit peeved and alarmed. I also spoke with the teacher after school. The paper noting charges for fruit was supposedly meant for another student that eats breakfast at school. However, it was written on my child's take home communication report. And .. funny, ha-ha, that I just happened to receive the note the day after such an uproar about another student that was given a crappy school lunch as her lunch from home was incomplete according to the new school lunch rules. So, I rest my case and will have an ever watchful eye on the situation as I'm sure this is just the beginning of a new dance (parental rights food fight).
Today I was checking my son's backpack and came across a note from the school that we owe $ for daily fruit at school.
I assumed this was fruit the government says kids have to eat for proper nutrition at lunch. Now I'm all for our children eating fruit. I'm all for healthy lunch. What I'm not for is the government telling me that my home made/packed lunch is not balanced and adding fruit and handing me the bill.
Each day I get up early and make a nutritious whole foods lunch. It always included a veggie and/or salad, and a few days a week, a piece of fruit. Milk is drank at home .. whole fat milk .. not the bluish water they call milk at school that's often soured and/or served warm .. or loaded with chocolate and sugar/high fructose corn syrup. Nathan has to limit his fruit due to medical reasons. Most of his colon was removed after it ruptured at birth. If too much fruit is eaten, he has loose bowels. Eating five extra pieces of fruit a week .. well lets just say that might be why his teacher is wondering why he needs to use the bathroom more often.
You can be sure I have a call in to the school to object and to give them a piece of my mind.
Believe it or not, I still have plenty of mind left ;)
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| Nathan drying dishes .. does he look healthy or what? :) Obese .. ?? |
I just had commented to hubby last night about the food police after
reading this story. And to find out they are out in force across the nation (
you can bet this is on the horizon). Let parents have control over their kids lunch box food. The government already provides 'free' (someone has to pay for) lunch and breakfast at school .. that have been atrocious in years past. Get the heck out of my kids lunch box. Parents need to put a stop to this government intervention. I will not take part in the intrusive hand of big brother.
This statement I will stand by!
18 comments:
I have posted this on my blog and my Facebook, hope you don't mind. I would like to encourage your other reads to do the same. These stories get very little press, and if we are going to maintain our freedom in any way, shape, or form, it has to be by word of mouth.
Wow. I just read about this happening in the South, but i didn't realize it was so wide spread. I guess i'm shocked, too, at this happening to someone i "know" as opposed to just being reported in the news.
I hope it is okay i link to your post at a health information site to which i belong. http://www.hawkeshealth.net/community/index.php
Good info there.
Good for you for sticking up to what you believe! I know you work very hard at feeding your family well and it is disconcerting to hear the food police are so widespread.
Hal was just telling me a story he heard on Rush Limbaugh yesterday about a family with a similar story. They forced them to buy milk for their child even though the child couldn't drink it. They said they would just pour it out, but the parents still had to buy it. Too much government, and Michelle needs to get out of the school lunch program.
I'm outraged! This is just nuts!
i saw your story on Kris' fb page - i wrote about the same story and am glad that you are speaking out! may i link to your blogpost? you may leave me a comment or send email to ohiofarmg.....at....gmail or on fb at:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100003049615546
this is an important story for all of us. thanks for sharing!
And people wonder why I don't want to send Peanut to public school? I'm afraid that this is just the beginning, but perhaps, if we speak out, we can stop it here. Gov't has no place telling parents what their children should eat. Mrs. Mac, you give that school a piece of your mind.
Our kids (18, 15, 13) all eat school lunches and there are more times than naught they come home to raid the fridge simply because the school lunch was... well, in their words, "pure nastiness." They eat good at home and have long had the ability to make their own lunch if they wanted to; I've just often wondered how the schools (if the government is so sincerely concerned) get by with serving what they do. I know districts can differ and even in our own county, the high school lunch program far outshines the middle school. Still, when I read stories such as yours and others that have hit the mainstream media, it is more than obvious that this whole food thing is crazy.
Good luck to you.
I called the school .. and hope this is just isolated .. my kid will eat anything put in front of him and doesn't know when to say he's full. I hope it turns out to be not as 'chicken little the sky is falling' as my earlier rant .. still waiting to find out more details .. I hope my reaction was just that . . .a reaction to reading another story .. because .. I'm just saying .. I'll be P.O'd. if this is some new mandate. Will post more later . . . after I have more information.
Mrs. Mac, I am P.O.'d too! This is just total B.S., if the school is so concerned about lunches, the districts need to look at what they are offering on the lunch line. Government does not need to have their hands in our childrens packed lunch.
anarchy seems so viable, peace
Because I have no children, I cannot report a personal experience. I am of the 'grandparent' generation now and do know a young mother who packed her children's lunches and snacks on a daily basis. One child brought a note home from school, along with a form, asking the parents to sign the form and return to school in order for their children to receive free breakfast and lunch, as well as snacks, at school. The mother replied that she packed lunch and a snack for each child daily and that her children had breakfast at home. Her child returned from school with a second note advising the parents that each child must have this form signed and in their file by a specific date. Upon receiving this note, the mother arranged a meeting with the local school board, where she was told the same. She informed the school board employee her children would not have such form in their file because neither she nor her husband would sign such form. The employee proceeded to tell her that she could no longer pack lunch and a snack for her children and they would not be allowed to bring such things onto the school campus. She took her children to school the next morning, with each child carrying their lunch box with their lunch and a snack in it. She and her children were stopped at the door by a teacher and told they must report to the school office before the children would be admitted to class. Upon arrival in the school office, the mother had quite a good time firmly telling the principal and asst. principal exactly what her children would and would not be doing and which attorney they should contact if they had a problem with that! No further communication from the school has been forthcoming, although the parents fully expect it to be so. I am outraged at the amount of government intervention so many are willing to accept, seemingly without question, especially when it affects children. Thank you for taking a stand and for making others aware of what is happening. I don't have children or grandchildren, but I love children and I want parent's God-given rights to raise their children protected! I will be following this. Thank you again.
Dear Mrs. Mac,
I'm utterly pleased to learn that American children bring their home made lunch box food. For years we have been told that the Americans all eat fast food and nothing else.
I know you and your concern for your children, but in general, this is what we have been led to believe.
I'm sitting with a big wide grin in my face.
You are wonderful when you are fighting for your children. Lion Mother of the year.
I love you.
To my P.O. friend... sure like what your doing by putting your foot down.. it takes people like your self to take a stand towards the systems that fill no one is watching.. like the Govt. If you were to turn the other way ... ya kind of wonder what they might be doing to the kids in Grade schools all over the country. It's not the teachers that make up the rule's ... and it should not be the Govt. either... stick to your guns girl... Don't ever back down.
I pass this on with my Email's...
It's gonna' get worse...I'm a school cook and the new "rules" are outragous!
My granddaughter came home from school not too long ago telling me that she was told her lunch wasn't nutritious because she had candy in it. Never mind that she had a chicken sandwich on home made bread (from our home raised and butchered chicken), home grown fruit that was cooked into a sauce and then dried into a fruit roll up, and home grown fruit juice. They just concentrated on the piece of candy she was given at her friend's birthday party.
I remember when my kids were young and the school told the parents to send them with a morning snack in addition to their lunch. I sent things like carrots. I was admonished by the school for not giving them "fun" things for snack.
You just can't win! Schools make money by feeding the kids. They don't want you to provide!
I'm so very proud of you.
Wow! I've known for some time if I'd had children, they would have been home-schooled. Here's yet another good reason! Good for you for speaking your mind.
Just one more indication that the government/schools think they have more say-so over our children than we do. WHO is the mama??? WE are! Yes, I can get very worked up over this type of thing. Don't hold your tongue! If we don't speak up and oppose this sort of thing, they will get a stronger grip, and I for one, will do my best for that not to happen.
The school where my grandchildren attended before they started homeschooling stopped having regular soft drinks available for them to purchase, and instead only offered DIET drinks. Diet---with all of those chemicals is better than a regular one??? Even with the sugar, I would think regular would be a better choice.
As I said in my re-post of this article---yet another reason to homeschool (when possible).
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