Lunch box searches in the pre-K class...seriously?
Barb ShellyA turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice sounds like a pretty good lunch for a pre-schooler.
But not good enough for the food police at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford, N.C., according to this story in the Carolina Journal.
According to the story, a state agent was inspecting lunch boxes in the “more at four” classroom, and deemed that the lunch brought by a 4-year-old girl fell short of U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.
So, the agent swapped the girl’s lunch with a school cafeteria lunch and sent the packed lunch home with the child at the end of the day. Mom asked her girl what she’d eaten for lunch instead, and the child reported that she’d enjoyed three chicken nuggets and left the rest of the school lunch untouched. Oh, and the school sent a note home telling mom she owed $1.25 for the lunch.
Oh my goodness. Talk about a total breakdown in common sense. Of course, if a 4-year-old is arriving at school every day with a Twinkie and a Coke, you probably want to have a chat with the parents and persuade them to take the school lunch instead. But a turkey and cheese sandwich is healthy, as is a banana. The girl’s mother told the Carolina Journal that she didn’t pack vegis because her daughter doesn’t like them and mom wants to be around to make sure the child eats them.
In other words, it sounds like this mom knows her daughter and knows her stuff. That the school and a state bureaucrat would interfere in her lunch choices is preposterous.
Kent Mueller
1 year, 4 months agoBarb, so now you have an example of the governmental overreach and excessive regulation the conservatives talk about.
The feds shouldn’t be in or schools in the first place.
Phil Cardarella
1 year, 4 months agoOK, we have found one way the state can cut its budget: Fire the fool.
Kent Mueller
1 year, 4 months agoPhil, let’s do better than that and get the feds out of our schools.
Matthew Nugent
1 year, 4 months agoThe agent was from the state, not the federal government. Sorry to burst your bubble.
George Hunsucker
Northland
1 year, 4 months agoSorry Matthew, it WAS a state worker enforcing FEDERAL DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE rules. So, once again, the overreaching fed. govt. is the root cause of the problem…
Tenilla Sheehan
1 year, 4 months agoI am so disappointed to this story in the Kansas City Star. I saw it first yesterday on a right wing Facebook Page which quoted a Fox News insider blog written by Trace Gallagher, whoever she is. The story violated every rule of journalism, identifying only the age of the child and the state in which the alleged idiotic Food Inspector action occurred. Today the Right Wing blogosphere is in a frenzy, whining about “Nanny State.”
Please read this by Maureen Downey, the education reporter for the Atlantic Journal Constitution:
A turkey sandwich and chips from home versus school nuggets: Sounds like a toss-up to me 1:03 pm February 14, 2012, by Maureen Downey
UPDATE: As I noted yesterday, we had yet to hear the other side of this bizarre story. Among the reports I am getting today: No federal guidelines led to the subbing of the home-brought lunch of the 4-year-old with a school lunch. There was a state review under way of the child care center at the school, which includes the nutritional content of the lunches eaten by children. A teacher apparently was concerned about one child’s homemade lunch and overreacted. I am being told that the school apologized to the parent. There are probably more updates to come. I am trying to get a comment from the state.
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/02/14/a-turkey-sandwich-and-chips-from-home-versus-school-nuggets-sounds-like-a-toss-up-to-me/
Please read the second sentence from the Downey article: “No federal guidelines led to the subbing of the home brought lunch …”
But the harm has been done. The truth doesn’t matter to these people — or apparently to the Star. Nanny State, Nanny State, Nanny State! And Michelle Obama will be blamed.
I am so thoroughly disgusted.
Scott Miller
1 year, 4 months agoIt’s Red Dawn in America, time to wake up! http://famillerlife.blogspot.com/2012/02/its-red-dawn-in-america.html
Kent Mueller
1 year, 4 months agoAnd gosh, Matthew, I kind of lost my senses for a minute. What difference would it make if it was a state employee enforcing a state regulation? The point is that it is an intrusive, inappropriate regulation being enforced by someone who obviously is not contributing to the welfare of the children. Get rid of the regulation and and employee, no matter what level of government. The federal government has a pretty good grasp of stupidity, but it does not corner the market. It also infects other levels of government. Shame on us if we do not do what we can to eliminate it.
Matthew, you think it’s OK if it was a state worker instead of a federal worker? Or, what were you saying, other than attempting to trip up a conservative?
Tenilla Sheehan
1 year, 4 months agoPlease post a credible link to any kind of proof that a federal mandate was being enforced.
Dee Vajgrt
1 year, 4 months agoYou know this does not surprise me in a day where I can’t bring lunch to my daughter at school from a restaurant or home for that matter. Seriously they are regulating way too many things.
Kent Mueller
1 year, 4 months agoTenilla….it’s quite humorous that you disregard what you don’t want to hear, but give full credence to what you want. Even and education reporter. By golly, that must be gospel, huh.
The fact is, Tenilla, the federal government regulates the content of school lunches in this situation, even the lunches that come from home. This isn’t an argument between turkey and cheese sandwiches and chicken nuggets. This is an argument of the how much intrusion into our lives we should accept from the government.
The federal government should have no say whatsoever on the content of what I put into a lunch for my child to eat at school. I am truly offended that you want to intrude into my life like that.
John W Mack Jr.
1 year, 4 months agoKent, I guess the details of the actual incident don’t matter to you. What ever nonsense you are spewing about what republicants have been talking about is made moot by the details of the incident. Being North Carolina, it was most likely a republicant agent enforcing republicant regulations. The republicants are just as guilty of injecting the feds into the classrooms as the Democrats.
George Hunsucker
Northland
1 year, 4 months agoBe casrful john,I hear sounds coming….
must be those nasty R’s injecting the feds into the classrooms… Libs pass all these dumbass rules john, not conservatives!
libs pass them so their brethren are employed.
Matthew Nugent
1 year, 4 months agoGuess what, guys? Turns out there’s about 5% of truth to this story as it’s reported here. Everyone’s going to have to go be indignant about something else now.
Kent Mueller
1 year, 4 months agoJohn Mack……Why are you the only one injecting political party into this? I referred to the intrusive federal government, and you got all defensive. You charged after me as if I blamed the liberals. I didn’t. You know? You arent the only one to do that. I get really, really tired of liberals trying to put words into my mouth and into the mouths of other conservatives. The best way to know what we say is to wait until we say it, OK?
And I see you are doing your part to instill civility into the public discourse with your misspelling of Republican.
If everyone would just ignore the name callers, then we could narrow down the debate to people who can speak civilly.