How dare a Mom give her child a healthy lunch?
RAEFORD – 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.
It’s reported that as a gesture of good will, the school will provide the 4 year old with free contraceptives and a coupon good for one abortion.
one serving of meat
TURKEY
one serving of milk
CHEESE
one serving of grain
BREAD
two servings of fruit or vegetables
BANANA & APPLE JUICE
Where is her food?
That food cop ate it, no doubt.
CREEP
On one hand the food police are checking lunch boxes, on the other hand, in Maryland food stamps can be used in gas stations and fast food places.
Why aren’t Michelle and the food police condemning WaWa, PizzaHut, and 7 11? Next we’ll find them dressed as ninjas and grabbing popcorn out of our hangs at the theater and handing us a can of beets.
You go girl.
I would think those 3 chicken nuggets were worse than anything that child had in her lunch. Luckily it wasn’t my daughter, there would have been war –