Hey kids, say goodbye to your lunch boxes! In one Chicago-area school, packing a lunch is now banned. Apparently, mother and father don’t know best. The school’s principal does … or at least she thinks so. The Chicago Tribune reports:
At … Little Village Academy on Chicago’s West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.
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.
When asked about the policy, a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson defended the principal’s actions. Apparently, district wide, the principals are giving plenty of latitude to substitute their judgment for the parents,’ both inside the school and out:
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.”
Never mind that the kids don’t like the food (the Tribune cites examples of parents and students complaining). The government is doing what it thinks is best when they know parents can’t parent, right? That same logic has led to a ban on Happy Meal toys in Santa Clara, Calif., a ban on trans fat in New York City, a soda pop tax in Baltimore, Md., a whole host of “sin taxes” by Congress, and calorie counts on vending machines to scare us from snacking.
So where do individual responsibility, choice and liberty come in? They don’t. That’s one lesson kids will learn quickly in the nanny state.
Somebody has to step on this government overreach! I send my child to school with a can of pop once in a while. MY BUSINESS NOT GOVERNMENT AND NOT SCHOOLS!!!!! I'm sick of the personal prying into family affairs! those who's acts bring children into this world are accountable TO AND FOR those children. NOT GOVERNMENT AND NOT SCHOOLS!
I ate food packed by my mother from the foods we raised on our farm. We raised most of our own food. I'm still alive with no regular medications. When I still worked, I always took my lunch. I believe they are trying to condition "us" to buy, buy,buy. I still raise most of my own food. I don't raise meats as I don't have the room, but I raise most of my own vegetables. I try not to buy, buy, buy. Us old ladies are destroying everything for the rest of you? Maybe the knowledge we have is threatening to the establishment.
public schools paid by tax payers is to PROVIDE EDUCATION! NOT TAKE OVER PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES!
Little Academy is a private school… relax
liar
Pingback: Nanny state on steroids: Chicago school bans kids from bringing lunch … from home « Sister Toldjah
Pingback: Nanny state on steroids: Chicago school bans kids from bringing lunch … from home | Conservatives for America
What's going to happen now, of course, is that the kids won't want to eat the school's bad food, so they'll go hungry. And this will adversely affect their ability to learn, which is what principals claim to be so worried about. This idiot is creating the very problem she claims to be preventing.
This is a Obama-nation.
How is this government control if this is a PRIVATE school?
What next? We don't like your parents so we have decided to send you home to someone else!!! If the parents tolerate this type of enforced norm setting they deserve it. Has this been tested by anyone? You are better at nutrition decisions so how about moral matters or social behavior? Why don't you just send us a manual telling us what it is that you want us to do (or are allowed to do) with our children. This is more than frightening.
Looks like they just need to find some "Union" doctors from Wisconsin, who like to write doctors excuses for the parrents, to get out of the problem. It is really sad when our "Freedom" is twisted like this by the progressives to sound like it's in our best intrest, but the end results are always a taking away of our natural god given rights. This example is a good reason why people need a school choice system to get away from schools that turn into proxies for political nanny staters.
Pingback: PA Pundits - International
I drove a school bus many years ago and took groups on fieldtrips, most of the time the kids would bring their own lunches or they could op for a school provided lunch. Schools always provided both choc. and white milk and sandwiches and potato chips, I saw some sodas in those from home but his was rare and a field trip was a treat, a picnic lunch on the Mall or down Haines Point or maybe at the National Zoo. There are some children that have allergies to Milk and dairy products and they ususlly bring juice. It is not the schools, local gov't or Fed. Gov't. including Michelle Obama's business what parents let their kids eat, if they are not being properly nourished then and only then the doctor or teacher can notify CPS, but be careful as this is like opening a can of worms, the harder you try you cannot put them back in the can.
A can of worms might even be a better lunch choice.
It's not about nutrition or soda pop. It is pure indoctrintion of the young. "Get them
before they learn to recognize truth from lies. Can't we all see that day by day
we are loosing more and more of our freedoms. Little things at first before we noitice. Then, when our childern are "conditioned" to accept full government
control of their lives, they got'em and the United States will no longer exist.
This is truly government overreach. Obama and his policies are slowly taking away our liberties and rights one by one. When do these parents stand firm and voice loud Enough!!!!
Uncle Obama and his friends know best. We are now the slaves of the great nanny state.
As to trying to get people to eat what is good for them, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." Why do we keep trying to rediscover the wheel?
Just another reason to home school.
Pingback: ~ JUST IN ~ Daily News Digest for Tuesday, April 12, 2011 | Just Piper
Time to take a lesson for Saul Alinski, Chicago homeboy. Insist that the schools serve only organic food. Require a panel of national nutritionists analyse the lunches for optimum health, at the shool's expense. Require rigourous and frequent health department inspections. Require the school to post the menu with a breakdown of calories, fat and salt content for each food item at least a week in advance. Insist that the schools provide a balanced vegen selection, and of course halal and kosher alternatives. And here is the topper. Require a posting of the pounds of discarded food each week.
Well, George Orwell's 1984 is almost here. This is outrageous. Next they will put all the childen in Brown shorts, white shirts and military caps. Does the name Hilter ring a bell. It is time for the schools to teach and get out of the way of parents' raising their children. I understand the move to home schooling. Have you seen the eduaction level of graduating seniors lately. I knew more when I got out of 9th grade in 1957.
Good afternoon American Parents,
Someone asked what is next… Just look at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to see what is coming. Read my blog at http://www.parentalrightstn.blogspot.com to learn more how the UN and our federal government are planning to intrude in the sacred parent-child relationship.
This Times article from February 2010 tells how the French not only control the school meals, but try to advise parents on evening meals as well.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,196…
Protecting Children by Empowering Parents,
Eric Potter MD
Judge Vinson called it “Noblesse Oblige” in his second Order (Clarification for confused Democrats.) “We the Noblemen of America, being Plutocrats, and so much better than hapless Citizens, we reserve the Right and Obligation to molest children at airports and Overregulate their every ‘choice.’” Glenn Beck would say that our nobles here in America want the People to hate their Government! This HEART part is the very de facto Policy of our Government Bureaucrats, all in defiance of Law and Congress! The result is soon Americans will hate their Representative Government so much that they will give King Obama all the Power he needs!
Trust those Indoctrinated dupes from Chicago to forget every bit of American Independence! Human Experimentation upon the masses is an abomination! It is a Crime Against Humanity to destroy America! Why do Democrats get away with this Criminal Attempt? This proves Judge Vinson was correct! They want Totalitarian Powers!
The comment about the supposed excellent quality of the food that children will eat in the schools is foolish. Anyone who has eaten cafeteria food in grade and high schools and college will have to laugh that.
If, say, there is food poisoning of the student body as a result of one of those compulsory meals, will the school be required to pay the medical bills?
I'm going to take a wild guess and say the lunch room workers are union. Combine that with the revenue the school will receive through mandatory purchases on premises, and you have a very nice fiscal component to this social power grab.
@garettc
I love it! It would really work, too. The bad news is there would be a lot of time and money invested before those ideas could be put into place. Still…It sounds good. But I agree with all the other posts: this should never have become an issue at all. As an aside–when I was teaching I frequently noticed that parents sent lunches from home BECAUSE they wanted their kids to have good lunches. The school food was "iffy" and frequently got trashed rather than eaten.
relax, John Jacob Jingle? THAT'S EVEN WORSE!!!!!!! This principle is obviously effected by the government nanny overreach. Private schools handle matters of concern between parent and student. Not mandate a personal opinion on the school! Is it worth increased cost? How is it being afforded where money couldn't be better spent or reduced if parents provided for their own children's lunch at a choice of either bag or school lunch? What makes you think there couldn't be a crisis when a "way" based on outside opinion, is mandated? …were you being sarcastic?
When I went to school, I carried my lunch because we could not afford the cafeteria price for their meals, which my aunt recognized as junk food even then. She wanted me and my sister to have wholesome, nutritious meals, not junk meals. Thus, our box/bad lunches. The food at schools has not gotten better, but worse. How many programs on TV have I seen about school lunches that showed that pizza, other junk food was what was served! This is not a nutritious lunch for a growing mind!
This junk food as real food phenomena can be found in hospitals too. A hospital I went to recently was selling burgers, fries, sodas, fried foods (hydrogenated oils) and other items that are junk food. I bought a jug of yogurt, hoping that might be ok, but it had aspartame in it! where to get a nutritious, chemical free meal when you're out? Not at a hospital! Not in schools!
It is a private school … pull your kid if you do not like it. And what does Obama have to do with it … "Principal Elsa Carmona said her …" Her being the key word.
Why are there posts referring to Obama on this issue? What does the President have to with it? I'm not an Obama backer but really, pick your battles
School food is starchy, trashy, and cheap. I hated it all the way through high school (class of 2011–I know whereof I speak). The kids who brought lunches were the lucky ones: even the "junk food" had less calories than what we were eating. Plus, it tasted better.
ONLY reason Obama is so hepped up on this idea is:
1) He's smoking something.
No, seriously. This idea is retarded. And it's all about lifting more cash out of our collective pockets in the name of "a healthy future."
Maybe we should vote him out of office. That sounds just like what the doctor ordered.
Its always the parents who do not do this or that for their offspring that makes the school authorities concerned for those kids.So the whole school has to buy school lunches so the kids who are not getting a good deal from home are not singled out and "embarrassed".What percentage are bad lunches from home, any study on this?.
there have been some very good suggestions here. i have not read all the comments so if i have repeated something that has already been proposed, ignore me. i have always been impressed at what americans can do when they work together and are of one mind. i have seen this work in my own profession involving me personally. my point is that being a private school, the more onerous you make the requirements the more they will raise the tuition. in other words, if you demand inspections, dietition certified meals, provision for ethnic foods, etc. they may just increase the tuition. what if many, or most of the parents got together and withdrew the children from school and demanded the refund of the year's tuition? it would need to be a large segment of the parents, and would call for some organization and togetherness, but it could be done. if, after a week or so, the school does not wish to relent, hire a tutor with the tuition money you would have spent. do the home schooling. if all the parents worked together, you may be able to organize some type of group home schooling and save a bit of money by doing group rates. i suspect, if enough parents can organize and work together, the school will relent. money talks. just a thought. hope you all in chicago can get it worked out. good luck.
And who is going to ban smoking,the worst health issue in the world. Mr Obama smokes.
So there will probably be no ban.
Homeschool, that is what I plan to do and if they outlaw that, I am moving far,far away, except I haven't figured out where yet. This is utterly and totally ridiculous!
Sooo, this is President Obama's fault?
Tha principal has real Orwell's 1984 a lot. Control the minds, control the food supply. If you peruse the web site and view the names of the staff, it appears that this school is run by a heavy majority of hispanic named individuals… hmmm.
Doug H- in response to your question about Obama, I agree that he is not directly involved in this decision according to the article, but it is an example of what he and his administration/wife have been pushing for since the beginning of his term. And considering he was Senator in Illinois before becoming Pres, his influence will be noticeable there sooner. This is just a prime example of what our future holds if things don't change, namely he and his cronies out of office!
Hey, Government – Mind your own business!
They should quit calling it the cafeteria and start calling it commissary.
When I was in elementary school, my mom sent my lunch with me. Why? Because the cafeteria's food was below her health standards, with white flour and other highly-processed ingredients. I seriously doubt public schools now use ingredients that highly natural, health-conscious parents would approve of. If we had a child going to this school, we'd take him or her out because of this, because I would consider the cafeteria's "superior" foods bad for our child. Of course they wouldn't go to any of the failing public indoctrination centers they call "public schools" anyway.
OOPS!! P.S. What about the parents that can't afford 2.25/day that the lunch costs??? I hope the parents are looking to FIGHT AGAINST THIS to have it recinded. So,the DOE is ready to cough up all the extra dough, i.e lunches, tays, utensils,extra cafe help, etc so this can be dne??? Great…up go the taxes!
absolutely! We will have gov't health care
My kids are fortunately out of school now, however, a few years ago the 'Lunch Box Police' would confiscate sodas. potato chips and similar, even processed cheese and meats. If this left too little for the child to get a decent meal, they would phone the parent and we could either pay for a school meal or take fresh stuff. I fell foul just once because my boy had swapped his tuna with someone else's junk. I went to school with fresh food, because he didn't want the school food and lo and behold, all the kids in the dining hall were eating French fries and battered fish! A spoon full of peas gave it a little colour. Following my demand for justification of their call to me, I never got one, I was never called again nor his lunch box checked.