Posted on 02/15/2012 11:11:57 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home.
NC Pre-K (before this year known as More at Four) is a state-funded education program designed to “enhance school readiness” for four year-olds.
The mother, who doesn’t wish to be identified at this time, says she made her daughter a lunch that contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips. A state inspector assessing the pre-K program at the school said the girl also needed a vegetable, so the inspector ordered a full school lunch tray for her. While the four-year-old was still allowed to eat her home lunch, the girl was forced to take a helping of chicken nuggets, milk, a fruit and a vegetable to supplement her sack lunch.
The mother says the girl was so intimidated by the inspection process that she was too scared to eat all of her homemade lunch. The girl ate only the chicken nuggets provided to her by the school, so she still didn’t eat a vegetable.
The mother says her daughter doesn’t like vegetables and – like most four year olds – will only eat them at home under close supervision.
In an interview with the Civitas Institute the mother said “I can’t put vegetables in her lunchbox. I’m not a millionaire and I’m not going to put something in there that my daughter doesn’t eat and I’ve done gone round and round with the teacher about that and I’ve told her that. I put fruit in there every day because she is a fruit eater. Vegetables, let me take care of my business at home and at night and that’s when I see she’s eating vegetables. I either have to smash it or tell her if you don’t eat your vegetables you’re going to go to bed.”
The mother added, “It’s just a headache to keep arguing and fighting. I’ve even wrote a note to her teachers and said do not give my daughter anything else unless it comes out of her lunchbox and they are still going against me and putting a milk in front of her every day.
“Friday she came home and said ‘Mom, they give me vegetable soup and a milk,’” said the mother.
“So I went to the cafeteria to make sure she had no fee and it’s not being charged to her account yet,” she continued, ” but what concerned me was that I got a letter from the principal and it says students who do not bring a healthy lunch will be offered the missing portions which may result in a fee from the cafeteria. So if I don’t stay on top of her account on a weekly basis there’s that opportunity that charges could be put on her account and then if I let it go too far then it’s like I’m going to have a big battle.”
The principal of West Hoke Elementary, Jackie Samuels, says none of the children’s parents were asked to pay for the school food. While the parents may not have to pay, it was still an expense for the school to provide the extra food. A phone call to the Hoke County Schools Superintendent to inquire as to how much additional expense this would impose on the school was not returned.
The mother, who lives in Fayetteville, sent a statement to state Rep. G.L. Pridgen (R-Robeson) detailing her complaint. Pridgen says he was shocked to hear it. Pridgen has since learned this is a nationwide practice based on federal guidelines.
An assistant to Pridgen says the girl’s grandmother was also upset and asked, “This isn’t China, is it?”
The government inspector was from the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised program at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The program gives schools a grade based on standards that include USDA meal guidelines enforced by the N.C. Division of Early Childhood Development.
The nutrition standards for pre-K lunch require milk, two servings of fruit or vegetable, bread or grains and a meat or meat alternative. The school didn’t receive a high grade from the January assessment because the home-made lunches didn’t meet those guidelines. The mother points out the only thing on that list her daughter’s home lunch didn’t have was milk, so she doesn’t understand why the girl was given a complete school meal as a supplement.
The mother says her next step is to sit down with the principal and if nothing is done then she plans to go to the school board.
Here is what's funny. The stupid inspector is too ignorant and ill informed to know that a whole banana is TWO servings of fruit for a 4 year old and the standard is OR not AND so the home made lunch was compliant.
Hand her a carton of milk and she's good to go.
Mental midgets run our schools.
Communism = big brother knows what’s best for you, your lunch fails our government standards, comrade citizen.
A question about homeschooling: What should parents do who are "weak" in some specific part of the curriculum such as geography or, say, grammar? How does one compensate for that? What about the risk of not even recognizing one's weaknesses?
Regards,
"Our Dear Leader" should have a few large facial moles, though, to make the resemblence perfect.
Regards,
The stupid inspector couldn't work out whether a banana was a fruit or a vegetable, so decided it was neither.
She didn’t need milk. The sandwich had cheese on it — a slice of cheese equals a serving of milk.
That is a very valid question. But then don’t expect any better from the public school. I still remember from about 20 years ago the AA teacher in the classroom next to our son’s having a poster up on the hallway wall with “goverment” on it. 2nd or 3rd grade.
We left public schools shortly thereafter.
Great idea! Like I posted on this topic, NC is broke.. very broke and desperate. Federal dollars are attached to school meals, bus riders, etc. You can bet NC is going to extract every cent, and then some. Remember the governor there is Suspend elections for two years Perdue. They have gone after Amazon..and other crazy things. Raleigh is very close to DC, too close. She was even getting Federal unemployment figures ahead of other governors. Make no mistake, NC is just a collection agency now.
Hell no. In fact, no other country in the world is this stupid.
"Naah, just Tupperware."
/rimshot>
How much do you want to bet it was one of Holder's people with an SEIU card doing the inspection; and that the nuggets were made by a big-time Dem campaign donor?
Many nuggets are made from less toothsome parts of the chicken; they are breaded (not whole wheat, either!), and are fried.
I'd stack the protein and fiber content of the sandwich (which has cheese for dairy, natch!) against *three* nuggets, any day.
If this had been my daughter, the inspector would have had their notebook, the nuggets, and a serving ladle protruding from their rectum the next day.
Cheers!
But remember...Sarah Palin wants to control your life by censoring books from the *public* library. (You can still buy them on your own.)
Verminous scum.
Where's the tar and feathers?
That's what it's about--federal subsidies. If your US-born child happens to speak a second language at home because his mother is foreign born, you wouldn't believe how hard they try to get him into ESL (English as a Second Language)--even when English is his first language! And being stuck in ESL with the illegals' kids kills advanced placement opportunities.
OK, I get that but China does not inspect children's lunch boxes to see what food their parents sent them to school with. I think in China parents are free to send their children to school with whatever food they want them to have for lunch. Maybe I am wrong on that.
OK, I get it now, the grandmother said it. Well, she ought to be an authority. Well, maybe she is not. She did not have the authority to pack the child’s lunch. Seems only the authorites in the U.S. have that authority and in China they can eat whatever they darn well please and probably do eat just about anything.
Now there is a thought for you, imagine if the parents had sent their child to school with unshelled shrimp or black snails.
Um... OK.
Then they would have called the cop assigned to the school, who would have told you to shut up. And if you continue to speak, you are then in contempt of cop.
Expect to be tazed, beaten, kicked, and pepper sprayed into "compliance" before being locked up for "interfering with a government official in the performance of his duties", or something similar.
Remember folks, every law they pass, and every regulation that they create (without going through the hassle of making it a law), is ultimately enforceable at the point of a cop's gun, and they WILL enforce them (even the B. S. ones) because they are "Doing their job".
I frequent a gun website that has a LOT of cops on it. I read it every day. It is getting scary.
OK, I get it now, the grandmother said it. Well, she ought to be an authority. Well, maybe she is not. She did not have the authority to pack the child’s lunch. Seems only the authorites in the U.S. have that authority and in China they can eat whatever they darn well please and probably do eat just about anything.
Now there is a thought for you, imagine if the parents had sent their child to school with unshelled shrimp or black snails.
I wonder what type of degree you need to be a food inspector in NC. Are they part of the SEIU the amalgamated food inspectors union?
...and if that “inspector” doesn’t “git”.....grab him or her by the ear, twist firmly, and “escort” them out of the building with a swift kick in the ass on the way out.
Yes, I’m perfectly serious.
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