Posted on 04/11/2011 7:31:09 AM PDT by yoe
To encourage healthful eating, Chicago school doesn't allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home — and some parents, and many students, aren't fans of the policy
A Little Village Academy student cringes at an enchilada dish served at his school. Many students throw away their entrees uneaten and say they would rather bring food from home. The school, though, does not allow students to bring in their own lunches, unless they have a medical condition or a food allergy.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Well, this issue is about much more than the food that kids eat. I raised two children, quite successfully. I learned early on that the more you try to control what a child does, the more they sneak around to do things that they themselves control - and that leads to very negative results. All that too much control does is breed anarchy - their is a delicate balance that is often violated one way or the other.
One has to loosen the strings of control on small items early on, and on large items later in life so that the child becomes confident in making his/her own decisions - and making the correct ones. Removing the child from the decision-making process steals from them the ability to make good decisions later in life. In that situation, they never mature unless and until they completely rebel and go out on their own.
There was a bloody revloution in the late 1700s that illustrated quite clearly the results of too much control imposed on the populace. There was another bloody encounter in the 1860s, less than 100 years later. It's been longer than that since such as that occurred, but it's looking like the time for another may be nearing.
According to Bob Bloomer, regional vice president of Herndon, Va.-based Thompson Hospitality, the largest minority-owned foodservice company in the United States . . .
A company that serves meals to 2½ million schoolchildren daily in more than 500 districts nationwide, with multimillion-dollar contracts in both Washington and Chicago, has a history of marginal quality and food-safety scares amid concerns over the nutritional content of its school menus, according to school and company records.
Chartwells-Thompson School Dining Services, a subsidiary of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Compass Group, owner of Burger King, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is one of North America's largest school cafeteria operators — its contracts with the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2009 totaling more than $289 million and a D.C. operation that could net the firm as much as $140 million from 2008 to 2013.
Besides sharing the same food service provider, the D.C. and Chicago districts both suffer from high rates of poverty and child obesity in what are known as "food deserts," areas with poor access to healthy, affordable food. The District has the highest rate of adolescent obesity in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Chicago ranks fourth-highest.
Even as Congress weighs recommendations from the not-for-profit, nongovernmental Institute of Medicine (IOM) for improving national school lunch standards, the D.C. school district does not list the nutritional content of school meals on its Web site — contrary to the more transparent policies in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Just last year, in the face of Chicago's child-obesity problem, Chartwells defended serving desserts to schoolchildren even as other districts abandoned the practice. Likewise, the company served cheese nachos on a daily basis as a means of getting children to partake in school lunch options.
In 2007, Chicago school officials similarly defended Chartwells' cereal-for-lunch offering, which included sugary brands such as Trix and Cocoa Puffs. Two years later, cereal maker General Mills announced it was reducing the sugar content in its products, including Trix and Cocoa Puffs, in the face of growing scrutiny from consumers, regulators and health groups over the nutritional value of their foods.
A Chicago schools spokesman said the city's school meals "meet or exceed" federal standards.
At Claremont Academy Elementary School on the South Side, officials allow packed lunches but confiscate any snacks loaded with sugar or salt. (They often are returned after school.) Principal Rebecca Stinson said that though students may not like it, she has yet to hear a parent complain.
This whole community reeks of authoritarianism. It's clearly predominately Hispanic; does "culture" have something to do with it?
The grade of the food used in school lunches isn’t that great.
For example diseased chickens with open puss filled sores are allowed to be used for chicken nuggets used in schools. The cooking process kills the bacteria so its safe.
Chicago vomited out the Obamanation. They are complicit. Let the Marxists rot in the putrid bed they have made.
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‘Public education is WELFARE’
Public schools are not welfare, we pay for them whether our children use them or not.
Cafeteria workers in Chicago government schools are ‘represented’ by either SEIU or a ‘public service employees’ union of some ilk, right?
“... depend on the federal school lunch cash...”
You are absolutely correct... follow the money. Whether the kids eat free, reduced fee or bring their own, the cafeteria is losing money. I would get a medical note in a hurry rather than have my kids eat that slop. IMHO
[Sigh]...
Baaaaaaaa. Baaaaaaaaa. Baaaaaaaa.
Come on, little programmed sheep -- bleat for us some more.
The quality of school lunches is barely above animal feed. They use the cheapest, most disgusting ingredients possible. I would not allow my kids to eat that crap, my kids bring thier lunch, if such a policy comes here, we move, period.
They’d probably be shocked you wanted to pay for it and weren’t demanding the school provide it for free.
But they ARE required to use the pus to make sweat and sour dipping sauce, so at least there is no waste...
;-)
I’d take my child out of that school!
Did you read the Principal’s Page? It’s barely coherent.
Mystery meat! Yum!
Correction. I made them pay for it. Haha. They are the ones that wanted to see how many I could eat. I ran it off in gym class next block anyway (and then at bball practice).
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