School lunches

[conuly]

You've probably seen this article already, but to sum up, an unspecified number of Chicago schools are banning home-made lunches except for religious or health grounds... which probably adds up to "unless Mommy writes a note". I kinda remember a policy like this being a minor plot point in one of Judy Blume's books, the one that takes place in Florida and that she calls her "most autobiographical book".

Exactly one principal is quoted, from one school. All the students are from that one school, and the district just said "Well, principals can make the rules for their own schools".

And the comments are going crazy. They just about all agree that this is absurd, but they don't all agree on WHY. One comment sums up the general gist of things:

Hmm. So, there seems to be three competing theories about what happened here.

The first is that this principal is a control freak who thinks that, by executing emperor-like powers over 8 year olds, she is now a powerful person.

The second is that she is just another greedy administrator abusing her position for monetary gain.

The third is that she is part of a world-wide conspiracy to bring the end of democracy to all nations by the insidiously evil, yet ingenious plan of forcing 8 year olds to eat crappy enchiladas.

Yeah, I like the third option as well. MUCH more entertaining.

It is, of course, all Obama's fault... despite the fact that this policy came to effect six years ago.

Anyway, that one little article has spawned a whole bunch of OTHER posts on the subject:

Here's one just a little earlier on kindergarten lunchtime in Japan
And that same writer's take on the Chicago story.
(And, by the way, she linked to this adorable picture of first graders serving lunch. Aw! Can't read the Japanese.)

Loosely related is this report of how they make foods in (one) DC school.

And of course, there's the post from the school lunch woman.

Comments

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay, they do exclude on religious grounds? A couple articles I saw earlier specified only allergies. That's good, because even if they could manage the general kosher rules, I'm pretty sure "kosher for Passover" would be beyond them.

[conuly]

They don't say they do in the article, but I'm sure they do. It's like when schools ban hats, they don't say "except for religious reasons" but they have no choice on that.

They also, you'll note, don't say in the article what the criteria is for getting an exemption. I don't know, but I'd be surprised if it's really any more complicated than having your parents request one.

Actually, I hadn't read any of that.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I think the latin is "Cui bono?"

Talking point one:
$2.25 a day? Shit, for Grey's twelve-hour shift I pack food for TWO lunches that costs less than that. (Sandwiches on homemade bread, handful of OMG!chips, fruit, and a cookie or piece of coffeecake, etc.) SOMEbody is making bank off this ridiculous policy.

Talking point two:
This is just another attempt--like the one banning homebaked goods at bake sales--to eradicate the culture I was raised in, where you damned well do for yourself instead of shoving money at other people to do it for you.

Re: Actually, I hadn't read any of that.

[conuly]

A lot of people have pointed that out. And your lunches are bigger than the ones I pack - half a sandwich (our slices of bread are really big) and either one or two pieces of fruit depending on how big the fruit is.

No chips, cookies (except on the rare occasions I've baked), or coffeecake. As I tell the nieces, I don't have money to spend on junk when I'm trying to figure out how to buy good food. (And every cent spent on chips is a penny NOT being spent on used books. Priorities, girls!)

However, it's important to note that 99% of that school is on free lunch. The school is most definitely making money off of having them take lunch instead of bringing their own, but the parents aren't paying for it.

Re: Actually, I hadn't read any of that.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Grey works in a factory. Manual labor needs a lot of fuel, and twelve hours means two meals at work instead of one. (They're bigger than the lunches I packed for myself, too, since my work seldom involved a lot of physical labor.) He likes chips, so we buy the store brand.

That makes it somewhat worse--the parents are paying for it all right, as in the "free" lunch program comes out of tax dollars and most of us pay some kind of taxes. (Sales, service tax, it all goes into the General Fund, out of which come "education" monies.)

Re: Actually, I hadn't read any of that.

[conuly]

Yeah, but we'd be paying those taxes anyway. Many people on free lunch are on there because otherwise they can't afford to feed their kids lunch.