I didn’t mean to imply that if she had twinkies, the school would have the right to take away her lunch.  I was just pointing out that it makes it even more outrageous, because it wasn’t even an unhealthy lunch to begin with.

Back when, once upon a time, I was a senior in high school, my mother had packed a nice big lunch-roast beef sandwich (my choice) with all the fixings. What did I do? I went with my classmates to McDonalds. Needless to say Ma was not happy that I wasted a perfectly good lunch that I chose (I own it up to school-spirit).

Yes, but we shouldn’t have to homeschool to have that control.

Rachel, where’s the “like” button? And, my security word is boys17. LOL.

My son also has allergies, and reading things like this terrifies me. It’s hard enough to let go and send him out into the world, without having to worry that he’ll be forced to eat something dangerous.  I’m starting to think that homeschooling is going to be my only option.

All my kids have multiple food allergies, and the story was infuriating! Nuggets have egg (to bind the breading) and the homemade lunch did not. One of my kids was severely allergic to eggs at that age. Had that been my child, I’d have called the police for reckless endangerment of a child….after we got home from the hospital. stupid, stupid, stupid!!

LOL couldn’t have said it better myself!

I agree with you completely Melissa!  Just like the outrage over the HHS mandate is not about contraceptions per se, this is not about Twinkies or nuggets, but about our freedom!  The HHS is a societal menace.

YES! YES! YES! This. Totally this.

No matter what kind of junk a mom sends with her kids, there is NO reason that a “lunch monitor” (what is that anyway? Something related to a komodo dragon?) should ever usurp a parent’s authority over their child. If for some odd reason the lunches were really awful, why wouldn’t the teacher contact the parent & try to deal with things that way?

By dictating what the kid may/may not have in their lunch, Big Brother is just stepping things up a notch…what will they have groomed this generation for? They’ll just be another brick in the wall…

Peggy, you rock.  If they keep telling us that, surely we will all believe it.

So true, Comrade.

ooppps that was “live” in poverty.  And yes I know some of you live in poverty but since you are here posting on this website I know you are very involved in your children’s lives.  This is not about labeling everyone who lives in poverty.  If you look at the statistics it is clear that there is a higher risk of obesity/diabetes in kids who live in poverty.

If this is not a gov’t funded program then what kind of public elementary school has a preschool for 4 year olds?  It would be good to have more information.

In my area, there are some school districts that have universal PreK for 4 year olds.  It is not income based, and it is not a program for high risk children or children in poverty.  I guess you could say that it’s government-run, because it’s a public school and public schools are funded by the government.  But that doesn’t justify a teacher taking away a child’s sandwich and replacing it with chicken nuggets, which aren’t going to do much to combat type II diabetes.

I’m not sure if it was a govt funded program but my town has a full day preschool for 4 year olds. It’s common in New Jersey. 
I understand your point of view, but the child’s lunch from home was fine in this case.
I’m not sure how it happens, but in US, people in “poverty” somehow end up with way more calories than they need. Everyone else around the world understands that a big bag of healthy rice and beans costs the same as a bag of doritos.

And, I just noticed from the article that after replacing the turkey&cheese; sandwich (on whole wheat bread) with the chicken nuggets, they even charged her mother for the meal.  Ridiculous.  I’m just glad this child didn’t have allergies and didn’t suffer a reaction.  Paying for this type of a lunch monitor is not a good use of public school funds.

Claire,

The school recognized they made a mistake and corrected it.  That is why I think this was so blow out of proportion.  Obviously chicken nuggets do not prevent type II diabetes (as someone else noted) 

All the preschools I know set limits on what the kids can bring in and so do the schools my kids go to. I’m not offended by it and actually I think it is a great idea. Now their lunches are not inspected but for parties and celebrations they are trying to limit the junk and teach the kids how to celebrate in other ways. For Valentine’s Day my daughter’s class wrote affirmations for each other on hearts. Of course all the extra candy came home too. I would prefer they didn’t do candy at Valentine’s. We celebrate at home. When I was in elementary school we exchanged Valentine’s and that was it.

We have such a disordered relationship with food in American and it is showing in our health care crisis. So much illness is caused by poor health choices.  Our health care costs our sky rocketing in part because of this.  Yet I rarely hear people acknowledge this.  The gov’t is trying to find a way to reach kids.  I can’t say I have a great deal of hope we are going to change direction but at least out of desperation they are trying.  It just does not seem right to me that we are getting hysterical over someone encouraging us to send in a healthy lunch for our kids.

As a parent of a child with multiple anaphylactic food allergies, I think if anyone could get a pass to get legitimately hysterical about the food aspect itself, I could be given one.

However, the food aspect comes in a distant second in my strong reaction to this incident - no matter which news account I read - compared to my indignation at yet another government over-reach.

Sometimes I wonder if we frogs have been sitting too long in the pot of water.  It’s starting to boil, people!

I am not convinced that the school recognized the mistake and corrected it.  The article linked here does not indicate that;  it indicates that the mother was charged for the chicken nuggets.  Apparently there are conflicting articles about this online.  I am not interested in researching and getting to the bottom of which article is accurate.  I am commenting on the way this was presented here, and if that is accurate, it is very disturbing.  If a school’s standards of a healthy lunch is chicken nuggets, I don’t have much confidence that they are going to reach kids any better than their parents can.  And if they hire workers who make “mistakes” like that, that doesn’t do much for my confidence either.  And as Steph C mentioned, for those of us who have kids with food allergies, we have every right to be hysterical about the possibility that our kids’ lunches can be exchanged with something that could be dangerous for them.  No one here is getting hysterical about efforts to encourage healthy lunches.  We’re upset about usurping parental authority.  Encouragement doesn’t have to involve this. 

Yes, preschools have food standards.  That’s because preschools usually have snacktime where the kids share food.  That is a far cry from dictating what a parent sends for her child’s individual lunch.  I personally wish my son’s preschool didn’t have snacktime at all.  For one thing, after eating snack at 11 am at school, he isn’t ready for lunch till 1 or 1:30.  And then there’s the allergy issue.  But in any case, I’m glad they discourage parents from sending in unhealthy food for the class.  As I said, that’s different than dictating what a parent can send for her own child.  As another commenter mentioned, if a teacher has a concern that a parent is constantly sending in unhealthy lunches, she can discuss this with the parent.  Or if the school wants to supplement a child’s unhealthy lunch with some healthy additions, fine. But according to this article, that’s not what happened here. An occasional twinkie, though I wouldn’t choose that for my son (even if he weren’t allergic), is not a sign of parental neglect or a predictor of someone who is going to develop type II diabetes and deplete the healthcare system.

Once again, you are completely missing the point.  It’s not clear that this is Head Start program, and having guidelines is different than taking away a child’s lunch.  Maybe if you had a child with food allergies you would also be horrified by the idea of a school replacing a child’s (nutritious) lunch with something less nutritious that could in fact be harmful.

Claire, you’re right, it isn’t clear whether or not this was a head start program or whether this policy applies only to head start or all pre-k children. That was why I was trying to approach it with caution and find some sources with more information before forming an opinion. There were a couple of things that indicated to me it was probably, not definitely, a head start program. In one article, the program had a specific name, something about 4 Plus I think. It also appears to be run by the department of Health and Human Services not the state board of education, which is the case with the Head Start in our state. Also, the principal at the school was quoted as not knowing anything about the lunch policies of these children except that they ate in the cafeteria with the rest of the children, again indicating that the program was outside the regular school system. Again, I’m not saying that we as parents shouldn’t be outraged at the incident. It wasn’t right. And as parents we should be aware of the policies in our own jurisdictions and how they are implemented. I can see how parents of children with allergies would be appalled. Specific guidelines for those concerns should be in place and that appears to be an oversight of this policy regardless of its intent. But I can’t be completely against a policy that tries to get food to children who might be without. Maybe the implementation of the policy needs to be reconsidered but I still think it’s basic intent is good and not to take parental authority.

Some people take every chance they can to insult the Catholic church.  Sometimes anonymously, sometimes using their name, but they can find opportunities from endless sources of seemingly unrelated topics.  It’s particularly sad when Catholics themselves feel the need to do this.