Teachers granted power to ‘confiscate and destroy’ unhealthy school lunches

[Kullervo]

The Nanny State at work. I don't agree that forcibly confiscating a kid's lunch is the right way to change a habit. A better way would be to subsidise fresh fruit, vegetables and meat, and add a sugar tax, so more people could afford to make healthy food choices. Part of the problem with junk food is that it's cheap.

There is some support for this idea in the medical community:

Sugar tax to pay for treating obesity - Telegraph

 

[miss fortune]

I don't agree with policing lunches. At the same time, is this where we are now? That is sad. Obesity is a problem but I don't think this is going to be the solution.

I would like to see more emphasis on physical education and health education instead. It's been a long time since I was in school but do they still have Phys. Ed?

I know some schools have cut it because of scheduling but please someone enlighten me on it.

I know that they've cut it down to once a week at most in a lot of schools around here AND they cut back on recess

 

[Habba]

Just look at these lunches and see the startling difference:

https://www.distractify.com/sweetgreen-international-school-lunches-1197823898.html

 

[Bush]

It'd be cool if, you know, the school could just piss right off and focus on education. When this nonsense arises.. well, why not just make every school ever a boarding school? Then the supposed untrustworthy parents won't need any say or responsibility in any aspect of their kids' lives.

I also wonder what these schools' cafeterias serve. The article seems to imply that kids at this school bring lunches from home, but most school cafeterias serve up the greasiest, grossest stuff imaginable.

.. at least mine did. I may have been ripped off through all of K-12.

 

[Jaguar]

Just look at these lunches and see the startling difference:

https://www.distractify.com/sweetgreen-international-school-lunches-1197823898.html

I'm moving to Italy.

 

[Bush]

I'm moving to Italy.

Yup. Moving to Italy and reliving elementary school, Billy Madison style.

 

[evilrubberduckie]

I liked my school lunches... But you know, you can serve me anything and I'll eat it. I was never the picky eater.

 

[1010830]

Nothing wrong with that. If people, specially kids, are given the liberty to choose but choose poorly, then they must be made to follow the instructions of a supervisor. Moving on.

 

[Betty Blue]

I liked my school lunches... But you know, you can serve me anything and I'll eat it. I was never the picky eater.

Many moons ago, I was an attendee of an inner London comp primary education C of E school.... I was glad of the free school meals... they were my one reliable square meal a day. I ate all my greens, loved that we had two courses!. Arctic roll and custard was my fav desert. Yep.

 

[melomania]

One of my favorite memories from my childhood was when I would find the surprise pack of Dunkaroos that my mom would sneak into my lunch! Those teachers couldn't pry those Dunkaroos out of my cold dead hands if their lives depended on it!

 

[OrangeAppled]

I have seen such hypocrisy in the way schools deal with food and kids.

The teachers send notes to the parents telling them the kids must have 2 vegetables in their lunch, but then the cafeteria lunch considers cooked canned corn and french fries to be vegetables. Arguably, they may be categorized as such, but it really misses the point.

They make the kids eat their sandwich and fruit before cookies and chips (well, okay, fine), but then they feed them free breakfast that is stuff like sugary muffins or extremely processed breakfast sandwiches (which still manage to have a lot of sugar). These free breakfast programs feed total junk to kids and the lunches are not much better (it is all packaged and extremely processed), far worse than what most parents pack. I cannot grasp how this stuff gets approved...

I watched a lecture from some school board nutrition person some time ago, and they broke down how sugar is the same as ethanol at the fundamental level. When naturally occurring, sugar is accompanied by fiber which helps the body process it correctly (ie doesn't become stored as fat). That's my simplistic summary anyway...it was very interesting and thorough. So after explaining this, they announced their mission to remove soda sales from schools because they know what a culprit added sugar is in the obesity epidemic. But then I see schools giving kids fruit juice, chocolate milk and meals packed with added sugar and simple carbs. Their policies are so inconsistent, and yet, they KNOW better.

The amount of sugar they give to these kids in school prepared meals makes me paranoid that they really want these kids addicted to sugar and obese and that the hissy fits they have over what parents pack is just a ruse.

 

[tkae.]

I have seen such hypocrisy in the way schools deal with food and kids.

The teachers send notes to the parents telling them the kids must have 2 vegetables in their lunch, but then the cafeteria lunch considers cooked canned corn and french fries to be vegetables. Arguably, they may be categorized as such, but it really misses the point.

There's a larger hypocrisy that makes me outright pissed off about this decision.

Schools are constantly complaining about the burden being placed on them to provide food for underprivileged children, that "school is sometimes the only place a child is guaranteed a daily meal". Now they want to take food away from kids to foot for even more "nutritious" lunches, because it's not like they're burdened or anything.

They don't get to complain about providing for hungry kids and then take food away from kids just because they deem it lesser than their standard. That's asinine.

 

[Masokissed]

And by confiscate and destroy, they mean eat.