Officials at a North Carolina public school now act as food police, closely monitoring what students bring in their bagged lunches. Any lunch that does not meet their stringent codes for what constitutes a healthy lunch is tagged unfit by the public school food police and supplemented with food from the school cafeteria.
One mom packed her daughter, a student at the public school, a turkey and cheese sandwich, potato chips, a banana, and some apple juice. But according to the public school food police, the meal was lacking in a serving of dairy, and vegetables. So instead, the girl was given a meal from the cafeteria that supplemented the vegetable and milk missing from her bagged lunch. And it also had chicken nuggets. I'm sorry, food police, but unless those are white-meat nuggets breaded with whole-grain crumbs, they're not healthier than a turkey and cheese sandwich. Then the public school food police added insult to injury, sending the girl's parents a bill to cover the cost of the lunch. The lunch they did not request or buy for their daughter.
Since when did public schools become the food police? We are still in America, land of the free, right? The student's family is quite upset at this, and I don't blame them a bit. After the incident, to make matters worse, the school backpedaled. They claim the girl was only told to get milk, but misunderstood and got an entire lunch. Really, public school food police? You're going to blame your mistake on a four year old?
Congress members Larry Kissell and Renee Elmers wrote the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary, in which they cite the gesture as an example of "government overreach" and call it a "waste of money" and an "embarrassment" to North Carolina public schools. Well...duh. However, I think the child's grandmother said it better. With an in-your-face attitude, she told the schools to focus more on academics and less on being the lunchtime food police, and to keep their hands out of her granddaughter's lunchbox. I couldn't have said it better myself.
