Megan sent me this great article. It should provide a lot of conversation (in the comments section or in class). You should read the article yourself, but the gist is that a Chicago school is now making rules stating that parents can not send lunches to school with their children. In other words, the children "must" eat in the school cafeteria. No more brown bag lunches.
This brings up a few issues - does the school provide as nutritious of a lunch as the parents would have? Could the parents prepare a lunch for less money than the $2.25 they are required to pay for the cafeteria lunch? Might this force the schools to start to more closely examine their lunches and therefore provide more nutritious lunches?
There are also schools in other parts of the nation that are making similar rules. For instance, a school in AZ allows home-packed lunches, but nothing that contains white flour, refined sugar or other processed foods. Good-bye Lunchables! A school in Alabama forbid any drinks in lunches since there was tap water available in the school.
Thoughts?
This seems a little ridiculous. It doesn't give the parents any say in what their children eat at school. Even if the school does provide nutritious lunch at school, I feel that many parents could give their kids just at nutritious lunches made at home. And the money is also a big issue. Parents could definitely make lunch that is cheaper than the school lunch. While this would force the schools to change and take a closer look at what foods they are serving, the parents should be able to make their kids lunches if they choose. I believe it is a great idea for schools to regulate what they serve and ban certain foods, but this seems like it would be difficult to check every students lunch to make sure they don't contain certain drinks and ingredients.
ReplyDeleteThis is a crazy piece of legislation. The poor kids. Parents in Chicago should [and probably are] be outraged. The school must be doing this to make money but it doesn't seem like the best way to go about it. A bake sale or weekend car wash would make a lot more sense. Some children are picky eaters and others are allergic to certain foods. It's really not the roll of the school to dictate what children eat while they are there.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good idea for schools to have some say in what children are eating due to the epidemic that we currently are facing, obesity. However, I do think they are taking it a little to far by not allowing children to bring lunches. It should be turned into a form of regulation where the school serves "healthier" foods than the parents of the children would pack. Schools should look more into disallowing vending machines too in order to stop children from growing dependent on snacking on unhealthy foods during the day that give the children lots of energy then the children crash quickly after the sugar high wears off.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the school is trying to make sure the students receive the right nutrition during lunch, but this is going a little too far. I could also understand if the academy was a private school, but Little Village Academy is a public school and should follow the same rules and guidelines as the rest of the Chicago area public schools. Having said that, I do think there are other alternatives to get the students to eat more nutritious food. Sarah has a good idea in preventing vending machines and soda machines as that happened to my middle school and definitely led to me drinking a lot less soda.
ReplyDeleteI think this would be an awesome opportunity to offer healthy nutritious lunches to younger kids to encourage a healthy lifestyle earlier on. This would definitely combat child obesity statistics that are currently rising. If the schools are providing healthy menus then this would actually be an awesome idea. My hope is that the healthy aspect is what they are planning because if they would provide bad food then this should not be enforced.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience with cafeteria food, it contains high sodium counts and unappealing and not very nutritious choices. Often, the parents that take the time out of their day to pack lunches, are packing more nutritious and well-rounded meals. I think some of the ideas stated in the article would be better to implement--such as banning white flour and soda. Like we talked about in class, the schools should focus on education of nutritious foods. I understand the importance of a balanced and nutritious diet, but I believe that often times a home-made lunch will contain less calories, fat and sodium. I think that limiting certain bad foods from home-made lunches is a great idea, but that these home-made lunches should not be banned altogether.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Jackson
Like Kelsey, my experience with cafeteria food was very unhealthy- nacho cheese to put on broccoli etc. However I have heard that in the 4 years since there have been major changes in the food quality. One of the most disturbing parts of this article was how the children have no option- eat the school food or don’t eat. Not eating is just as bad, if not worse than having an unhealthy homemade lunch. The one benefit of this this program I can see is with children that have allergies. With so many children with peanut allergies popping up, controlling all the food that is brought to school could protect them. If Michelle Obama is serious about implementing a healthier lunch program, she needs to make sure it is as cost effective as making a homemade lunch. That may require subsidizing the lunch programs, but parents will probably be more accepting if it won’t cost more money.
ReplyDeleteI am shocked to find out that this is a public school. I think that banning brown bag lunches all together is a bit extreme. Even putting limits on what a child is allowed to bring in their lunch seems like a bit much. How would the schools regulate this? I believe that it is up to the parents to educate their kids on what being healthy really means, therefore, they should be able to pack whatever they would like in the child's lunches. Also, how would the public schools afford this? They would not get away with banning brown bag lunches and then still only offer pizza and nachos; they would have to provide the children with healthy options, which would increase costs significantly. Parents should teach their kids about being healthy, and teachers should supplement this by giving the basics on nutrition and exercise during class lessons.
ReplyDeleteI think this article is ridiculous as well. A school cannot force the children to eat what they want, but can encourage it by only selling healthy foods in schools. Many parents do not want their children eating food at school for cost and health reasons. School foods even though some are healthy arent always healthy. Much of it is still processed. Parents should teach their kids about health and they are aware of what is good and what is not good. You can easily produce a lunch for under $2.25 and be just as nutritious as lunches. I don't know if there is any research or data given about the Chicago's school system budget or school budget, but it looks like they are not selling much school food and trying a way to implement it.
ReplyDelete