Re: Re: Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets”

[Guest guest]

It sounds like something is missing in this story. Schools can't be reimbursed

for a meal unless it is a creditable meal; however, the school couldn't get

money from USDA for a meal brought from home anyway.

Or is this a Head Start program and providing the meal at school is considered a

benefit of being in the program? So children are encouraged to eat what is

prepared at school. State inspectors checking out lunch boxes? Ugh. Maybe the

inspector was new and got carried away. Would love to hear more about this

incident.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Judy Kusnierkiewicz RD LD

Nutrition Coordinator/Head Start

Jefferson lin Community Action Corp.

PO Box 920

Hillsboro, MO 63050

Re: PreschoolerÂ’s Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria

“Nuggets”

You have got to be kidding this is the ultimate in food police.

Jackie Chase RD

Dillingham AK

>

> Preschooler's Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria " Nuggets "

> State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase

> cafeteria food instead

> By Sara Burrows

>

> Feb. 14th, 2012

> More |

>

> RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken

> nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch

> her mother packed was not nutritious.

>

> The girl's turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple

> juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according

> to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in

> her More at Four classroom that day.

>

> The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department

> of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in

> pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet

> USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat,

> one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or

> vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.

>

> When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child

> care providers must supplement them with the missing ones.

>

> The girl's mother — who said she wishes to remain anonymous to protect

> her daughter from retaliation — said she received a note from the school

> stating that students who did not bring a " healthy lunch " would be

> offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the

> cafeteria, in her case $1.25.

>

> " I don't feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide

> lunch for her from home, " the mother wrote in a complaint to her state

> representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.

>

> The girl's grandmother, who sometimes helps pack her lunch, told

> Carolina Journal that she is a petite, picky 4-year-old who eats white

> whole wheat bread and is not big on vegetables.

>

> " What got me so mad is, number one, don't tell my kid I'm not packing

> her lunch box properly, " the girl's mother told CJ. " I pack her lunchbox

> according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never

> consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to

> watch her because she doesn't really care for vegetables. "

>

> When the girl came home with her lunch untouched, her mother wanted to

> know what she ate instead. Three chicken nuggets, the girl answered.

> Everything else on her cafeteria tray went to waste.

>

> " She came home with her whole sandwich I had packed, because she chose

> to eat the nuggets on the lunch tray, because they put it in front of

> her, " her mother said. " You're telling a 4-year-old. `oh. you're lunch

> isn't right,' and she's thinking there's something wrong with her food. "

>

> While the mother and grandmother thought the potato chips and lack of

> vegetable were what disqualified the lunch, a spokeswoman for the

> Division of Child Development said that should not have been a problem.

>

> " With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it

> had cheese on it, that's the dairy, " said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and

> statutory policy manager for the division. " It sounds like the lunch

> itself would've met all of the standard. " The lunch has to include a

> fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.

>

> There are no clear restrictions about what additional items — like

> potato chips — can be included in preschoolers' lunch boxes.

>

> " If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care

> provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child, "

> Kozlowski said.

>

> Ultimately, the child care provider can't take the Coke and Twinkie away

> from the child, but Kozlowski said she " would think the Pre-K provider

> would talk with the parent about that not being a healthy choice for

> their child. "

>

> It is unclear whether the school was allowed to charge for the cafeteria

> lunches they gave to every preschooler in the class that day.

>

> The state regulation reads:

>

> " Sites must provide breakfast and/or snacks and lunch meeting USDA

> requirements during the regular school day. The partial/full cost of

> meals may be charged when families do not qualify for free/reduced price

> meals.

>

> " When children bring their own food for meals and snacks to the center,

> if the food does not meet the specified nutritional requirements, the

> center must provide additional food necessary to meet those requirements. "

>

> Still, Kozlowski said, the parents shouldn't have been charged.

>

> " The school may have interpreted [the rule] to mean they felt like the

> lunch wasn't meeting the nutritional requirements and so they wanted the

> child to have the school lunch and then charged the parent, " she said.

> " It sounds like maybe a technical assistance need for that school. "

>

> The school principal, Jackie s, said he didn't " know anything

> about " parents being charged for the meals that day. " I know they eat in

> the cafeteria. Whether they pay or not, they eat in the cafeteria. "

>

> Pridgen's office is looking into the issue.

>

> Sara Burrows is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.

>

>

http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/homemade-lunch-replaced-with-cafeteria\

-nuggets.html

>