Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets”

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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

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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