Mum gets fined for sending a healthy lunch to school

[fireheart17]

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/par...-1226764173038

So apparently a Canadian school requires that parents send along a "balanced" lunch (one that contains all the food groups...) and will supplement the meal if needed, while then charging it to the parents account.

Apparently the "healthy" meal the mother sent (leftover roast beef, potatoes, carrots, oranges and milk) did not contain grains. So do they:

a) remind the kid that their parent/s need to send along a sandwich or something along those lines.
b) give the kid a piece of bread to go with their sandwich.
c) give the kid RITZ CRACKERS as a "grain".

If you picked c) congratulations, you are this school.

On top of that, the mother notes that despite the "balanced" meals requirement, a parent can send along a TV dinner, a hot dog, a juice box, cheesestring and a package of fruit twists without any dramas. (if anyone's missed the memo by this point, that's high in salt, high in god-knnows what, high in sugar, processed cheese and high in sugar again)

My question is: do these kids not get recess or what?! That sounds a bit excessive for a lunch.

[Gravekeeper]

Few things here ( Gawker has a habit of running before reading all the actual facts >.> )

1) Its not a school, its a daycare. So no there's no structured classes, recess, etc.
2) Her account was charged, she was not fined. You don't have an account with a school.
3) The Ritz crackers was the daycare staff's descision. There's also such a thing as whole wheat Ritz. Though this sounds like a case of the staff finding something that technically fit the letter of the law rather than the spirit.
4) The daycare gave up dealing with parents that couldn't pack a proper lunch and started just serving lunch themselves.

[AccountingDrone]

Sorry, first time that happened to my kid I would be down there dancing on their desk. Nobody tells me that the diet I feed my sprog is inadequate - how does the school know the kid isn't celiac or have some other dietary issue other than peanut allergy [I checked our school system only asks about peanuts, go freaking figure - I asked Brian the first selectman to go and change it to any food allergy just to cover all the bases]

Though I might go nuts and ask my doc to 'prescribe' a specific diet eliminating grain or whatever, or specifying vegetarian or vegan or whatever it was I was following [hey, I have a friend with a son who has no problem with gluten but anything remotely corn - grain, starch, oil, syrup causes serious health issues and an ER visit for anything from hives for external skin contact to varying degrees of digestive issues with consumption.]

[bex1218]

That sounds like enough food for a lunch for school or otherwise. I think she could manage without the grains for a meal.

[Gravekeeper]

A bit more digging reveals that this all happened a YEAR ago and that the daycare was not actually allowed to charge a fee for mandatory supplementing food. Furthermore, the day care removed the charge the very next day when mom brought it to their attention. The day care was reprimanded by Manitoba Family Services as well.

Finally, and most idiotically, mom was a chair on the board for the day care and was part of the board that made the decision to implement the very fee she herself is whining about being charged. Half the reason she was angry was because she got charged while being a board member.

So in closing, this woman is a moron and has no right to complain whatsoever about a policy that was *against* government regulation to begin with and whom she HERSELF had a part in implementing.

Sorry, first time that happened to my kid I would be down there dancing on their desk. Nobody tells me that the diet I feed my sprog is inadequate - how does the school know the kid isn't celiac or have some other dietary issue other than peanut allergy.

No offense, but notifying a day care or school if your child has a serious dietary problem like celiac is 100% the parent's responsibility. The parents are fully aware of the policy here. If they don't tell the day care workers a child requires a special diet, there's no way they're going to magically know.

[bex1218]

That screams major EW here.

[Aethian]

I don't think it screams EW because of the type of meal she sent with her kid(s).

[bex1218]

From what Gravekeeper is saying, she sounds like she is too good for her own rules. If you make rules, you should follow them also.

[s_stabeler]

I don't think it screams EW because of the type of meal she sent with her kid(s).

what's EW about it was the woman made the rule, and she specifically thought she should be exempt because she was a board member.

but yeah, this is a case where neither side comes out smelling of roses. OTOH, I CAN see the idea behind the policy (make sure the kid gets a balanced diet- if a kid is eating crap food, then they will find it harder to concentrate in school) but it's probably better simply to ban packed lunches and provide a balanced school meal every lunchtime. ( having said that, it doesn't always work- in the UK, some schools do exactly that, and parents have been known to pass fast food to the kids through the railings, talking about how it's their right to feed their kids whatever they want. Yeah, at home maybe.)

[Gravekeeper]

but yeah, this is a case where neither side comes out smelling of roses. OTOH, I CAN see the idea behind the policy (make sure the kid gets a balanced diet- if a kid is eating crap food, then they will find it harder to concentrate in school) but it's probably better simply to ban packed lunches and provide a balanced school meal every lunchtime.

Again, daycare. This is a daycare. The policy is for day care and other early learning centers. Not schools. Some of the US media is having a somewhat annoying field day with this going on about how its school policy and OMG socialism. -.-

[fireheart17]

Again, daycare. This is a daycare. The policy is for day care and other early learning centers. Not schools. Some of the US media is having a somewhat annoying field day with this going on about how its school policy and OMG socialism. -.-

Australian media . that said, the amount of food being sent sounds a tad excessive over one day. Hell, most lunchboxes I've seen at the services I work at (preschool and school-aged alike!) will have a sandwich, a treat or two and the kids have water. in the afternoon we provide fruit/vegie platter (kids self-regulate) and a second snack (which can be anything from Doritos to rice cakes-the kids usually only get 1-2 of that though).

but yeah, this is a case where neither side comes out smelling of roses. OTOH, I CAN see the idea behind the policy (make sure the kid gets a balanced diet- if a kid is eating crap food, then they will find it harder to concentrate in school) but it's probably better simply to ban packed lunches and provide a balanced school meal every lunchtime. ( having said that, it doesn't always work- in the UK, some schools do exactly that, and parents have been known to pass fast food to the kids through the railings, talking about how it's their right to feed their kids whatever they want. Yeah, at home maybe.)

Now I want to see a chicken-wire type fence where parents CAN'T do that

I don't think it screams EW because of the type of meal she sent with her kid(s).

The point she was making was that they had issues with her lunch, but if she'd sent along junk food, they wouldn't have cared.

[crashhelmet]

The thing that bothers me the most about this story is the fact that the Day care has a Board of Directors.

[Gravekeeper]

The thing that bothers me the most about this story is the fact that the Day care has a Board of Directors.

Yeah, that is rather weird. I get the impression its more a handful of volunteer parents that wanted a fancy title. -.-

[wolfie]

It's my understanding that potatoes are supposed to be considered a "grain equivalent" - after all, the main contribution of grain is complex carbohydrates, and what else would they be treated as - vegetable? Also, "grain" could mean anything from white rice (basically pure starch) to 12 grain bread made using only whole grains. "Fruit" could be a banana or a cup of orange slices and assorted berries. There's a VERY wide range of nutritional value within each category, and if the homemade meal had contained white rice instead of potatoes it would have fit the letter of the requirements while having the same (or worse, if the potatoes had been skin-on roasted new potatoes) nutrition.

Also, what happens in the case where the parent sends something (e.g. Tupperware container of homemade chili, to be reheated) where it would be hard for the staff to identify the ingredients? Are there enough tomatoes in it to be considered a serving of fruit/vegetable, or not?

A (prison) disciplinary technique I read about a while back is "nutriloaf" - the old "bread and water" is out because the jail is legally required to provide balanced meals, so instead they take the meal, throw it into a blender, and bake the result into a tasteless mush. If the kid has been misbehaving, why can't the parent send them to school with "nutriloaf" for their lunch? Good luck trying to identify how many servings from what category are in that!

[Gravekeeper]

It's my understanding that potatoes are supposed to be considered a "grain equivalent"

Oddly enough, that was the exact argument she used to get out of the charge.

With a little bit of "Do you know who I am" as well I'm sure. -.-