Chicago School Bans Homemade Lunches

Originally posted by Starwise
reply to post by truthseeker1984

 

I am looking for a music teacher! Wish you were in NC!

You know, I had thought about moving to NC. Many of my friends have moved down that way looking for better work (or any work at all for that matter). What I have heard from many of them is that the private sector (including private schools) is much more forgiving (politics wise), and much more enriching than working in public schools. If you are home schooling and need some basic music materials to use, U2U me. I have many resources I could pass on to you which anybody that isn't too familiar with music could teach. Let me know.




Peace be with you.

-truthseeker

The very idea of the state dicatating what a child will eat infuriates me to
a level which, if publicly described, would have me immediately disappeared.

My main contention is the cost of the food versus the value. I'd be willing to
bet a month's pay that if a school system made more money buying GMO
versus local organic ingredients, my bet's on the GMO.
Guess who wins and who suffers? You don't mind recombinant bovine growth
hormones building up in your undeveloped children, do you?
What are you anyway, some kind of extremist?
Sorry for the sarcasm, but this policy had better loosen up real quick.

Charlotte Iserbyt and Yuri Besmenov were absolutely on target. We are
now ruled by who we regarded as our worst enemies, because we allowed
it for too long. But we're going to let this poke slide too, aren't we??

That's nuts. When I was a kid, my mom made us make our own lunches while she supervised. Usually it was some kind of basic sandwich (but with Mom's home-baked bread), fruit, and some third items such as homemade cookies, crackers and cheese, or chopped veggies.

$2 for slop and chocolate milk. Ugh.

reply to post by mutantgenius


You had me at Hot Dogs......they contain nitrates, a known carcinogen. I wouldn't be surprised if the chicken patties and nuggets contained it as well. I wouldn't let my kids eat it so they would be forced to eat pb&j (probably on white bread) or salad (probably not organic) on three of the days.
Great choices!

Didn't they also just say that yellow 5 can cause ADD? I wonder if that is in the school lunch?

My kids school lunches are $2.50 per day, I have 2 in school and a third that will be soon. $7.50 per day to eat garbage. 37.50 per week, what's that....$150 to 187.50 per month?? To eat pb&j???

Originally posted by Starwise
reply to post by GhostLancer

 

At first reading your reply I wanted to smack you upside the head but quickly figured out your sense of humor

Thanks for not smacking! LOL ...And to think, I **almost** chose not to include the public service line at the end, wanting to see how many infuriating responses that post would have generated. I'm glad that I didn't do that. But, I do see how a lot of people out there might agree with my sarcasticly dry-humored post, only they would really agree. It's hard to believe how so many people are blind to the truth behind aspartame, MSG, HFCS and other harmful substances. It's hard to believe how many people DON'T WANT TO KNOW. They just want to drink that diet soda, have that MSG-enhanced flavor in their Cheetos, and pour their maple syrup which is 99% corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, artificially colored and flavored. To take personal responsibility for their diets would take effort, and at the end of the day, most people are lazy. Most dangerously, is being lazy minded, lazy willed. Unfortunately, that most dangerous condition is in epidemic proportions in this country and perhaps the world.

Originally posted by DoubleLL
How would other programs work? Like home schooling or private schools?

I would definitely home school my kids. I haven't looked into it, but you can bet I'd research it and find out exactly how to make it much higher quality than the education kids are getting at public school these days. Somehow I don't think it would be hard to do that. It would take a devotion to the kids, time, energy and a lot of work, but it would be worth it.

s to specifics, I don't know them, but people do it all the time.

Originally posted by Skewed
DEFY DEFY DEFY. Remind them who they work for.

I would tell them that my child is allergic to CRAP and insist that he brings his own lunch. I can't believe they actually have the power to PREVENT kids from bringing their own lunch! That's insane! Times like these, I wish I was a parent and living in that school district! I'd be meeting with parents and raising a bigger stink that you've ever seen me raise here on this board!

I can't believe people put us with this! Ack!

Another example of how it's no longer Red and Blue or Democrap or Republic*nt, but Us and Them, and They are gaining more ground every day. Deciding what we're going to eat has been a basic human liberty from beyond the dawn of time... well, not for those kids, not anymore. Teach 'em young, that they are powerless over even the most mundane things in their lives, and we are all truly doomed. Children are the future, why wouldn't the corporate oligarchs grind them down? They need minions who haven't known any other life, to silence the last whisper of individual, private liberty once the rest of us are too old to fight.

Carmona said she created the policy six years ago

And it's just news now?

"This is such a fundamental infringement on parental responsibility," said J. Justin Wilson, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Center for Consumer Freedom, which is partially funded by the food industry.

Aha! Maybe it just came to the attention of this food industry group. Of course, they're going to fight efforts that lessen the home purchase of junk food, or food with negligible/undesirable nutritional value.

This school in Arizona allows lunches from home, but bans certain foods in lunches. link

I'm sorry, but when I was in grade school during the 1960s, I had one obese classmate. Drive by many elementary schools nowadays (usually in poorer neighborhoods) and one sees quite a few young people obese or even severely obese.

Or, as with a family member who allowed her four children each to drink a six pack of soda a day, then ended up with three of the four put on Ritalin for ADD, I wonder about the health of our young people. Poor diet and lack of exercise.

The food industry in general could care less about the dietary value of what they sell. The bottom line is the monetary value brought in. Most products in the grocery store are made for convenience, with the producers' ingredients beyond your control. It is the buyer of these products who really have turned over their control to the food industry.

I feel sorry for schools that must deal with obese students and students who have donuts for breakfast, soda and snack food for lunch, and then go home to eat processed crap. The last group, no matter how they look or what socio-economic group they're from, probably could be considered malnourished. And I doubt malnourished children perform at their best. Good Lord, even an engine would not perform well on an octane lower than it should have!

reply to post by desert


And with the obese, issue, theyre making it worse! You cannot play tag, chase eachother, or play dodgeball, or anything of the type! And the higher grade you get, the less exercise you get. We are not allowed on the field at my school. P.E is the only exercise we are allowed. It's truly ridiculous!

I remember in elementrary school, early to mid 80's..teacher always took us to cafeteria lunch time, no ifs and or butts..but i think moreso becuase they knew they were required too* always had hotdogs, milk, chocolate milk in the small cardboard containers, and you could bring bagged lucnhes form home, which is what i did..peanut butter and jelly, good sugar and protien, sometimes an apple, sometimes, olive loaf with mustard, chips, soda. at leat we were brouoght too the cafeteria*
in high school form about 1992, (started in 1990) they started searving pizza, dominos i think..pepsi and coke vending machines, vending machines for salty chips. the cafeteria woman, my older sisters finaces mother, always made descent food thier..sloppy joe, i dont reember much more to be honest. but seeing fast food stuff come in halfway through high school, kinda turned me off. seemed moe of a way to target for profit, not as honest as they sem on their commercials. now its not a high school anymore.close in 1994, re opened as a middle school i belive.
the kids should NOT be denied their right to eat food. they need thier energy to focus, and have reserve energy for sports on grounds, or whatever,..creativity. its very american and traditional to bring bagged lun nch or alunch box in..complete with thermos! telling em to go ahead n starve then..i dont like the sounds of that school. ide be trying to pull my kid out itno another lcoal school, fight the baord of whomever. howd you like it if it told you you cant have lunch, per taxpayer request* or snort coc aine off that office desk for that matter..might as well be to be so paranoid to come up with such a law banning bringing lunch in/

I think the princiaple, ro lawmakers who came up with this law, shuold be drug tested and made public*

reply to post by Hessling


Wait so what would happen if you packed your kids a lunch anyways? I know if my child ever got in trouble for eating a lunch I made him during LUNCH, I would be busting some noses.

hey we could hope for the best, maybe the gov't is using these kids as guinea pigs in a study to see just what the crap does to kids, if they start having more behavior problems, more asthma and such, more attention deficit, well, maybe they'll get a clue???

I'm glad my kids are grown is all I can say....

for those who home school, ya know, that solution may be great for some, but not all children. I'm afraid that there are some kids, who well, if mom was left to teach them would end up dumber than their parents, and then left to teach their kids to be even dumber. we do need a healthy viable public school system, since (and I do really mean this in a kind way), a portion of our population will always not have the mental capacity to reach the potential of your modern day 6th grader, and well, some of those people can have some really intelligent offspring!!
although, I got to say, the internet opens up a wide range or options regarding education, and with a little developement in the area, a few free computers and internet service, well, I think we could save alot of money, and many of our kids would learn alot more, alot better, just using online lectures, video conferencing, and an occasional visit to a testing center to prove that they did in fact learn the material. and well, parents could be left to feed their kids what they wish....maybe some of you computer geniuses could start working in that area....

I'd like to see the complete curriculum from say second or third grade on up through college offered free (outside of the taxes needed to pay for it of course) online, available for who ever wants to utilize it. the only reason why I say start at second or third grade is that I do see the need for kids to learn how to interact with society, although, another avenue could be opened to teach that, maybe the local y could offer their resources for gym class...since well, physical activity is another necessity...or field trips in nature as part of science class, and the like....
but, many of the kids today, I think would learn alot more by just getting a computer and internet in their hands than the rigid school is giving them.....

Originally posted by MyMindIsMyOwn
reply to post by mutantgenius

 

Could not agree more with you MG!

Did a little research and just so far I've found that through this Chartwells-Thompson school catering company in Washington, DC they also offer Breakfast and Dinner in addition to Lunches.... nice... would love to see the company financials on this. I want to see just what the revenue alone on those free meals (as mentioned in the article) add to the company's profit margins. My guess is that the kick back money on the free meals makes up a larger portion of their profits than does the revenu from their regular services.... just a hunch. Chartwell's DC School Program

Will try to dig into this a little more later. I'm smelling a rat big time. I would not at all be surprised if there is a connection somewhere with someone like Kraft Foods, who we all know had none other than Dick Cheney on their board.

Oh, and by the way... Chartwells-Thompson is owned by the Compass Group, for what that is worth....and through Compass Group is where I am trying to find a connection with the US Govt.

Funny you mention Kraft foods. I remember earlier in the year they were doing a "recycle your juice box" thing. Basically, put the juice box in a seperate bin and the school would send it off to be made into something new. Again, it all sounds great, reduce, reuse, recycle, right?
The paper the school sent home was just a photo copy of what was sent to them, (which I don't think they were supposed to do) it was from Capri-sun and stated on the paper that it was not advertising for Capri-Sun and not to use the name in the school mailings. They were given posters for the cafeteria which didn't say the brand name, but none the less had the appearence of Capri-Sun (without the name, I'm sure you know what they look like and that they stand out from other juice boxes)
So they avoid the accusations of hawking their crummy, high fructose corn syrup, yellow #5 garbage on young children, whilst marketing to the kids anyway.
Sadly, I saw the stuff they were using the juice boxes for in Walmart a few months later. Wallets and tote bags with Capri-Sun all over them (I guess they just tossed the other brand juice boxes eh?) I remember seeing them and looking at the price, I can't really remember, maybe 8 bucks for the wallet and 15 for the bag. It just kind of made me sick. Marketing and profiting on so many levels from something that seems so innocent.


Good luck on your investigation, I wouldn't be suprised at the worst you find. It's sickening the lengths some will go to make a profit.

reply to post by mutantgenius


This post and your referenced post remind me why I'm sooooo cynical.

Years ago individual schools had real kitchens, where real food (commodities from US farmers) were used by real cooks to prepare lunches comparable to or better than what students received at home. Then, to save costs, kitchens were often "centralized", with meals delivered to schools; still, though, meals were prepared by real cooks.

About 30 years ago, the push to privatize govt functions started to allow business to take over the school lunch program. Corporations ended up coming on campus, getting rid of real kitchens, and setting up shop to sell prepared meals. For ex, a company already in the airline food business would deliver prepared "airline style" school lunches.

Now, mind you, this is all just one example of how corporations had figured a way to get the govt to give corporations tax dollars, rather than a local school paying tax dollars to your neighbor Mrs Gridley to dish out her next-to-homecooked lunch,

Whereas school lunches used to use tax dollars to buy commodities, now tax dollars are too often used to provide profits to companies who provide prepared nutritional crap, the food IMO probably loaded with cheap ingredients so the company can keep profits up. Whereas before Mrs Gridley knew her commodities were from US farms, now who knows what country that mushroom or fruit came from! Are the mushrooms from China, or the fruit from whatever country sells them the cheapest?

And, yes, school kitchens often merely reheat food prepared who knows where, under who knows what conditions, by who knows what workers. I'm not surprised children complain of stomach aches and diarrhea from such food and food handling!

Originally posted by Nobama
reply to post by Hessling

 

Wait so what would happen if you packed your kids a lunch anyways? I know if my child ever got in trouble for eating a lunch I made him during LUNCH, I would be busting some noses.

Good question.

What do you estimate the odds are of a parent out there with a child attending the school who has every intention of doing EXACTLY what you stated?

I'm guessing..........................100%!!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Originally posted by mutantgenius
The paper the school sent home was just a photo copy of what was sent to them, (which I don't think they were supposed to do) it was from Capri-sun and stated on the paper that it was not advertising for Capri-Sun and not to use the name in the school mailings. They were given posters for the cafeteria which didn't say the brand name, but none the less had the appearence of Capri-Sun (without the name, I'm sure you know what they look like and that they stand out from other juice boxes)
.....
Sadly, I saw the stuff they were using the juice boxes for in Walmart a few months later. ..... Marketing and profiting on so many levels from something that seems so innocent.

It's sickening the lengths some will go to make a profit.

Hmmmmmmm, not wanting to release information that might embarrass or put in a not so altruistic light....I guess govt has started to be run like a business.

I guess encouraging students to purchase certain products has been taken to a new level. I can remember saving box tops, etc, but they couldn't be turned into stuff. The next level is to prey on sense of doing something for the environment, using students as scavengers, sending the trash overseas where another child can assemble the stuff into products the American student would buy.

Sadly, school food has become corporate food. And an amoral corporate culture has put a spin on bribes, turning "kickbacks" into "rebates" and "incentives". A chilling read to make your blood boil.

We can talk of govt waste, but I say that corporations defrauding govt and collecting tax dollars is the bigger culprit. Little wonder the latest cry is for less govt; that way corporations can plunder tax dollars unhampered.

reply to post by Hessling


This violates the very preamble of our U.S. Constitutional rights.

Quote from : Wikipedia : Preamble to the United States Constitution : Text

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Bolded and underlined by SKL.

Forcing someone to pay for something they cannot afford is not promoting general welfare.

This is right up there with school uniforms and mandatory corporal punishment.

While they can certainly pick and choose the types of food served, to make a vitamin rich diet, this is going too far, and is guaranteed to make people pull their children out of public school, so I guess if children go to homeschool they can eat what they want.