The Chicago Public School District’s Little Village Academy Middle School banned kids from bringing their own lunches. They may only eat what the cafeteria provides them, and some kids are refusing to eat lunch at all.
Principle Elsa Carmona finds it unacceptable that kids are bringing soda and chips to school for snack. Assuming parents are incapable of providing healthy options for their kids, she explains. “It is milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception.”
What about religious matters or picky eaters? How about vegetarians or vegans? There are no accommodations for them.
However, Elsa is not the only one; all of CPS is advocating this healthy initiative in all of the wrong ways. Some schools still allow the sack lunches, but principles can act like food-Nazis and confiscate them if a food is deemed unhealthy. Elsa insisted the policy is common practice, even though she could not name another district practicing the policy.
CPS recently implemented new, nutritional guidelines. They will now offer a different vegetable every day. I’m sure they are purchasing the cheapest, powdered potatoes they can find.
A 25 percent whole grain requirement on breakfast was added, and these breakfast items cannot contain any “dessert or candy-type” ingredients. Oh, and only reduced fat salad dressings and mayonnaise will be offered. They are so proud of their new changes that they cannot put a menu anywhere online to glance at.
Looking at several food reviews from parents, since a menu is not posted, a 60-ingredient, grey chicken patty is served every day, alongside breaded fish wrapped in a starchy flour tortilla. Kids have the choice of getting a scoop of brown, iceberg lettuce on the side, and kids say the apples taste like hand sanitizer.
Besides the obvious immorality of the food fight, the decision hurts CPS economically. The federal government pays the district for each free or reduced-price lunch taken, and the caterer receives a set fee from the district per lunch. The school pockets its cut of the action.
Families who do not qualify for free lunch or a discount for their kids are forced to pay around $2.25 per day.
“We don’t spend anywhere close to that on my son’s daily intake of a sandwich (lovingly cut into the shape of a Star Wars ship), Goldfish crackers and milk,” Northwestern education policy professor Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach told Openmarket.org in defense of her healthy lunches.
I am well aware that 34 percent of Americans are classified as “obese”; however, obesity is not going to be cured by neglecting human rights or the rights of parents. The government is sending out a message through CPS saying parents are incapable of feeding their own children healthily.
We can eat whatever we choose, and parents can feed their children however they please. It’s reported kids are throwing away their lunches untouched and chanting, “We should bring our own food!”
These kids have not even reached puberty, and the government is regulating their food choices. This is teaching kids nothing but rebellion. Plain and simple, the government cannot force feed them. Yes, provide healthy choices, but do not make the choices. If the children are being forced to eat what is provided, they will never learn how to delegate what is healthy on their own.
