Preschoolers UNHEALTHY lunch replaced by CHICKEN NUGGETS

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**AustonT**

I would be howling for blood. If I went to the trouble to pack my child's lunch and a state employee fed my child a product made from disgusting gelled chicken it's quite likely that state would be mugged and beaten severely in a dark alley by an unknown assailant in a botched robbery attempt. No milk? here's a quarter: give my daughter a milk.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19842315

A mom in North Carolina said her daughter ate three chicken nuggets for lunch — because an official thought the lunch she brought from home was unhealthy.

The offending ingredients? A turkey sandwich with cheese, a banana, apple juice — and potato chips, the Carolina Journal reported.

But the irate mom told the newspaper that a state employee inspecting lunch bags declared the food unhealthy because it was missing a vegetable and milk.

Instead, the preschool reportedly gave the 4-year-old a lunch from the cafeteria, which she apparently picked through.

"What got me so mad is, number one, don't tell my kid I'm not packing her lunch box properly," the mom, who wished to stay anonymous, told the newspaper. "I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of vegetables. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn't really care for vegetables."

The incident came amid a surging concentration on the nutrition in school lunches.

A spokeswoman for the Division of Child Development said the lunch the preschooler brought from home seemed to meet the guidelines, according to the Journal.

The rules, which can result in parents being billed an extra $1.25 in cafeteria fees, is to allow child care providers to step in if parents send blatantly unhealthy food with their kids, like a Coke and a Twinkie, the spokeswoman added to the newspaper.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/preschooler-lunch-rejected-replaced-chicken-nuggets-mom-article-1.1022902#ixzz1mScsGCd9

**helgrenze**

One: The moron from the state needs to be properly educated that fruit and vegetables are fairly interchangeable, from a nutritional stand point.
Two: A turkey and cheese sandwich, which the child probably would have completely eaten, is a better lunch than chicken nuggets.

The school is now likely open to a lawsuit over this. I know I would be discussing things with a lawyer.

**Ahtman**

Is the Daily News a reputable source? This whole story sounds odd. Assuming it is true I don't think we are looking at a national trend but just one stupid person at a school.

**Frazzled**

Literally the nanny state at work. Thge packed lunch was way better for the munchkin that processed beaks and claws. Plus the munchkin didn't actually eat it.

back in my day we had mammoth burgers, and we were glad we had 'em.

**Kanluwen**

A spokeswoman for the Division of Child Development said the lunch the preschooler brought from home seemed to meet the guidelines, according to the Journal.

The rules, which can result in parents being billed an extra $1.25 in cafeteria fees, is to allow child care providers to step in if parents send blatantly unhealthy food with their kids, like a Coke and a Twinkie, the spokeswoman added to the newspaper.

Before we get any further into the whole "nanny state" bit, this is quite clearly a case of one official being in the wrong.

**Melissia**

I'd rather take something from home than have the heavily processed greasy "mashed" "potatoes" and whatever that brown overcooked meat is (it's past well done I swear, whaever it is), and that macaroni in some sort of yellowish white slop that has some artificial cheese flavorings in it but we don't really think is actually cheese, which was often what was served when I was in high school.

I sincerely doubt they've changed enough that the chicken nuggets are made from the GOOD aprts of the chicken.

**biccat**

Kanluwen wrote:Before we get any further into the whole "nanny state" bit, this is quite clearly a case of one official being in the wrong.

edit: What do you mean by this? Is the "nanny state" a legitimate concern here, or is it merely a problem of inefficiency?

helgrenze wrote:The school is now likely open to a lawsuit over this. I know I would be discussing things with a lawyer.

A lawsuit for what? I'm really not sure that there's a cause of action here.

**Melissia**

biccat wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:Before we get any further into the whole "nanny state" bit, this is quite clearly a case of one official being in the wrong.

It's OK for a school official to inspect lunches, but only if they make the 'right decisions'?

It's okay to be a parent as long as youmake the right decisions. If you don't, well, consequences happen.

I'm just speaking legally here, not ethically.

**Warrior Squirrel**

**Ahtman**

biccat wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:Before we get any further into the whole "nanny state" bit, this is quite clearly a case of one official being in the wrong.

It's OK for a school official to inspect lunches, but only if they make the 'right decisions'?

You seem to be deciding where the emphasis is here and running with it. Perhaps 'being in the wrong' was referring to the school official inspecting the lunch, not to the rightness or wrongness of the decision.

Wouldn't this story have been much more interesting if it were "Preschoolers replaced by CHICKEN NUGGETS"?

**Melissia**

Technically speaking, pizza sauce is tomato based ,which makes it a vegetable product (not a vegetable, but a derivative food whichi is primarily vegetable).

**biccat**

Ahtman wrote:You seem to be deciding where the emphasis is here and running with it. Perhaps 'being in the wrong' was referring to the school official inspecting the lunch, not to the rightness or wrongness of the decision."

If you can explain the "Before we get any further into the whole 'nanny state' bit" part of that quote, I will retract my comment.

**AustonT**

Ahtman wrote:Is the Daily News a reputable source? This whole story sounds odd. Assuming it is true I don't think we are looking at a national trend but just one stupid person at a school.

The story originates in North Carolina and was carried by the Greensboro Gazette first I believe, then News Corp picked it up and I dislike posting links from Fox news because the end up with headlines like "Federal Agents Inspect Your Child's Lunch," ok that was Rush, but the only reason Fox didn't use it is because he got there first.

I'm not not saying it's a national trend, I'm saying it's wrong. It's wrong one time, it's wrong a thousand times. A cafeteria worker is not an "official" and if they school has a dedicated worker checking lunches, who is an official, at one school permanently or district wide. Well, first of all that's wasteful, whatever they are paying this silly bitch can be spent in subsidizing breakfast and lunch for kids that actually need it, and second you'd think they would train them to at least a minimal level of competance.

**CallsignNeptune**

Absolutely ridiculous. Not only inspecting lunch bags but then to replace a healthy lunch with chicken nuggets? It is the parents responsibility to feed their children a healthy, balanced diet and theirs alone. If the child becomes unhealthy due to their decisions then I believe intervention should occur but until then, it is the parents decision and the school should stay out of it and focus upon education.

**SagesStone**

Wow, that's either pretty stupid of those are some really good chicken nuggets.

**hotsauceman1**

Its funny that when you get to collge is when the food gets healthy to an extent but all the damage is done. At my school in the cafeteria i was surprised to find all the food freshly made daily and nothing is bought but ingrediants.
But More OT: I would kill for that lunch. Right now im staring at a pastrami sandwich and cookies.
Really i took to breaking the rules to get good food at my highschool or not eating at all. It was disgusting

**Samus_aran115**

Thankfully, this is my last year of public school, and after this, I'll be eating out of a mess hall on ship somewhere

Our lunches are awful (chicken nuggets, pizza, burgers, hot dogs, spagetti, tacos, sloppy joes), but they give us a vegetable, a fruit and a milk, along with a side of something else horrible for you (fries, baked potato, tater tots, corn, corn muffin). Nothing to complain about, really. This is high school though.

Elementary school was pizza at least twice a week, burgers once, and chicken nuggets the other two days. They gave us a milk. maybe some corn or french fries. And a candy bar (not joking, lol).

I do think kids should drink milk. At least a cup a day. My mom still doesn't buy milk, so I have to get it at school and at friend's houses.

I can't believe that, really. I didn't know it was within a school's jurisdiction to determine what a student eats.

**Frazzled**

Warrior Squirrel wrote:This happened in the country where pizza sauce is a vegetable right?

Ketchup. Times have changed. Its salsa now gringo!

**George Spiggott**

Chicken nuggets are a vegetable now? Fair enough, 'cause they sure ain't meat.

**Kilkrazy**

biccat wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:Before we get any further into the whole "nanny state" bit, this is quite clearly a case of one official being in the wrong.

It's OK for a school official to inspect lunches, but only if they make the 'right decisions'?

I'd rather avoid trying to determine whether chicken nuggets are healthier than a turkey and cheese sandwich.

helgrenze wrote:The school is now likely open to a lawsuit over this. I know I would be discussing things with a lawyer.

A lawsuit for what? I'm really not sure that there's a cause of action here.

Schools have authority in loco parentis.

Surely it is important that a caregiver should make correct decisions regarding the nutritional requirements of children in their care.

**Ahtman**

biccat wrote:
Ahtman wrote:You seem to be deciding where the emphasis is here and running with it. Perhaps 'being in the wrong' was referring to the school official inspecting the lunch, not to the rightness or wrongness of the decision."

If you can explain the "Before we get any further into the whole 'nanny state' bit" part of that quote, I will retract my comment.

It is suddenly my job to explain how statements can be interpreted in more than one way, especially when the language used isn't one of specificity? The sentence could easily be interpreted as saying "Before turning this into a national debate about the government, using coded language and rhetorical hyperbole, I want to say the person in this specific instance was wrong". Now it isn't really clear what they are wrong about so it could either be that they were wrong for getting into the child's lunch or for taking it away. It is not clear. "It was wrong" doesn't really give enough information at this point when there are several different issues for possible discussion. Now if you had asked what they thought the official was wrong about and it was clarified that, indeed, they thought it was ok to take the child's lunch but that they were wrong for replacing it with chicken nuggets then your statement would make sense in context, but as it is we don't really know so, as I said, you have made an assumption and ran with it.

**daedalus**

Damn near every day from about 6th grade on to about my sophmore year in high school, I ate a meat/cheese/lettuce sandwich, had a soda, a small bag of chips, and a twinkie or equivalent, and I was remarkably fit. I didn't become a fat guy until afterwards, when I discovered beer.

**Easy E**

Melissia wrote:Technically speaking, pizza sauce is tomato based ,which makes it a vegetable product (not a vegetable, but a derivative food whichi is primarily vegetable).

That and a metric ton of lobbyists say it is a vegetable.

**SagesStone**

It is a vegetable... product.

**biccat**

Easy E wrote:That and a metric ton of lobbyists say it is a vegetable.

When does a tomato stop becoming a vegetable? When it's mashed, puree'd and canned? When it is put on the dough? Once the cheese is applied?

Ahtman wrote:It is suddenly my job to explain how statements can be interpreted in more than one way, especially when the language used isn't one of specificity?

When you're the one advocating for an alternative explanation, yeah.

Ahtman wrote:as I said, you have made an assumption and ran with it.

Clearly you missed the question mark at the end of my comment.

**daedalus**

Easy E wrote:
Melissia wrote:Technically speaking, pizza sauce is tomato based ,which makes it a vegetable product (not a vegetable, but a derivative food whichi is primarily vegetable).

That and a metric ton of lobbyists say it is a vegetable.

Well, a 'proper' pizza will likely have green peppers and onions on it as well, so I'd say that between sauce and those, you probably have at least a single service of veggie.

**Lone Cat**

a heavily processed vegetables. ^

And Three: what kinda bureaucracy allowed this scandal to happen? in an advanced nation of the USA ??

mew!

**hotsauceman1**

biccat wrote:
Easy E wrote:That and a metric ton of lobbyists say it is a vegetable.

When does a tomato stop becoming a vegetable? When it's mashed, puree'd and canned? When it is put on the dough? Once the cheese is applied?

When there is more sugar, preservatives, and artificial goop then tomato.
Also, Whatever happened to the presidents idea of getting a cooperation between school cafeterias and farmers markets?

**Orlanth**

Thats good enough, 'liquid tomato' is tomato. I am more concerned with whats added, well I'm not I eat anything, but for the same of argument pizza sauce can count as one of your five a day if its properly prepared in the right quantity and from the right source.

**Ahtman**

hotsauceman1 wrote:When there is more sugar, preservatives, and artificial goop then tomato.

Not all pizza/pasta/tomato sauce is made that way.