My mom would have flipped if my school had banned homemade lunches. It's expensive to buy lunch everyday. I sure hope the school is going to provide everyone with a free lunch every single day because of this. :/ Honestly I can't believe they'd make a move like this without involving the parent council and, if they did, I can't believe something like that went through.
It is NOT the school's responsibility to make sure kids are eating right. Educate them on the food groups and proper things to eat, lying out the consequences of unhealthy food choices, but it's up to the parents to provide lunch. If they choose to pay for school lunches, that's fine, but the parents should be able to give kids their own lunches.
I really liked the food at my high school's cafeteria--it was really good--but if I wanted it, I'd have to scrounge up enough change to pay for it and buying a pizza + drink everyday (okay it was a very unhealthy caf XD) was like $5. I can't imagine having to pay anywhere near that every single day without a choice.
This.
The thread is perfectly fine, Spanner.
I find it ironic that they're banning home-made lunches, not the ones they serve at the school. There's the real problem - the school food is tantamount to garbage in most cases.
And this. (though there's absolutely nothing wrong with Domino's Pizza every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday...right? :cer_shifty: That's not garbage! It's
delicious!)
Yeah...I pretty much echo all of the sentiments of this thread posted so far, not to mention many of the highly-rated comments in the article - this banning of homemade lunches is a
ridiculous idea. Schools try to make healthy efforts, but many times, they just seems to fall flat. Prior to high school, all of my lunches were homemade, and they weren't just "pizza everyday". They typically consisted of fruit juice, jelly sandwiches (I'm allergic to peanuts), a snack, maybe a baggie of fruits and/or crackers here or there. I'd consider that to be a very healthy homemade lunch for a child, rather than stuffing someone with tater tots, pizza, and hot dogs (and two of those foods are foods that the article's picture depicts as part of a school lunch).
And the article mentions that the only exception is children with allergies... And there are
other dietary restrictions, such as vegetarians, religious restrictions, children on no-sodium diets, children with lactose or fructose intolerance, children taking medications that are incompatible with certain foods and beverages. I mean, exactly
who thought this homemade-lunch banning was going to be a good idea? There's a myriad of food factors that one has to consider in a daily lunch, and I don't think that Chicago schools have them
all covered. And to adopt the stance of "Eat
our food or go hungry" - that's just harsh and heartless, especially when said school food is expensive for those families living at or near the poverty line.
Furthermore, as another article commenter noted, "Not to mention those [parents] who want to just give their kids home prepared meals instead of institutional food.
This is just another example of "big brother" thinking he knows better than you do."
And I mean, lunchboxes are just
classic. Your own cozy little meal packed inside of a box or bag that (usually) showcases decor of your favorite franchise? How cool is that? *fondly remembers toting Batman lunchbox during elementary school*
Ugh..at first, I thought that this homemade-lunch banning issue was related to an
economics issue, in order to stimulate the transfer of money
into Chicago schools or something... But the
actual scenario is arguably worse than that, as it's over child obesity, which parents, doctors, nurses, and scientists are already trying to combat. Just give the kids an option of whether to eat school food or bring homemade food - simple. Outright banning homemade lunches isn't going to help to solve the problem much, if at all, and there
are parents who are actively trying to become more engaged in the issue and provide healthy choices for their child's lunch meals.
If the school wants to
help families in this obesity and health issue,
EDUCATE the kids on what foods are recommended for a healthier lifestyle, and in addition
explain the adverse complications that can occur should students decide to choose junk food as their main food intake instead. Don't make the situation harder for them by
limiting food choices to strictly what the school chooses. I really hope this "banning" gets repealed or something, because it shouldn't even have been instituted in the first place.
★1111th post!★
