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Chicago school bans homemade lunches, the latest in national food fight




Students who attend Chicago's Little Village Academy public school get nothing but nutritional tough love during their lunch period each day. The students can either eat the cafeteria food--or go hungry. Only students with allergies are allowed to bring a homemade lunch to school, the Chicago Tribune reports.

"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," principal Elsa Carmona told the paper of the years-old policy. "It's about ... the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke."

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For parents whose kids do not qualify for free or reduced price school lunches, the $2.25 daily cafeteria price can also tally more than a homemade lunch. "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 the paper in an email. She told The Lookout parents at her child's public school would be upset if they tried to ban homemade lunches.

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While we haven't been able to track down another school that bans homemade lunches outright, many smaller food battles have been playing out in cafeterias across the country. As principals try to counter obesity in their schools, healthy intentions can come across as overreach, occasionally sparking parent and student anger.

Alabama parents protested a school's rule that barred students from bringing any drinks from home, as ice water was provided at lunch. East Syracuse, New York schools have outlawed cupcakes and other desserts. And schools around the country have kicked out chocolate milk and soda vending machines. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin even showed up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with dozens of cookies to express her disdain for a debate in the state about recommending teachers limit the number of times per month the sugary treats are eaten in classroom birthday celebrations.

Tucson, Arizona's Children's Success Academy allows home-packed lunches--but only if nothing in them contains white flour, refined sugar, or other "processed" foods, the Arizona Republic reported in a story last year. The school has no cafeteria, so some parents told the paper they struggled to find foods to pack that meet the restrictions. Many schools ban fast food or other take-out meals.

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BlueJayWay said:
Schools should not have the right to control what the kids eat, period. That should be up to the parents.

And I'm sure the school lunches aren't as healthy as some potential home made lunches.

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I wouldnt mind the schools controlling what we eat one bit if the food they provided didn't suck in most cases.

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mellowparty said:
is wrong with America. That reminds me of other retarded laws like banning organic vegetable cultivation or prohibiting the use of rain water collecting barrels

Burn down your fucking retarded country

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candyaddict said:
sounds like a major cash grab.

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Synesthetic said:
Well, what's in school lunches is pretty tightly regulated to make sure it's as healthy as it can be, but that's only if you eat the entire thing.

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makaveli8x8 said:
yup and think of all the fat kids who are going to loose there gf's and bf's over this, nolonger will the poor hot chicks get to smooch off the mcdonalds guy, most likely leading to mass suicides, as if loosing mcdonalds alone wasn't enough to cause such a stir

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it's spelled lose, you god damn bastard!

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mellowparty said:
is wrong with America. That reminds me of other retarded laws like banning organic vegetable cultivation

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makaveli8x8 said:
yup and think of all the fat kids who are going to loose there gf's and bf's over this, nolonger will the poor hot chicks get to smooch off the mcdonalds guy, most likely leading to mass suicides, as if loosing mcdonalds alone wasn't enough to cause such a stir

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Jimtown said:
So the prohibiting the use of rain water collecting barrels is true?

Is this because of the chems in the rainwater from chemtrails could be too damaging to use or because rain water is free?

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Prisoner#1 said:

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mellowparty said:
is wrong with America. That reminds me of other retarded laws like banning organic vegetable cultivation

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no one has banned organic gardening

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mellowparty said:

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Prisoner#1 said:

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mellowparty said:
is wrong with America. That reminds me of other retarded laws like banning organic vegetable cultivation

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no one has banned organic gardening

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Someone posted something about banning vegetable cultivation in your garden.

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mellowparty said:
is wrong with America. That reminds me of other retarded laws like banning organic vegetable cultivation or prohibiting the use of rain water collecting barrels

Burn down your fucking retarded country

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Your kingdom should do it for us.

You're all anarchists in the U.K, right?

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BlueJayWay said:

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I wouldnt mind the schools controlling what we eat one bit if the food they provided didn't suck in most cases.

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Eh, for me personally, I care more about the freedom issue than the nutrition issue.

But the nutrition issue seems partially subjective anyway; some people believe you should never eat grains, some people think meat isn't an optimal choice, some people think that low fat diets are good, while others choose low carb diets. From what I know, nutritionists haven't reached a real agreement on what the perfect diet is, and the food pyramid seems to be a work in progress.

But my real problem is that they're taking away the parent's right to feed their child. If it was a private school, it'd be okay to have this kind of rule in my opinion, but it's not okay in a public school because your kid HAS to go to that school. The government doesn't have the right to control what your child, or you, can eat, as far as I see it. And this rule is doing exactly that.

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Doc_T said:
Link to source story?

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uber_aj said:
I think banning homemade lunches is a good thing, especially in Chicago, where lots of parents are poor minorities who let their kids have KFC and grape soda for lunch.

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Prisoner#1 said:

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uber_aj said:
I think banning homemade lunches is a good thing, especially in Chicago, where lots of parents are poor minorities who let their kids have KFC and grape soda for lunch.

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you cant buy KFC with food stamps, where are they getting the money to send their kids to school with fast food

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Selling meth. 

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Laurelei said:
All that shit downing chocolate or strawberry milk, well that's just crazy.  The kids would have to eat more food to make up for vitamins and nutrients you get from drinking milk. Some kids hate white milk.  I'd rather them get the calcium and vitamins (and the sugar) from our 1% chocolate milk, that have it omitted from the meal completely.

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ROFL_my_ WAFFLE said:

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Prisoner#1 said:

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uber_aj said:
I think banning homemade lunches is a good thing, especially in Chicago, where lots of parents are poor minorities who let their kids have KFC and grape soda for lunch.

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you cant buy KFC with food stamps, where are they getting the money to send their kids to school with fast food

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Selling meth. 

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Prisoner#1 said:

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Laurelei said:
All that shit downing chocolate or strawberry milk, well that's just crazy.  The kids would have to eat more food to make up for vitamins and nutrients you get from drinking milk. Some kids hate white milk.  I'd rather them get the calcium and vitamins (and the sugar) from our 1% chocolate milk, that have it omitted from the meal completely.

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not only do kids get the sugars from the milk in the form of lactose but
they get an additional 5 teaspoons of sugar in each of those little
cartons, 25 grams of sugar in all, doubling what 1% milk contains
yes, the nutritional value of added sugar is so important, no wonder the kids love it


they fortify milk with various vitamins, they enrich breads with many
other vitamins and nutrients, just read the package on those sheet pizza,
all kinds of extra crap is added and shitloads of sodium, the TVP patties
they call burgers contain as much calcium as the milk

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Our half pint 1% has 22g of sugar ( 3grams is 3 grams! right...?) but no seriously, it is high, I agree.  At the end of each school year there's an abundance of white milk, so about the last 2 or 3 weeks of school, we don't sell chocolate.  I notice a lot of kids either buying 2 OJs instead of a usual milk and juice, or coming through the line with sodas, gatorade(or something similar), and the most popular...drum roll please! energy drinks! Although I see energy drinks throughout the whole year.

I agree with the statement about our pizzas. Again, every school district is different in what type they serve, but our pizzas have something like 700mg of sodium per slice! That's just crazy. It does provide 468 IU Vitamin A and 264mg of calcium, so I don't know if they consider it a fair trade...but people would look at the sodium number and freak.

The burgers we have only provide 4.4 mg of calcium, whereas our milk provides 300mg.  The burgers have 260mg of sodium, which is great compared to the pizza.

Not trying to be argumentative, I've just been close to the school food system growing up.  I really love my job and I've had at least one student tell me that it's the only full meal they get regularly.  I feel responsible for providing a meal that's BALANCED in nutrition, quality, and taste.  It seems hard to provide all three in the way everyone wants them.  A group over here wants little-to-no fats or sodium. There's a group over here that is concerned with the food being processed or artificial. And then we have kids bitching about the taste.  So, it's really hard to decide what stays and what goes

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pmb said:
I don't understand how they can take normal ingredients and make food that tastes so bland. At my high school and junior high, the food just tasted awful and bland. Even the french fries were horrible, I can take a potato quarter it and throw it in the oven with some oil drizzled on it and come out with way better fries.

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yeah, everything in there tastes SO processed

i wouldnt doubt it if they were just heating up TV dinners in mass quantities, i lived right across my elementary school, so i would just sneak out and run across the street, especially when I forgot my homework/parent signature for a field trip

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I think banning homemade lunches is a good thing, especially in Chicago, where lots of parents are poor minorities who let their kids have KFC and grape soda for lunch. Also you never know, they might bake marijuana in the treats, effectively putting all the children in jeopardy. If you give them an inch, they'll take a mile.

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this guy is obviously trolling. Otherwise he would be a

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Laurelei said:
Our half pint 1% has 22g of sugar ( 3grams is 3 grams! right...?) but no seriously, it is high, I agree.  At the end of each school year there's an abundance of white milk, so about the last 2 or 3 weeks of school, we don't sell chocolate.  I notice a lot of kids either buying 2 OJs instead of a usual milk and juice, or coming through the line with sodas, gatorade(or something similar), and the most popular...drum roll please! energy drinks! Although I see energy drinks throughout the whole year.

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The burgers we have only provide 4.4 mg of calcium, whereas our milk provides 300mg.  The burgers have 260mg of sodium, which is great compared to the pizza.

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Not trying to be argumentative, I've just been close to the school food system growing up.  I really love my job and I've had at least one student tell me that it's the only full meal they get regularly.  I feel responsible for providing a meal that's BALANCED in nutrition, quality, and taste.

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Prisoner#1 said:
3 grams is 3 grams but 22 grams is still a shitload but now what I find
even more shocking is the gatorade, soft drinks and energy drinks, I
challenge you to find me a nutritionist that says any of those is a
healthy part of a balanced diet, I can show you many that will say these
things can lead to obesity, they really have no place int he schools

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Agreed.  I would think, at the VERY least energy drinks would be banned from being brought to school.  Those things will make you tweak out!   

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if the school year starts without the flavored milks I guarantee the milk sales will start higher
and remain high throughout the year

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I may have to suggest that! Although, I'm personally not one to compromise. I can't stand plain white milk.  While I was preggo, my nutritionist told me to at least drink chocolate milk if nothing else.  My son, however, loves white milk.

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add cheese and you have 600mg of sodium, add in the bun and you kick it up
another 200mg so you're almost back to the level of the pizza and a an
normal amount of salt in a diet is between 1000mg-2500mg

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one of my biggest problems is that so much of the dietary guidelines are put together and provided for by the packing industry, they lobby the FDA to make their foods available, as was stated it's about the $$$

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Agreed again. I know for a fact that our director would like to have more choices, especially more local choices (I interviewed her for my speech communication class)

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I certainly cant trust Zartic or AdvancePierre foods to sell me the food and tell me they're really looking out for my health especially when
neither will list ingredients, processes or nutritional contents of their
products on their website and most of the hundreds of suppliers will
supply the information unless you're buying their products, it's on the labels

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They don't even print it on the boxes honey! Yesterday, at work, I was gonna look at the nutritional values (just for yooooou) and get back to the thread, but they weren't fucking there.  I was pissed!  What if a parent come in and wanted that info? I'd be embarrassed to say we don't have it.  Our school system's main webpage has a link to our food service department, which then has a link to the nutritional info. So at least it's printed SOMEWHERE...

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when I was in school the food was cooked on the premises, most was still packaged foods like the potatos, fries, pizza and stuff, now I'm seeing prewrapped microwave junk like the uncrustables cheese or PB&J sandwiches, cases of pancakes, etc...

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my kids BTW, fresh meals every night, all made from scratch including the pasta, breads and anything else they're served, my waffles and pancakes start with flour, eggs, baking powder and milk. there's no TV dinners and the only reason there's a microwave is because it was included, I use it to heat water occasionally...

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zappaisgod said:
This has sadly devolved into a discussion about what constitutes healthy eating when the real issue is authoritarian over-reach.  Maybe they should just confiscate the little children.  Zappa knows what the stupid fucking parents are feeding the poor little fuckers at home.

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Laurelei said:

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one of my biggest problems is that so much of the dietary guidelines are put together and provided for by the packing industry, they lobby the FDA to make their foods available, as was stated it's about the $$$

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Agreed again. I know for a fact that our director would like to have more choices, especially more local choices (I interviewed her for my speech communication class)

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my kids BTW, fresh meals every night, all made from scratch including the pasta, breads and anything else they're served, my waffles and pancakes start with flour, eggs, baking powder and milk. there's no TV dinners and the only reason there's a microwave is because it was included, I use it to heat water occasionally...

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Props to that! I think this makes you a rare bird, sir!

I think instead of focusing solely on the nutritional content of school lunch(which I'm not saying EVERYONE is) they need to focus more on making kids more active.  They're already talking about cutting PE out of our school system.  It hasn't been done yet though...

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dshow said:
I dont even know why people are discussing milk, its not even natural after a certain age.

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Prisoner#1 said:

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dshow said:
I dont even know why people are discussing milk, its not even natural after a certain age.

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what age would that be?

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SamuelLJackson said:

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zappaisgod said:
This has sadly devolved into a discussion about what constitutes healthy eating when the real issue is authoritarian over-reach.  Maybe they should just confiscate the little children.  Zappa knows what the stupid fucking parents are feeding the poor little fuckers at home.

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isnt that the point of politics? to herd the people like cattle while making them think its for the best, and as a result taking the attention off the fact that theyre being herded?

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SamuelLJackson said:

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Prisoner#1 said:

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dshow said:
I dont even know why people are discussing milk, its not even natural after a certain age.

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what age would that be?

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weaning. (im not sure of the "usual" age that occurs in nature, for humans)

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zappaisgod said:

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SamuelLJackson said:

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zappaisgod said:
This has sadly devolved into a discussion about what constitutes healthy eating when the real issue is authoritarian over-reach.  Maybe they should just confiscate the little children.  Zappa knows what the stupid fucking parents are feeding the poor little fuckers at home.

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isnt that the point of politics? to herd the people like cattle while making them think its for the best, and as a result taking the attention off the fact that theyre being herded?

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No, that isn't the point of politics and how can you be so sure you aren't being herded yourself?

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