Apr 30, 2011 / Topic Ideas

Should schools control what kids eat for lunch?

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  1. I think this is a bad idea, but schools should offer healthier choices. Ketchup is not a vegetable. A meal served at my high school was pizza and fries. Seriously.

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  2. Lunch from home is not healthy? Just because schools want to generate additional revenue by providing food, these things have been made mandatory. How about having it optional.

    In some countries, students are given free afternoon meals to make them come to schools by the Government. There is no fees for education either! The private schools should behave more responsibly by at least giving an option.

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  3. Reminds me of Chef Jamie Oliver crusade for school to serve healthy food! If the school can ensure good food AT ALL TIMES I don’t see any problem; it should be properly priced too and this shouldn’t just a way to do extra unreasonable business out of parents’ hard earned money.

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  4. YES>YES>YES>>> This is why we have bad attention spans, obesity levels at all time highs, and no controls over what our children are eating.
    Good choices, fruits, milks, lean proteins, no artificial anything, additives, low sugars, hydrogenated NO!!!!
    Our schools food charts have never been updated, because they were done during times when children were more active and our food groups and children likes have changed, we need to change too.

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  5. What kind of Gestapo ruling is that-banning lunch from home? Parents need to remind the school board that they can be put out of a job. Parents need to stick together. I like Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Schools already control what kids eat and it is not healthy. How about making the schools foot the bill for juvenile diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and it’s related problems in children? Bet they would clean up the lunches then. My kids are grown but if I lived in Chicago, me and the school board would be headed to the Supreme Court. How dare you feed that trash to my kids and tell me they can’t bring lunch from home. IDIOTS!!!!

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  6. No way. Parents should be the last word on what kids should eat. Just another move our community organizer wants to control!!

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  7. The only way that a school should dictate what a child eats while in the school is if the school has a healthy menu plan and strives to serve healthy, non-fat or sugary foods. The menu served should be approved by both parents and nutritionists of the school board.

    If they continue to serve french fries, chicken nuggets and the kind of stuff they have been serving, then I feel the parents have the right to send what they deem healthy for their child to eat.

    Of course, if a child has certain food allergies, an exception should be made for that child.

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  8. Are you kidding? Have you seen or eaten what is in a school “lunch”? I have. Fried, overcooked, fatty food that my kids won’t even eat! School food is the worst… Let’s try worrying about funding and providing quality education… Talk about having your priorities out of order…

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  9. Concordo Barbara , mas como nossas crianças vão a frente sem uma
    Alimentação Adequada? quanto a opinião de seus pais !

    É um poste importe instrutor , no sentido de obtemos opiniões sobre uma alimentação adequada para nossas crianças, depende muito dos orientadores de cada Escola e
    instituição quanto a nutrição das crianças , o básico é necessário como:
    leite, frutas, legumes, ingredientes que contem vitaminas, conteúdos
    necessários para suas sobrevivência e para a continuidade de seu desenvolvimento estudantil .

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  10. This is a terrible idea! School food is unhealthy – just watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution! I am a teacher and have seen first hand what kids are given for lunch. Many times the lunches brought from home are better, although some of them aren’t much better than the school. However, I have students who regularly bring vegetables for their mid-morning snack and healthy lunches when they do bring them from home. Helio, I don’t know how it is in Brasil (or wherever you are from) but here schools have compromised a lot of quality due to cost and popularity of fast foods.

    You mention “leite” (milk) – here the kids have a choice between regular milk or chocolate. Most will choose chocolate BECAUSE THEY ARE GIVEN A CHOICE, which has a lot of sugar in it. “Legumes” – sometimes schools will serve a little salad of very poor quality and many kids throw it away. Or they will have carrots and “dip” which is full of fat. Frutas – recently schools in my area have started serving apples which most of the kids like. Sometimes they will serve a fruit cup instead – this is pieces of canned fruit in a sort of “juice” – actually mostly sugar.

    So I would say, ABSOLUTELY NOT! School districts are violating families’ basic rights if they do not allow children to bring lunches from home.

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  11. I think schools are better left with the responsibility of providing good and quality education for our kids than to be saddled with another responsibility they cant handle properly. Its sad to say however that that may actually differ form one country to another, because in the third world countries- for instance – some of the teachers dont even feed themselves well, how much more to control what their pupils eat.

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  12. Why on earth should a parent be MANDATED by a school system to let them provide the meals for your own children. Do we live in America, home of the FREE and the brave or is this a socialist country. I always thought this was a free country but apparently we are others are willing to freely give their rights to the government! REALLY?

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  14. The answer is a resounding NO!! What an outrageous thing to do! What next and who is paying for the forced school lunches? 😦
    Eliz

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  15. Sim já passou da hora, os pais desde a infãncia devem ensinar os filhos como se alimentar saudálmente, com a continuação na escola, que deveria manter normas rigidas com a alimentação ,estamos no Mundo todo com o problema de obesidade, precisamor reverter esse quadro muito grave.
    É exatamente isso que faço no meu blog, que é todo voltado para a saúde!
    Abraços a todos!
    Mina!

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  16. The last I checked, Chicago is in the United States of America. One of the rights we have as citizens of this country is the ability to make our own choices on what we think is best for us and for our children. It seems un-American to me to have someone dictate what my child eats every day.

    Funding for schools is very tight right now and I would hate to see schools lose resources for important things (teachers, teachers aids, supplies) because they are trying to address an issue (diet) that isn’t a primary focus of the learning environment.

    Should School’s Dictate What Kids Eat for Lunch?

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  19. I believe that yes our schools should take part in not feeding our children junk food since they get enough at home

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  20. I don’t think that schools should control what kids have for lunch, but they should provide a healthy, balanced nutritional meal that is reasonably priced, and I don’t mean have this type of meal as an option next to the salt, fat laden slop they normally served. The kids should have options, but they should all be healthy balanced and nutritional.

    On the other side of thing parents need to be more responsible too, they should provide the same instead of filling their kids lunch boxes with the same rubbish that the school dish out.

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  21. sure, if the school lunch is healthy and the home lunch isn’t, then that’s fine. but if the home lunch is healthier than the school lunch, ????? it makes no sense. health reasons my arse.

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  22. As a family, meals are the focal point of nurturing,caring and providing for each other.Parents are not just the bread winners, they are there so they can observe and anticipate a child’s course of development.In feeding their children parents feel immense pleasure, their hunger makes parents feel proud to be able to provide for them.Meals at home are vital.I have gone through whole days at work anticipating a meal once back at home.Eating out and away from home is not a habit families are happy to encourage.Schools are an extention of the work environment really.Children know why they are at school.A meal at home is akin to facing your parents gaze in our culture.A guilty child will usually avoid the meals at home choosing junk foods, greasy, high salt or rather the sweet confectionery items.Eating away from home is a statement of rebellion.Children know if there is peace at the table and how they have helped keep the peace.Meals at home, packed meals from home reflect a commitment to a child’s progress and well being even if the school meals are the most nutritious ever !!

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  23. This article was pretty disturbing. Controlling anybodies food consumptions and the total disregard for citizens constitutional rights are alarming enough. But did anybody notice the huge rate of federal government funded lunch programs given out? Something like 86% of the students? Where does that money come from? That’s right-yours and my taxes. Just because you can get a school lunch for free from your kid, does not mean you should. THIS is the reason that this country is becoming communist! Solving one problem to make everyone equal is the first sign of communism. People that don’t care who pays for public school lunches and to what end are at fault. Indifferent and lazy consumers=regimented society.

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