A four-year-old preschooler from Hoke County, North Carolina was allegedly forced to eat a school lunch because the state inspector determined her bagged lunch wasn’t healthy enough. The girl’s mother packed her a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips, and apple juice.
That’s an unhealthy lunch? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s guidelines, yes. Healthy meals must include one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables. The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs to satisfy those requirements.
The lunch inspector checked all the children’s lunches, and those that didn’t meet the requirements had to accept the school lunch in order to “supplement” what was missing from their own. The little girl’s homemade lunch was missing a vegetable, so she was ordered a full school lunch try of chicken nuggets, milk, a fruit and a vegetable.
The mother says her daughter was so intimidated by the whole process that she was too scared to eat all of her homemade lunch, eating only a few nuggets and throwing the rest away. She says her daughter doesn’t like vegetables, and will only eat them under close supervision at home:
“I can’t put vegetables in her lunchbox. I’m not a millionaire and I’m not going to put something in there that my daughter doesn’t eat and I’ve done gone round and round with the teacher about that and I’ve told her that. I put fruit in there every day because she is a fruit eater. Vegetables, let me take care of my business at home and at night and that’s when I see she’s eating vegetables. I either have to smash it or tell her if you don’t eat your vegetables you’re going to go to bed.”
The mother added, “It’s just a headache to keep arguing and fighting. I’ve even wrote a note to her teachers and said do not give my daughter anything else unless it comes out of her lunchbox and they are still going against me and putting a milk in front of her every day.”
While the mother hasn’t been charged yet for the supplemented school lunches, “students who do not bring a healthy lunch will be offered the missing portions which may results in a fee from the cafeteria.” Sounds like a waste of money – and food! The 4-year-old was so traumatized she threw out most of the lunch, including the vegetables.
