School lunches...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
School lunches...
514
Thu, 12-02-2004 - 9:33am

This is being discussed rather heatedly on another board and I thought it might liven things up since we are soooooo sloooooow.


Are you allowed to eat with your kids? Can you bring in restaurant food? Any guidelines on what you can pack for your kids? Does the school have vendors? Is the school lunch program considered a necessary evil or a money maker for the school?


If there are guidelines on what you can pack, does this make you mad? Does it make you think they are taking

"I do not want to be a princess! I want to be myself"

Mallory (age 3)

      &nbs

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 10:57am

Beautiful! You explicitly said I said something I did not come close to saying, "<>

Of course not."

and now you're admitting I never said anything even close to what you said I said. Unlike you, I did not put words in your mouth.

"That's what I said in the first place, and was told that kids will give into temptation and buy the sodas in excess and wouldn't do so in moderation." Uh, that's not inconsistent in the least with saying every kid will make good decisions at some times and not others, so why are you arguing with it?

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 10:58am

The vending machines in my district are put in, stocked, and maintained by student groups and parent association groups and the profits don't go into the general fund. They go for extras like field trips, band uniforms, whatever -- the stuff that PTAs and student associations are normally raising funds for.

As far as keeping my taxes low by feeding kids sugar and fat, no thanks. I try really hard not to fatten my own pocketbook at the expense of others' well being. Can't avoid it from time to time, but no way am I going to do it willingly.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:01am
That;s true. And if a lot of 18 y/o kids aren't able to resist temptation, why would you throw it in the way of 11 year old children?
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:07am
I'd bet that most of the people at the pizza parlor couldn't care less about kids reading. They just want access to the kids -- they would probably just hand out the coupons without all the fuss of the reading program if they could, but that would be " direct marketing to children as a captive audience" and not allowed in the schools. It really works better to create the fiction that they are interested in the children's education, and not just in luring families into the pizza parlor to spend on average 3x what they are giving out free.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2003
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:11am
Now soda is "benign"? You just said it kills....Now I am confused. If I felt strongly enough about soda, told my children they were not to purchase soda, they purchased it anyway---there would be consequences. Do I expect that my kids will not test limits, of course not. In fact I hope they do push limits--it is a healthy thing to do.
And if the limits they try and push are over soda, lucky me. Better that battle than one over pot or beer. Do you believe that the only way to teach children responsibility is to give them some responsibility? Or do you bubble wrap them until they get out in the big bad world and let them decide then whether to commit suicide through pepsi?
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:13am
I have never expressly ordered my kid not to buy soda or candy. Neither of those things is likely to bring about the downfall of western civilization. We have them in moderation. Neither kid is really particularly interested in soda, except my older son's idea of a real treat is a root beer float. I've expressed to my kids my desire that they indulge in moderation. We've talked about definitions of "in moderation." The trouble is, when it's accessible, moderation tends to get stretched or fly out the window. I talked to my kid last night about how many sodas he thought he'd had in a week. Maybe four of five. He bought none of them -- they were given to him by coaches, parents of friends, a friend who accidentally got the wrong kind out of a vending machine at a place they were both visiting, and at church youth group. Kids get plenty of practice drinking soda and eating junk food wherever they go. But schools send a really mixed message when they preach nutrition in class and put junk food machines in the halls. We don't need that.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2003
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:18am
Well, in our school the funding goes into extracurricular activities that would otherwise have to be scaled back or eliminated. I believe the proceeds this past year funded the strings orchestras trip to state (in which our kids won 3 out of 4 of the competitions). Of course furthering music is not as important as whether or not susie couldn't resist the temptation to have a pop one day at lunch so I will certainly be petitioning for those machines to be removed as soon as possible. I guess I just wasn't educated enough to realize that soda=death. Just curious since you and Lisa know so much, at what point do you die from drinking soda? Is it one a week or four or six?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:23am
Yes, beautiful PR when they can actually convince some parents that they're doing a good thing for society by getting their kids to pester them to take them out for fast food. (And of course suggesting to kids that they might want to hold off on reading until such time as they'll be able to get some credit towards pizza out of it.)
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:26am
Maybe the reason that nobody wants to debate you about whether some kids will make good choices despite available temptations is that nobody disagrees with you. Some kids will. Maybe, many kids will. The debate wasn't about that, and despite the fact that you keep wanting someone to disagree with you about that, the debate still isn't about that. The debate is about whether it's appropriate for school districts to put vending machines full of junk food into middle schools.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 12-07-2004 - 11:30am
Your school certainly is raising a lot of money with the vending machines. If these programs are riding on the revenue, that means the school CAN'T AFFORD for the kids to resist the temptation to drink soda. The school NEEDS kids to drink soda or certain things won't be funded. So they have a vested interest in making sure the kids make unhealthy (but profitable) choices. If kids just drank water from the fountain, they couldn't go to this state competition. If the school employees TOLD the kids that money from the trip was thanks to soda vending machine purchases, they have told the kids that segments of their education are riding on continues purchase of soda. That is bordering on unethical.

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