The War Against Paper Bag Lunches

Seriously? I mean SERIOUSLY?

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


First of all, who is a school to force a child into buying their school lunch? While I don't pack school lunches - I pack lunches for DH to take to work - I can tell you there is a marked difference in cost between packing a healthy lunch for him to take to work vs him purchasing lunch via the facility he works at even though it's a reduced rate like a school's. Come to think of it, not to mention the amount of sodium in the food they prepare, because it's all PREPARED food. What school cafeteria sits there and prepares food from scratch? None - they all have #10 cans, a few fresh fruits and vegetables, and frozen components sent in via suppliers such as SYSCO. Do they bake their own whole grain bread? No? It arrives mass baked, with chemicals galore? Right?

While I agree some parents do send their kids with junk food, how many parents can afford to send even the fun-to-kids Lunchables to school with their kids every day at $2.99-$3.99 a pop? Times five for the week? Not that many.

As a kid, I only remember two overweight kids in our entire elementary school. Two! You know why? Because back then, kids actually PLAYED instead of being popped down in front of a TV. We burned off the calories from that rare piece of pizza (Tuesdays were pizza day at the school cafeteria!) and we had a full half an hour recess where unless it was pouring down rain, we played outside. Even 90 degree weather we still played outside!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - we NEED to push Home Ec in school for high schoolers, all four years, so they are learning how to take care of their households - even if their household down the road only contains themselves. Instead, we have young adults with no financial common sense, who have to rely on product packaging labels to tell them whether it's healthy or not, and their idea of a healthy dinner is zapping a Lean Cuisine in the microwave!


And I certainly hope that the photo included in the story isn't the school's idea of a "forced" lunch, because I see processed sliced cheese and colored milk with red dye included. See that so called sandwich? That's enriched white bread right there, the bottom of the bread barrel. Those pears are from a can - which means they have sugary syrup on them, and I'm willing to bet those sad little "tater-tots" have been caked with chemicals too.

Somehow, I really don't think any packed lunch from home is any worse than that lunch!

Source: http://www.confessionsofapsychotichousewife.com/2011/04/war-against-paper-bag-lunches.html

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