Lunches seized from Utah schoolkids because of unpaid bills?

[Deleted]

If only you took the junk food from more kids and gave them fruit and milk, I mean serving kids pizza is not cool

Pizza for breakfast too, thats just wrong.

[-aiko-]

Lets take a look at whats being served by that school daily, to make it fair I will include only the main meal, condiments and drink. In reality most children will be snacking and including desserts, but we will ignore those for now.

If the kids are eating desserts then that can't be blamed on the school. You also took the worse possible side, corn, which in my experience kids don't like anyway... but that is hardly an argument on my part. A different scenario:

Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza (320 calories, probably gross but kids like pepperoni for who knows why)
Peaches (70 calories)
Chocolate milk (130 calories)
Total: 520 calories and most of their carbs for the day

Another:

Breaded chicken sandwhich (340 calories)
Banana (110 calories)
Chocolate milk (130 calories)
Total: 580 calories and heartburn

I concede that I didn't even look at the breakfast menu. I didn't know schools serve breakfast. In any case I'm not arguing that the meals are 'healthy'. I just stick to my statement that this won't cause obesity or long-term health problems (for lunch anyway).
Disclaimer: The above (poor) opinion is based on the assumption that these kids only eat lunch at school, and a balanced breakfast and dinner are provided by loving parents.

Not what I would give my theoretical kids, but I wouldn't scoff at parents who did and feel that they are bad parents.

[belfpala]

I don't know how many calories kids are supposed to get, but for many many kids lunch is the biggest meal of the day.

As for schools that serve breakfast, I thought that was usually a special program for kids who have to be there early (either parent has to get to work early, or the kid has some very early before-school activity). For example, an ex-gf (ironically, I guess) worked in a school district; she had to be out the door by about 6:30 AM with her son. She usually made breakfast for him, but sometimes had to rely on the school's breakfast service.

[-aiko-]

I don't know how many calories kids are supposed to get, but for many many kids lunch is the biggest meal of the day.

I know more about cats than I do about kids, but cats need more calories when they're growing up. My inner crazy cat lady tells me this is probably the case with humans, but crazy cat ladies don't know about humans.

As for schools that serve breakfast, I thought that was usually a special program for kids who have to be there early (either parent has to get to work early, or the kid has some very early before-school activity). For example, an ex-gf (ironically, I guess) worked in a school district; she had to be out the door by about 6:30 AM with her son. She usually made breakfast for him, but sometimes had to rely on the school's breakfast service.

Bizarre. I guess it makes sense, I've just never heard of it. I didn't go to an American 'elementary' school.

[Deleted]

Well, not always the case. My daughter recieves school lunches everyday and they are very good. They don't give the kids fatty, salty, and all around unhealthy choices. It's all good food provided by Nurti Kids.

I have my payments set up to renew when my daughter gets to $10, so I never have to worry about a negative balance. And even if you do go over or don't have the money, the school has a policy that every child gets a lunch. They will call you and email you about the negative balance.

- - - Updated - - -

The school my daughter goes to was awarded the silver medal for their lunches by the HUSSC (Healthier US School Challenge).

Whats an example of a meal at that school?

[Deleted]

Today's lunch was

Homemade French WW Bread Pizza
Mozzarella & Tomato Dark Green Leafy Romaine Caesar Salad
Dried Cranberries & Mixed Fruit Cups
Served with 10 ounce Skim Milk

Yesterday's was

Crispy Whole Grain Popcorn Chicken
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Diced Cling peaches
Served with 10 ounce Skim Milk

Pizza and popcorn chicken are in no way healthy, then again they classed pizza sauce as a vegetable so what does anyone know?

[Themius]

This is just absolutely disgusting...

They threw the food away, completely wasted the food because there wasn't money in their accounts so instead of feeding the children they throw the food in the fucking garbage? What an utter fucking waste.

[Tastyfish]

I Feel like this is the ultimate anal retentive, old fart with no children, thread of the year.
Never mind that, lets get pedantic and get the electron microscope and see what they "REALLY" are eating.

[Spl4sh3r]

This is ridiculous, especially since they threw the food away instead of letting the kids eat it. It costs them the same amount.

[zito]

This is ridiculous, especially since they threw the food away instead of letting the kids eat it. It costs them the same amount.

Actually they lost more by throwing it away. They would of gotten that money eventually, you can not pass a grade while having owed money to the school. So by throwing it away they just lost more money then giving the kids their food.

[Iamanerd]

Reminds me of why I hated school lunches to begin with, used to pack a lunch as it was easier and I could bring better food. But seriously they take the food away and throw it in the trash? Talk about being really fucking dumb, glad the people who did this are going to take some shit for it and maybe some will lose there job.

[zito]

Pizza and popcorn chicken are in no way healthy, then again they classed pizza sauce as a vegetable so what does anyone know?

Schools cant fry food, everything is done in the oven. Popcorn chicken is actually health if it is white meat. Pizza is actually not bad depending on how they make it. Tomato sauce is usually just tomato puree with dried herbs (dried herbs are inexpensive), it's the bread that gets you.

Ceaser salad though? Yea.... not healthy.

[zito]

I've actually seen the salads. They are very good. They use the dark green romaine lettuce and the dressing is low in fat and prepared quite nice.

Cesar dressing is made out of oil, cheese, anchovies (salt), and eggs emulsified together. Low fat doesn't mean jack.

[Blade Wolf]

This makes me so happy that i live in Sweden and yet to pissed off at the school who actually did that.

[HAcoreRD]

I'm torn on this.

Yes, it's wrong to take food from hungry children,

But, is it right to give then "free" food? Parents had negative balance. That's below $0.00 - if parents are this hard on cash, buy some bread and peanut butter. That's about $4.00 there and maybe a juice box.

I wonder if kids can stroll into McDonalds and eat for free because they're kids? Or perhaps I'm looking at this in the wrong light. *shrugs*

[-aiko-]

IBut, is it right to give then "free" food?

Yes, and then fine the parents.

Actually, some of these parents weren't overdue and their kids had their lunches taken by mistake.

[Crissi]

I'm torn on this.

Yes, it's wrong to take food from hungry children,

But, is it right to give then "free" food? Parents had negative balance. That's below $0.00 - if parents are this hard on cash, buy some bread and peanut butter. That's about $4.00 there and maybe a juice box.

I wonder if kids can stroll into McDonalds and eat for free because they're kids? Or perhaps I'm looking at this in the wrong light. *shrugs*

a hungry kid isnt going to focus on lessons much, so it will impact his learning for the day. Thats why they should be given an acceptable amount of food regardess of ability to pay at that moment.

[Triginhil]

I had a similar issues when i was in Elementary school, back in the mid 90's, luckily the school lunch lady went against school policy and brought out another box of frozen pizza subs to heat up and feed us. Sometimes breaking the rules means doing the right thing. I always got free lunch throughout school and I knew about a kid in high school whose parents wouldnt bother to give him money or send him to school with food. I gave him my pin number so he could use my free lunch to get breakfast every morning since I never used it anyways. I didn't know the guy, I had no classes with him, I just overheard his life style on the bus ride to school one morning and told him my name and birthday so he could pretend to be me and get a breakfast. We went all of senior year w/o a problem, he got breakfast each morning and I used my code to get lunch each day

[Themius]

I'm torn on this.

Yes, it's wrong to take food from hungry children,

But, is it right to give then "free" food? Parents had negative balance. That's below $0.00 - if parents are this hard on cash, buy some bread and peanut butter. That's about $4.00 there and maybe a juice box.

I wonder if kids can stroll into McDonalds and eat for free because they're kids? Or perhaps I'm looking at this in the wrong light. *shrugs*

Yes, you are looking at it in the wrong light. They couldn't pay and realized their mistake, so they took the food from the kids who already had it because the kids couldn't pay and then threw it in the garbage so the no one could have it. For what? To teach the kids a lesson? It sounds utterly ridiculous.