West Side Chicago parents lose control of menu choices

This recent article in the Chicago Tribune not only caught my eye, but made my blood boil. According to officials at a public school on Chicago’s West Side, parents are too stupid to make healthy choices about their children’s lunches. While they didn’t exactly use the word “stupid”, they might as well have. Officials at Little Village Academy are certain the nutritional choices they make for these children are are better than any decision the parents themselves would make, and have thus banned lunches from home. Children that attend this school have two options: eat school lunches or go hungry. Just look at the photo of the meal on the tray in front of these kids. I’d probably rather go hungry too. It looks awful.

While they did say there would be exceptions for children with food allergies, that’s hardly reassuring. As we all know, the government idea of healthy isn’t backed by science, it’s backed by money. Speaking of money, it sounds as if the school may have the same ulterior motives as our USDA guidelines.

“Any school that bans homemade lunches also puts more money in the pockets of the district’s food provider, Chartwells-Thompson. The federal government pays the district for each free or reduced-price lunch taken, and the caterer receives a set fee from the district per lunch.”

I can certainly see where home-made lunches would cut into their profits. And what about the parents that don’t qualify for the free/reduced fee lunches? They have to pay for lunches that not only don’t meet their child’s nutritional needs, but also will cost them more in the long run. Healthy meals made from scratch at home can easily cost less than the price of these pre-manufactured cafeteria meals. In this economy, forcing the purchase of school lunches is less than helpful to families who are working to make ends meet.

These officials would love for us to believe it’s all about the welfare of the children, but the comments left on the aforementioned article prove that most adults know better. The phrase “Nanny State” continues to bombard my brain every time I read hogwash like this. Honestly, one of the many reasons I home school my children is because I know what is best for them. A local school board or some state agency that’s never even met my child has no REAL interest in them, besides seeing them as another tax dollar. Sure there are some great people who genuinely care about our children, but that’s the exception, not the rule. So why would any parent in their right mind be okay with any school dictating what their children can and can’t eat? It boggles my mind. Especially knowing that schools have to follow the USDA food pyramid, which pushes grains as the staple of each meal and shuns healthy, brain developing animal fats. According to an article on Yahoo! News, the low-fat dogma is furthermore choking out any nutritional values that may be left in public school lunches.

“… last year the schools tightened their nutrition standards for cafeteria-served school lunches. Every lunch must contain whole grains, only reduced-fat salad dressings and mayonnaise are offered as condiments, and the meals must feature a different vegetable each day. Meal providers also must reduce sodium content by 5 percent annually.”

Sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me if we soon start seeing headlines about the rise in children with ADD and ADHD in Chicago’s school system. To make matters worse, do some research on the success rate of children educationally in these public schools. After seeing what a poor job many districts are doing in teaching our kids, the last thing they need control of are the nutritional decisions as well.

“Forty-four percent of American kids living below the poverty line are obese or overweight, according to a 2010 study published in Health Affairs.”

What people fail to realize about the connection with poverty and obesity is that the more expensive foods are generally the healthier foods. When you think of a cheap meal, are you thinking steak and asparagus? No way. You think beans, rice, potatoes, pasta, white bread and baloney sandwiches, cereals, pb&j, and so on. These are the foods cheapest in price and highest in carbohydrates. I can applaud the intentions of officials wanting to change these sad statistics, but they are barking up the wrong tree. First Lady Michelle Obama is pushing her new program to see that children are fed properly, and yet it’s the same old tired advice that has yeilded zero results in past years.

“Soon, cafeteria offerings across the country will all be healthier, whether students like it or not. Last year’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, calls for higher nutritional standards to serve the 32 million kids who eat lunch every day at school (most of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches through a federal government program). For the first time, the USDA will set calorie limits for school lunches, and will recommend they contain more vegetables and whole grains, and less salt, USA Today reports. French fries should be replaced by vegetables and fruit, the guidelines say.”

Setting limits on fat and calories in school lunches will only accomplish one thing – after school snack binges. If our officials really want to see changes in the health of our children, especially those below poverty level, the government programs need to adopt a sugar and grain free policy, with emphasis on healthy animal fats and non-starchy vegetables. Stop handing out the Juicy Juice and bags of rice on WIC and replace them with fresh vegetables and meat. At least then I’d know my tax dollars were being put to good use for our lesser-blessed citizens. But I see that I’m digressing here.

The summation of the problem is this: Parents should have the final say in regards to their children. From meals to education to clothing and entertainment choices, we are the ultimate authority on our own children. We know them and understand their needs better than any one else ever could. This is the definition of parenting. Are we really going to let “officials” take this fundamental right away from us? If we continue to let strangers make these kinds of decisions for our families, no matter how minor the issue seems, we will eventually find we’ve lost all control. My kids are too important to me to let anyone else tell me how to raise them or feed them. I don’t intend to go down without a fight.