Primal Lifestyle vs. School lunchroom regulations page 3

[jenn26point2]

That section has not a single mention of food that is brought from home. It is simply what the center is mandated to supply. You could tell them that they can put a package of wrapped crackers out when an inspector comes through. Won't cost them anything because they can re-serve it another day if it's unopened.

I could find no mention of food brought from home either.

[Periwinkle]

Does the school have a school nurse? If gluten makes your child vomit...see if the nurse can help you in some way. Im a school nurse. If I was in this situation and I ended up with a kiddo in my clinic throwing up every day, I'd be having "a come to Jesus meeting" with somebody. Not every school nurse supports the food pyramid. I dont. And I dont know any nurse who would support bread for a child who will vomit after eating it. Because guess who gets to clean the kid up? That'd be the nurse.

I am glad we dont have those kinds of regulations in my district. The closest we get is on our state test day. Anyone who orders a breakfast the morning of a test, must order a milk. You can get juice in addition to the milk, but you must get a milk.

Good Luck!

ETA: Could you provide wild rice and call it a whole grain instead of bread? Or does it have to be "bread?" B/c bread isnt the only thing in that area of the food pyramid or plate or what ever it is now.

[PrimalMama]

I keep thinking of this story, where it was initially reported that the girl's homemade lunch was tossed and she was forced to eat a school lunch, she ate 1 chicken nugget, and was charged $3 for the lunch.... now, that turned out to be... not exactly the story, but this article (and others if you google the topic) explain a little bit about how the laws apply... even though it still makes no sense. *sigh*

[JoanieL]

Can you find a gluten free bread to pack with his meals? It's not a perfect solution, but I read that statute or whatever and those are some bread pushing folks. They also still think fruit juice is suitable food, and I'm betting donuts to dollars that the fruit juice in the public schools is pure crap.

Another thing that might mitigate this, but probably would take more time than a single parent has is to contact a lawyer and see if any of this has been tested as to constitutionality. You can bet anything, that if you kept say a Kosher home, and you couldn't let your child eat certain things, the school would back down in a hot flash, because they'd know that the shit storm would be atrocious if they forced a child to go against his parents religious beliefs with food.

[Englishman in Oz]

Another thing that might mitigate this, but probably would take more time than a single parent has is to contact a lawyer and see if any of this has been tested as to constitutionality. You can bet anything, that if you kept say a Kosher home, and you couldn't let your child eat certain things, the school would back down in a hot flash, because they'd know that the shit storm would be atrocious if they forced a child to go against his parents religious beliefs with food.

Exactly. You should definitely get this checked out by a lawyer. I can't imagine a situation where they can legally enforce this.

[Iron Fireling]

Wow... that is... insane. I can't imagine living in a place where kids' lunchboxes were routinely inspected to ensure they meet some stupid arbitrary "nutritional standards".

Still, I would probably do something like make some paleo bread and send along a slice. Or just give your child a piece of bread and instruct them not to eat it! (Of course, the teacher may force the issue??!). I think I'd rather go for the paleo bread.

That all being said... I totally disagree with the whole situation! Provided the child is being given a meal, the absolute details shouldn't matter. I mean, going by their recommendations you could give them a really unhealthy lunch full of processed rubbish and it would meet their criteria... but something that's actually healthy and nutritious doesn't! It's very sad when government gets THIS much control over its citizens...

[Iron Fireling]

Hrrm double post... no idea what happened there.

[keh10]

You are in a tough spot. The people who "administer" public schools are total control freaks. You won't get anywhere on your own with them. The way I see it, you have three options:

1: Get your current pediatrician to sign the school's release form and if they wont, find a new pediatrician who will.
2: Do the fake bread home lunch thing (would probably work, but would be kind of annoying.)
3: Get a lawyer and dispute the regulation. (The most costly and least likely to succeed)

[magicmerl]

Homeschool! Don't let the government take control of your own children.

That's what we do.

Maybe you could send the same dried out dessicated piece of bread each day?

Or make fat bread?

[Gadsie]

W. T. F.

Goverment forces your child to eat what they want?!

You could tell your kid to not eat the bread and to make sure he really doesn't just soak the bread in vinegar or something