Originally Posted by buggyone

If my child was involved in what? A healthy food program at school? I would be all for it. At my daughter's high school, the students could buy soda from a machine before or after school. During school hours, the machine was unplugged - or somehow made inoperable. So, even during lunch time, the students could only get bottled water, juice, or milk to drink. Good idea to me.

How would you feel if you were suddenly told that you did not provide your child with a lunch that met certain guidelines, then you had to pay for the extra food provided to meet those guidelines? What about what a child can eat or not eat? I'm not talking about preferences, but physically being able to eat something? Of course, maybe the child wouldn't eat what it might not be able to...but then again.....

Providing good choices for kids at school is great, but determining that you, as a parent, did not provide a proper meal for your child, just doesn't sit right with me.

Originally Posted by rubicon

As I recall Dr. Benjamin Spock became all the rage when it came to rearing children and look how that turned out.

There is an inherent danger in allowing the government to make too many of our decisions. It is one thing to make a recommendation, educate etc but quite another to enforce. It is a short leap from government advising to government interference. Just look at what government has done with business regulations that are strangling companies with red tape.

Why is it that with abortion "pro-choice" is favored by liberals? However when it comes to a person's private eating habits "pro-choice" isn't an option?

Less and smaller government is the main theme in this election year. So Team Obama will attempt to put his best foot forward and advertise on how much better we would be to sit back and let the government drive. Before you swallow that line repeat to yourself Greece, Greece, Greece.

There's quite a lot of difference between eating oneself overweight and getting pregnant and wondering how you are going to feed, cloth, educate, house, and love a child that may not be more than 14 or 15 years younger than you when you are 29. I have met mothers who started having kids at 14.

There are also many areas where regulations are necessary for the welfare of citizens and non-citizens of the US like with safety in transportation, food processing, water purification, mental health, medicine, drugs, alcohol, firearms, coining of money, electricity and nuclear energy, education, etc.

Yaw...wwww..nnnn.........................who cares.

Listen to her pontificate, or don't.

Michelle-my-belle is keeping herself busy. Every 1st meh-lady has got to have a purpose.

I say......ho hum

If my wife and I pack a lunch for our child and send him off to school, the school or the government, IN MY OPINION, have absolutely no right whatsoever to interfere with said lunch. If the school wants to send home information to us to help us understand what THEY think is nutrious, thats fine, but there is no way the government is going to tell me what my child should eat at lunch.

The intent of this program may be worthy, but nobody, no matter the party, no matter whose WH, not matter will interfere with my raising of my child.

To me, this is the exact opposite of what we want. I, at least, would welcome much more parent involvement in all aspects of school.

It is so ludicrous to even suggest that the government can tell me what to pack for my kid for lunch.

Originally Posted by Bucco

If my wife and I pack a lunch for our child and send him off to school, the school or the government, IN MY OPINION, have absolutely no right whatsoever to interfere with said lunch. If the school wants to send home information to us to help us understand what THEY think is nutrious, thats fine, but there is no way the government is going to tell me what my child should eat at lunch.

The intent of this program may be worthy, but nobody, no matter the party, no matter whose WH, not matter will interfere with my raising of my child.

To me, this is the exact opposite of what we want. I, at least, would welcome much more parent involvement in all aspects of school.

It is so ludicrous to even suggest that the government can tell me what to pack for my kid for lunch.

The school/government agency replacing the lunch you sent with something they decide is healthier is not far at all from them eventually mandating that the child cannot bring any lunch from home, requiring them to eat only what the school offers in its lunch program. That would be tyrannical.

And that is the concern. Tyranny.

Originally Posted by ilovetv

The school/government agency replacing the lunch you sent with something they decide is healthier is not far at all from them eventually mandating that the child cannot bring any lunch from home, requiring them to eat only what the school offers in its lunch program. That would be tyrannical.

And that is the concern. Tyranny.

:1rotf l:

A poster wrote, "What about what a child can eat or not eat? I'm not talking about preferences, but physically being able to eat something?"

Are you talking about - for example - a child with a gluten allergy being forced to eat wheat bread or a child with a peanut allergy being forced to eat peanut butter sandwiches? Yeah, that is going to happen.

Originally Posted by buggyone

A poster wrote, "What about what a child can eat or not eat? I'm not talking about preferences, but physically being able to eat something?"

Are you talking about - for example - a child with a gluten allergy being forced to eat wheat bread or a child with a peanut allergy being forced to eat peanut butter sandwiches? Yeah, that is going to happen.

What makes you believe it won't?

This is a true story. It happened about abot 16 years ago at an elementary school in Virginia. It was nearing the end of the school year and I surprised my son's elementary school class with pizzas from Pizza Hut. I got to the class about 15 minutes before the scheduled lunch time and went to the teacher and told her what I'd done. It was one of those spur-of-the-moment things I did just as a fun treat because I had the time in my day and thought it would be fun for the kids. I hadn't scheduled it with the teacher ahead of time.

She told me the kids had to go to the cafeteria because so many had free or reduced lunches it would mess up the mechanism of payment and such if they skipped out of the system that day. I suggested that I take the pizza into the cafeteria and let them get their food trays and drinks and eat pizza if they wanted to eat pizza with their school lunch. She said I wasn't allowed to bring outside restaurant food into the cafeteria to feed an entire class because of USDA guidelines.

I was stunned and shocked and apologized to her for causing a disturbance, because by then my son and the majority of the kids who knew me wanted me to eat luch with them and asking me if I was reading to them that day and so forth. I bought a school lunch and ate with my son and took the pizzas home.

How would the posters on here suggest combating the obesity problem in this country if not by educating the youth? What is wrong with suggesting that kids bring an apple for a snack instead of a bag of chips or cookies? Most kids are not born obese, but obviously the nutrition they're being taught at home is not working.

The obesity epidemic and all the related diseases, diabetes, etc, are the most easily cured by proper nutrition and exercise. Perhaps insurance companies should treat obesity as a preexisting condition and refuse to insure anyone that is overweight.

Michelle Obama is trying to educate children about healthy eating with her White House vegetable garden and exercise with her "keep moving" programs.

Originally Posted by janmcn

How would the posters on here suggest combating the obesity problem in this country if not by educating the youth? What is wrong with suggesting that kids bring an apple for a snack instead of a bag of chips or cookies? Most kids are not born obese, but obviously the nutrition they're being taught at home is not working.

The obesity epidemic and all the related diseases, diabetes, etc, are the most easily cured by proper nutrition and exercise. Perhaps insurance companies should treat obesity as a preexisting condition and refuse to insure anyone that is overweight.

Michelle Obama is trying to educate children about healthy eating with her White House vegetable garden and exercise with her "keep moving" programs.

Educating and suggesting are one thing, but providing food and "forcing" a child to not necessarily consume but deal with a choice without a parent to look to, seems just wrong with me. Giving lessons in basic nutrition, stressing the benefits of physical activity, even offering a hands on food values class are GOOD things, and I have no difficulties with that.

Originally Posted by pooh

Educating and suggesting are one thing, but providing food and "forcing" a child to not necessarily consume but deal with a choice without a parent to look to, seems just wrong with me. Giving lessons in basic nutrition, stressing the benefits of physical activity, even offering a hands on food values class are GOOD things, and I have no difficulties with that.

Originally Posted by janmcn

How would the posters on here suggest combating the obesity problem in this country if not by educating the youth? What is wrong with suggesting that kids bring an apple for a snack instead of a bag of chips or cookies? Most kids are not born obese, but obviously the nutrition they're being taught at home is not working.

The obesity epidemic and all the related diseases, diabetes, etc, are the most easily cured by proper nutrition and exercise. Perhaps insurance companies should treat obesity as a preexisting condition and refuse to insure anyone that is overweight.

Michelle Obama is trying to educate children about healthy eating with her White House vegetable garden and exercise with her "keep moving" programs.

Kudos to the First Lady for spreading good info on diets, but guess what....as with many problems in this country, these kids are NOT her kids and to even suggest that a school has the right to confiscate what the parents sent for lunch under the provision it is not "healthy" enough in the eyes of the government is simply crazy.

Originally Posted by Bucco

Kudos to the First Lady for spreading good info on diets, but guess what....as with many problems in this country, these kids are NOT her kids and to even suggest that a school has the right to confiscate what the parents sent for lunch under the provision it is not "healthy" enough in the eyes of the government is simply crazy.

You are right, Bucco. The incident in North Carolina which sparked this entire thread was an isolated incident. Obviously, the person checking the lunches did not understand things clearly and made a bad decision. The child's lunch was not confiscated but the child was given a choice to take some chicken nuggets and the mother was upset at that as well as being told she owed $1.25 for the nuggets. The school principal said that was not right. No one at the school did their jobs well that day.

USDA guidelines do not tell schools to confiscate lunches that are not healthy. That would be crazy.

All I know is that my Italian mother would not like Obama's diet regime...and weight wasn't a problem in our family BON APPETIT!