The Chicago School Lunch Ban and How to Fight It

There's a story going around about a school in Chicago which no longer allows parents to prepare their kid's lunches.  They have to buy and eat whatever the school cafeteria prepares:

Fernando Dominguez cut the figure of a young revolutionary leader during a recent lunch period at his elementary school.

"Who thinks the lunch is not good enough?" the seventh-grader shouted to his lunch mates in Spanish and English.

Dozens of hands flew in the air and fellow students shouted along: "We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch!"

Fernando waved his hand over the crowd and asked a visiting reporter: "Do you see the situation?"

At his public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.

Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.

"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception."

And therein lies the way around this for parents who don't want to be subject to the whims of the school government. Remember what happened when teachers in Madison, WI wanted to hold a several day temper tantrum and march and bang drums at the State Capitol? Doctors from the university showed up and wrote them sick leave notes so they could get paid during their rantings. Why not used the same technique to defeat the school lunch ban?

Parents should find a doctor sympathetic to their cause who will write a note explaining that the child has allergies or other issues that make it dangerous to rely on the cafeteria food. Therefore, the parents must be allowed to provide the child's lunch. Can you imagine what would happen if 50 or 60 kids showed up one day with their lunches and those notes in hand? The school administration's heads would explode.

This is not so much about kid's nutrition as about schools exercising control over families and putting dollars in the pocket of the food providers. Parents are more than able to provide meals they want their kids to eat without the intrusion of the school administrators.