Imagine that your child’s daycare center regularly offers snacks like Rice Krispies treats and cookies, and then demands proof of your child’s medical “disability” when you ask to send healthier food from home. That disturbing scenario is a very real one for some parents, and today I have a reported piece in Civil Eats about this practice and the reasons underlying it.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Do You Love The Lunch Tray? ♥♥♥ Then “like” The Lunch Tray! Join over 8,600 TLT fans by liking TLT’s Facebook page (and then adding it to your news feed or interest lists) to get your Lunch delivered, along with bonus commentary, interesting kid-and-food links, and stimulating discussion with other readers. You can also join almost 5,000 TLT followers on Twitter, see my virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest and find selected TLT posts on The Huffington Post. And be sure to check out my free video for kids about processed food, “Mr. Zee’s Apple Factory!”
Amber says
I get where you are coming from, anyone (like me!) who works making menus following the CACFP guidelines knows that there are holes in the system, but the guidelines are getting ready to be revised to closer resemble the SLP. I don’t think you are giving enough credit to the daycare workers out there who plan menus and are really trying to get away from all of that processed food. In the program that I work for we sit a plate of healthy food down in front of the kids and they turn their noses up at it, and why wouldn’t they I send home a form asking the parents for imput on the menus and all I get back is chicken nuggets and hot dogs and this year I even had one parent put oreos down for a snack! Until we as adults get away from the notion that kids will only eat “Kid” food nothing is going to change. I am proud to say that for the past 3 years that I have been making menus, pop tarts and hot dogs have NEVER been on them. We are looking out for your kids’ best interests too! I know this has gotten off on a rant, but this is just such a frustrating issue, no matter what we do we are making someone unhappy. As for the doctors note, yes you need one to send your kids something that is not on the menu, and it’s that way for multiple reasons. Food allergies for one, what if you send a healthy yummy homemade granola bar for your daughter and she happens to sit next to the kid who has the oat allergy, or maybe you put peanut butter in it and she sat next to the kid with the peanut allergy, because it’s not in a package we would have no idea what is in it. Also, what if you send in a lunch box and happen to forget to put an ice pack in it, how would we know how long that food has been time temperature abused, how do we know how the food was even prepared, what if a mom makes spaghetti and leaves the leftovers on the stove for two hours and thinks nothing about packing it in the lunchbox for the next day. There are just so many factors that go into this issue. The one thing that really made me decide to comment on this was the title, it makes it sound like if you don’t go out and get a doctors note your kids is only going to be eating junk food at daycare and that just simply isn’t true. I’ve agreed with most of your articles and have enjoyed and will still enjoy reading your blog, but this piece I felt really missed the mark.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Amber: I really appreciate your comments and real world experience, and I’m sorry you felt this post missed the mark. When I write for Civil Eats, I have a strict word count limit (as opposed to this blog where I can — and sometimes do — yammer on and on! 🙂 ) and so sometimes nuance is lost. I did have a line in the post about how “not all daycares” are serving junk food, and I tried hard to explain, just as you also do above, how hard it is for daycare workers to monitor the safety and nutritional content of home-packed lunches. That was something I hadn’t thought of before I researched the piece, but the more I learned, the more sympathetic I became to daycare centers — sympathy that I thought (but maybe you didn’t) came through in the story. At any rate, I’m glad you commented here and thank you for being a Lunch Tray reader.
Julia says
Ok I’m not a parent however I work in daycare and I do see some parents say they do not want their child eating the food that is serviced. I think the food is disgusting for the amount of money parents pay for child care and the shit they are being servived is nothing but high fats and carbs. Not only are the children consuming this food but also staff and I have watched a lot of women in the field start off slender and by eating this food have become so fat it’s sad. I don’t like the fact that we are meant to eat the food because it shows the kids that it’s healthy and good for them… the only thing good for them is sometimes the veggies or fruit they serve which is a lot of the times fruit from a can in syrup. I know that we shouldn’t expect the best meals being served in childcare but I feel if I had children I would be sending them with food that I made and shopped for and not allowing them to consume the shit …. I also think as an adult working in this field If u are sit ting down to eat with the childen why is it so wrong to pull out ur healthy lunch aND eat it with them? Why is it wrong and u have to eat the food they eat. I’m trying to be a serious athlete and I feel that eating their food hinders the results because it’s carbs and fats which isn’t something u want to take a lot of unless it’s healthy. What r some ways u can keep urself from not consumin thus crap and continue to eat healthy does it take a Dr. Note like for parents of children who want their child to eat healthy foods ?.