Here in the U.S. we force schoolkids to eat whole-wheat spaghetti and cauliflower instead of hot dogs if our school districts want to collect federal money to subsidize their lunch programs.
But in Canada, according to parents' reports, they've gone all the way: actually confiscating the food that parents send to school with their kids on the ground that the home-packed lunches are "too unhealthy" to eat.
The Toronto Star reports:
Whitby mom of two Elaina Daoust says she was “infuriated” last year when her son, then in junior kindergarten at Romeo Dallaire P.S. in Ajax, was told he was not allowed to eat a small piece of banana bread for his morning snack, because it contained chocolate chips….
Local mom Tami DeVries says when her son was in kindergarten his lunch of kielbasa, cheese and Wheat Thins crackers was confiscated and replaced with Cheerios, while Alicia Nesbitt was “furious” that her stepdaughter, currently in Grade 1 with the Durham Catholic District School Board, had chips removed from her lunch the first week of school….
Janae Brangman says there were several incidents last year where her daughter, then in Grade 1 at Waverly P.S. in Oshawa, had her entire lunch sent home because it contained pizza outside of the school’s designated pizza days.
In one instance her daughter was offered an orange in place of her lunch.
What's part of Canada's nanny state today is likely to become part of of the U.S. nanny state tomorrow. Since the USDA is already mandating that school snack machines offer the kids "flavored water" instead of Coke, I wouldn't be surprised if teachers here started taking it upon themselves to take away our own kids' banana bread and kielbasa. Just wait.