Bill: No snacks for food stamp users

Cheetah said:
So what you are saying is that if one of your children that are an adult now gets injured, goes to the hospital but doesn't have insurance they should not provide medical care unless someone come forward to pre-pay for it? Because if they proceed with emergency medical care there is a chance that the person will never be able to pay for it. Guess who ends up paying for those folks? Yep, we do, from our taxes. It is illegal to refuse urgent medical care based on the probability of payment.

When we are talking about our children here, we are talking about the future of our country. We (all of us) have a vested interest in their health and education. We as a collective are the government.
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A voice of reason and commonsense is so refreshing.
 
Cheetah said:
What's obvious to you is not obvious to the next person.
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If it's obvious to the teacher, the teacher has to report it.

"... without cause..." you are talking about singling out one kid in a class room based on a judgmental factor. This is wrong and detrimental to the kids well being.
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Huh? Teachers are mandated by law to report neglect and abuse. They don't make those reports in the presence of the students.

Teachers are NOT supposed to snoop thru the packed lunches of their students and publicly judge their nutritional quality. There is no legitimate cause for the teacher to do that.
 
Reba said:
If it's obvious to the teacher, the teacher has to report it.


Huh? Teachers are mandated by law to report neglect and abuse. They don't make those reports in the presence of the students.

Teachers are NOT supposed to snoop thru the packed lunches of their students and publicly judge their nutritional quality. There is no legitimate cause for the teacher to do that.
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What snooping? In elementary school, we ate lunch in our classrooms. It was plain as day what everyone was eating, their food was laid out on the table.

Cheetah didn't say a single thing about singling out students in front of others. You brought that up in response to me even though I didn't say a single thing in support of doing that and you're doing it again with Cheetah who also didn't support it. Why are you doing that?
 
rockin'robin said:
Very few kids pack their lunches for school, even parents don't do it....with free lunches for those low-income, they get free lunches at school, or just have to pay a portion.

At my boys school, Breakfast and Lunch for each of them are $2.40, combined it's $4.80 a day.....almost $25 per week....and the way I see it, it's cheaper than having to pack their breakfasts or lunches. They have to leave very early in the AM...and if we packed their breakfasts or lunches, a lot of times they forget them...as the bus leaves at different times. They get to the bus stop 15 minutes early, and even if the bus is "early" it does not wait....I've had to take them to school many times...

As for taking a "snack" to school, graola bars is their choice, but very seldom do they do that. They do have a snack when they come home, and I don't mind chips and a fruit drink. But no sweets, as we eat dinner anytime from 5-6pm
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most granola bars have nuts in them and a lot of schools do not allow kids to bring any food with nuts in it. My grandchild can't bring any foods with in nuts in it to school.
 
Grayma said:
I would not be okay with that. It's not the business of any creature of the government to inspect what I feed my kids.
And the health and safety of *my* kids is *my* responsibility, not yours or anybody else's.
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AMEN To That!!
 
Cheetah said:
Perhaps if we look at this from another angle... There is a public cost associated with bad eating habits. Especially with the uninsured. Edit: as DC's post above said... :)

Are you comfortable with your tax dollars providing medical services to someone that did not have good eating habits and as a consequence ended up in the hospital?

If this is unacceptable to you, would you want all children to receive proper health and nutrition information in school?

How can we know that the children and their parents are getting the message if we do not review what kids are eating at lunch?
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IT IS NOT ANY ONE BUSINESS WHAT PEOPLE FEED THEIR KIDS!! If we where to follow your why of thinking then the government should be allowed to tell people that they can't smoke or drink as it bad for health and tax payers have to pay for it!! Where does this stop and why do you or anyone want to let the government have more power over you and your famliy ? There was a case of a girl being taken away from her home as she was too fat. do you think this should be allowed to happen?
 
Reba said:
Things have changed much since I attended school. The only time we had snacks were in kindergarten. We had the little bottles of milk and some Graham crackers that the school provided. That was it.

No other snack times for any other grades. Our schools had only lunch times. No breakfasts were served.
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I don't remember a snack time in my kindergarten or early elementary school (there may have been one, I just don't recall). Then we moved from Canada to the US, Arizona. In my new elementary school we had a 'milk break' during the afternoon recess. We got a carton of milk, regular or chocolate, or a choice of cream-sicles or little plastic cups of ice-cream. I do not know whose idea it was to feed ten year olds ice-cream in the middle of the school afternoon, with two hours of school left to go. Probably the dairy industry.

During Jr High we could buy band chocolate bars in the school office, which cost the same as my lunch money. I bought those every Friday and went home with migraines every Friday, too, until my parents discovered what I spent my lunch money on.

High School- my high school had a cafeteria and we also had a snack bar where we could buy honey buns, deep fried burritoes, hostess pies, burgers, and cokes.

The government just has a lousy track record when it comes to childhood nutrition.
 
Cheetah said:
So what you are saying is that if one of your children that are an adult now gets injured, goes to the hospital but doesn't have insurance they should not provide medical care unless someone come forward to pre-pay for it? Because if they proceed with emergency medical care there is a chance that the person will never be able to pay for it. Guess who ends up paying for those folks? Yep, we do, from our taxes. It is illegal to refuse urgent medical care based on the probability of payment.

When we are talking about our children here, we are talking about the future of our country. We (all of us) have a vested interest in their health and education. We as a collective are the government.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is illegal to refuse urgent medical care based on the probability of payment. This has nothing to do with whether or not it's reasonable to call in some government agency to poke their noses in what foods kids eat at home.
One of my children as an adult has been injured without insurance, and went to the hospital, where the hospital treated her and then waived part of the fee because *local* programs covered it. She made arrangements to pay off the rest over time. Some doctors chose to reduce their fees for her.

We are not talking about 'our' children because you have no interest in my children. You don't tuck them in, buy their food, oversee their school, teach them right from wrong.or have anything to do with their care. We are not a 'collective.'

The government does not, in fact, have any preemptive rights or interest in my children. They may only step in with probable cause. There's something in the Constitution about that.
 
Grayma said:
I don't remember a snack time in my kindergarten or early elementary school (there may have been one, I just don't recall). Then we moved from Canada to the US, Arizona. In my new elementary school we had a 'milk break' during the afternoon recess. We got a carton of milk, regular or chocolate, or a choice of cream-sicles or little plastic cups of ice-cream. I do not know whose idea it was to feed ten year olds ice-cream in the middle of the school afternoon, with two hours of school left to go. Probably the dairy industry.

During Jr High we could buy band chocolate bars in the school office, which cost the same as my lunch money. I bought those every Friday and went home with migraines every Friday, too, until my parents discovered what I spent my lunch money on.

High School- my high school had a cafeteria and we also had a snack bar where we could buy honey buns, deep fried burritoes, hostess pies, burgers, and cokes.

The government just has a lousy track record when it comes to childhood nutrition.
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Have to chime in here.

I was in elementary school starting in 1969. We had no zero, zip, zilch, snack time in my school. We got water breaks during recess or PE. At lunch, if you got a school lunch, it was always a hot meal. If you brought your lunch, the teacher would check it over and tell you what would be better for you, but never told you that what mom or dad sent was wrong. This was a small town in Central Florida. When I was 16 we moved to a much bigger city. There, we still had nutritious hot meals or you brought your own lunch. The school also provided breakfast since we were so over crowded we were on split sessions. 11th & 12th grade went to school from 7am to 12 noon and the 9th & 10th graders from 1pm to 6 pm. They have since enlarged the school (triple the size) and have more schools in the area (8 more high schools since I graduated in 1981).

Now, flash forward - my kids were in public school for only a short time, that school, in mid-Missouri, had the hot lunch, salad bar or the Taco bar. If you brought your lunch, the school nurse had to check it for allergens and if you had anything with peanuts or dairy, you had to eat on the stage. Kids with free or reduced lunches sat on one side and the full price lunches and safe home lunches sat on the other.

When I was growing up, there were no issues with obesity. Get to my last 2 years in the big city, and obesity was rampant. Then, in my kids school, obesity was an epidemic starting a=with the Kindergarten class.

Something's wrong with this picture.
 
Grayma said:
Yes, it is illegal to refuse urgent medical care based on the probability of payment. This has nothing to do with whether or not it's reasonable to call *in some government agency to poke their noses in what foods kids eat at home.
One of my children as an adult has been injured without insurance, and went to the hospital, where the hospital treated her and then waived part of the fee because *local* programs covered it. She made arrangements to pay off the rest over time. Some doctors chose to reduce their fees for her.

We are not talking about 'our' children because you have no interest in my children. You don't tuck them in, buy their food, oversee their school, teach them right from wrong.or have anything to do with their care. *We are not a 'collective.'

The government does not, in fact, have any preemptive rights or interest in my children. They may only step in with probable cause. There's something in the Constitution about that.
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Everyday children are not getting the nutrition they need to sustain their life. Parents are arrested, put in jail and still there are children dying from malnutrition right here in America. By your argument we should just ignore that because parents have a right to decide what their kids will eat. Yes this is extreme, but if you only look at one small part then you are missing the bigger picture. I would love to agree with you 100 percent. But the simple reality is that too many children every day are not getting the basic nutrition they need. If this were not the case then I would back off and agree with you.

We are talking about all children, not just your children. It would not be fair to just focus on one kid or a group of kids because of some predefined judgement about them. No. All kids. We do have a vested interest in the success of your kids as well. I would not hesitate to report you or your kids if I saw something that was a danger to them or other people. There is a reason there is a food stamp program, it's for the government to help improve the nutrition of our children. If you don't need this program then great! I know parents that give their kids McDonalds nuggets, fries, and soda nearly every day. *Is this healthy? No. Is there anything i can do about it? No. But at the very least, let's make sure they have a chance for a healthy lunch every school day. But according to your logic that would be wrong. I'm sorry, if stepping on your toes is what it takes to help our kids get better nutrition then I have no problem doing that.

So get your head out of your butt and see that this is bigger than you and your fragile little ego.
 
I have no problem with snacks for food stamp users. Not a whit.
 
There is no epidemic of obesity. Completely overblown as a result of media hype about food and children. Sure, obesity exists. Obesity is about excess body fat, not about excess body weight. While thin as kids they can still grow up and experience obesity or simply be overweight.
 
kokonut said:
There is no epidemic of obesity. Completely overblown as a result of media hype about food and children. Sure, obesity exists. Obesity is about excess body fat, not about excess body weight. While thin as kids they can still grow up and experience obesity or simply be overweight.
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It must be nice to walk around with blinders on.
 
kokonut said:
There is no epidemic of obesity. Completely overblown as a result of media hype about food and children. Sure, obesity exists. Obesity is about excess body fat, not about excess body weight. While thin as kids they can still grow up and experience obesity or simply be overweight.
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When's the last time you left the US to go abroad somewhere?
 
DeafCaroline said:
What snooping? In elementary school, we ate lunch in our classrooms. It was plain as day what everyone was eating, their food was laid out on the table.

Cheetah didn't say a single thing about singling out students in front of others. You brought that up in response to me even though I didn't say a single thing in support of doing that and you're doing it again with Cheetah who also didn't support it. Why are you doing that?
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This is the original posted statement to which I've been referring to:

"...the teacher is going to check out each kids lunch and see who had a healthy snack and who has an unhealthy snack! The kids that have a healthy snack with get a sticker!"
 
Many of us have seen and experienced being singled out in school and discourage that kind of activity. However giving a reward is a motivator for some people to do better. I don't like singling out kids because it's too easy to do it in a way that makes it ok to pick on that kid. So, no. I would not support giving a sticker for this.

Now, if you had a class full of students that bring Unhealthy food almost every day, then that might be a different story. But I'm not a teacher and the op does not say what percentage of kids are brining unhealthy lunches to school.
 
Cheetah said:
If you are trying to address the child obesity problem why not go directly to the source... ie the food. Perhaps an "independent" nutritionist could be brought in to review the lunch bag for each of the kids, and after a week of review create a recommendation sheet to share with the parents. After all, most young kids are not packing their own lunches, and if they are they shouldn't be.

This could be done twice a year with a summary results shared with the public. There is no need to single out any one or group of kids. The health and safety of our kids is everyone's responsibility.
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This is a joke, right?
 
Cheetah said:
Many of us have seen and experienced being singled out in school and discourage that kind of activity. However giving a reward is a motivator for some people to do better. I don't like singling out kids because it's too easy to do it in a way that makes it ok to pick on that kid. So, no. I would not support giving a sticker for this....
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We are on the same page. :)
 
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