I'm all for making sure children are looked after and that their needs are met. That, of course, would include feeding them a healthy lunch - but seriously? This day care opts to actually fine a parent for this particular lunch choice she made? Something is wrong with this picture.
A Manitoba mom recently received a note from her child's day care, along with a $10 fine, because of the lunch she packed. Now I could see the merit in this if she sent candy and pop - but she packed a hearty homemade stew complete with roast beef, potatoes and carrots along with an orange and a milk. The note however, stipulates ALL lunches MUST contain one milk, one meat, one grain and two fruits and/or vegetables. The stew lunch was missing a grain so the note said the lunch had to be supplemented by the school. And with what? Well Ritz crackers of course.
Really?
Not surprisingly, the mom is a tad upset. Checking over the list of "okays" and "not okays," she discovered it would have been fine and dandy to send microwaveable Kraft Dinner, a hot dog, a pack of fruit twists, a cheese string and a juice box but a homemade stew didn't cut the mustard. As for health/fat content she took note the serving of Ritz crackers provided to her child contained 6.5 grams of fat, nearly half of which is saturated.
I get the point of what the day care is trying to accomplish but in this instance, they, in my opinion, are way off base. Rules are rules and they are generally in place for good reasons but if they aren't followed with some degree of practicality what real good are they doing?
"It was just frustrating that we have to keep fighting this battle when you're sending your kids perfectly good food but it doesn't meet this really specific, kind of nit-picky requirements," the mom said in a recent television interview. And for her efforts she gets a fine? Please.
The other argument here is the supplement that was provided. A Ritz cracker apparently contains about 15 calories per cracker - is this really a healthy grain choice? "Whole grain brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, even a slice of whole wheat bread would have been a better alternative than a couple of Ritz crackers," correctly points out one nutrition expert.
A little common sense can go a long way and it this case I think it's highly called for.
