The school district in Durham, Ontario, has told the students that they cannot eat part of their lunches packed at home, because they are unhealthy. It is part of the new healthy eating initiative but it has parents fuming after teachers have refused to let students eat parts of their lunches that were packed by the parents.
A mother of two district students, Elaina Daoust, was “infuriated” when her son was told he could not eat his morning snack last year. It was a piece of prepackaged banana bread and he was denied his snack because it contained chocolate chips. They told him he would have to eat grapes instead.
According to Daoust: “He came home with a chart (listing healthy snack ideas) and told me he and the teacher talked about it and healthy choices. She also sent a note to me. I was really, really, really mad for several reasons.”
She said that her son chose the package banana bread because the teachers didn’t want home-baked treats because of the possible for food allergies. Her son was a picky eater, but the banana bread was labeled as nut free.
Since he started at a new school, her son has not been given any issues so far.
Of course, much of this has to do with the emphasis put on healthy eating in Ontario within the school systems. It is part of their health and physical education curriculum recently. Officials within the school board, however, do say there’s a difference between teaching children to eat healthy and critiquing what they bring the school.
According to James Mackinnon, a teaching consultant with the school district, “There is nowhere in our policy that says our staff is allowed to take food away from a student.” He added that teaching students to make healthy decisions is important but teachers should not single the students out.
In excess of 30 parents within the district have shared stories about children having food taken away. Foods that are discouraged from being brought to the classroom include granola bars, goldfish, Jell-O, string cheese, juice boxes, pudding, raisins, chocolate milk, animal crackers and Sun chips.
One mother says that her daughter, who is in second grade, had her lunch sent home several times because it had pizza and it was not designated as a pizza day within the school. They offered her daughter a lunch at one point to replace the lunch her mother had packed. In other cases, her daughter did not eat that day.
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