Mark Thompson uncovers the truth behind the story about the little girl “forced” by “state agents” to eat chicken nuggets instead of her packed lunch:
One problem: the story is a load of bunk at worst, a non-story at best, standing for little more than the proposition that low-income children in NC’s low-income pre-K program whose parents don’t send them to school with enough healthy food will be provided with additional food to supplement what their parents send them to school with.
For starters, the context in which all of this occurred was a public school pre-K program run by the state popularly known as “More at Four,” but now called the generic name “NC Pre-K.” In order to have a child enrolled in this program, which has a limited number of slots, the parents must actively choose to enroll, with priority going to “at-risk” children, to wit: special needs children and (importantly) low-income children. Indeed, to even be eligible for the program, the child must either fit in one of those two categories or have a parent on (or about to be called on) active military duty. Enrollment as an “at-risk” child means that the child’s enrollment is fully subsidized by the state, regardless of whether the day care is private or public.
These facts are critical because the “state agent” in this story turns out to be nothing more than a researcher from a program that grades the performance of pre-schools and operates out of the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It also does not appear that this institute has any actual authority other than to provide assessments, which the state then uses in making licensing decisions and in setting the fees it will pay the day care provider for subsidized care.
Notably, as the second-linked story above suggests, the mother’s main gripe here does not even appear to be with this “state agent,” but instead with the school’s teachers, who continue to give the girl milk and vegetables despite letters from the mother asking them not to. Indeed, the notion that this “state agent” was going around inspecting every single lunch box brought to the school does not appear to have much basis, as the agent apparently ordered full school lunches for every single child in this program and was evaluating the school’s compliance with standards, not individual parents’ compliance. Even if he was doing such an inspection, there’s a pretty obvious context-specific reason for it: this is an opt-in program for parents who largely can’t afford to provide fully balanced meals.
Her other major gripe appears to be that she is worried about being charged for the additional food being placed in front of her daughter based on a letter from the school purportedly saying that kids who did not bring a healthy lunch would be offered supplements and that parents “may” be charged for the supplemented portions. However, as the second-linked story makes clear, no such charges have been issued nor apparently was there any actual chance that such charges would be issued.
The original story’s claim that the relevant regulation applies to all pre-schools is also false – to the contrary, it applies only to pre-schools choosing to participate in (and eligible for) the subsidized program.
The original story further obscures that in no circumstance was this child – or any child, for that matter – being forced to eat the school-provided lunch, nor was this child -or any other child – deprived of her boxed lunch. Instead, as the second linked story acknowledges, the child was just provided with additional food and given the option to consume that in addition to her boxed lunch. In other words, the claim that the school “replaced” this girl’s turkey sandwich, banana, apple, potato chips, and juice with chicken nuggets is totally bogus.
So before we all go crazy talking about how awful the nanny state is to make this poor little girl eat chicken nuggets instead of her sack lunch, let’s all take a deep breath and, I dunno, spend some time researching the facts. I love a good knee-jerk reaction as much as the next guy, but when something sounds too awful to be true, chances are it is. With the very real problems in, say, our criminal justice system – no-knock raids, innocent people on death row, overfilled prisons, and so on and so forth, spending any time at all on this non-troversy is a waste of precious digital ink.
ChristianPinko
Or as Politifact would put it, “mostly true.”
KG
I’m confused by the mother objecting to her kid getting healthy food from the school unless there’s an allergy issue or she was legitimately worried about being charged for it.
Granted, from what I recall of school lunches growing up, there was rarely anything in the cafeteria that was appetizing.
pragmatism
i, for one, enjoy it when someone jerks their knee so forcefully that they break their own nose.
Jay in Oregon
@ChristianPinko:
Well, chicken nuggets do exist. As do agents of the state.
KG
@Jay in Oregon: heh. that reminds me of an old Carl’s Jr commercial with a chicken walking around and a voice over saying something like “where are the nuggets?”
Chuck Butcher
What? Libertarians living in a make-believe world and you kick them for it? Ah, irony…
Speaking of made-up worlds, how about you going ahead and giving a demonstration of one of your farvorites – Free Market? I know the words are all the rage amongst Libertarians and GOPers, but maybe you’d like to tell us how your use doesn’t mean “managed economy?”
I have asked this before…
Chyron HR
If there’s one thing Republicans hate, it’s the way the liberal nanny state is always forcing people to eat chicken nuggets instead of healthy food.
Wait, what?
jl
@KG:
I think the mother was worried about being charged for the milk and vegetables because a letter from the school said parents ‘may be charged’. But from what I can tell, the kid was enrolled in the program so would not charged. So, sounds like a misunderstanding.
From information I read so far, there is no worst or best case scenario at all to describe what this scare story might be. The scare story is pure bunk, and the people spreading are either intentionally malicious, or so fanatical they can’t separate facts from their own incoherent dystopian fantasies.
Svensker
My brother put the original story up on FB with a comment saying “see what smarty pants liebruls are doing AGAIN! ! !” and all the wingnut rellies “liked” it.
Oy.
Litlebritdifrnt
@jl:
You just described Limbaugh to a T, he was screeching about this all afternoon yesterday.
dmbeaster
The story here is that there is a large slice of “thinkers” who are easily suckered into believing this tripe. It is right up there with another group of “thinkers” who are convinced that returning soldiers have been spit upon.
When your point of view inclines you to believe in fantasy, maybe there is something wrong with your point of view.
David Koch
I, for one, welcome our new chicken-mcNugget overlords.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
The purpose of this story is to distract us from the things you listed.
Comrade Javamanphil
In ten years time when members of my family are still forwarding me emails of this story (but the people to blame will be updated to whomever is the relevant Democrat villain du jour), I will remember this posting and happily send them here. It won’t matter, of course, because we are witnessing, in real time, the birth of a zombie lie but it will make me feel better in my declining years.
David Koch
McCrony McNugget capitalism!
Chuck Butcher
yeah, you get a lot of that around here… along with FPs taking Ron Paul seriously and…
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
It has all the necessary elements to render it “truthy”. Refute it all you want, with all the facts you want, it doesn’t matter. I expect to be hearing about this for the next 20 years.
jl
I think one aspect of this stupid fraud of a story is that a lot of public policy in the US is stupid, and stupid in a way that provides excuses to malicious or ignorant conservatives and libertarians to spread lies or foolish fantasies, and fouls up cost effective programs.
Why was the school nickel and diming parents, sending out vague warnings about ‘may be charged’ for providing healthy supplements to kids at mealtime?
I think society owes every kid healthy food.
Was the school budget, or grant funding cut, to pay for gazillionaires tax cuts? Some bean counter afraid a family might be able to afford ice cream cones for kids at the end of the month or maybe get a TV, when they could pay for a lousy carton of milk and some sprigs of veggies? Some idiot economist (disclosure: I am an economist) calculating out cost benefit ratios to the tenth of penny when he or she should have rounded it off to the buck and called it a day (or confusing distributional with efficiency aspects of the benefit and costs)? What?
Edit; or was the letter a scheme to discourage participation?
freelancer
Damned Big Gubmint freedom-imposers! Better give that little girl a transvaginal ultrasound just to make sure she’s not a floozy.
jl
And the dispute or misunderstanding was about a carton of milk and some celery and carrots, so how did that become a “nugget”?
And what healthy meals program would provide generic “nuggets” in place of any food from home that is healthier than a lump of lard?
Gotta be really dumb and ignorant, or think other people are dumb and ignorant to peddle this crud as a reliable news story.
Soonergrunt
@ChristianPinko: You win “Soonergrunt’s Commenter of the Day” award.
Another Halocene Human
@jl: If you really want stupid, dig into the USDA guidelines for school lunches. Jamie Oliver did a good job exposing that mess, but also check out the blog Weighty Matters for the view from Canada. (Shorter: they’re having the same problems) Corporations and big Agra colonised the USDA and kids are being fed low nutrition obesogenic food. (Although it turns out that the worst weight gain happens during summer, when kids are locked up inside playing video games while the parents are at work.)
Just look at milk. Kids used to be fed whole milk with supplemental vitamin D. (As Louis Black named it: MooCowFuckMilk!) This is because they knew that the combination of A, D, K2, and Ca helped form healthy bones and teeth.
Today, kids are fed lowfat chocolate milk, an indefensible sugar bomb which could only have utility as a weight gainer for children with eating disorders or who are recovering from cancer. WTH, America?
Oh yeah, and they found babies with rickets again in Boston at the Children’s hospital. That’s how lousy people’s D levels have gotten. Wow, wow, wow.
Schlemizel
JOHN? IS THAT YOU, JOHN? This certainly was not posted by and Erectile Dysfunction Kane I’m familiar with. That guy would have gone nutso on the original story and then said something like “well, its exactly the type of thing that could be true in our nanny state”.
Another Halocene Human
@jl: Yeah, that’s why I put the first iteration of the story on “ignore”. It twigged my baloney detector.
Another Halocene Human
Hahahaha, Schwan’s ads running on my screen now. The little old lady on food stamp’s birthday favorite!
flukebucket
Hell this story is nothing. I didn’t know President Obama was using Jean Paul Ludwig’s Social Security number until yesterday.
Chuck Butcher
@Schlemizel:
have no fear for your sanity, the phrase Free Market will be back and maybe even some fluffery explaining how Last Confederate Standing Paul has important ideas. Never mind that while “4” looks reasonable the fact that 2+2=4 and 3+2=4 are two different things and have two different outcomes in a real world…
E.D. Kain
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): yes. Many of the stories floating about are distractions. From these and other issues like the somewhat perkier economic outlook.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
You should see the story the local ABC affiliate put out this morning. Even the version by the John Locke Foundation’s newsletter was better reporting.
eric
@David Koch: chicken? i will show you chicken.
Schlemizel
Speaking of libertarian whack jobs, here is an interesting article. If the information turns out to be genuine it will be very interesting to dig through it. The Kock brothers “Heartland” Inst. has had internal docs released.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/15/leak-exposes-heartland-institute-climate
Mark S.
I saw this headline on memeorandum and figured it was bullshit. Must be my Spidey-sense (which can only detect bogus windnut memes, not crimes in progress).
mds
I held out hope that the Ordinary Gentlemen comment section would be less embarrassingly fucking stupid than Reason’s Hit and Run (low bar, but still). And, well … it is. Sure, there are comments declaring that the truth of the matter changes nothing, even though virtually all of the original talking points are entirely false. And other comments criticizing the non-existent policies that Mr. Thompson had just debunked in the post. But they’re currently in the minority relative to posts appreciating Mr. Thompson’s efforts. At Hit and Run, the ratio would already be running the other way, if there were a post debunking the original propaganda at all. Which, since even Sullum got completely suckered by it, is unlikely.
Chuck Butcher
@E.D. Kain:
And your purpose in publishing this here is exactly what? “Look I’m reaonable for stepping on a bullshit?” You’re a pretty smart guy, or play one, so how about you write us a post explaining the Free Market that informs and drives your philosophy? No more bullshit, eh? Compare and contrast with “managed economy.”
I think you’re a weasel, you don’t want to come out and state exactly what the fuck you’re about, you want to play at likeable while driving shit most people here would lose their minds on you for. This thing probably has some place on your bullshit blog, but here?
How fucking stupid is it to say No Fed Drug War let the states individually step on your head is some kind of goddam improvement over the status quo? It’s your ideology and you missed that implication? Or… you think it’s a good idea that some doper doesn’t know if he’ll get a traffic ticket or go to jail for life for a joint depending on what state he’s gotten into?
Mark Thompson
@jl:
First, thanks for the link, Erik!
In regards to this question, though, it’s worth mentioning that none of the stories that discuss this letter seem to have actually seen it. However, the “may be charged” language would not be surprising because it is specifically included in the programs guidelines; in other words, the notice to the parents was almost certainly just restating the program guidelines. That “may be charged” language in the guidelines applies only to parents who qualify for the subsidized pre-K program but who nonetheless make in excess of the amount required for a federally subsidized lunch. Needless to say, that’s only going to apply to a very limited number of participants, and it’s one of the only fees that a school can directly charge a parent.
Importantly, as I read the regulation – and apparently as NC reads the regulation – the “may charge” language only applies where the parent is expressly opting into the school lunch program (ie, not sending the kid to school with lunch at all), not where the lunch sent to school with the child is inadequate.
Not least, it also appears that NC had to change its subsidized pre-K program substantially in the last few months.
So my guess is that the “letter” was something akin to just a notice to parents regarding the structure of the reformed program.
chopper
@Chuck Butcher:
jesus, we fucking get it already.
jl
@Mark Thompson:
Thanks for the clarification. I realized after I posted my comment that I was guilty of same crime as the BS story spreaders. I assumed that the letter was vague, when I had not seen it.
Alternative you suggest is that the letter was full of nearly incomprehensible program eligibility bureaucrat speak.
My point stands about the problems created by this kind of nickle and diming of the lesser people. And whether it is really needed for cost effective programs, rather than budgetary and nit picky BS due to large parts of our society being starved due to bad fiscal policies.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@jl: The linked article says that the mother would not have been charged, but she was not clear about that from the letter. Based on the articles, I expect that parents who do not qualify for subsidized tuition for the program would have been charged under a similar circumstance.
jl
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I don’t think the article spelled that out as definitely as you say, but that is impression I got.
dianne
Our accountant told my husband that the Medicare premium will double by 2014. I checked it out and, of course, it was a bogus viral email that the wingers were sending around (at the end it says “remember in November”). The Medicare premium will be going up by about $8.00 is all. This story is being propagated by a supposed professional to his clients who rely on his expertise and knowledge at tax time and should not be subjected to right wing propaganda. Makes me wonder about how accurate his other advice is.
different-church-lady
Say, how long have you been interested in politics?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@jl: The Ordinary Gentlemen article does use weasel words, I assume because it’s hearsay by the time it gets to them:
They do link to a Civitas article that includes excerpts from an interview with the mother. I think this is the money quote:
Sounds like what she really needs is someone in the program to sit down with her, go over the actual requirements, and give both her and the school a letter stating what the requirements are and spelling out that she won’t be charged. I’ve seen contradictory statements about what’s required in the lunches.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@different-church-lady: I took that as “Hey, how about we try something different this time?”
Satanicpanic
I love the libertarian comments on the LOOG story- liberals aren’t upset that the government is giving out free lunch! What is wrong with liberals? These people have been out on their seasteading nations too long.
Volum
Right on. This story had the stink of horseshit upon first read and I called out more than a few “journalists” for not doing their damn homework.
Jenn
FFS, will the folks jumping all over EDK give it a rest already?! I, for one, was happy to see this, because I’ve had this bogus story gleefully shoved at me several times today, and I hadn’t yet looked at what the heck was going on.
John 2.0
As anyone involved with NC politics at any point in the last 5 years will be able to tell you, the Carolina Journal, the John Locke Foundation and Civitas are the same entity. They’re part of the libertarian ‘network’ set up by one man: Art Pope, in part financed by the Koch Bros.
So Mark Thompson should do some more reporting and state that this went according to plan. The CJ posted an incomplete and biased story to discredit a popular, and much needed Pre-K program established by a democratic governor, and Civitas (the ‘think tank’) gave them some cover by actually presenting the fact of the matters, which will never show up on any other news site that reported the first story.
All they ever do is lie.
Samara Morgan
Go away.
i sent andrew that TAS comment by by cw destroying your stupid post on
mormonconservative art.no one is going to click over to your new crap blog.
Samara Morgan
@Jenn: go read the little creep at his new crap blog then.
most people here have had enough of him.
he just comes here to farm page clicks because he wants to switch horses now that Obama is gunna win.
go back to your day job Kain.
id rather have Douthat on the front page here.
hes a much better writer.
Samara Morgan
@Chuck Butcher: his purpose here is getting page clicks for his new blog.
he quit his day job and wants to make it as a blogger.
he also wants to switch horses now that he sees Obama is gunna win.
Samara Morgan
@chopper: obviously you dont, because you seen more than willing to follow Kain on another aimless meander through the “Freed” Market Fantasy Forest.
slow learner, chopper?
chopper
@Samara Morgan:
or how about we read him at this blog? no matter how much you crank up the crazy, cole is going to put whoever he wants on the FP.
Chuck Butcher
@Samara Morgan:
Please,
don’t help me.
I think I’ve made my point. He never has and will not cover it because he knows he can’t and keep a facade going.
Samara Morgan
@chopper: do you know who links Kain approvingly?
Andrew Sullivan.
is Cole any different from Sully in giving Kain a pulpit for his crap?
Samara Morgan
@Chuck Butcher: im not helping you.
im just gobsmacked that some in the juicitariat are so stupid as to fall for Kains bulshytt a second time.
and im telling you the real reason he is here.
he quit his dayjob, and hes desperate for clicks.
you see…quasi-intellectual conservatism doesnt sell.
and Kain isnt whack enough to be Levin, or a good enough writer to be Ross Douthat.
Samara Morgan
c’mon juicers…are you relly gunna fall for the EDK fake-conversion reality show again?
fool me once, shame on you.
fool me twice, shame on Balloon Juice.
Omnes Omnibus
@Samara Morgan: If someone finds an individual post by a blogger intertsting or informative, it does not necessarily mean that the person has subscribed to that blogger’s philosophy of life or that the person will agree with anything else the blogger happens to write. I can, for example, think that this is a good post and, at the very same time, think that EDK is entirely full of shit on charter schools and unions. It doesn’t even take much effort to do it.
Samara Morgan
@Omnes Omnibus: dude, this is his FORMULA.
find common ground with juicers, milk it, and then flip when he gets enough pageclicks.
im serious.
i’d rather have Douthat as a frontpager because hes a better writer.
TAS is moribund. Culture 11 is long dead.
there is no market for mediocre intellectual conservatism.
Kain is just trying to switch horses because he quit his dayjob and Obama is going to win.
Samara Morgan
@Omnes Omnibus:
then let mixie or the mastertroll link it.
dont give the little fucktard a frontpage slot. hes a fifth columnist for libertarians and the “freed” market.
Omnes Omnibus
@Samara Morgan: Email Cole about it. His blog. Not yours. Not mine.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@John 2.0: And then WTVD took the crazy to 11. I’m idly curious if the WTVD story was primarily sourced from Limbaugh’s rant; it seems to have missed some major points in even the Carolina Journal’s version.
Samara Morgan
@Omnes Omnibus: no ty.
i’d rather point out the juicitariat are TOTALLY retarded for fallin’ for the EDK fake-conversion reality show A SECOND TIME.
Samara Morgan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Omnes Omnibus
@Samara Morgan: You saw my take on this in my first comment to you.
chopper
@Samara Morgan:
so does Cole.
Angry Lurker
@Samara Morgan: Hehe, I actually look for Kain posts on Balloon Juice just to see if his unbalanced, obsessive cyberstalker is still at it… and I’m never disappointed!
You really need a new hobby…
Samara Morgan
@chopper: zactly my point.
how is Cole different from Sullivan?
@Angry Lurker: nah, Kain needs to get his dayjob back. hes not a good enuff writer to make it on blogging alone.
@Omnes Omnibus: and you saw mine. why should BJ finance Kains new craptastic blog when hes just gunna flip again?
John 2.0
@Rail Gun: I’ve been involved with some stories that had CJ/Civitas/various other organs of the Popetopia involved with it, and my guess is that they fed the story to the local station, but I could be wrong.
They almost always get tapped to be the ‘opinions differ’ party when it comes to something the NC executive branch has done, so they have a lot of contacts with local stations.
And since Mr. Thompson shows up in the comments, a bit of context might be helpful. More @4 was created as a response to a court case which required more spending for at risk pre-schoolers. The Program was established in 2003 (I think), and in 2009-2010, the last year NC operated under a Dem-controlled General Assembly was funded out of the ARRA. This is the first year of the Rep-controlled NC GA, and they passed a budget that slashed funding across the board (it was the first budget vetoed in NC’s history, and that veto was overturned).
The ‘May be charged’ might be the program’s response to slots and funding being slashed by the Republicans. What More @4 does is pay for slots in 5-star pre schools for at risk kids. But they’ve got to make up the difference somewhere along the lines, if they’re providing additional services (like free or reduced lunch).
Anyway, I’m sure this’ll be a fun conservative rant I’ll get to try to debunk for years.
kk
Obama’s truth team at work. You getting paid for your opinion? Stay in your hole.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@John 2.0: My first reaction when my husband mentioned this yesterday was “Wasn’t this a Palin rant just a few months ago? Wonder if it even happened.”
The good thing is that it may have finally broken him of trusting the local news.
WTVD has a followup that retracts most of it, BTW.
Samara Morgan
hei, juicers.
lookie here.
Sullivan links Kains Forbes blog.
Still looking for love in
all the wrong placespop culture Kain? do vampires have “conservative values”?Not to go all conspiracy theory on you but is this some unholy alliance between Cole and Sullivan to get Kain enough pageclicks to make a living blogging?
Trust, TAS and Culture 11 are belly up.
im wondering where will the young glibertarian grifters come from now?
Membah, those two blogs gifted the blogverse with Ross and Reihan, and with Young Conor.
chopper
@Samara Morgan:
cole has a comment section which is chock full of stalker crazy, for one.
Samara Morgan
@chopper: oh.
i thot that the difference was Cole is NOT-gay, and not a closet Hayek fanboi.
mybad.
;)
Mark Thompson
@John 2.0: Thank you for this, John 2.0. I had seen some mention about the court decision in my research on this (which really wasn’t all that much….this was remarkably easy to disprove), but did not have the time to go all the way into the weeds to understand the history of the program. For my time-constrained purposes, it was enough to know that it was an opt-in program for at risk, primarily low income, kids that provides fully subsidized pre-school for four year olds. The additional context that you provide here would have taken me many hours that I don’t have to discover, so it is extremely helpful to learn that in this manner.
Samara Morgan
@Mark Thompson: fuck off, Mark Thompson.
go support EDK at Forbes or LoOG or his new craptastic blog.
or at Andrew Sullivans.
;)
Thymezone
I think Cole already stated that the more we complain, the more Kain will get to post. So ED is out to prove the point.
Mark Thompson
@John 2.0: I hope you’re still around to see this, and I hope John Cole is ok with me using his comments section in this manner, but as I mentioned above, I lack the time to do the additional reporting you suggest (I’m no journalist and don’t pretend to be one, and write purely as a hobby). It seems like you know quite a bit about the context of both the organization(s) that started this story and of the program at issue here, both of which could add a lot to refuting this story. Might I invite you to do a guest post at the League on the subject? You can e-mail me at publiusendures AT yahoo DOT com (and yes that is the most pretentious e-mail address of all time).
John 2.0
@ mark: the work is already mostly done for you in terms of CJ/Civitas the New Yorker did a profile on Art Pope last year, and there’s a local paper who did an extensive expose on him about 6 months ago: http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-art-pope-empire-media-outlets-think-tanks-and-election-machines/Content?oid=2140145
The Independent is an unabashedly a left-leaning free weekly, so they have an obvious viewpoint, but it does a good job of untangling the web of organizations he’s created and funded to create the echo chamber here in NC.
It’s also worth noting that Civitas proclaims to be non-partisan, but amazingly since the Republicans have taken over both chambers of the legislature many of the newly elected Republicans have hired Civitas staffers to legislative and political positions within the GA, replacing the professional staff that has been there for years.
Samara Morgan
@Thymezone: wallah.
like we havent seen Cole troll his own commentariat before.
i say, bring it.
;)
Richard Williams
Hm. I think you are really confused about what “Yeah, that’s bogus.” means. It’s not accurately applied to stories that are true.
mds
This story actually made it to Slashdot, and multiple commenters used Mr. Thompson’s post as attempted pushback. Hello, big time!
@Richard Williams:
Gotta say I’m with Mr. Williams on this criticism. Sure, the federal government wasn’t involved. Sure, it’s not a standard policy to inspect all lunches for compliance with the food fascist mandates. Sure, the lunch didn’t get confiscated. Sure, the mother’s complaint was apparently about potentially getting charged for supplemental lunch items. Sure, it’s not a program that applies to all pre-schools. But North Carolina is a state, and it does have pre-schools in it. So you’re way out of line to say “Yeah, that’s bogus” about catapaulted propaganda with so much correct grammar and punctuation in it.
@Mark Thompson:
You’re sure right about that. Sheesh.
Sincerely,
godlike_genius_with_huge_genitals AT hotmail DOT com
Jen
@KG: I’m sorry but there is nothing healthy about industrial processed chicken nuggets. A turkey and cheese sandwich is way better than that. In addition, the point is that no one has the right to tell a child the lunch her mother packed in not healthy and substitute it with something else. Period.
Myra
@KG: Are we actually considering chicken nuggets healthy food now? I don’t allow my kids to eat breakfast at school even though we qualify to get it for free, because their idea of a good start to my kid’s day is a large cinnamon roll or donut. School lunches are NOT healthy foods.
NC Red
Not fake….http://www.startribune.com/nation/139470923.html
Bob Barnes, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, told the McClatchy News Service Thursday that the first preschooler to make headlines just misunderstood her teacher when she thought she was told to ditch her homemade lunch for one from the cafeteria: the cafeteria items were only meant to supplement the food groups missing from the homemade lunch.
“We are not the lunch bag police,” Barnes told McClatchy. “We would never put a child in any type of embarrassing situation. But we are responsible to see that every child gets a nutritious meal.”
Barnes confirmed there was an agent from Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Child Development and Early Education at the school Jan. 30 who examined six student lunches and determined one did not make the nutritional cut — presumably the first little girl whose story made news.
Do you liberals still believe this story is fake? Want me to link the letter sent by two NC representatives to the fed also? Or maybe you can research it further as you asked us to do….
You see, according to the next pin headed govnmt thug, the GIRL made the mistake, she missunderstood. Its the girls fault that govnmt thug #1 found trans fat nuggets to be better than a turkey sandwich from home….This is real, do you want a govnmt agent to be in charge of what your child eats? One with the cognitive ability of a rock who thinks that a turkey sandwich with cheese is not healthy and requires some addition of SCHOOL COOKED FOOD? Do you folks know how these nuggets are made?