Schools across the country deploy a variety of humiliation tactics on students whose parents haven’t been able to pay their school lunch bills, whether it’s publicly throwing away perfectly good trays of food or marking students’ hands. Some states and schools say these practices go too far and are adopting laws and policies that don’t punish schoolchildren for their parents’ debts. [More]
school lunches
Uncle Ben’s Rice Recalled Following Multiple Illnesses At Schools
By 2.10.14
The makers of Uncle Ben’s rice have recalled various versions of the product that were only sold on the wholesale market following multiple incidents where numerous people fell ill after eating the rice at school lunchrooms. [More]
Lunch Ladies Teach Middle Schoolers About Debt, Trash Their Lunches If They Owe Money
By 4.5.13
It’s never too early for kids to learn that living in revolving debt is bad, but how you get that lesson across is a tricky thing. For example, let’s say that you’re the contractor that serves school lunches in a middle school, and you take away the trays of children whose parents owe the lunch vendor money and toss a few dozen perfectly edible meals in the trash. This would be a bad way to teach kids about debt. [More]
School District Bans All Sorts Of Yummy Food At Games, Events, Field Trips & Dances
By 8.20.12
For students in the public schools of Portland, Maine, the next year — and the foreseeable future — will be devoid of in-class pizza or cupcake parties, and all the high-calorie snacks and beverages sold at sporting events and dances will be replaced with healthier options. Even the teachers have to bring their own sugary sodas to work. [More]
Political Commentary On A Pizza Hut Sign?
By 11.29.11
As you’ve probably heard, the longstanding rule that classifies 1/8 cup of tomato paste as a serving of vegetables in kids’ school lunches — thus allowing a slice of pizza to qualify as a serving of veggies — was set to be changed, but political maneuvering recently scuttled that change. And not everyone is thrilled with that. [More]
Boll Weevils Found In School Lunch Noodles, Removed, Then Noodles Served
By 1.12.11
An Ohio school district sent a letter home to parents informing them that cafeteria staff had found boll weevils inside bags of dried eggs noodles that were to be served for lunch. The workers removed the weevils, boiled the noodles, and later served the noodles. [More]
Send Junk Email To Chipotle, Feed Children
By 6.25.10
Here’s an interesting promotion: for every 100,000 junk emails sent to nojunk@chipotlejunk.com, Chipotle will donate $10,000 to The Lunch Box, which will help feed school kids with healthy junk-free recipes for lunch, instead of the usual prison cheese and high fructose corn syrup. [More]
