Although the networks have been all too eager to tout food police stories promoting healthy lunches [1], ABC and NBC on Tuesday ignored the case of a preschool girl [2] having her controversial lunch, including potato chips and apple juice, being taken away.
The young child had her meal replaced with, of all things, chicken nuggets. ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today often highlight amusing, weird stories in their broadcast. But only CBS This Morning
found time, a mere 15 seconds. Erica Hill explained that the girl was
"told to eat cafeteria chicken nuggets after a North Carolina state
employee decided the lunch she brought to school was not nutritious."
Hill added, "That lunch has a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and apple juice.
The story has reached national prominence (though not on ABC or NBC). The Atlanta Journal Constitution [3] reported on the severe food requirements in North Carolina for young children:
Food From Home
When children bring their own food for meals or snacks to the center, if the food does not meet the nutritional requirements outlined in the Meal Patterns for Children in Child Care, the center must provide additional food necessary to meet those requirements.
A similar phenomenon has occurred in Britain:
Recent news articles out of Great Britain reveal that staff members in a Gloucestershire school district have become a food-police force. They were secretly opening children’s lunchboxes and photographing the contents. They then scored the various lunches for nutritional value and sent notes to the parents advising them on how to pack healthier meals. Their one concession to the Englishman’s cherished privacy was that they didn’t identify which child each photographed lunch belonged to.
A transcript of the February 15 CBS This Morning segment is below: