The National Association of School Lunches today, in a bold public statement, expressed their concern over untrained mothers serving lunch to their children. Says one source, “The problem is wide spread. We have mothers, who are untrained in how to serve lunches, feeding their children, in their homes. Something simply has to be done.”
The National Association of School Lunches warns parents of the possible ramifications of feeding their children at home:
Children will be deprived of the social experience of eating in the cafeteria. Some important social rites of passage, such as food fights, will be completely skipped.
Students who eat at home may not get to learn how others students in other parts of the world eat. Exposure to chopsticks or eating on the floor will be completely diminished.
Students who eat at home may not get the full range of foods that are available only through the school cafeteria.
There is no quantifiable way to measure the nutritional standard of the food being served. Surely parents need to be told what foods their children must eat. Lunch eating is serious–moms could never figure this out on their own.
But the biggest argument put forth by the National Association of School Lunches is that mothers are untrained in serving lunches. They strongly feel that in order to serve school lunches, one must have taken important courses and be certified in things like serving techniques, placing the food properly on the tray, anti food-fight tactical maneuvers, and how to dallop mush. Although mothers serve their children lunches every day from birth until that child enters school, once the child is school aged, the parent must be trained or their lack of training could be a detriment. Previous experience counts for nothing in the hard core, fast paced world of school lunch serving.
Another key concern are health and safety standards that are required by law in school cafeterias. Although I cannot explain how the phenomenon might occur, apparently home is clean enough for breakfast and dinner but during the lunch hour, homes everywhere must be attacked by germs and bacteria thus necessitating state produced standards for cleanliness for the lunch hour.
Finally, school lunch personnel everywhere are concerned about accountability. Should children have to prove that they’re getting adequate nutrition or perhaps should mothers have to submit meal plans for the year to be approved by the state department of school lunches to check and make sure that the food that’s going to be served meets nutritional standards.
Come back later as I have a feeling that there might be more from the National Association of School Lunches!