System Lets Parents Spy on Kids' Lunches

[Lori Price CLG]

System Lets Parents Spy on Kids' Lunches

MARIETTA, Ga. - As Garin Hughes picks through his school-lunch burrito and unidentifiable apple-pear dessert, he has a secret. Hidden underneath the eighth-grader's right leg is a chocolate cookie in shrink-wrapped plastic. That's for dessert. In the past, his parents had no clue when he bought a treat at school. Now, thanks to a new school-lunch monitoring system, they can check over the Internet and learn about that secret cookie...

<snip>

Three school districts in the Atlanta area last week became the first in the country to offer the parental-monitoring option of an electronic lunch payment system called Mealpay.com, created by Horizon Software International of Loganville, Ga.

<snip>

Lori Price

[Pithlet]

1. Making an issue of food

to that extent does nothing but risk eating disorders. When children are monitered to that extent in their food choices, then they never learn for themselves how to make the right choices. Learning to make healthful choices is extremely important. But, all this does is make eating a cookie a rebellious act. This is ludicrous.

[neweurope]

2. Now that's sick. Children need to have secrets - I know I had some

and they were worse than a ** cookie. What kind of people will these poor children grow up to be - knowing that very one of their steps and moves can/will be monitored?

----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[NashVegas]

3. If They Don't Have the 'nads to Boycott

on their own, there's not much we can do for them.

[notadmblnd]

5. It's not brain surgery you know?

I know how much my kids lunch costs and I know how much money I put in his account. If he runs out of money early, I know he's been treating himself.

My kids are free to eat whatever they want, I've never deprived them, always kept candy in dishes around the house. More often than not, when offered, they turn it down.

[Gelliebeans]

10. you are on to something

here. We are the same way in our house and candy loses its allure when offered without restriction (in a candy dish out in the open)

I always praise for healthy food choices and I make sure good choices are available. He is my salad and fruit kid :)

Even when offered soda he will usually choose water. Go figure :shrug:

[ticapnews]

19. What type of people, indeed

What kind of people will these poor children grow up to be - knowing that very one of their steps and moves can/will be monitored?

They will grow up to be people who EXPECT and ACCEPT that everything they do can and will be monitored, whether by a "parent" or another authority figure, like their Big Brother.

[Boomer]

4. Instant black market

This monitoring system is ludicrous.

The kids who can buy whatever they want -- because their parents aren't monitoring them -- will buy the contraband and sell it to the kids with the Gestapo parents. Probably at a heft profit.

[HeeBGBz]

8. My nephew used to do that

He'd by a bunch of candy and then sell it at school at hyped up prices.

[Rush1184]

20. I made a lot of money in elementry school that way!!!

:-D

[Fridays Child]

6. What needs to be monitored is the crap they serve in the cafeteria.

We won't let our daughter eat it. Aramark, a huge corporation devoted to the bottom line, has the contractat her school.

[KittyWampus]

7. Thank You, I Feel Very Strongly About Feeding Children Garbage

and allowing corporations to serve their toxic waste in schools. It's indoctrinating them and poisoning them.

Literally.

[HeeBGBz]

9. My sister has been a school cook for 20 years

She gets a bad rap. She's a kick ass cook and can make those iffy supplies into edible foods.

School cooks get no respect.

[Sentath]

14. Once upon a time

I attended a small school in rural KS.

There were 2 in the school's kitchen and they made fantastic food

untill

the district came down on them and forced them to use the district approved menu. ) ;

[Fridays Child]

15. I wish our school had cooks. We only have warmers and servers.

Aramark does the cooking.

[Fridays Child]

I wish our school had cooks. We only have warmers and servers.

Aramark does the cooking.

[Fridays Child]

16. I wish our school had cooks. We only have warmers and servers.

Aramark does the cooking.

[Lori Price CLG]

22. LOL! Btw, nice signature line, Fridays Child! n/t

[donco6]

24. You're absolutely right.

One of the few groups on this board that can be disparaged without recrimination. The school cooks I know work very hard on the $2.00/meal reimbursement we get from the FEDS. And with the limitations of 30% fat content. And trying to get kids to actually eat a vegetable, which is more than most of their parents do.

[Lori Price CLG]

13. EXACTAMUNDO, Fridays Child! The corpora-terrorists...

...need to be stopped.

Lori Price

[LizW]

11. If the schools would stop selling crap, no one would have to monitor

I read a great story about a school in Georgia where the principal overhauled the school lunches. She did away with all the junk and soft drinks and started having the lunchroom serve healty balanced meals with vegetables and fruit and whole grains and low fat meats.

She did this partly as a result of her own health problems with heart disease and her own weight loss as a result of changing her diet.

The kids, of course, were not crazy about it, but there were noticable benefits, including weight loss for the heavy kids and better grades for many.

[MountainLaurel]

12. A similar story in Super Size Me

About a school for troubled kids that did the same thing -- cut the processed, chemical "food" and replaced it with organic healthy and tasty meals, and the discipline issues just melted away.

[BattyDem]

17. That was a terrific movie!

I felt sick to my stomach while watching it, but it really showed what a huge problem (no pun intended) this country has with nutrition.

[October]

21. The only problem with that documentary

was that little kids can't watch it because of its rating...language, etc.

So many kids would benefit from seeing it.

[lynne]

18. I think it's a good idea -

- as the parents are paying for lunches, why shouldn't they know how their money is being spent?

I agree that junk food should be out of the schools, but this system will also alert a parent to the child that isn't buying lunch at all - a possible indication of an eating disorder or of a child that it using his lunch money for purposes other than lunch.

I see this as a tool to allow the parents a bit of insight as to what is going on in their childs life. How could that possibly be a BAD thing?

[leesa]

23. Wow! Why would you wish to invade a child's privacy like this?

[dmr]

25. I trust my child

and it's important that he has trust in me too. How could he if I'm so invasive over something as simple as his school lunch? Let him enjoy his lunch without worry of me intruding over whether he had an extra helping or an extra dessert. He doesn't need to be micromanaged.

Kids need to feel free to make decisions on their own. No. Scratch the feel in that last sentence. Kids need to make decisions on their own.

Editted to add: Most parents don't give their children money daily for lunch. Money that could be spent elsewhere. Most parents pay into a cafeteria account.

[Lori Price CLG]

26. The carcinogens that corpora-terrorists are allowed to add to 'milk'

(a school 'staple'- barf!) should be addressed long before lurking cookies. Yes, I realize that milk may very well be one of the ingredients in the cookie.

Lori Price