School continues to supplement preschoolers’ lunch boxes with cafeteria food
RALEIGH — Even though government officials admit mistakes were made in the way a Hoke County preschool program handled lunches students brought from home, they continue to enforce the regulations that caused a nationwide uproar.
A story initially broken by Carolina Journal Feb. 14 lit up talk radio, the blogosphere and cable news shows. It led two members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation to demand explanation from federal regulators. A state legislator may convene a hearing in the General Assembly on the nutrition policies.
West Hoke Elementary School principal Jackie Samuels sent this letter at right to parents of Pre-K students. For a full PDF version, click here.
And, according to the mother of the 4-year-old who first objected to the school’s inspection of her homemade lunch, the school continues to give her daughter milk every day, against her wishes.
The NC Pre-Kindergarten program at West Hoke Elementary School was cited Jan. 26 for an “infraction” of the NC Star Rated License System, the grading program for preschools in the state.
Department of Health and Human Services regulations on Pre-K nutrition issued in August 2011 say: “Sites must provide breakfast and/or snacks and lunch meeting USDA requirements during the regular school day. The partial/full cost of meals may be charged when families do not qualify for free/reduced price meals. When children bring their own food for meals and snacks to the center, if the food does not meet the specified nutritional requirements, the center must provide additional food necessary to meet those requirements.”
Similar guidelines were spelled out one year earlier in the North Carolina Administrative Code, the state’s book of regulations. The regulations remain in effect.
The violation, according to a Jan. 27 letter sent by principal Jackie Samuels to parents of preschoolers, is that lunches children had brought from home “did not meet the requirements of the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] Meal Guidelines, which include: 1 serving of milk, 2 servings of fruit/vegetable, 1 serving grains/bread, 1 serving meat/meat alternative.”
