Carolina
Journal reports
that a state inspector at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford,
North Carolina, recently deemed a 4-year-old girl’s home-packed
lunch nutritionally inadequate, decreeing that it be replaced by
food from the school cafeteria. The magazine, which is published by
the John Locke Foundation, explains the source of this lunch review
authority:

The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the
Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served
in pre-kindergarten programs—including in-home day care centers—to
meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one
serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two
servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought
from home. 

But Jani Kozlowski, the division’s fiscal and statutory policy
manager, tells Carolina Journal the rejected
lunch—which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana,
potato chips, and apple juice—did in fact meet USDA guidelines,
which call for one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one
serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables. By
contrast, the meal the girl ending up eating thanks to the state
employee’s prodding—three chicken nuggets—did not. Adding insult to
injury, the school billed the little girl’s mother (who complained
to her state representative but did not want to be publicly
identified) $1.25 for the mandated substitution.