Who Is the Mystery Food Monitor? RALEIGH — Three days after a Carolina Journal report on the plight of a 4-year-old preschooler and her lunch made national headlines, the identity of the person who determined that the youngster's homemade lunch was not nutritious remains unknown.
Of the several government agencies who have been named in the controversy — the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Hoke County schools, and the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — none will admit that it was responsible for employing or contracting with the person who was inspecting preschoolers’ lunches at West Hoke Elementary School in late January.
In the initial story published Feb. 14, CJ Associate Editor Sara Burrows reported that a preschooler at West Hoke was notified by someone at the school that the lunch she brought from home — a turkey sandwich with cheese on white whole wheat bread, a banana, a bag of chips, and a container of apple juice — did not meet USDA guidelines for nutritious meals.
According to the mother and grandmother of the young girl, the preschooler said she was provided a cafeteria tray with other items to replace her lunch. She returned home with the lunch she brought to school untouched. She also was given a note from the school stating that students who did not bring a "healthy lunch" would be offered the missing portions, which could result in a fee from the cafeteria, in her case $1.25. School officials have said the youngster simply needed to add milk from the cafeteria to her lunch. The called the incident a misunderstanding, and that the mother will not be billed.
But other information surrounding the story remains unclear, and the government officials involved have provided sketchy — and sometimes conflicting — details. For instance:
• DHHS says the person monitoring the lunches was not employed by the agency. In
linkNow they say No agency has said it employed the person checking preschoolers' lunch bags , so this just as bad.....they have no idea who is going around children and checking their food in a school..............REALLY? People who have kids in this country's school system, be wary very wary.
