Forums:
I am sorry,having a topic like this but I believe this is a nice topic to ask Matia questions not about the sickness but more about the issues that everyone has to encounter in their lifes while being sick. I believe that sometimes if Maitia has time, she could answer them.
My real topic is this one: How to fight the food they are administer at school and feed it to your child.
I have been fighting this for last 4 months and I keep hitting the wall. I don't know how to resovle this and I hope this will not come to changing the school for my children. I have signed up my kids to semi-privat school which is mostly funded by one person who is a wealthy business man and therefore this school is very reasonable and mostly the education is very good and that is why I chose this school. However, I have ran into this problem. They have started to serve fast food for the lunches, pizza, chicken nugets etc... In addition, they reward the kids by giving them candy. Everytime someone has a birthday, there is a cake or cupcakes. and lastly, everytime there is a holiday, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, they have a party loaded with sugar, trans fat etc.. I have tried almost everything,I talked to the principal who is very nice but just does not seem to understand this subject. I have talked to several parents, some agreed with me, but most of them looked at me what a bad mother I am not allwawing my child to have this. I have sent emails to the teachers and parents. I have offered healthier alternative, such as instead of rewarding them with candy, give them little toys or somehting else. I keep hitting the wall. Maybe, I am doing this wrong. But I have to not, that I have always tried to be very polite, very calm and very kind by explaning this issue. To make thigns even more radicoulus, this school is raising money for disaese called diabetes, because they have a boy in kindergarten who has this disease. So my question for Matia is (or anyone else), how would you deal with this issue. I am starting to think that I might have to change the school.
shared concern
Kparay. I give you credit for taking the initiative to address this problem. It seems that you have done a lot to address this by speaking to the Principal, Teachers, parents etc. You have also tried to come up with alternatives. I am not sure what else you could do. I too have had these types of battles in my past when my children were in school. About 15 years ago I became quite concerned about the amount of chemical spraying that was being done on the school yards to get rid of dandelions. I did a lot of research and presented my case to the Parent Advisory Committee and basically I felt that I was laughed at for being paranoid. Nothing changed as a result of my effort immediately but now there is no sparying of school yards. This occurred years later. recently I have taken up another cause. In my neighborhood we have recently got some beautiful artificial turf fields installed. They cost millions of dollars and look great and allow our children to play soccer, field hockey etc... year round. When you go up close to the fields you can smell and see the toxins. The field is full of shredded tires for cushion. These pieces of tires end up in my car and my home on the carpet. As we know these tires have petroleum in them and the field is beautifully painted with I am sure lead paint. I have done much research and in some areas of the U.S. the fields have been ripped out due to such high levels of lead. I contacted one of our area Council members who I know has a passion for the environment. He states that he brought it up in a meeting but most did not share his or my concern. He states that he runs across this always. It can be so frustrating. He told me to mail the rest of the Council members and also the person in charge of our sporting facilities in our city (who he knows for sure does not share my concern). It seems that you just have to be persistent and changes will eventually come. I know maybe not fast enough. In the meantime you just have to help your own child as best you can and I hope it is not taking them out of their school.I don't have much advice just a shared frustration with you. Hopefully someone has some positive experience in attaining change. I would be glad to hear it. All I know is that it is hard to get change immediately. It takes time.
Allergies
I tell my childrens' teachers that they have severe allergies to foods and not to give them any of that junk. A school does not want to suffer a law suit. They can't afford it. I am also the room mom for my son's classroom. When my son gets candy in school... he saves it and I pay him 50 cents for each piece he gets. At Halloween... we let my kids trick or treat and then we had them weigh the candy... I paid a dollar for each pound they got and then "donated" it to work. In the state of California it is illegal to give candy as a reward in the classroom. As for lunches...I pack my children's lunches and my son knows he is not allowed to share...I told him I would know if he did (and I do) If this happened, I would accompany him every day at lunch to make sure it did not happen.