Junk food's influence deep in our schools

Your third-grader just brought home straight A's on his report card. What are you going to do? A) Sell the good china and send him to Park Maitland.

[Chester DeGrasse]

Disturbing.. what has happened that we are now permitting junk food companies are advertising in the schools?

[BLANTONA1]

Oh for crying out loud. Will you people get a grip!!!! Why is it so difficult for those who wish to prevent their child from consuming junk/fast food to say NO? If you can't handle telling an elementary student (your own child) that they can't have something, then what the heck are you going to do when that same student is 16 and wants her boyfriend to sleep over? Or when your 17 year old son just wants to TRY car surfing just this once?

Has our society as a whole gotten so lazy and dependant on others to raise our children that we can't even manage to perform the basics?

Where was all this outrage about "advertising" when they started piping advertisments into the school buses, along with "appropriate" music of course. Since said music benefits the kids by keeping them occupied during the bus ride that's ok, but Lord forbid we should give them a flippin happy meal for good performance on their grade cards......that evil advertising once every 3-4 months may lead them down the road to obesity. Of course their obesity problems wouldn't have anything at all to do with lazy parents who refuse to provide healthy food choices at home and who allow their children to sit on their butts never getting exercise right?

Grow up, be the parent and say NO. I have 4 children and seem to always be saying no. Does that make me "the worst Mom ever" in the eyes of my children.....YES, for about 5 minutes. Then guess what... they get over it. Yours will too, if nothing else it is a lesson in rejection, disappointment and allowing them to see they can't always have what they want....you know kinda like real life.

[thecoook]

When you read about all of the other Treats available to school children, guns, knives, drugs, alcohol and now even inappropriate sexual advances by teachers, a Happy Meal looks pretty good. Perhaps you have a case of that old green bugaboo ENVY of the Seminole County school systems?

[rjkb]

Really disturbing article recently from a town in England. The local school board is trying to cut down on the junk foods they serve their kids for lunch. What has been the effect? The modern moms now line up at the school fence carrying all sorts of high fat junk and slip it to their fatty children. "The kids just won't eat that healthy stuff."
Yeah, right

[MyKidsLoveVeggie s]

Our schools in Polk have been offering the McDonald's for A's and B's for as long as my kids have been going to school. I don't think I have ever taken them with that report card to claim it. It's all about making the effort to pay attention to what your kids eat. When my kids go to their dad's house over the weekend, unfortunately he believes that the four food groups are McDonald's, Burger King, Cici's, and Taco Bell. After two days, my kids come home desperate for carrots, broccoli and home cooked, non-fried food.

[bruce]

PBS has to accept money from Chuck E Cheese. Who else is going to fork over the money to produce their children's programming?

You can't have your cake and eat it too; if we insist on cutting every penny that we possibly can out of education, then we shouldn't whine when business offers an alternative to funding.

[LIBERALS HATE facts]

Hey Mike...when you find a way to get kids to

get good grades
clean their rooms
do their chores
complete their homework
behave well in public

.....by dangling a carrot stick on a string.....or a nice bowl of steamed broccoli....then by all means....let us know.

What a stupid article.

Where's the articles bemoaning all the gratuitous violence in their cartoons?

What about all the SEX they see on typical evening TV?

Teenagers are encouraged to drive like idiots with movies like FAST & FURIOUS...and they die by the SCORES nationwide by trying to do so...where's the articles about that?

I don't see articles griping about all the 'ghetto' talk and 'hip-hop' dress which makes them and their parents look stupid......
Instead...local radio stations GLORIFY the stupid behavior....

Oh wait....

Let's not focus on PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! Let's blame the evil CORPORATIONS for our lack of self-discipline! Yea. It's not the KID'S fault...it's Ronald McDonald's fault! Blame it on Mickey! "A Teletubbie made me do it!"

"I'm fat today because of all the Chuckey Cheese commercials I was subjected to as a kid!"

"I'm sorry I'm a 35 year old felon on welfare with no future.... It's 102Jamz fault!"

"I'm 15 and pregnant because they didn't give my boyfriend condoms and they keep running 'sex in the city' reruns!....and I just wanted to fit in.........."

Quit blaming everything and everyone ELSE for failure!

[fstopfitz]

Hooray for BLANTANA1!!!
Parents should teach their children. That is if they know who and where the children are. Most parents these days don't know. And the remainder are too busy to be bothered until something drastic happens.
Blame anyone or anything just not the parent.

[Jairald]

I'm proud you Mike. Don't let anyone beat you down. Keep speaking up for your kids. Obviously no one else will. I realize business is about making money, but I think it's good business to sincerely care about your costumers well being.

[Mercy Me]

I attended Orange County public schools from kindergarten through graduation and I graduated over 20 years ago. I'm afraid that my elementary school days pre-dated happy meals and chicken mcnuggets and fast food was considered a rare treat instead of a nutritional life source, but we were offered a free hamburger or cheeseburger meal for high grades way back then. The only difference was that Ronald McDonald wasn't embazoned on our actual report cards. The offer was printed on a separate slip of paper included in our report card envelope.

I believe that parents should be more concerned with the contracts OCPS has with major pizza companies instead of dwelling on a free happy meal every quarter. Some OC elementary/middle schools are importing the greasy fat-laden pizzas for their school lunches on a daily basis. The schools lose money on their standard lunches, but they can fill their pockets with the profits made by schilling out nutritional deficiency by the slice.

[FED UP]

99.9999 % of these stupid people complaining about this will no doubt take their child to McDonalds more than once a month. Exactly how is McDonalds able to keep a restaurant on every street corner without it being patronized by children EVERY SINGLE DAY.

This country is made up of complete hypocrites.

[FED UP]

fstopfitz wrote:

Hooray for BLANTANA1!!!
Parents should teach their children. That is if they know who and where the children are. Most parents these days don't know. And the remainder are too busy to be bothered until something drastic happens.
Blame anyone or anything just not the parent.

Children are nothing more than trophies to most people these days.

[Chester DeGrasse]

How many of you tough-guy Republicans are at least as fat as Rush Limbaugh?

[Tired of it]

What a giant peice of liberal crap this article is. Mike Thomas, you are a liberal douche. Give me a break.

Where is exactly does it say "Parents, you MUST take your child to McDonalds for his/her happy meal if they qualify." This is so F'ing stupid.

Since when does the minority rule? Why ruin it for EVERYONE becuase one person cries foul. I sure hope that the Pagan chick (the one who started this BS) donates to local homeless shelters to feed homeless and poor families. Because like it or not, those happy meals may be the only hearty meal some of those kids get, and she's attempting to take that away.

I for one am so sick of changing EVERYTHING to make sure we don't offend any one person. Use some freaking self control. If you don't want your child eating McDonalds, THEN THROW OUT THE OFFER and use it as a discussion point with your child and communicate proper eating with them!!

[LIBERALS HATE facts]

FED UP wrote:

99.9999 % of these stupid people complaining about this will no doubt take their child to McDonalds more than once a month. Exactly how is McDonalds able to keep a restaurant on every street corner without it being patronized by children EVERY SINGLE DAY.
This country is made up of complete hypocrites.

AMEN!

[LIBERALS HATE facts]

Chester DeGrasse wrote:

How many of you tough-guy Republicans are at least as fat as Rush Limbaugh?

I'm a true-blue Republican....who just finished a 3 day fast. I'm not 'skinny'....but I definitely represent a more disciplined group than the average welfare-sucking-fried-chicken- eating-porch-sitting-walmart-i sle-blocking fat liberal.

[im with the band]

if the ads help the school district make some money - more power to 'em!

when my kids went to school in seminole county, it was pizza hut who advertized and offered something free (personal pan pizza maybe?)my kids grades almost always qualified them, but they had no interest in a pizza hut pizza for two reasons:

1) they don't like chain store pizza

2) we said no a lot in our house - and always explained why - so they grew up learning that fast food, sugary cereals targeted at kids, soda and candy were for special occasions. they never cared for the cereals anyway.

if you teach your kids at an early age what advertising is designed to do - create a "perceived" need where there is none - they will become consumer savvy and less vulnerable to advertising - even if its on their report card.

[Chester DeGrasse]

LIBERALS HATE facts wrote:

<quoted text>I'm a true-blue Republican....who just finished a 3 day fast. I'm not 'skinny'....but I definitely represent a more disciplined group than the average welfare-sucking-fried-chicken- eating-porch-sitting-walmart-i sle-blocking fat liberal.

You're not describing liberals, big guy, you're exposing your bigotry and hate.

[Law Abiding]

Gee! Having a junk meal each time a report card is received. How many is that per school year? Find something else to complain about.

[Mo Lubee]

Most school boards are elected. The baubble-heads that now get elected appear to be the guilty ones - but no, look real hard and you'll see the enemy is us!

The school boards that allow garbage to be fed to our kids in school are merely a reflection of the modern mommy whose refrigerator is filled with fast food and snack garbage
because she doesn't "always (hardly ever) have time to cook".

Let's face it, most modern mommys were raised on junk food themselves. Junk food is who we are, what we eat.

In the end, we are what we eat.

And you wonder why America is headed downhill?