Chicama Run Family Farm

As many people know, we foster children.  It's something that I honestly enjoy doing and recommend to a lot of people.  One of the "privileges" is that the kids get free lunches and breakfasts at the school.

This sounds like a wonderful way to help stretch our money doesn't it?  Don't think that foster parents "make big bucks" off the kids they provide a safe home for - we don't - it's not why we do it.  So having any type of subsidy can be very helpful when it comes to helping off-set the costs.

Now I want you to take a look at the breakfast provided..  I didn't think much of this until yesterday afternoon when our 6 year old came home and said she had a snack in her backpack - could she eat it?  I said OK without really checking on it - honestly I was in the middle of something and I didn't THINK it would be healthy anyways since I thought it must have been a kid's birthday.   What I didn't expect was that it was the cereal she picked up in the morning at breakfast when her class went.  See, she is in the ELL class to help her grasp a little more of the English language - which is great and I GET that a lot of the kids NEED the breakfast program and many are in the ELL class which is fine so they go to breakfast on their way to the class.  I still provide her with food in the morning - yesterday was a breakfast burrito which she ate because she thought it was funny.

Onto what she brought home.  Trix cereal - WITH LESS SUGAR!  Thank goodness it has less sugar than the previous one - whew I feel better!!

So today, I made breakfast again (this is part of my New Years concept - making breakfast for the kids).  Today was a "fruit taco"  It didn't go over so well... not because she didn't like it - but because she wanted to save room for the color cereal.

She is not allowed to have that type of cereal unless it's in a controlled environment *aka: home*  The reason is that certain food dyes cause her to have serious behavior issues to the point of running through the house until she crashes.  Yes, we have watched it happen with a Quaker Oats Strawberry Cereal Bar - and it was exhausting to watch!

But even so - with the behavior issues aside - if given a choice between a banana and a donut - kids will take the donut - HELL - I'll take the donut!  So why are we offering them "candy cereal" for breakfast?  Aren't eggs cheaper?  I don't expect the school to pay for organic free range eggs - but for less than $1/dozen - can't you feed these kids a better breakfast?  Remember, most of the kids that are eating breakfast at the school can't afford food at home - so why are we giving them more crap?  These types of foods aren't helping them stay healthy which them causes them to end up in the ER for something or other.

Some are only getting 2 meals per day - both provided by the public education service.  THANK YOU for that..... but isn't there a way to get something GOOD into them vs junk food?

My own house isn't totally "clean food" - I have Lucky Charms in the cupboard (no, I didn't buy it - but Daddy did as a treat *sigh*) and I GET having it on occasion.  It's the every day thing that worries me and it seems to be the main option in the schools.

I've heard a lot about school lunches and how terrible they are.... even my teens say they are bad and opt for the salad bar more often than not.  But I think people need to start looking into the breakfast - especially for the little ones.

Just a thought....