A public school in Chicago has banned all lunches brought from home. These kids *have* to eat cafeteria food! They have no choice. The school thinks the children will be healthier. What would you do if your child went to this school?

Another school–a private school–does not offer cafeteria food, students must bring their lunches from home, but they are not allowed to have any flour or sugar hiding in those lunch boxes! (I’m seeing a metal-detector-type-gizmo installed to sniff out sugar!)

I home school my children so this has nothing to do with me. And I rarely watch or read the news (I feel it is bad for emotional and mental health!) but I happened upon this yesterday and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I’m not sure why it bothers me so much.

When I was a little girl, lunch was like a mini-Christmas. I would open my Strawberry Shortcake lunch box and find my sandwich with one thin slice of dried beef and a bit of Miracle Whip (my Mom lived through the Depression!), an apple, one of those itty bitty bags holding seven Cheetos, half of a Little Debbie Nutty Bar, and a thermos of slightly warm milk. The thought makes me feel a bit like gagging now, and, granted, it may not have been up to today’s “healthy” standards, but I remember how hungry I was–energy depleted after pretending to be a horse (complete with jump rope around my waist and a “rider” holding the reigns) on the playground–and the lunch box was a bit of home in a strange and hungry land.

What kind of lunches do you remember from your childhood (I’m a sucker for childhood memories! Nostalgia is one of my favorite friends).