School Scolds Mom for Sending Kid with ‘Unhealthy’ Raisins in Lunchbox

It’s great that schools are being more proactive about teaching kids to eat healthful foods, but some schools are being downright ridiculous when it comes to the lunch rules they’re enforcing on parents. One high school criticized a teenager for having “too much food” because she had several different kinds of fruits and vegetables, and even told her not to eat avocados because the school thought they were unhealthful. (Team Avocado was ready to fight for that one.)

Now a mother in Australia was stunned to get a note from her daughter’s school telling her that raisins were “unacceptable” due to being too unhealthy for kids to eat.

Raisins? Really? I think I run a pretty tight ship when it comes to nutrition, but if raisins are too unhealthful for an occasional snack for a preschooler, I must be running a Dairy Queen out of my kitchen.

According to Someecards, A mother in a Facebook group called Lunchbox Ideas Australia recently received a bewildering note from her daughter’s school scolding her for sending her daughter with a box of raisins. It was republished on another group called Oh So Busy Mum, and has since gone viral because parents around the world are baffled by the idea that a school would send a note scolding someone for feeding their child raisins.

“Please help us encourage nutritious eating in children,” the note read. “Our Healthy Eating Policy asks you to provide healthy and nutritious snacks for your child to eat at kindy. Acceptable items include Fresh, dried or tinned/packaged fruit/vegetables, vegetable dips, cheese, crackers, dry biscuits, yoghurt, fruit bread/muffins, sandwiches with healthy fillings.”

The note went on to tell the woman that “The sultanas packed for your child today is unacceptable at kindy due to its high sugar content.”

Note: Sultanas are raisins.

This whole communique is completely ridiculous! The very first item of “acceptable” foods is fresh or dried fruit, and raisins are dried fruit. Their very letter says the raisins ought to be acceptable.

Yes, raisins have a fair of sugar. Any dried fruit does. But it’s not such an egregious amount that it’s inappropriate to stick a box of raisins in a kid’s lunchbox.

(Image: iStockPhoto / AlekZotoff)