Everybody eats. But not everybody eats in the same place. Not everybody eats at the same time. And not everybody eats for the same price.
New York taxpayers provide funding for each public school student to eat breakfast, free of charge. This program was implemented late in 2003. Sound generous? Plenty of people think so. Nearly 400 Stuyvesant students line up for breakfast to grab trays filled with eggs, bacon, oatmeal, muffins and yogurt before first period—the lines sometimes stretch out of the silver cafeteria doors.
I was one of those kids, until one day I was in the mood for less than a complete meal. All I wanted was a container of apple juice. But when I tried to scan out, the woman at the register stopped me and forced me to take two more items, “including one bread,” she said. At any time later than 7:45 a.m., I would have been surprised by the pointlessness of this rule. Instead, I was simply confused. As I dumped my two extra items in the trash can, I wondered what other groundless rules they would come up with next.
The food servers are also very strict about which main foods go with which sides. At breakfast, for example, a bagel cannot be accompanied by a box of cereal. Nor can a donut. Nor can an egg sandwich. Actually, the cereals seem to be under tighter regulation than classroom attendance is.
Even at lunch, on the sandwich line, a student can get a turkey and salami sandwich, while roast beef isn’t allowed to pair with anything save cheese. And why can’t one take two miniature plums in place of a single large apple?
After all, if food is being provided, and no money is being exchanged, how much or what type of food each student takes should not matter. Each meal costs the Department of Education (DOE) money—there’s no point in buying food that’s just going to end up in the trash.
It turns out that the food regulations aren’t entirely groundless. For each complete breakfast Stuyvesant serves, it is reimbursed $1.35 by the United States Department of Agriculture. But a container of apple juice does not constitute a breakfast, and therefore Stuyvesant does not get compensated.
The DOE’s health and food departments specify what foods we can and can’t have to ensure we get all the right nutrients at every meal. Putting a minimum on the number of breakfast items I can take prevents the free breakfast from becoming a sugary snack service. The city doesn’t want to look like it’s giving away unhealthy food.
But as a high school student, I have enough of an awareness of my own body’s needs to make educated decisions about my eating habits. The city does enough babysitting in the form of scanners (to know where we are) and banning iPods (to help us concentrate)—it can afford to leave our eating escapades unregulated.
Fortunately, students and parents alike are becoming aware of school policies that are constantly growing tighter and stricter. These issues need to be openly discusseed so they can be dealt with reasonably. Every rule is another brick in the wall, and if we let brick after brick go unchallenged, then we will find ourselves facing a very tall, very solid wall indeed.