Maltese Parents Discuss What’s Acceptable For School Lunches And Confusion Ensued
An online discussion about suitable food for school lunches ending up showing just how confusing Malta’s school lunch system has gotten.
In the past, you could go to school with a sandwich, grab some school-supplied milk for dessert, and you were sorted.
Parents now discussed schools banning some types of “unhealthy” items, like crackers or ham, and teachers checking lunch-boxes to confiscate the items.
Some parents complained that schools were getting too involved in lunches, with some schools allegedly banning yoghurt “for being too messy”.
“Let kids be kids man, some chocolate and junk food won’t kill them,” one person said. “Moderation is better than abstinence”.
“I send my son to schools to learn, not to be checked for his lunch,” another mother said.
On the other hand, a lot of parents understood that some foods were less healthy than others, and that some parents were sending their children with unhealthy food every day. They feared this would eventually blossom into lifelong obesity for the child.
“Ham is a processed junk,” one user said. “When are we going to take food seriously in this country?”
Another mother even elaborated on the issue, saying this goes beyond the issue of health and more into what certain mothers send their children with to school. “It is not about the healthy part, but about neglect!”
While some parents condemned the teachers for looking into children’s lunch-boxes and confiscating their crackers, others pointed out that the teachers would just be following school policy.
Like most online discussions however, no clear answer was decided upon, leaving the lessons to be learnt another day.