Wednesday, February 17, 2010

No fish for Lent?


The DeKalb Co school lunch calendars indicate a selection that includes fish during Lent for middle and high schools, however, not for elementary schools. Did someone decide to forgo the fish option on Fridays during Lent for our youngest students after all these years? Hopefully, this is just a miscommunication - we are checking. However, families who practice the religious traditions of Lent - you need to investigate what is being served on Fridays at your school before you assume that fish is still "on the table"... You may need to send in some fish tacos from home!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Catholic children under the age of 14 are not bound by rules of Friday abstinence from meat. Probably explains the menu options.

Cerebration said...

Boy, things have changed since I went to Catholic School. Luckily, as a kid, I liked fish. Still do. Even though I'm no longer a practicing Catholic. Many people are very devoted to that faith and others and would expect their children to eat fish on Fridays during Lent - we wanted them to double-check with their child's school to see if fish was being offered. If not - there's always good old PB&J - love those too!

Anonymous said...

Can't serve PB and J, because of allergies.

Cerebration said...

Can you still bring one or have PB&Js been banned completely? I know a guy with a peanut allergy - it's really serious.

Anonymous said...

You can bring it, but they can't serve it.

Anonymous said...

If DCSS nutrition people make special menus for Catholics during Lent shouldn't they make special menus for every religion as required by their faith? Yea, I'm a "former" Catholic too, but this just doesn't seem fair.

Anonymous said...

I agree. If you want a school that adheres to religious beliefs, you go private!

Clio said...

Any bias toward Christian religion in public schools is now bad. Forget about Christian beliefs in schools. When women can't vote, can't drive, and have to cover their faces like in Muslim societies then the country's Christians will say, I told you so. By then it will be too late.

I thought it was strange last year in DeKalb when they served fried chicken and black eyed peas for MLK day - look up last year's menu and you'll see it.

I like to see DeKalb still serves pork - but perhaps they will banish that next.

Anonymous said...

And here I thought all the pork in DeKalb Schools was in the budget.

Anonymous said...

...and we should stop having Winterbreak coincide with Christmas. Just kidding.

I was under the impression from ages immemorial, public schools routinely served fishsticks on Fridays and pizzas on Monday.

Anonymous said...

@8:04, Thanks for your help, I finally figured it out: That meat on your Monday pizza was Friday's fish stick.

Cynical? Yes.

Anonymous said...

@ Platos...seriously?!? Wow, you are quite the alarmist. It would actually be a great idea to look at what other countries (not religions) are eating. But, it's obvious that the unhealthy crap we serve our kids is 100% American. No worries about that!

About the MLK menu...I'd guess that the menu was chosen to reflect his heritage and upbringing. But, there is no constitutional amendment declaring a separation between southern food and state...so it's all good! ;)

M G said...

The cafeteria staff at my school have told me that they no longer serve any pork. I know the menu always lists turkey ham on the sub sandwich.

One Fed Up Insider said...

Talk about observing Lent, the high school state swim meet was not only rescheduled due to snow for 2 school nights – they rescheduled it to start this evening on Ash Wednesday!! Bet that wouldn’t have happened if today had been Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah or Passover!

Anonymous said...

They moved to turkey for health reasons. But, they do serve ham at all of the holiday luncheons.

Anonymous said...

Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation for the Catholic swimmers...or anyone else for that matter, so I think it's a bit different than Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashannah. Now, scheduling something on Good Friday would be a different story in terms of its importance to the Christian faith as a whole, I think.

Anonymous said...

For catholics, it's in and out. Get in, take the service, and out. You can get the mass as early as 6AM....

For Jews and Moslems, it's a sun-up to sun-down proposition.

Let's worry about other stuff....No government agency can impact our faith..

Anonymous said...

This was the worst, least important item to ever be a DCSW post. I'm Catholic, but c'mon, this was so unnecessary, and I can give my son a fish or veggie sandwich for lunch. This is so trivial. We're facing a possible $100 million school system shortfall. You'll never get anyone to agree on what foods should or should not be served in a school cafeteria, especially when religion comes into the mix.
The most rational adult will lose it when dicsussing school food and religion.

Please Cere, stop comments on this post so we can focus on the task at hand. Someone on another post had a great idea about shutting parent centers down. Let's focus on the stuff where we have a chance to find some common ground. This budget shortfall is an absolute crisis. Focus, people, focus.

Anonymous said...

the church is separate from public schools. If you want your child to have a certain diet, than pack his lunch. i had a vegan hebrew isrelite in my class a few years ago. he brought lunch from home every single day. I am sure catholic parents can pack lunch once a week. besides elementary school catholics are not required to practice lent.

Anonymous said...

OK. Should DCSS respect all religious holidays or only those of Jewish and Catholic faiths. If so, why? Aren't we all all about diversity?

Cere: a string in itself??

Cerebration said...

I think this would be that.

And, I do think our food services tries very hard to meet the needs of everyone. I remember several years ago when Shamrock made big menu changes to accommodate their Muslim students when they found out they were barely eating what they were served, as most of it violated their religion.

BTW - Shamrock also cooked up a really good Thanksgiving luncheon for families - do they still? It was nice - with tablecloths, candlelight and the orchestra playing softly on the stage....