A second Hoke County family says a school is interfering with what their child can eat for lunch.
Just last week, the West Hoke Elementary School made national headlines when a kindergartner was sent to the cafeteria to eat a school meal because it was claimed her homemade lunch didn't meet nutritional guidelines.
Now a second family at that same school says it has also happened to their child.
On Jan. 31, someone at West Hoke Elementary sent 4-yr-old Jazlyn Zambrano to the cafeteria to eat school food saying her homemade lunch of salami, cheese, wheat bun and juice was no good.
“According to them there was something in my lunch that didn’t comply with the four requirements of one meat, one dairy, two servings of fruit or vegetable, and milk,” said Diane Zambrano.
That infuriates Zambrano because she and her husband make an effort to eat healthy all the time, making sure little Jazlyn drinks only milk, water and juice and doesn’t consume junk food.
“We don’t give her sweets or candy,” said Zambrano.
After the school sent home a letter from the principal saying that her child’s lunch was replaced with school food, Zambrano went public with her complaint.
Officials later admitted a total of three students at the school had their home packed lunches taken from them the same day.
When the blog “The Blaze” picked up the story it went viral on the internet with thousands of re-posts of the blog article.
After the incidents generated national attention, Hoke County Schools investigated saying “staff error” resulted in the homemade lunches being removed.
As a result, Hoke County Schools say some changes have been made.
In a written statement officials said school staffers have been retrained and appropriate personnel action has been taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Hoke County School officials have also apologized to children and parents who were embarrassed or inconvenienced by the lunch removal incidents.
The letter sent home with Jazlyn from the school’s principal said the lunches had been replaced to help increase the school’s rating in a program it was participating in called ECER-5.
“I feel like there’s a hidden agenda,” said Zambrano. “It doesn’t have to do so much with wanting to fight obesity - this campaign for healthy lunches - it’s so the school gets more funds.”
As for how she’ll deal with the situation, Zambrano says she won’t change the way she makes her daughter's lunches.
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