annoyed that camp threw out sealed food!

[hollybloom24]

My daughter was sent home sick from day camp today. I picked her up before lunch (which we pack every day). When you arrive at camp, the child's lunch is taken and placed in a fridge until lunchtime.

My other daughter told me that at lunchtime when her sister was not there to claim her lunch, the counselor threw it directly in the trash!

In the lunch was a bottle of chocolate milk (the kind that does not need to be cold), a sandwich and several individually wrapped snacks for the day (like a granola bar).

All these individually packed snacks are expensive and I only do it for ease in the mornings and so the staff can see what a child has to be cautious for children with food allergies.

I can understand tossing a sandwich and perishables like yogurt or fruit, but it really irked me that they threw out manufactured sealed, non-perishable foods! Especially when I am working hard on teaching not to waste food and we buy food and donate it to our local food pantry!

I realize there are allergies, etc., but they could save non-perishables that are sealed for adult staff members or donate it somewhere! It just seems a really bad lesson to teach kids, IMO, or am I over-reacting?

[elizabethkott]

I'd be annoyed too.
At J's school, they send everything home that wasn't eaten that day - I guess so that the parents can see what their child ate for lunch. I'd be really PO'd that they just threw everything out without looking to see if there was anything in there that could have been saved.
Maybe you could call and recommend that they use sealed, non-eaten stuff as a stash for kids who forget their lunch for the day? And I wouldn't hesitate to mention that I was annoyed that the lunch wasn't sent home with her sister.

[hollybloom24]

I did email the director earlier (no response yet) to say I thought it was a bad practice. I suggested saving the sealed foods for kids who forget lunch or snacks - we also have scholarship kids that these could potentially help, but I bet that will be against their policies due to allergies (although everything was well marked with ingredients).

At our school they also send home everything uneaten (including sandwich crusts that my kids don't eat!) so I am used to that model.

I was hoping the lunch would just be saved until she came back (tomorrow) or sent home with her sister, although I get it if the counselors are too busy to manage such a thing. But they still should have looked at it! What if I had reusable containers in the lunch? (I didn't, but considered using them!)

[HannaAddict]

Sealed or not, I wouldn't want camp to use food sourced from another family and scholarship kids shouldn't have to rely on that either. It is safer and a better practice to just save the whole lunch for parents to pick up later and take the chance things might go bad or toss it all and not leave counselor to inspect and see if the milk is shelf stable etc. It is one lunch, I think you are overreacting. It isn't teaching kids to waste food. It is teaching food safety is how I'd frame it.

ETA I'd be upset to lose my containers though and think the save it for parents is best choice and what our school does.

[kozachka]

Sealed or not, I wouldn't want camp to use food sourced from another family and scholarship kids shouldn't have to rely on that either. It is safer and a better practice to just save the whole lunch for parents to pick up later and take the chance things might go bad or toss it all and not leave counselor to inspect and see if the milk is shelf stable etc. It is one lunch, I think you are overreacting. It isn't teaching kids to waste food. It is teaching food safety is how I'd frame it.

ETA I'd be upset to lose my containers though and think the save it for parents is best choice and what our school does.

:yeahthat: Money was tight growing up, so I hate wasting food, even now that we are quite comfortable, so I understand where you are coming from. That said, I don't think it is reasonable to expect camp counselors to sort through food and decide what to keep and what to toss. That would take too much time, and could be a safety risk. I do agree with people that it would be a better policy to send food back home.