A Richmond mother wants to change the way our schools think about lunch periods and has launched a petition to make her case.
Judie Schneider says that by the time her son comes in from playtime, washes his hands and grabs his lunch, he has about 17 minutes to eat.
“He was coming home with lunches half-eaten or not even eaten,” she said. “He’s been a notoriously slow eater so I assumed for quite a while that it was just him.”
“It wasn’t until I started to get to know other parents and talk to them that I realized that even their kids, who aren’t slow eaters, are also coming home with their lunches or just throwing them away,” she continued.
Schneider said children are not given enough time to eat their lunches and that these periods go unsupervised, which makes her concerned that children aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
“If adults need a 30-minute break during their lunch … why are we expecting our children to be able to consume a nutritional lunch in less time than that?”
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The mother is now proposing that lunch be made a part of the instructional time during the school day.
“The eating time is done in the classroom with a teacher present, and it’s integrated with the curriculum,” she said.
“We have nutrition on the curriculum, we have mindfulness, mental health awareness. These are all so tied into a healthy diet and mindful eating that it’s silly to separate them.”
The petition, which Schneider hopes will reach 7,500 signatures, also proposes that outdoor playtime be extended to 45 minutes to ensure teachers get their deserved break.
So far, she’s gotten more than 5,000 people to sign, which she hopes means a change can be made.
“Isn’t that sad that we are a first-world country and … the adults in charge have not found a way to get the children to eat the lunches that we are sending them,” she lamented.
If she gets enough signatures, Schneider plans to bring the petition to the provincial government and the BC Teachers’ Federation.
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