I have not been thrilled with Mayci’s teacher this whole year. I’ve given her a pass over and over since it’s her first year and she’s still learning. But she really crossed a line a few weeks ago.

Elementary kids here get snack time. I’ve never had a teacher care how many snacks or how much food a kid eats as long as they finish within the allotted time period. Mayci’s teacher, however, has a one snack only rule.

I found out because one day Mayci saved her muffin from the breakfast she got in the cafeteria that morning. She ate that at snack time and was still hungry so she pulled out the cereal bar I had packed in her backpack.

Her teacher told her she could not have two snacks and to throw away the cereal bar. The cereal bar was sealed and could’ve gone back in her backpack and been her snack for the next day. But no. She was forced to throw it away.

First of all, wasting perfectly good food is very irritating. Second, she doesn’t know which kids are experiencing or have experienced food insecurity and will be triggered by having to throw away food (or even just being limited to one snack available to them at a time). Luckily Mayci was not phased but I have other kids who could’ve been thrown into a spiral if they were forced to throw away their food.

I had to speak up and let her teacher know why it was not okay and to please think about food insecurity and what her actions could do to a child. She chose not to respond.