School district proposes trash can cameras to catch kids tossing veggies

A Florida school district is considering cameras to monitor the healthy food kids are throwing away. (AP file photo)

In news that’s surprising to probably no one, kids in at least one Florida school district aren’t eating their fruits and vegetables. But what is surprising is the Lake County School Board is considering installing cameras in cafeteria trash cans to keep track of what’s being tossed.

New federal laws require students to take healthy foods at lunchtime, but about $75,000 worth of fruits and vegetables got tossed last year alone, reports Click Orlando.

School leaders say the cameras wouldn’t capture students faces, just what they’re throwing away.

“They have to take (the vegetable), and then it ends up in the trash can, and that’s a waste of taxpayer money. It’s also not giving students the nutrition that they need,” says School Board member Todd Howard, who suggested the “trash-cams.”

The proposal is being criticized.

“The real problem is not at the school. It’s out of the school. You’re trying to pack all the good child rearing you can into those seven hours hoping that it will make up for the crummy parents at home,” says KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.

The new government guidelines have dramatically changed the school lunch room. Schools face calorie limits and requirements to serve far more healthy choices, regardless of whether the kids are eating them or not. Those that don’t comply risk losing thousands of dollars a year in federal money a year.

“Maybe if we send a bunch of pictures of garbage cans to the federal nutrition guideline writers, they’ll understand that their guidelines are falling on deaf ears,” Ross says.

“The whole things just feels like a bizarre sort of kabuki theater of trying to set out the vegetables so the kids will eat them,” says co-host Luke Burbank. “I feel like this whole thing of trying to force healthy food on kids who aren’t going to eat it is just a waste of time.”

It’s a costly problem. According to the Orlando Sentinel, a 2002 congressional report found that wasted lunchtime food costs taxpayers about $600 million or more a year nationwide. A number of other studies are underway to try and figure out not only what kids are throwing away, but how to get them to eat healthier.