Virginia preschool bans homemade lunches

Nov. 18—A ban on homemade lunches for preschool children at one elementary school in Richmond, Va., has infuriated parents critical of government nutritional standards.

An unidentified administrator at one of the city’s 25 elementary schools sent a letter home advising parents that they must obtain a doctor’s note to send their 4-year-olds to school with a homemade lunch, as per guidance from a federal educational program.

“I have received word from Federal Programs Preschool pertaining to lunches from home,” the administrator writes. “Parents are to be informed that students can only bring lunches from home if there is a medical condition requiring a specific diet, along with a physicians [sic] note to that regard.”