Lunch is served, kids! All two lumps of it.
A private school in Chonburi province is on the defensive after these recent photos were taken of the sorriest lunches ever served in its cafeteria to preschool students.
Prasertsuk School’s photos were reposted yesterday online showing the students’ lunch – which pretty much is two pitiful spoons of rice, a splash of curry and chocolate wafer – to resounding criticism online, prompting some interesting excuses from the school.
Prasertsuk School claims on Facebook they try to teach the babies to finish their food by serving them only two bites of lunch as a starter.
“Those photos are our pre-kindergarten lunch,” the admin of the school’s page explained. “Children this age would mainly drink milk, but we also make sure they eat food as well. The children can request to refill their plates as many times as they want. The quantity we serve each grade is different.”
They fell back on the usual shoot-the-messenger defense: Someone is being mean.
“The photos were taken and spread by people who aim to damage our school’s reputation when they don’t know how we run things,” it continued. “The guardians need not to worry.”
Still, how well do 2-year-olds understand the food-requesting system? Don’t they just bounce away with a toy if there’s nothing to stuff in their face?
After the photos were released on Pantip by a mother who saw them online, let’s just say a few netizens think differently.
“If any teacher or assistant is reading this, I want you to know kindergartens’ main nutrients come from food, not milk,” User “Best Mother On Earth” wrote. “You say you want them to finish their food? The quantity you give them is so little, they can’t even scoop it up in their spoons. And from how it looks, their lunch is not nutritious at all. I’m not surprised an intern took photos of that.”
Another commenter said it seemed normal.
“My kid is in pre-school and her school does that too,” La-la-bell wrote. “They feed the kids a little. My kid asked them to refill the plates three times.”
Others took a balanced view:
“It’s true that pre-schoolers don’t eat a lot, but isn’t this a bit extreme?” an anonymous wrote.
Despite the outrage of the social network, the last word from the school came through an official announcement on the school’s website, reassuring parents it lets students refill their plates and scolding their university interns:
“We apologize for our interns from Burapha University who posted the photos online and captioned them inappropriately,” it read. “The guardians may confirm with their children whether they can ask for refills.”
At worst, the school urged parents to test their assurances by breaking out a scale.
“Guardians can also inspect if your children have slow development and lost weight after enrolling at our school,” it suggested.
