Then they came for the sack lunches...

Got this link from an old high school friend:

At ...Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.

A Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman said she could not say how many schools prohibit packed lunches and that decision is left to the judgment of the principals.

"While there is no formal policy, principals use common sense judgment based on their individual school environments," Monique Bond wrote in an email. "In this case, this principal is encouraging the healthier choices and attempting to make an impact that extends beyond the classroom."

Any school that bans homemade lunches also puts more money in the pockets of the district's food provider, Chartwells-Thompson. The federal government pays the district for each free or reduced-price lunch taken, and the caterer receives a set fee from the district per lunch.

At Little Village, most students must take the meals served in the cafeteria or go hungry or both. During a recent visit to the school, dozens of students took the lunch but threw most of it in the garbage uneaten. Though CPS has improved the nutritional quality of its meals this year, it also has seen a drop-off in meal participation among students, many of whom say the food tastes bad.

For many CPS parents, the idea of forbidding home-packed lunches would be unthinkable. If their children do not qualify for free or reduced-price meals, such a policy would require them to pay $2.25 a day for food they don't necessarily like.

I know, I know... it's "for the children."  Can't have them eating stuff that might make them fat.  Never mind that if their parents are packing sugarbombs in their sack lunches, banning it at school isn't going to make a difference... the kids will just load up when they get home.  If the school wants to "make an impact that extends outside the classroom," how about focusing on educating the kids and teaching critical thinking skills?  Oh, wait... that might cause them to resist authoritarianism instead of embracing it.  Teachers need to teach, and parents need to parent. 

If someone desired to ensure the next generation is accepting of arbitrary exercises of authority, petty bureaucracy, loss of privacy and individuality and constantly in fear of being politically incorrect, I can think of no better mechanism than the public school system.