Yes, really. And why? Because her lunch apparently didn’t meet the Obama Administration’s guidelines. Again, really.

RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.

The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day.

The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.

When home-packed lunches do not include all of the required items, child care providers must supplement them with the missing ones.

I’d like to see how that works with religious food requirements. What if you’re not allowed to have meat and dairy in the same meal? A bureaucrat forces you to violate your religious beliefs because the Obama Administration thinks it’s best?

But it gets better. The mother is now being charged $1.25 — the cost of the school lunch. Because, um, a bureaucrat decided the lunch a mother packed wasn’t nutritious enough.

“I don’t feel that I should pay for a cafeteria lunch when I provide lunch for her from home,” the mother wrote in a complaint to her state representative, Republican G.L. Pridgen of Robeson County.

The girl’s grandmother, who sometimes helps pack her lunch, told Carolina Journal that she is a petite, picky 4-year-old who eats white whole wheat bread and is not big on vegetables.

“What got me so mad is, number one, don’t tell my kid I’m not packing her lunch box properly,” the girl’s mother told CJ. “I pack her lunchbox according to what she eats. It always consists of a fruit. It never consists of a vegetable. She eats vegetables at home because I have to watch her because she doesn’t really care for vegetables.”

I like this bit of presumptuous asshole-edness from the “policy manager” for the district:

“If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child,” Kozlowski said.

Um…why? Who are you to determine what’s balanced for my kid? Suppose I give my kid organic fruits and vegetables, only the finest cuts of meat, and imported cheese the rest of the day. My kid’s diet still isn’t balanced if I sneak a Twinkie and a Coke into her launch box once a week? Are you shitting me?

The state legislator is now investigating.