Divorce Results and School Lunches

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

 

First, for those of you who have written to ask for updates on my divorce

situation, it's finally over. After more than two years of pure h_ _l and

$50,000.00 (of which proceeds from the sale of my house paid for 1/2 and the

other half I have no idea how I will ever pay), I will be divorced on or about

the 19th of July. The Judge sent his decision to the attorneys and all that is

left is to have him sign the order my attorney is preparing for him. During the

the whole two years, my ex-husband's attorney brought up the evils of a vegan

diet for children, repeatedly. Initially the Judge said he wasn't going to get

involved in philosophical issues, however that didn't deter my ex' attorney. He

continued hounding me about it and how I was abusing/neglecting my children by

feeding them a vegan diet. When we had our trial in April, my ex' attorney

pelted me with questions/accusations about veganism. I was able to answer, with

all certainty and accuracy all the questions he threw at me. When I was able to

successfully deflect his attacks about the nutritional needs of vegan children,

he and my ex ended up resorting to the fact that my children are quintuplets and

that makes them stick out enough (of course my ex is the only one who makes sure

everyone he knows and meets knows that they are quintuplets. My children are at

the age where they would rather not offer that info unless they want to so I

never do. I leave it to them to tell if they want to.). He said that by them

being vegan and starting middle school along with being quintuplets they would

be made fun of for that too. They don't get made fun of for being quintuplets.

They have rarely had any problems with being vegan, in fact most of the kids

want what they have for lunch. If anything, they have problems with everyone

asking for their food. Most people get over that they are quintuplets in the

first few minutes when they realize how different they are from each other.

Anyway, the Judge concluded his remarks at the end of the trial by telling both

attorneys that if he were them, he wouldn't waste much time on the vegan issue

when they both wrote their final arguments (he wanted them written rather than

presented orally in court). " I'm not an expert on veganism, " he said, " but I am

convinced that it is the healthier way to live. In fact, don't even address the

subject in your final arguments. I don't want to hear anything about it in

them. " YES!!!!! Of course, my ex' attorney still did address it in his final

arguments. The Judge, however ignored it. So in his decision, I have primary

custody of my children and their father has secondary. They will visit their

father every other weekend and one night every week. Another, YES!!!!! The

unfortunate part is that the Judge, after 14 years of marriage and me giving up

my job and retirement and any advancements I could have made in a career to

raise my children, ruled against alimony and also cut the child support in half.

So, though I make less than 1/3 of what my children's father makes and have six

people to support while he has one, I get very little in child support. So,

being that we will be living below the poverty level, my children will be on

free lunches at school. That leads me to the advice I need.

 

In my children's school district, in order to have any part of the lunches, a

student must take the whole lunch. They do not provide vegetarian or vegan

options - period. I would like my children to be able to get the veggies and

juice and any other vegan options they may have from the school while I provide

the sandwich/main course. The district will not allow this. I don't want them

to get the whole lunch and then throw what they don't eat away and the district

policy is that students cannot give food to one another. Now that the divorce

is finally over, I can focus my attention on other things that " might " bring

attention to myself and veganism (I couldn't do this while it was going on

because of the stupidity of the reporter who wrote the article about our divorce

happening because of veganism and all the negative comments and publicity that

was focused on me because of her ignorance and stupidity. BTW, thank you Doh

for sticking up for me on one of those " Gayle/vegan/wife Bashing " forums). Have

any of you run into anything like this and had to deal with it? If you have,

what did you do that was successful? What did you do that you wished you had

not done or would have done differently? How did you approach the

administrators? Actually, where did you begin? I don't think a child should be

forced to eat animal products because they are on free lunches. Any positive

advice would be ever so much appreciated.

 

God's Peace,

Gayle

" We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. " ~~ Anais Nin (1903 -

1977)