Beanbags... minus the beans

My housemate is getting her degree in early childhood education and always has stories to share with us.
She recently informed us, while she was making projects for her class, that in her training she has been told that teachers are no longer supposed to use beans in beanbags or macaroni in art projects. The logic behind it is that with such a diverse population in preschools, etc. teachers need to be sensitive to those children whose families are economically disadvantaged. If a kid's family is scraping by, wasting beans or macaroni on an art project is offensive and hard to handle.
Sometimes kids will have an assignment to take some beans or some dry noodles home to make something out of them and they come back the next day not having done the projects. The reason: their family cooked the food for dinner.
I never would have thought of that being an issue.