Posted on 12/22/2011 7:02:59 AM PST by Academiadotorg
The road to gastric hell is paved with first lady Michelle Obama’s Nanny State intentions. Don’t take my word for it. School kids in Los Angeles have blown the whistle on the east wing chef-in-chief’s healthy lunch diktats. Get your Pepto Bismol ready. The taste of government waste is indigestion-inducing.
According to a weekend report by the Los Angeles Times, the city’s “trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop.” In response to the public hectoring and financial inducement of Mrs. Obama’s federally subsidized anti-obesity campaign, the district dropped chicken nuggets, corn dogs and flavored milk from the menu for “beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets, and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads.”
Sounds delectable in theory. But in practice, the initiative has been what L.A. Unified’s food services director Dennis Barrett plainly concludes is a “disaster.” While the Obama administration has showered the nation’s second-largest school district with nutrition awards, thousands of students voted with their upset tummies and abandoned the program. A forbidden-food black market — stoked not just by students, but also by teachers — is now thriving. Moreover, “(p)rincipals report massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away.”
This despite a massive increase in spending on nutritional improvements — from $2 million to $20 million alone in the last five years on fresh produce.
This despite a nearly half-billion-dollar budget shortfall and 3,000 layoffs earlier this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
Hmmm. Here in N C that is verboten. System afraid of lawsuits in case a needy person gets sick
The amount of waste is criminal.
For instance, once a milk carton leaves the counter it cannot be reissued if it's not consumed. Must be tossed.
Fresh fruit? Almost all tossed.
Reminds me of what they were serving at the OWS food tent:
Salmon cakes with dill sauce
Quinoa salad
Organic chicken
Spaghetti bolognese
Tomato salad with fennel and red onion
Roasted beet and sheep’s milk-cheese salad
Wild heirloom potatoes
What is it with liberals and quinoa?
Jumbalaya and Thai food are acquired tastes. That would be like a kid from the Bronx being served grits and fried green tomatoes.
Maybe Chewbacca could start by practicing what she preaches. I dont see her fat ass getting any smaller.
heirloom potatoes?
What is it with libs and quinoa?
What is quinoa?
Notice that we all have been introduced to a lot of exotic foods courtesy of the first ruler and his wookie?
Currently, it's a treehugger substitute for rice. In reality, it's a relatively primitive grain that was formerly cultivated in the Americas (IIRC). The grains are about half the size of a grain of rice and round. The protein content is excellent and the nutritional profile makes it awesome especially for those who can't eat wheat.
If you want a grain to stock a long-term pantry, this would be among the top choices.
<> Leftists like it because it's unusual and carries other flavors extremely well. I like it because it stores really well, has great nutrition and protein, and is fun to cook with.
I’d call it the free market. Supply and demand. Young capitalists. When they took out the vending machines at our schools (yeah, I know), the kids started selling candy and soft drinks brought from home. Every single teacher has a file drawer full of candy, pop tarts, and other goodies for sell with the proceeds to supposedly going to class parties.
served grits and fried green tomatoes.
You’re making my mouth water:-)
When I was in grade school we had hot lunches consisting of meatballs & spagetti, white bread and butter, a vegetable and milk - carb filled deliciousness but we had sports and could go out and play after school without being kidnapped, shot at or molested. That’s what the kids need today - drop the video games and get moving but it is dangerous. IMHO
Rice with Tony Chachere’s is a lot better.
I'm an LAUSD teacher, and this stuff started appearing in the cafeteria about a month ago. Folks, it's GOOD. I and my buddies had avoided the cafeteria before. We're down there every day now. That quinoa salad in particular is good, good, good. I'm tempted to hang out by the garbage cans, stopping kids on their way to snag unopened goodies. (My ex used to joke that my first complete sentence as a child was probably "you gonna eat that?")
I had the jambalaya Thursday before we went on vacation. It was good! A little too spicy for my tastes, but I ate it all. Folks, I know it’s Obama and I know Malkin is a great writer, but I’m actually working at LAUSD and I am telling you, this is pretty good food. Better than what they used to serve. We didn’t even know it was part of some program, no one told us teachers anything about it. We just started noticing that the food was getting better. I’m sorry to see everyone bashing it because 1) It’s from Michelle Obama, so it must be bad, and 2) Kids prefer junk food. (Well duh, really??)
I'm here in LAUSD, and it's not "good" that the kids are living on Hot Cheetos and cupcakes from Food4Less. A very large percent of our middle schools are quite rotund. When I was a kid, there were 3 fat kids in a graduating class of 294. THREE. And one really did have some underlying medical condition. Now, in a classroom of 34, I'll look out and see 8 or 9 who are heading for juvenile diabetes. And given our population, we'll be paying for their meds. It's not "good for them."
Oh, the humanity!! Give me a break. When I was a kid, if I came running into the kitchen saying I was hungry, Grandma would point toward the bowl on the table. It would either be filled with apples or cherry tomatoes. If I said I didn't want that, she'd say "Then you're not hungry. You don't know what hungry is."
Ah... free enterprise capitalism!
Oops, sorry, "black market."
.
The program is supposed to be feeding the children. While I’m glad you like it, the target clientele does not! It is but another liberal, social-engineering FAIL. Does it really make sense to spend millions of EXTRA dollars to create healthy garbage?
Well, I wouldn’t eat 90% of the items listed on the new menu, so why would anyone think that famously picky children would?
It might be good to you, but not to a kid who’s never eaten or even heard of any of the things on the menu. When I was a kid, I didn’t want to eat filet the first time I was served it; you think I would have eaten this stuff? No way in hell!
Change takes time. I say we stick with it.
When I was in grade school, the lunch ladies had an industrial strength kitchen and cooked things like vegetable soup, sloppy Joes or Made-Rites, grilled cheese, tomato soup, chili, chicken and noodles, goulash and beans and corn bread.
We usually had peas, corn or green beans on the side. Maybe some Jell-O. Ice cream sandwiches on Fridays.
Thing was, these were local people who cooked food that was normal to the community.
Transitioning from tater tots or pizza to stuff made with lentils and quinoa is going to take some work.
BTW, I did make a lentil-barley casserole one time and in 20 years of marriage that is the ONLY dish to which my husband said, “We don’t really need to try that one again.”
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