[Ronin]

Anyone surprised about this? Anyone at all?

[Jonty30]

The problem is that the school administrators are taking a top down approach.

If they’d talk to the kids, explain to the kids what the objectives are and then work with the kids to develop better menus and such, the kids might actually be willing to eat the food.

The kids may not have the perfect diet, but they would be eating better.

[FishinTX]

One or two meals a week blended with real food might work. An all crap attack won’t. duh!

[hedgetrimmer]

A socialist busybody Jaimie Oliver takes US taxpayer dollars to push his agenda.

A generation of idiots who don’t know anything more than how to take handouts from the government is ungrateful and throws the tax payers money down the drain.

No one’s nutrition is improved, much money is wasted. Someone got a TV show out of it, someone else got a lot of money from the taxpayer to make unpopular foods destined for the garbage. They were probably friends or donors to the political party for quid pro quo.

This is America’s future. This is America’s demise.

[GeronL]

Wow.

The School Food Nazi speaketh, do they even hear the words coming out of their mouths?

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

“Puckah!”

LOL!

[miss marmelstein]

Jamie, the wall-eyed London busybody, got much worse from the schools in West Virginia if I remember correctly. He had to flee from their scorn along with his tv cameras. This is a man who cooked in the nude until he accidentally set himself on fire.

[piasa]

At the risk of ticking off a liberal... perhaps the solution to poor eating habits is to get some child labor back on the farm. You tend to appreciate what you grow and for some reason it tastes better when your labor went into it. Worked for us anyway.

[skinkinthegrass]

....and the Vegetarian Socialist Marxists wept.

[gghd]

A lot of public schools administrators are clueless when it comes to kids. There are healthy foods for kids; just make >wholesome pizzas, tacos & enchiladas that kids will actually like & eat. (such foods can be made ‘wholesome’)

Getting kids to drink wholesome-milk is difficult. Maybe package the milk as real> Dinosaur-snot would work. Who knows? Kids seem to like the milk in the form of cheese or on cereal. (chocolate milk: it’s the chocolate & sugar they want.)

A lot public schools would go out of business if they were judged on the success rate. All the problems in our public schools are public knowledge.

[Viking2002]

After reading this, it makes me look back fondly at the gray 'mystery meat' and instant flaked mashed potatoes the cafeteria served us in high school back in the '70's.........vegetarian curry? Wheatbread burgers? *YAK*

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[Fiji Hill]

Anna Redd, a cookery teacher at the school, where a shocking half of the students are ­overweight, revealed: “Things were positive at the start but now kids have made it clear to us, ‘This is not what we want.’
“Rather than eat the food that is provided in the canteen, they just throw it away.

I'll bet she didn't say "canteen," which in America is a portable water flask. However the writer probably put the word into her mouth because his audience might not be familiar with the word "cafeteria."

[TheMole]

From the LAUSD Report Card on West Adams, the demographic breakdown of the student body:

African-American 11%
Asian 1%
White 1%
Latino 87%

Well, I don't doubt that provided an education for Jamie.

[Persevero]

I reject the premise that schools should be feeding kids, in the first place.

[Yaelle]

Probably 99% of the kids get the lunch for free. If they had to pay the full cost of it, they’d eat it. Kids should pay for their own lunches (or their parents should) or bring their own. The whole argument that kids can’t learn on empty stomachs should bring shame to the parents and make them do anything to get food for their children. There is WIC, there are food kitchens, there are private charities. But no parent is motivated to care for their own children when they are used to letting the institutions pay.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Many years ago I delivered milk to all the Putnam County Florida schools. The amount of food and milk they dumped every day was amazing.

You can have one kid in a full cafeteria say, in a loud voice, "this milk tastes funny" or "this fish tastes funny", and 2/3 of the kids will refuse to drink the milk or eat the fish.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Many years ago I delivered milk to all the Putnam County Florida schools. The amount of food and milk they dumped every day was amazing.

You can have one kid in a full cafeteria say, in a loud voice, "this milk tastes funny" or "this fish tastes funny", and 2/3 of the kids will refuse to drink the milk or eat the fish.

[cincinnati65]

The problem with this "solution" is that it goes completely overboard. You will probably be unsuccessful if you radically change the kids' diet -- removing "staples" they will eat (hamburgers, pizza) with vegetable curries and Thai noodles. What you have to find is a way to make what kids will eat HEALTHIER.

For example, "cut" ground beef to make hamburgers with 1/3 ground turkey, and kids won't know the difference. Puree extra vegetables and mix into the tomato sauce with pizza, and again, who would notice?

Sweet potato fries, steak "fries" that are baked not fried, baked "fried" chicken. There are lots of ways to make the fare healthier without radically departing from what they want. You just have to use a little imagination.

[JRios1968]

A meeting of all those who are surprised at the news:

[ohioman]

I wouldn't eat this crap either. I remember when I was talking to a nutritionist while conducting research for a story some years ago. During the course of our talk the subject of kids and junk food came up. I was surprised when she said that kid's eating habits really were the same as they have always been. The difference is that the older generations were more physically active.