Posted on 03/02/2010 7:03:06 AM PST by IbJensen
CNSNews.com) – First lady Michelle Obama said at the School Nutrition Association Conference in Washington, D.C. on Monday that individuals who work in school cafeterias across the country not only educate and feed children, but help to strengthen national security.
“Every day, with the food you serve, you're teaching them these critical lessons about nutrition and healthy eating,” Obama said. “You're shaping their habits and their preferences, and you're affecting the choices that they're going to make for the rest of their lives.”
She said the responsibility of feeding 31 million children through school food programs at the nation’s public schools means that food workers are shaping the future of this country. She noted that the National School Lunch Program was started under President Harry S. Truman “after World War II, back when one of the most common disqualifiers for military service was malnourishment, if you can believe that.”
“And that's why President Johnson later in 1966 expanded the program to include school breakfasts and meals at preschools because, as he put it, he said that ‘good nutrition is essential to good learning,” Obama said.
“So whether it's national security, education or child hunger, for decades we've looked to you for help in achieving our most urgent national priorities,” said the first lady.
Obama’s speech is part of the “Let’s Move” campaign that she launched last month to end childhood obesity. The program has several elements, including educating parents about nutrition, partnering with states and local school districts to bring healthier meals to school cafeterias, and enlisting celebrity athletes to promote the campaign.
A task force made up of cabinet secretaries and senior Obama administration officials has 90 days to come up with more recommendations, Obama said.
The “Let’s Move” campaign also aims to eliminate “food deserts” with the $400 million a year Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which will bring grocery stores to communities without them and “help” convenience stores already in those neighborhoods offer healthier food choices.
Like her husband, she is thoroughly UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT of national security. What drivel.
she’s lecturing us when her own husband’s press secretary is making excuses for barry chowing down too many cheeseburgers and pies?
go home and cook, meshell
I was seriously thinking this was a satire thread.
It should be.
“free breakfast” at school feedings is often pop tarts sweet cereal and flavored milk, all purchased by gubmint bureaucrats with gubmnint money
I used to feed my son at home so he wouldnt eat so much of the “free” junk food they served every kid for breakfast- or send in some fresh fruit for the class to share
yes every kid in Title One school got ‘free breakfast” so no one would be stigmatized
I will disagree with you. When we had mass conscription in WW2, it was found that a majority of American Males of conscription age were malnourished. The causes are up for argument.
Our young men today are out of shape, fat, and not prepared for all things military (ie lack of team work). That’s a National Security issue, not the cooks in our schools.
I got the e-mail below from greatschools.com the other day. I sent them a nastygram back; but, unfortunately, the e-mail address was unmonitored so probably no one read it. Their e-mail really cheesed me off.
National School Lunch Program of cafeterias and coffers
What program subsidizes free and low-cost meals to more than 31 million U.S. children? If you guessed the National School Lunch Program, you’re right. But did you know it also plays a crucial role in school finance?
The more students who enroll in the program, the more government money your school can receive to help low-achieving children. In some schools, not all eligible students are correctly enrolled, which can mean less federal aid for those schools. Find out what percentage of students at “blank” are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
The liberals truly are stupid.
Blathering inconsequential, feel-good, do-nothings and touting them as something greater than they are is just such a simplistic mental construct that it’s disheartening to know they are in power.
The Mobamite is so representative to liberalism’s superficial thought.
I went to a Catholic school in the 1960’s when they served real food. The nuns would check your tray as you left and send you back to the table to finish anything you left (usually vegetables)
Some of the scariest moments of my life were walking past the nuns with my empty milk carton filled with peas.
When will our children get arugala and wagyu beef ($100/lb) like Barry, Michelle and their nits enjoy on a daily basis?
The same government that labels ketchup a vegetable.
My wife would disgree with you on the real food comment, she doesn’t consider fish sticks and tuna to be real food
The mushrooms that are being served at The White Crib must be potent.
It was RWR who claimed that ketchup was a vegetable and he was partially correct.
Amazing how those malnourished troops managed to defeat Hitler. Interesting that you are using the same argument that was deployed to socialize Great Britain during the first half of the 20th century. Harold MacMillan (in The Blast of War) at one point observed how much bigger and better nourished American troops were than British troops. Nutrition is important, but it is an individual, not a government, responsibility.
http://www.socialismtoday.org/120/nhs.html
The first wookie needs to lay off the crack pipe.
One day in the cafeteria the “Cheese Surprise” was so bad that we threatened the manager that we would turn him upside down and plunge him into the garbage can filled with it if he ever “Surprised” us again.
And we weren’t students; we were faculty.
(Those were the days.)
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