Posted on 05/21/2014 5:50:20 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Michelle’s meals turn off the kids Getty Images
By Erik Wasson - 05/21/14 06:00 AM EDT
More than a million kids confronted by healthier school lunches are turning up their noses, leaving the cafeteria and heading out to get a burger instead.
The difficulty in getting students to eat lower-fat, lower-sodium meals is at the center of a food fight between House Republicans and first lady Michelle Obama that erupted this week.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, supported by President Obama, requires lunch programs that receive federal dollars to provide healthier meals. The new standards began to go into effect in 2012.
Childhood obesity has spiraled in recent decades, and the first lady has made the fight against it a signature issue. Democrats say stemming the epidemic will cut healthcare costs and keep the armed forces functioning.
But Agriculture Department statistics show the number of school children in the National School Lunch Program dropped from 31.8 million in 2011 to 30.7 million in 2013.
School boards are asking Congress to allow schools to opt out. Some schools are raiding their teaching budgets to cover the costs of mounds of wasted fruits and vegetables, Lucy Gettman of the National School Boards Association said.
“Every school is probably impacted a little bit differently ... there isn’t comprehensive data available,” she said. She noted that one school district in Alaska reported having to transfer $135,000 from its education budget to meet the new requirements — and that the incident was far from unique.
Diane Pratt-Heavner of the School Nutrition Association, which represents nonprofit lunch providers in the National School Lunch program, said data show 1,445 schools have dropped out of the program since the standards went into effect as costs mount.
Lawmakers acted this week. A House spending bill approved by a subcommittee on Tuesday would force the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to give a temporary waiver to school lunch programs that can show they were operating at a net loss for the last six months. That provision is supported by the National School Boards Association, as well as the School Nutrition Association. They also support other efforts, including a bill by Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) to stop imposition of more stringent standards coming down the pike.
Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) said the temporary waivers are needed because some school districts are losing too much money and need more time to adjust to the requirements. He said a big problem is that students are refusing to eat the healthier foods.
“I am talking to the lunch ladies who do all this work and it is thrown in the garbage at the end of the day,” he said.
Backers of the nutrition standards say more than 90 percent of school districts are complying successfully and that Republicans want to relax the rules as a carve-out to interest groups in the food industry.
“The evidence says this is doable,” said child nutrition expert Jessica Donze Black of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
She said that the best way to deal with the struggling schools would be to study what they are doing wrong. She said multiple factors could be pushing students out of the program, and that technical assistance to help schools revamp how they present food and organize lunch lines could make a big difference.
Supporters of the standards noted that the USDA gives a higher reimbursement for lunches including the healthier choices and pointed on Tuesday to an announcement by the department that it would allow schools to obtain a two-year delay in implementing a whole-grain standard coming into effect.
The USDA said complaints that schools could not find whole-grain pastas that did not fall apart in the giant cauldrons used to prepare school meals were legitimate.
“The USDA has worked really hard to try to help with the implementation,” Black said.
House panel member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who voted “no” on the bill, said the provision is a carve-out.
“Why would Congress, already maligned for labeling pizza a vegetable — and I know something about pizza — now seek to weaken federal child nutrition programs, and through the appropriations process no less, other than to appease the industry?” DeLauro asked.
“I am not hearing from industry,” Aderholt shot back. “I don’t know where industry [is] on this ... I am hearing from lunch ladies I talk to.”
DeLauro said that she hopes the first lady comes out strongly against the waiver provision to help shore up opposition.
The White House indicated she is prepared to do so at some point.
“The first lady has from day one made the health of our children a top priority, and that means keeping the pressure on to ensure that school nutrition standards already implemented by 90 percent of our schools stay intact. The first lady and this administration believe that every decision we make should be guided by sound science and hard evidence, not politics or special interests, particularly when it comes to the health of our children,” spokesman Jay Carney said.
The key battleground could be the Senate.
The Senate Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday approved companion spending legislation that does not contain the waiver provision.
But subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said he is open to amendments at a full committee markup on Thursday.
“Certainly if people are going to offer amendments I’ll look at those,” he said.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told reporters he is not planning to offer a waiver amendment but will offer two other provisions aimed at helping school lunch programs cope with the nutrition standards.
One would freeze increasingly stringent requirements on sodium levels in lunches and another would freeze the whole grain requirement at 51 percent rather than approving the requirement to increase to 100 percent of grains.
He said he supports the waiver but his language does not include it.
“At this point I don’t know that I can pass it through the committee,” he said. “I want to be careful here because I’ve got some things I think I can get passed.”
Justin Sink contributed.
What I love is the signs that say “You MUST take a fruit or vegetable with your lunch”.
One of the rarest things on Earth in 1955 was a fat kid. Walking to and from school and spending an hour and a half on playgrounds a day had mostly to do with it...
Imagine what our forefathers would think that we are having a fight over school lunches in the halls of congress....
Some of the most unhealthy looking people can be found in health food type markets.
I thought how stupid it was to starve the kids so when they came home they pigged out on whatever they could find, to eat.
Needless to say she has not bought a school lunch in a year and a half. The old brown paper lunch has served her well.
Some schools have practically outlawed brownbagging, though.
Let them raise chickens and goats.
Fresh eggs, goat milk...yogurt and cheese.
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No kidding! I was "outside playing" and my dad had to practically DRAG me back into the house for dinner.
Signed, the "tomboy"
Meanwhile she and king Hussein eat wagu beef - at taxpayer expense.
The wookie certainly didn't grow her fat ass eating what she prescribes to the kids!
FLOTUS can stuff it. My childrens' health is my business, not hers. If she's so damn concerned, let her tell her worthless POS husband to stop effin' up their chances for a decent healthcare network! That is going to screw them over more than a bag of chips at lunch ever could.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act ...
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is the “Unhealthy. I’m HUNGRY” Act .... just like the Affordable Care Act is anything but and should be called the UNaffordable NOCare Act. “Michelle Meals” ... destined for the garbage can .... these two (King Putt & Queen Butt) mess up/destroy everything they touch.
The old school lunches is not what made kids obese...
What makes obese kids is the internet, internet games, video games, and TV...
What makes healthy kids is REAL baseball, softball, hide and seek, fox and hounds, running through the woods playing “army”, cowboys and indians...All the outdoor things we old folks did as kids....
Indeed some schools have outlawed brownbagging or they inspect the lunch and confiscate foods that are banned in school!
Although I’d love to blame Michele for this tragedy, but a lot of this rests with parents who either don’t cook or don’t eat properly in the home themselves.
Case and point was when my nephew and his wife stopped over for lunch with the kids one day. The little buggers wouldn’t eat the food in front of them. They just kept picking at it, getting up from the table, walking away, coming back as though they hoped it would change. I got pissed and picked up their plates and threw the food away. I told them if you are not hungry, then you don’t eat here. No snacks, no chips, no soda, nothing but a glass of water. I thought I had put together a fun lunch of minicorn dogs, potato salad, fruit salad w/honey etc. Stuff kids should eat fairly readily...these two wouldn’t even really taste it. Picked the cornbread off the dogs and stared at them like they were some alien food.
Sure some of what Michelle is pushing is not impressive at all, but some of this goes back to the parenting in the home and teaching kids to eat right. Just look at the EBT cart next month and tell me why a kid would eat fruits/veggies?
Just another reason we should turn the kids over to the government to raise as parents can’t teach kids to eat right. /sarc.
true!
and really, is one school meal, 5 days a week, 180 days a year, going to have that great of an impact on a kid's health? i say no...
Case in point.
Both boys enjoy the Chipotle bean burgers we buy at Costco, and they'll eat many of the ingredients I put in my salad, such as tomatoes, mushrooms, and cucumbers.
And we keep more fruit in the fridge and freezer for breakfast and snacks.
I'll bet part of the problem is the presentation of the food: I've never gotten into stuff like hummus, but you build a salad with colorful fruit and veggies, and I think you would see greater interest.
not the one i frequent... i have noticed that the people who shop there look to be in good health, good shape... even the older women with gray hair have trim bodies and beautiful skin...
once a year our family goes to Reno, NV to celebrate my daddy's birthday... we hit up a buffet once each trip... i notice that the people who go for the pastries, donuts, coffee cakes along with their breakfast tend to be overweight, bloated with red blotchy skin... the people who go for the fruit with their eggs and bacon and sausage tend to look healthier... that has been my observation...
now i used to work for a guy who was vegan, and he did look sickly... and he was quite often sick with a cold...
The GOP needs to stand with the kids...
For more information of democrat corruption - watch this one:
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