Free Republic

Parents upset after school takes lunches from students with account deficits SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Dozens of students at a Salt Lake City elementary school were served lunch Tuesday, only to have the food taken from them and thrown away in an incident parents said was uncalled for and humiliating for the children. The incident took place at Uintah Elementary School when students were told there was no money in their school lunch accounts. The students’ lunches were taken and thrown away, and the students were provided with fruit and milk. Officials said it’s school policy for food in...

Thursday's edition of the Federal Register contains 185 new agency submissions, including an update to the cost of the National School Lunch Program. Nutrition: The price tag on Michelle Obama's National School Lunch Program was inaccurately reported in the Federal Register earlier this month, so the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture is correcting the cost. The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, which provides free and low-cost healthy meals to more than 31 million students, are now projected to cost taxpayers $16.4 billion for 7.8 billion million students in 2014. The costs will...

After the federal government’s school-lunch standards were overhauled in 2012 in what I’m sure was a very well-intentioned effort to institute healthier habits in America’s children and help stave off of the country’s growing childhood obesity problem, it didn’t take long for the calorie-intake and portion restrictions in the new code to crash and burn spectacularly. Healthy eating habits being the highly individualized needs and preferences that they are, kids and parents quickly began complaining that students were not able to get enough to eat at lunchtime, and in some districts, school-lunch participation began to drop as more and more...

It looks like the days of trading half of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich for half of your best friendÂ’s ham sandwich may soon be over if the federal government has anything to do with it. A Richmond, Virginia mother received the following note, telling her not to pack a lunch for her pre-school age child. (source: Momdot.com) Dear Parents, I have received word from Federal Programs Preschool pertaining to lunches from home. Parents are to be informed that students can only bring lunches from home if there is a medical condition requiring a specific diet, along with...

SNA Urges Congress to End Shutdown to Protect School Meals NATIONAL HARBOR, MD (October 11, 2013) – The School Nutrition Association (SNA), a national non-profit representing 55,000 school nutrition professionals nationwide, sent a letter to congressional leaders today urging them to end the Federal Government shutdown to ensure the availability of school meals for America’s students. Starting on November 1, school meal programs will request federal reimbursements for meals served during October, but the US Department of Agriculture has not guaranteed the availability of sufficient funds to reimburse states for all meals served in October. In fact, one state agency...

The Agriculture Department says 524 schools—out of about 100,000—have dropped out of the federally subsidized national school lunch program since the government introduced new standards for healthier foods last year. The new standards have been met with grumbling from school nutrition officials who say they are difficult and expensive to follow, conservatives who say the government shouldn’t be dictating what kids eat and—unsurprisingly—from some children who say the less-greasy food doesn’t taste as good. But USDA says the vast majority of schools are serving healthier food, with some success. Data the department is planning to release Monday shows that 80...

WILLINGBORO — It seems ripped from the pages of Dickens: A hungry child approaches the school cafeteria worker, meal in hand. The worker promptly throws the meal in the trash and sends the child away unfed. Why? The child's parents have let the lunch account run dry.

Many schools in the nation are considering a change from the National School Lunch Program, which could happen in schools across York County if the regulations for the program continue to become more strict. But with a decrease in student participation and a growing list of federal nutrition mandates, the district might consider cutting the program next fall at the high school level. The number of students who buy the program-approved school lunch decreased by 10 percent last year, an estimated 100 meals per day. But the current situation isn't the entire reason the district is considering a change. Harlacher...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — At Florin High School, every student gets a free lunch, even if they can afford to pay for it, and CBS13 has discovered that a lot of that free food ends up in the trash. Throwing away food is just the beginning of a drain on your taxpayer dollars. Last year, 14 percent of students paid for their own meals because they didn’t qualify for free lunch. “The federal government [now] allows, if 80 percent or more of the school is eligible for free lunch, the paid students, we would feed them for free,” said Michelle Drake...

Viviana Sanchez surveyed the long lunch line at Northeast High School last week and pondered her options. And she was glad she had options. Instead of waiting forever in the cafeteria line for a less-than-appetizing meal, the sophomore strolled over to a vending machine and had her lunch within seconds. "I like this better," Sanchez said last Thursday after pulling out a yogurt parfait and chocolate milk from Star Food Healthy Express machine. "This tastes better and it's quicker to get." The Oakland Park school is one of about 40 middle schools and high schools within the Broward County Public...

FORT WORTH (KRLD) – At least one North Texas school district has turned up its nose at the new federal lunch program. Many schools report kids refused to eat the healthier meals that are supposed to be packed with whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Carroll Independent School District has dropped out for a year. Nutrition Services Director Mary Brunig says the requirements are too restrictive. “You have to follow exactly what is in this meal pattern, if you are the national school lunch program.” Brunig says as a result, a lot of food wound up in the trash. “With the...

A Tennessee elementary school banned students from eating ham sandwiches, BLT’s and anything else made with pork, but eventually lifted the ban after parents complained. Third grade teachers at Sunset Elementary School in Brentwood, Tenn. sent home an “Approved Snack List” for the school year and it specifically banned anything that comes from a pig.snacklist “No meats containing pork,” read the memorandum. “Starting Monday, August 12, 2013 your child must provide their own snack from the above approved snack list.” Kids could nosh on raw vegetables without dips or sauces, fresh fruit, crackers, pretzels, and popcorn – but no ribs...

LOS ANGELES – When Los Angeles school lunch bureaucrats realized their new menu of sushi and broccoli and beef with brown rice was roundly rejected by students last year, their attitude was try, try again. black bean mountainThis school year, they’ll be offering what they think are more tantalizing dishes such as taco salad and chicken and waffles. But the L.A. Daily News reports it will be potato and chive waffles with no sugar added, to stay in compliance with new federal lunch regulations championed by First Lady Michelle Obama. Students will also be dining on a “black bean mountain”...

The New York senator helps land a sweetheart deal for a politically-connect yogurt company.Starting this month, the United States Department of Agriculture has announced that it will test out a new product in school lunches—high-protein, a.k.a. Greek-style yogurt—in four different states. Yet, what seems like an innocuous, even reasonable addition to the menu of foods offered to American public school students upon inspection turns out to be the latest example of corrupt nanny-statism masquerading as “for the kids” do-goodism.The USDA argues that Greek-style yogurt is better for kids because it has more protein. And given Michelle Obama’s new National School...

WESTFALL — Delaware Valley School District will be making sweeping changes to their career vocational-technical department, curriculum and lunch program. At last Thursday’s Board of Education meeting the directors voted to increase lunch prices by 10 cents for elementary, middle and high school and 25 cents for adult lunches. The new prices will be $1.85 for elementary, $2.10 for middle and high school. Adult lunches will now be $3.25. This is due in part to new federal guidelines requiring public schools that receive federal funding for free and reduced lunches to serve more costly items such as whole grains and...

School administrations continue to hang posters in cafeterias trying to convince students that what is being fed to them is "fun food" which is healthier for them than the foods they enjoy eating. Meanwhile schools are having to purchase more garbage cans to contain the Michelle mandated foods that kids are dumping, some preferring to go hungry rather than eat "required" foods. Students just throw away the food being forced on them by the US Government.

If the goal of the federal school lunch overhaul is to improve outcomes for children, somebody should tell its chief cheerleader -- First Lady Michelle Obama -- that it’s actually backfiring. Officials in New York’s Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district have become the latest to opt out of the National School Lunch Program, citing “hungry, frustrated children plus lost income.” “[Food service manager Nicky] Boehm and her staff worked hard to implement the new regulations, but there were just too many problems and too many foods that students did not like and would not purchase. Students complained of being hungry...

First lady-backed school lunch regs cost school district $100,000 Posted By Caroline May On 12:25 PM 07/09/2013 In Education | No Comments A New York school district is giving the boot to the National School Lunch Program (NLSP) and its new restrictive regulations mandating the number of calories and nutrients in each meal. The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district announced this month that after a school year struggling with the new guidelines under the Michelle Obama-backed Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act, the school will not be participating in the program this coming school year. “Students complained of being hungry...

As schools continue to grapple with the school lunch menu overhaul pushed by First Lady Michelle Obama, some are realizing their headache isn’t just from a lack of food. The program involves way too much green -- and we’re not talking lettuce and brussel sprouts. We mean the estimated $3.2 billion schools will have to find to implement the new federal regulations. Many schools are also losing money due the unpopular Obama menu. “New school lunch regulations mean financial losses for Pittsfield Public Schools,” reported the Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts. The school district expects a program operating loss of more...

In a year of transition toward healthier school lunches, the Pittsfield Public Schools food service budget is headed for an operating loss of more than $100,000. The reason, other than the nearly $60,000 spent to replace the failing food warming line, relates to new federal nutrition guidelines that took effect, and to a state nutrition law that limits the types of snack foods and drinks that can be sold in public schools. "This [deficit] is in line with what is happening around the state". The number of meals served has fallen, and revenue from snacks is well below the level...