More students are complaining about the new USDA-mandated lunches:
Statistics that show obesity is a growing problem prompted an overhaul of the nation’s school lunch menus. The new rules require twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains and less sodium and fat. And some students aren’t very happy about the changes.
I noticed the reporter doesn’t even ask himself if the overhaul will actually reduce obesity. In fact, I’ve yet to read a mainstream media article which raises that question. Reporters all seem to accept that more fruits, vegetables, healthywholegrains and reductions in fat and sodium are good ideas that the kids just don’t happen to like.
On Tuesday, Congresswoman Kristi Noem sat down with students in Pierre to see what they think of the new menu.
It’s nice that a Congresswoman is listening to kids in her district, but once again, somebody in the mainstream media should be asking the Big Question: Why should school-lunch menus be a federal issue in the first place? By what strange reasoning do we accept that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington are better qualified than parents and local officials to decide what kids in South Dakota should be eating for lunch? The issue here shouldn’t be whether or not we (or a Congressperson) can somehow convince the school-lunch overlords to let kids eat more of what they want. The issue should be the very existence of school-lunch overlords.
With the new federal regulations, kids can’t pass up both the fruits and veggies when going through the lunch line anymore.
Pretty please, take a moment and think about the utter arrogance underlying that rule.
What, you don’t want a fruit or vegetable on your plate? Too friggin’ bad. We in the USDA have decided you will put a fruit or vegetable on your plate, period. We know what’s best for you.
So we’ve got do-gooder officials in Washington telling kids in our district in Tennessee what they can and cannot – and must – put on their plates. Parents, teachers, local administrators, the kids themselves – their preferences don’t enter into it.
Here’s more of the same arrogance in a reply by a USDA official:
“One thing I think we need to keep in mind as kids say they’re still hungry is that many children aren’t used to eating fruits and vegetables at home, much less at school. So it’s a change in what they are eating. If they are still hungry, it’s that they are not eating all the food that’s being offered,” USDA Deputy Under Secretary Janey Thornton said.
Got that? If the kids are hungry, it’s their fault for not eating the fruits and vegetables the overlords at the USDA have insisted must go on their plates. It couldn’t possibly be that fruits and vegetables – which have little or no protein or fat – just aren’t very filing. It couldn’t possibly be that the USDA experts are friggin’ clueless about what a growing child or active teenager needs to get through the day without going hungry. No, by gosh, we’re from the government and we’re here to help.
I hope students all over the country rise up against this nanny-state, paternalistic nonsense. I hope they coordinate their protests through social media and make it a nationwide revolt. Come on, kids, take a stand. Start an Occupy The Cafeteria movement. When government officials start telling you what you can and cannot eat, it’s time to raise hell.
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Not sure sending lunches from home helps much here where I live, Tom, because the ignorance comes from the kitchen too. We walk our dog past the bus stops early in the morning and we have to drag her away from the sandwiches dumped there – and this is before school!! So the kids don’t always like what Mum fixes either. When we see the kids walk back down our street after school many of them are carrying Tim Horton’s LARGE coffees (lattes?) as they go.
What a sorry mess eh? It’s gotta be one kid at a time, I guess. Your two are on their way, and the rest of us have to influence kids, and grandkids as much as we can. Unfortunately our 13 year old granddaughter has caught “veganism” from her silly mother. And she gets chubbier and chubbier every time we see her….
Sure, plenty of parents don’t know diddly about nutrition and many may not care either. But it’s not a proper role of government to intervene.
I just read an article on ABCNews about this. Epic Fail, of the slam-head-on-desk stupidity variety. Oy! I detest whoever decided the government has the right to tell me what to feed my kids. Seriously. I’ll send my kids (should I have any) with a sack lunch full of fat and protein and no wheat, thank you very much.
Since it’s both a failure and based on a stupid theories to begin with, watch for the government geniuses to decide the problem is that they didn’t make the program big enough.
I’m one liberal who thinks this lunch-nanny thing is heavy handed and wrong-headed–not to mention a huge waste of tax revenues and food. I hope they at least recycle the uneaten produce for animal feed or compost.
That would require functioning brains and an admission that the kids aren’t eating the vegetables.
“I noticed the reporter doesn’t even ask himself if the overhaul will actually reduce obesity.”
Exactly. They shall not be bothered with the inconvenience of actual research.
The only positive outcome I can see is the lesson these kids are getting on how freedoms are lost by an imposing government. This should stick with them for a long time. If you are a parent, why not use this as an object lesson (for your kid) on how gov’t interference impacts ordinary citizens, that this power is not granted in our constitution, and finally, this is an example of “progressives” who want to manage your life, and how you (the kid) have an obligation in the coming years to not let it continue.
Let’s hope the kids get that message.
Not sure sending lunches from home helps much here where I live, Tom, because the ignorance comes from the kitchen too. We walk our dog past the bus stops early in the morning and we have to drag her away from the sandwiches dumped there – and this is before school!! So the kids don’t always like what Mum fixes either. When we see the kids walk back down our street after school many of them are carrying Tim Horton’s LARGE coffees (lattes?) as they go.
What a sorry mess eh? It’s gotta be one kid at a time, I guess. Your two are on their way, and the rest of us have to influence kids, and grandkids as much as we can. Unfortunately our 13 year old granddaughter has caught “veganism” from her silly mother. And she gets chubbier and chubbier every time we see her….
Sure, plenty of parents don’t know diddly about nutrition and many may not care either. But it’s not a proper role of government to intervene.
@ Craig: This Bloomberg thing is asinine! Nobody’s health is going to be changed for good or for ill by the few items a patient or visitor might eat while someone is in the hospital. Except that a patient already not feeling like eating needs something APPETIZING, not some saltless fatless politically correct glop. Tom’s right; stay well.
I just read an article on ABCNews about this. Epic Fail, of the slam-head-on-desk stupidity variety. Oy! I detest whoever decided the government has the right to tell me what to feed my kids. Seriously. I’ll send my kids (should I have any) with a sack lunch full of fat and protein and no wheat, thank you very much.
Since it’s both a failure and based on a stupid theories to begin with, watch for the government geniuses to decide the problem is that they didn’t make the program big enough.
I’m one liberal who thinks this lunch-nanny thing is heavy handed and wrong-headed–not to mention a huge waste of tax revenues and food. I hope they at least recycle the uneaten produce for animal feed or compost.
That would require functioning brains and an admission that the kids aren’t eating the vegetables.
“I noticed the reporter doesn’t even ask himself if the overhaul will actually reduce obesity.”
Exactly. They shall not be bothered with the inconvenience of actual research.
@ Craig: This Bloomberg thing is asinine! Nobody’s health is going to be changed for good or for ill by the few items a patient or visitor might eat while someone is in the hospital. Except that a patient already not feeling like eating needs something APPETIZING, not some saltless fatless politically correct glop. Tom’s right; stay well.
Problem solved! Snacks! Awesome! Now where did I leave my crazy pills…
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/hungry-kids-grumble-healthy-school-lunches/story?id=17324285#.UGOMM1FnDDz
You gotta love the logic. Sure, we’re not letting them eat enough to avoid being hungry because we think this will make then thinner, but they should eat snacks when they’re hungry.
Problem solved! Snacks! Awesome! Now where did I leave my crazy pills…
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/hungry-kids-grumble-healthy-school-lunches/story?id=17324285#.UGOMM1FnDDz
You gotta love the logic. Sure, we’re not letting them eat enough to avoid being hungry because we think this will make then thinner, but they should eat snacks when they’re hungry.
A side note. The ready-to-eat Angus burgers at Costco are really good. 2 minutes in the microwave(1 minute flip) and they’re ready!
A side note. The ready-to-eat Angus burgers at Costco are really good. 2 minutes in the microwave(1 minute flip) and they’re ready!
I’m a high school counselor who does lunch supervision in our cafeteria. The students are required to take fruit, and then it all ends up in the trash can. Most of our students are on free or reduced lunch, and they throw away enough food in one day to feed my family for a month. It makes me sick that my tax dollars go in the trash on a daily basis.
Which is why taking a fruit or vegetable should be optional.
My eight year old nephew explained his situation to me. He gets up in the morning and eats breakfast. Then he goes to school and eats second breakfast. Then lunch. Then, according to him, he starves throughout the afternoon, and eats as soon as he gets home from school. Then later in the evening, dinner. All the high carb/low fat meals are turning him into a Hobbit.
I see. “Let them eat cake.”
I’m a high school counselor who does lunch supervision in our cafeteria. The students are required to take fruit, and then it all ends up in the trash can. Most of our students are on free or reduced lunch, and they throw away enough food in one day to feed my family for a month. It makes me sick that my tax dollars go in the trash on a daily basis.
Which is why taking a fruit or vegetable should be optional.
The “Let them eat snacks.” motto plays nicely with the Snickers commercials. “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry.” The do satisfy. But.
Can this be coincidence? is the snack industry running the Military Industrial Agricultural Nutritional Complex? I suspect they have a hand in it.
“What, you don’t want a fruit or vegetable on your plate? Too friggin’ bad. We in the USDA have decided you will put a fruit or vegetable on your plate, period. We know what’s best for you.”
hahaha, I actually heard this in a German type dictatorial (sort of Klink from Hogan’s Hero’s) accent when I read it. Thrilled my son is a senior in High School, packs his own lunch, and the food Overlords have not peaked into his lunch box-yet. I know him though, he would go without and just wait till he got home rather than shove some fruit or veggie he wasn’t interested in into his piehole. They would physically have to try to shove it into him, he is a big kid, I can tell you it would take at least a couple of them to do it.
I am also appalled at the expense of paying the people who will have to police this new regulation, as well as the waste of food. Forget starving kids in China, what about the children starving in Appalachian Hills.
Yup, in addition to the nonsense, we’re paying people to enforce it. Great use of resources for a country $16 trillion in debt and counting.
My eight year old nephew explained his situation to me. He gets up in the morning and eats breakfast. Then he goes to school and eats second breakfast. Then lunch. Then, according to him, he starves throughout the afternoon, and eats as soon as he gets home from school. Then later in the evening, dinner. All the high carb/low fat meals are turning him into a Hobbit.
I see. “Let them eat cake.”
I just don’t get how people making these decisions supposedly for the good of others don’t understand some very basic things. For example, who doesn’t know, just from the experience of being a person, that protein rich food is the most satiating, even if you’re still operating under the misconception that fat is bad. When I was low-fat dieting, I would eat tons of skinless chicken breast to keep me full, not piles and piles of vegetables and fruit. Looking back, it was rather unpleasant, but it at least somewhat relieved the hunger those sorts of diets subjected me to.
The geniuses in the USDA decided kids eat too much protein already.
The “Let them eat snacks.” motto plays nicely with the Snickers commercials. “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry.” The do satisfy. But.
Can this be coincidence? is the snack industry running the Military Industrial Agricultural Nutritional Complex? I suspect they have a hand in it.
“What, you don’t want a fruit or vegetable on your plate? Too friggin’ bad. We in the USDA have decided you will put a fruit or vegetable on your plate, period. We know what’s best for you.”
hahaha, I actually heard this in a German type dictatorial (sort of Klink from Hogan’s Hero’s) accent when I read it. Thrilled my son is a senior in High School, packs his own lunch, and the food Overlords have not peaked into his lunch box-yet. I know him though, he would go without and just wait till he got home rather than shove some fruit or veggie he wasn’t interested in into his piehole. They would physically have to try to shove it into him, he is a big kid, I can tell you it would take at least a couple of them to do it.
I am also appalled at the expense of paying the people who will have to police this new regulation, as well as the waste of food. Forget starving kids in China, what about the children starving in Appalachian Hills.
Yup, in addition to the nonsense, we’re paying people to enforce it. Great use of resources for a country $16 trillion in debt and counting.
I just don’t get how people making these decisions supposedly for the good of others don’t understand some very basic things. For example, who doesn’t know, just from the experience of being a person, that protein rich food is the most satiating, even if you’re still operating under the misconception that fat is bad. When I was low-fat dieting, I would eat tons of skinless chicken breast to keep me full, not piles and piles of vegetables and fruit. Looking back, it was rather unpleasant, but it at least somewhat relieved the hunger those sorts of diets subjected me to.
The geniuses in the USDA decided kids eat too much protein already.
@ Marilyn, it’s worse than that. My nephew was in the hospital in an iatogenic (doctor caused) coma and then on dialysis due to an allergic reaction. On the top of his chart, where it is supposed to list allergies it said CELIAC. (Which he is) His wife had to smuggle him food because every meal they served him included wheat. He got out of there as soon as he could hobble on crutches. 40 pound weight loss in three weeks – not what he needed!
“The students are required to take fruit, and then it all ends up in the trash can. Most of our students are on free or reduced lunch, and they throw away enough food in one day to feed my family for a month.”
I could just be overly cynical, but I can’t help but think this is one of the intended consequences of these new cafeteria requirements. It’d be far from the first time the government has set about raising food prices by throwing away huge amounts of perfectly good food. Actually that’s been pretty consistent policy since the 1930’s, so no, I’m not being overly cynical.
You’re not being cynical at all. FDR’s administration ordered millions of livestock slaughtered and countless tons of crops destroyed during the Depression — one of the few times in American history that people were actually starving. Then he paid farmers not to grow food on large sections of land. He thought this would raise farm prices and rising farm prices would lead us out of the Depression. That worked about as well as the rest of his economic manipulations.
@ Marilyn, it’s worse than that. My nephew was in the hospital in an iatogenic (doctor caused) coma and then on dialysis due to an allergic reaction. On the top of his chart, where it is supposed to list allergies it said CELIAC. (Which he is) His wife had to smuggle him food because every meal they served him included wheat. He got out of there as soon as he could hobble on crutches. 40 pound weight loss in three weeks – not what he needed!
“The students are required to take fruit, and then it all ends up in the trash can. Most of our students are on free or reduced lunch, and they throw away enough food in one day to feed my family for a month.”
I could just be overly cynical, but I can’t help but think this is one of the intended consequences of these new cafeteria requirements. It’d be far from the first time the government has set about raising food prices by throwing away huge amounts of perfectly good food. Actually that’s been pretty consistent policy since the 1930’s, so no, I’m not being overly cynical.
You’re not being cynical at all. FDR’s administration ordered millions of livestock slaughtered and countless tons of crops destroyed during the Depression — one of the few times in American history that people were actually starving. Then he paid farmers not to grow food on large sections of land. He thought this would raise farm prices and rising farm prices would lead us out of the Depression. That worked about as well as the rest of his economic manipulations.
Government will be more and more in our lives as time goes on. But a question, Tom. You resent the mere existence of the overloads…would you feel the same way if the overloads made GOOD changes?
Yes, I would. This was supposed to be a free country. I don’t want dictocrats in Washington telling a school in Tennessee what it must serve for lunch, no matter what the rules are.
Government will be more and more in our lives as time goes on. But a question, Tom. You resent the mere existence of the overloads…would you feel the same way if the overloads made GOOD changes?
Yes, I would. This was supposed to be a free country. I don’t want dictocrats in Washington telling a school in Tennessee what it must serve for lunch, no matter what the rules are.
This comment does not apply to the majority of readers here, but it occurs to me that if you want to get the ‘Nanny State” out of your lives there is a necessary first step.
Stop acting like spoiled children. Quit running to the government with all of your problems. Society, aka government, doesn’t owe you free healthcare, subsidized mortgages or any of the freebies so many people demand.
As long as people invite them into their lives…well sorry, we won’t get to choose where they stick their noses.
My sentiments exactly. I have little patience for supporters of big government who complain when they don’t like the policies big government imposes. As I said in a previous post, get over the idea that we just need the right people running the big government. That will never happen. The right people don’t want to tell others how to live.
Martha, that’s so scary! I hope your nephew is recovering. Let me guess. It said, “Allergies: CELIAC,” so they figured he was allergic to celiac and they didn’t know what that was, so ignored it?
People are really pretty clueless about what gluten is. I once had a waitress at a restaurant proudly bring me their “gluten-free” menu. The first item on the menu was a sandwich made with whole wheat bread.
This comment does not apply to the majority of readers here, but it occurs to me that if you want to get the ‘Nanny State” out of your lives there is a necessary first step.
Stop acting like spoiled children. Quit running to the government with all of your problems. Society, aka government, doesn’t owe you free healthcare, subsidized mortgages or any of the freebies so many people demand.
As long as people invite them into their lives…well sorry, we won’t get to choose where they stick their noses.
My sentiments exactly. I have little patience for supporters of big government who complain when they don’t like the policies big government imposes. As I said in a previous post, get over the idea that we just need the right people running the big government. That will never happen. The right people don’t want to tell others how to live.
Martha, that’s so scary! I hope your nephew is recovering. Let me guess. It said, “Allergies: CELIAC,” so they figured he was allergic to celiac and they didn’t know what that was, so ignored it?
People are really pretty clueless about what gluten is. I once had a waitress at a restaurant proudly bring me their “gluten-free” menu. The first item on the menu was a sandwich made with whole wheat bread.
ABC’s “20/20” ran a segment on this. They showed a You Tube video the kids did as a parody of the lunch program. I can’t seem to track it down, but here is the report that aired on the program:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/meals-food-school-lunch-students-youtube-government-guidelines-cafeteria-health-17335054
ABC’s “20/20” ran a segment on this. They showed a You Tube video the kids did as a parody of the lunch program. I can’t seem to track it down, but here is the report that aired on the program:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/meals-food-school-lunch-students-youtube-government-guidelines-cafeteria-health-17335054
Brian does not read FatHead.
Brian does not read FatHead.
I don’t want to live in a nanny state or a Libertarian paradise. If we the people don’t stand up and make our voices heard–as Tom hopes the students will do–our passivity will speak for itself, and we won’t like the result.
For the record, most libertarians don’t believe in a libertarian paradise either. We leave utopian visions to the left:
http://www.fff.org/freedom/1295h.asp
I don’t want to live in a nanny state or a Libertarian paradise. If we the people don’t stand up and make our voices heard–as Tom hopes the students will do–our passivity will speak for itself, and we won’t like the result.
For the record, most libertarians don’t believe in a libertarian paradise either. We leave utopian visions to the left:
http://www.fff.org/freedom/1295h.asp
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Lake-County-considers-trash-cams-at-school-cafeterias/-/1637132/16830940/-/or18q4/-/index.html
‘Trash-Cams’ considered to get the kids to eat their vegetables. The nanny state becomes increasingly desperate and ridiculous.
We saw that one coming.
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Lake-County-considers-trash-cams-at-school-cafeterias/-/1637132/16830940/-/or18q4/-/index.html
‘Trash-Cams’ considered to get the kids to eat their vegetables. The nanny state becomes increasingly desperate and ridiculous.
We saw that one coming.
I don’t see the problem with a one-size-fits-all approach. Surely a football player has the same caloric needs as a nerd.
The limits are age-based. I guess all kids of the same age have the same caloric needs.