Michelle Obama Criticizes Trump School Lunch Decision

[DonViejo]

Source: NBC Chicago



"It's not politics, it's parenting," the former first lady said

Former first lady Michelle Obama took aim at a Trump administration decision to delay federal rules aimed at making school lunches healthier.

Speaking at an annual health conference in Washington, D.C., Obama said more nutritious school lunches are important since millions of kids eat federally subsidized school breakfast and lunch. Without mentioning President Donald Trump, she said parents should stop and "think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap."

"If we want to make this country great, our kids need to be healthy," Obama said. "Not some, but all.”

In one of his first major actions, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the department will delay an upcoming requirement to reduce the amount of sodium in school meals.

Read more: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/Michelle-Obama-Bill-Clinton-Healthier-America-Summit-422102303.html

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Trumplunch program is MEFAULM (make everyone fat and unhealthy like me)

[cyclonefence]

2. Critics say, correctly,

that kids don't eat the healthier choices. But if your kid refuses to eat the healthy food you put before her, do you then throw up your hands and give her pizza and Twinkies? Do you make a separate meal for her? That's bad parenting. And it's how you get a kid who grows up fat. I don't know why school cafeterias can't continue to offer nothing but healthy foods, arranging for pickup of uneaten food by food pantries for the needy. Kids get hungry, and if they get hungry enough, they'll eat what's put before them.

Plus, are we really to believe that kids won't eat from a salad bar? String cheese? Low-fat yogurt? Bananas? Pasta with marinara?

Schools should also not be in the business of offering soft drinks and snacks in vending machines. I know that Pepsico and Coca-Cola "donate" money to schools that provide them a venue for sales, but WTF.

[KatyaR]

5. I work for a girls' organization, and last summer we installed a salad bar at camp.

It was a huge hit.

When it gets so very hot in the summer, it's nice to have a salad option at camp.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. A lot of kids are only fed things like

pizza and twinkies at home. Parents don't have the time or energy to cook, may not have much in the way of cooking skills, and find it easier to go for fast food or other highly processed food. So a lot of kids just never have the kind of stuff they're trying to serve them at the schools. But the schools need to persist, and they could start in the early grades by having cooking/food preparation in the curriculum. Half an hour even once a week would be a good start.

And I absolutely agree. Soft drinks and sugar filled snacks should not be sold in vending machines at school.

[murielm99]

9. With younger kids,

there are often supervised lunch periods. As a sub, I sat with kindergarten and first grade students over lunch. The rule was that they had to eat five bites if they were five years old, six bites if they were six, etc. They had to drink some milk. When they did that, they could have dessert.

[Igel]

11. It's a tough call.

We're feeding them not because the government's their mommy, but because they're in school to learn.

And a hungry kid, they say, can't learn.

Walked past a kid this morning eating her free/reduced breakfast. When she was done, she got up and left her leftovers (in the hallway, because, well, she's too special to pick up her trash and put it in the trashcan 4 feet away, much less return the tray to the cafeteria).

She ate the cereal, which contained too much sugar. She drank the apple juice. She left the orange and the skim milk. But at least she wasn't hungry. (Then again, since the change went into effect my classroom's been swamped with junk food. Candy, chips, cinnamon rolls, kolaches, donuts, little packages of sugar-coated kibble, chicken biscuits.)


Nobody's going to collect the uneaten food for a food pantry. It's given to the kids, they walk off with it, and once served it's served.


There's a split in the cafeteria, and it starts in grade school. I've seen 3rd and 4th graders chow down. Some go for the salads and healthy food; it's what they're used to. Some go for crap; it's what they're used to, or what they want but are denied at home. (Fat, sugar, these are things that we're made to like. You can starve as a hunter-gatherer just eating green leafy stuff.)

We can try to change these kids' culture, of course. Because we really need to make sure kids and their parents assimilate to the right culture, which in a democracy is decided by a group of experts that run that portion of the government. (I'm pointing out an inherent problem in wanting to force certain things on people we claim to be free, compelling uniformity while lauding diversity, forcing assimilation while decrying those who would force assimilation.)

[50 Shades Of Blue]

3. GOOD! I'm glad she spoke out. How I miss her!!!

[bathroommonkey76]

4. Michelle Obama Slams Trump School Lunch Delay

[hibbing]

6. I remember when ketchup was declared a vegetable

Or some such nonsense during their saint's administration. He is doing all he can to get rid of everything President Obama tried to change...it sucks and they suck.

Peace

[Igel]

12. It's still a vegetable.

I made fun of that designation too. It was only a few decades later I understood why the change was made.


There are some strange things in the list of foods in various categories for food stamps, whatever the program. Truly bizarre definitions and designations.

Ketchup wasn't originally included in the list of foods a welfare recipient could buy with government subsidies. Condiments are ruled out when it comes to using food stamps, to this day, in pretty much every state simply because it's a federal law. Congress has never changed the law, it's just repackaged it since it was passed in the '70s or '80s. So if you're a poor kid, your mother can't buy ketchup unless she uses non-WIC (etc.) money.


But if ketchup's a vegetable, then people on food stamps can buy ketchup. All it took was a government regulation defining ketchup, for the purposes of that law, as a vegetable.

Make fun of the regulation, but at the risk of strongly implying that you don't think people on welfare should be allowed to use food stamps to buy ketchup.

[hibbing]

13. I mean counted as a vegetable for school lunches

But interesting information about food assistance ketchup, the school lunch thing is probably related to that.

Peace

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Exactly. "Not some, but all." . . . . nt

[progree]

10. "parents should stop and think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap'"