School Lunch Bell Signals Another Round in Fight.  In 1946, the Truman administration formalized the feds' school-nutrition role.  During both World War I and World War II, after all, the government had noticed some recruits suffered from malnutrition and stunted growth.  To address the problem — and win the favor of food producers — the National School Lunch Act was passed into law.  Though lots of debate and politics still surround the program, the premise is reasonable enough:  For some of America's poorest kids, a hot breakfast or lunch at school may be the only decent food they have all day.  In response to America's obesity epidemic, first lady Michelle Obama championed good nutrition through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.  It limited fats, sodium and sweets in school lunches, as it reduced portion sizes.  The Trump administration, which argued that many kids refused to eat the healthier, less-tasty fare, relaxed the school-lunch rules.

Philadelphia school is so overcrowded by immigrant crisis that some students must eat lunch at 9am.  Students at a Philadelphia school are eating lunch at 9 am because the district is so crowded with immigrants that canteen dining slots have been staggered throughout the day.  Youngsters at Lincoln High School also lug their backpacks around all day, because there are not enough lockers to go around in a school that this now 1,000 kids above capacity.  Officials have added makeshift divisions to increase the number of available classrooms, but teachers say the new walls are too thin to stop noise and have fallen down during lessons.

Lunchables Pulled from School Menus After Testing Positive for Lead.  Lunchables are being removed from school lunch menus across the U.S. after just a year of them being included in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) after they tested positive for lead and other harmful materials.  The pre-packaged snacks, manufactured by Kraft Heinz and marketed under the Oscar Mayer brand, were introduced to public schools during the 2023-2024 school year, TODAY reported.

DoD backtracks on plan to feed our troops lab-grown 'meat'.  First, the good news:  The scheme to feed our troops lab grown "meat" while confined in "operational environments" is now officially defunct, according to a press release from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association via Cowboy State Daily.  Now, for the not-so-good news.  The plan doesn't appear to be entirely dead but just on ice, with the schemers having simply adjusted fire, seemingly setting their sights on an easier target:  school children.

Pasco County Schools To Offer Free Meals For All Students In 2024-2025.  The Pasco County School District is excited to announce that all students will receive free breakfast and lunch during the 2024-2025 school year, regardless of family income.  This initiative made possible through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), eliminates the need for meal applications and ensures all students have access to nutritious meals.  CEP is a federal program funded by the USDA that simplifies the process for schools to provide meals to all students at no charge.

Iowa Governor Rejects Kids' Summer Food Assistance Federal Program.  Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has rejected a federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) for kids in lieu of "enhancing and expanding" already existing nutrition programs, according to state officials.  The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and state Department of Education announced on Friday the state will "not participate in the 2024 Summer Benefits Transfer for Children" program which would have given $40 per month to children in low-income families, helping with food costs while school's out of session.  Reynolds stated in a press release with the two departments that the federal program had been previously established during the "COVID-era," highlighting that there are already "well-established programs."  The Republican governor additionally noted that if the Biden administration wanted to "make a real commitment" to Iowa families, then they should "invest" in the existing programs as well.

Biden rule takes lunch money from schools that reject progressive gender, sexuality agenda.  A new Biden administration rule forces schools to comply with progressive ideology on gender and sexuality or risk losing the federal aid for free and reduced-price school lunches.  Legal observers say this is just the first in a slew of new rules on the horizon tying federal education funding to far-left policies on gender and sexuality.  The school lunch funding controvesy began in May 2022, as The Center Square previously reported, with an announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which handles federal help for school lunches.  The USDA said at the time it would change its longstanding interpretation of Title IX, the law broadly governing discrimination protections in education.  USDA said it would expand its previous prohibition against discriminating based on sex "to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity."

Rep. Jim Banks Slams Biden Admin For Pulling Free School Lunches From Christian Kids In Need.  Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks sent a letter Wednesday to Department of Agriculture Sec.  Tom Vilsack demanding answers over a department rule change Banks said would block religious schools from participating in the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service programs.  The rule change falls under the department's Title IX sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) provision.  The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the letter, in which Banks mentions the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) blocking preschoolers enrolled at the Church of Compassion Dayspring Learning Center from qualifying for free lunches provided by the USDA's Child and Adult Food Care Program in December 2022, because the preschool objected to the USDA's SOGI rule.

Michelle Obama is peddling sugary drinks that don't meet the nutrition standards she advocated as first lady.  According to this Bloomberg article, Michelle Obama is "a co-founder and strategic partner at Plezi Nutrition, a maker of sweetened beverages for kids ages 6 and up," which I take to mean that she is profiting directly from the sale of these beverages.  Her rationale:  ["]Obama says she's offering a lower-sugar alternative to steer them away from sugary drinks.["]  So, are they healthy for kids?  ["]Plezi's first product is a flavored juice drink blend that, under the very standards Obama championed, could not be served in US schools.["] [...] Plezi (and Michelle) stand to make a lot of money from catering to children's sugar addiction:  ["]On Target.com, on a per-ounce basis, Plezi is 2-3 times more expensive than other non-soda drinks targeted at children, including Coca-Cola's Honest Kids and Kraft Heinz's Capri Sun drinks.  It's also more expensive than soda.["]

Biden Admin: Chocolate Milk is Too Dangerous for Kids but Puberty Blockers Are Fine.  As if President Joe Biden and his administration haven't already done enough to make life more difficult and usher in more hardship for the American people, his band of merry muck-ups are now setting their sights on school lunches and toying around with a ban on chocolate milk — as well as strawberry milk and other flavor alternatives — over concerns about added sugars.  Yes, the same administration that called it "outrageous" and "immoral" to prevent children from taking life-altering hormones to prevent puberty for the purpose of "transitioning" is worried that milk provided at school might have ill effects on their health.  This potentially devastating news for America's students came courtesy of a scoop in The Wall Street Journal this week on what the United States Department of Agriculture is weighing as it works on revamping federal standards for school-provided meals.

It's a Problem When the Goal of School Meals Is No Longer Just to Serve Students in Need.  The White House wants every K-12 student to be part of the welfare system.  And in its zeal to achieve that goal, pesky things like Congress or the risk of expanding already poorly performing programs pose no obstacles.  President Joe Biden's administration is continuing the work of President Barack Obama's team and trying to put as many students as possible on federal school meal programs.  The current administration is proposing a significant expansion of school meals, turning a program meant for children from low-income families into an entitlement — akin to welfare — for all students.  Created in 1946 to help poor school-aged children who did not have food to eat at school, the National School Lunch Program has since spawned breakfast and other meal services.  In 2010, federal lawmakers expanded school meals yet again through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

Utah kids told to eat bugs to save the earth and get class credit.  What is it about Utah and school lunches?  Back in 2014, one of their districts famously threw out children's school lunches in front of their faces based on their parents' unpaid lunch debt, wasting tons of food and humiliating the children.  Nine years later, they're telling the kids to eat bugs.  To save the earth or whatever, and get extra class credit, though let's face it, the humiliation is the same.

Here we go again: Ag Sec Vilsack announces new nutrition standards for school meals.  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on Friday [2/3/2023] that new nutrition standards for school meals would focus on limiting sweetened foods and decreasing sodium in meals.  This marks the first limit on added sugars in school meals.  In limiting added sugars, the new nutrition standards will target such items as cereals, yogurt, flavored milk, and breakfast pastries. [...] I imagine that Vilsack and others in his department are doing all they can to avoid the mistakes of Michelle Obama's dictates regarding school meal plans.  Her plan was a disaster and not only did children just not eat the meals but an abundance of food was also wasted.  It was a lose-lose situation.  If changes are gradually implemented, certainly slowly over several years, the kids won't even notice that there is less sugar and salt in their food.  That should be the goal here.

Chicago School Worker Is Charged After Stealing 1.5 Million Dollars Worth Of Chicken Wings.  The food service director for an impoverished south suburban school district is accused of stealing $1.5M worth of food — mainly chicken wings — according to court documents reviewed by WGN Investigates.  Vera Liddell, 66, worked for Harvey School District 152 for more than a decade, according to a LinkedIn account associated with her name.  [Video clip]

Writer for Mother Jones says all children should eat for 'free'.  The inability to afford food is not simply a crisis of job losses and school closures, rather it is a crisis leftist policies in action — namely, an ever-expanding and intervening Big Government, and a move away from the Judeo-Christian ethic set.  The"pandemic" era job losses and school closures can be almost entirely attributed to authoritarian government shutdowns; and impoverished children in need of food can exclusively be attributed to a breakdown in a moral society with the myriad of assaults against the nuclear family in calculated efforts to remove fathers from homes. [...] [H]ere's a novel idea, how about we stop encouraging the victimhood mentality, and instead, return to an ethos of self-responsibility?  How about, the parents who laid down and created those children, bear the responsibility of being the providers for those little ones?

The Editor says...
Awww... It's for the children!  How could you oppose that?  Of course, if you start buying free food for all children, then pretty soon the program will be expanded to include all women, all minorities, all immigrants, all gender-confused freaks, and all homeless bums.  And the only people left to pay for it will be white males.

Related:
Mealworms on the menu in one hundred primary schools in The Netherlands.  WEF agenda in full force:  Hundreds of schools in The Netherlands have started a campaign introducing 10-12 y/o kids to mealworms & insects as a 'sustainable' meat substitute.  The goal is to bring about "behavioral changes through unprejudiced children[.]"  [Video clip]

University of Minnesota students complain after dining hall serves Lunchables.  Students at the University of Minnesota are up in arms about their school dining hall menu, which has reportedly been limited to pizza and Lunchables.  Despite paying $2,500 per semester, students at Minnesota's flagship university said the available food options are not meeting their dietary needs.  One student, a vegetarian, told the local CBS News outlet that the available food options for her were especially limited and that she had resorted to buying her own lunch.  "We've been getting Lunchables and pizza — that's about it," another student told the outlet. "I need more than a Lunchable to fill my diet."

The Editor says...
Boo hoo.  This is exactly why colleges are surrounded by fast food restaurants.

L.A. School District Shares Video from 'Nutritionist' Who Says Eating Right Is Racist  Your dreams have come true, kids: French fries and pizza are now good for you, so eat up, or else:  if you don't, you might be suspected of "white supremacism."  If you thought things couldn't possibly get any crazier, forget it:  a "nutritionist" has proclaimed that "nutrition standards are rooted in whiteness," and so like Robert E. Lee and Bull Connor, they've got to go.  Nor is the nutritionist in question, Kéra Nyemb-Diop, some nut raving on the streetcorner; she works for Mondelez International, which is so concerned about nutrition that it produces Oreos and Chips Ahoy!

Title IX Comes for Christian Schools.  Sometimes, scrolling through the news, you come across a story so ludicrous, so extreme, it seems like someone must have made it up to prove a point.  Take, for example, the recent situation at Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa, where the federal government was threatening to take away school lunches for underprivileged children unless the school allowed, among other things, male students to share lockers, showers, and bathrooms with female students.  For Grant Park and other Christian schools and universities that have chosen to uphold their deeply held beliefs, reality is proving crazier than fiction.  The Biden administration has proposed changes to the language of Title IX, a civil rights law designed to prevent sex-based discrimination.  The administration is trying to change the meaning of the word "sex" to include "gender identity and sexual orientation."  This seemingly small change would set off a cascade of problems, as it would compel all Americans — regardless of their deeply held beliefs about the nature of sex and gender — to assent to the current radical view that maleness and femaleness are just a matter of individual expression.

Biden administration exempts religious schools from LGBTQ mandate on lunch funding.  Private religious schools won't be required to comply with the Biden administration's gender mandate to qualify for student-lunch funding under a newly released exemption.  The Agriculture Department issued a fact sheet Friday stating that all religious schools will be automatically exempted from its May 5 guidance linking the National School Lunch Program to the administration's gender-identity requirements on hiring, restrooms, sports and dress codes.  "Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ('Title IX') is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination by educational institutions receiving financial assistance from the federal government, including USDA," said the USDA statement.

California to Become First State to Provide Free Meals for All Students.  California is set to become the first state in the nation to implement a program offering free meals for all students.  In the coming school year, the Universal Meals program will ensure children may eat for free while they are on their school's campus, ABC 7 reported Thursday.  "The program is a part of Assembly Bill 130 signed into law by Governor Newsom last July," the outlet said.

Civil rights groups, including Al Sharpton-led organization, urge USDA to fix 'dietary racism' in school lunch programs.  Twenty-eight civil rights and health care groups announced Tuesday they have requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) address "dietary racism" in national school lunch programs, raising concerns to the federal agency about forcing millions of minority children to drink cow's milk without allowing them a healthier alternative.  In a letter to the USDA's Equity Commission, the groups said the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) only incentivizes dairy milk, a policy they called "inherently inequitable and socially unjust" because children of color are more likely to be lactose intolerant — meaning they cannot fully digest sugars in dairy and can suffer from adverse effects after consumption.  The NSLP covers 30 million children in 100,000 schools across the U.S., a program the civil rights groups said children of color are historically overrepresented in.

Biden Administration Sued for Tying K-12 Gender Ideology to Lunch Money.  The Biden administration's drive to link the provision of federal school lunch money to compliance with gender identity ideology was challenged Tuesday by 22 states saying they would take the matter to court.  As Breitbart News reported, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last month announced in order for schools to receive funds for student lunches, breakfasts, and other food items, they must comply with its interpretation of the ban on discrimination based on sex in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and other food-related programs, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

School Meals Bill Serves Up 2 Unappetizing Helpings of Left's Agenda.  The House Committee on Education and Labor is expected this week to consider legislation known as the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act.  HR 8450 is a far-left wish list, seeking to expand welfare for all through universal free school meals and trying to use the school meals programs as a pretext to push far-left environmental, labor, and social justice policies.

Biden under pressure to dump policy using school lunch money to push LGBTQ agenda.  Republican attorneys general in 26 states have called on the Biden administration to drop its LGBTQ requirements for federal school lunch funding, a policy that is accused of using "hungry children as a human shield."  The letter urged President Biden to withdraw the Agriculture Department's May 5 memorandum, which said that state agencies and schools participating in federal food assistance programs must update their policies to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

When leftists fight like mad to steal and brainwash your kids.  It used to be that students brought their lunches to school or went home for lunch.  Then schools began offering lunches.  And now some school systems offer breakfast and dinner as well.  The assumption behind this is that if the schools won't feed the children, they won't get fed.  In recent years, the argument has moved to a parent's right to know what is going on in the classroom.  A recent example of this is the Parental Rights in Education Bill that is now law in Florida.  Despite the mischaracterization of the bill in the media, what it does is prohibit the discussion of sexual topics in kindergarten through the third grade and require that parents be notified when certain topics come up.  It is a bill that recognizes the rights of parents to raise their minor children, and it has the support of a majority of voters.  The reaction from the left should tell you what leftists think about parents.  President Biden called the bill hateful on Twitter.  Other media reports talk about how teachers worry they won't be able to talk to a child who is struggling with his sexual preferences.  Teachers shouldn't be concerned about that, especially not when a child is just barely old enough to understand that boys and girls are different.

Biden threatens to starve schools that don't adopt trans agenda.  President Joe Biden's Pride Month 2022 proclamation condemned "an onslaught of dangerous anti-LGBTQI+ legislation" introduced and passed in multiple states, which he claims targets transgender children.  "Today, the rights of LGBTQI+ Americans are under relentless attack.  Members of the LGBTQI+ community — especially people of color and trans people — continue to face discrimination and cruel, persistent efforts to undermine their human rights," he said.  "We condemn the dangerous State laws and bills that target LGBTQI+ youth."  "Anti-LGBTQI+" legislation refers to bills passed in states such as Arizona, Oklahoma, and Alabama, which mandate students to play on sports teams that align with their biological sex or ban "gender reassignment" surgeries and hormone blockers for adolescents under 18.

Biden Administration Forces K-12 Gender Ideology Compliance with Lunch Money Threat.  The Biden administration has tethered federal school lunch funding to compliance with gender identity ideology, including whether a school allows boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms.  The move comes as the Biden administration is using heavy-handed measures to enshrine gender ideology into federal law.  Biden's Department of Agriculture announced earlier this month that in order for schools to receive funds for student lunches, breakfasts, and other food items, it must comply with its interpretation of the ban on discrimination based on sex in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and other food-related programs, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

Biden Admin Will Pull Meal Funding for Schools That Don't Comply With Its LGBT Agenda.  The Biden administration is requiring schools to comply with its LGBT policies or lose billions in federal funding for school lunches.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service announced in May it will prevent low-income students from participating in its National School Lunch Program if their public school does not adopt the administration's interpretation of Title IX, which holds that the federal civil rights law's provision against discrimination based on sex includes designations of sexual orientation and gender identity.  The move was originally reported by The Center Square.

If Schools Don't Let Boys Into Girls' Bathrooms, Biden Will Take Their Lunch Money.  The Biden administration will require schools that receive federal funding for lunches to enforce its ban on discrimination on the basis of gender identity and let biological males into girls' bathrooms.  All state and local agencies that receive Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) funding, including schools, will have to update their non-discrimination policies to include protections for gender identity and must investigate any allegations of discrimination on the basis of gender identity, according to a May 5 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcement.  Obama-era guidance interpreting Title IX to prohibit gender-identity discrimination stated that transgender students must be allowed to use the restroom, locker room and shower facility that matches their gender identity.

Federal money always comes with strings attached.
Biden Admin:  K-12 Schools Must Put Boys In Girls' Bathrooms To Get Federal Lunch Money.  K-12 schools must allow boys into girls' private areas to obtain federal funds for lunches, breakfasts, and snacks, the Biden administration announced this month.  A U.S. Department of Education spokesman told The Federalist the Biden administration's press releases from several agencies announcing this policy will be followed by formal rulemaking in June.  "It seems to be playing politics with feeding poor kids, which is really unfortunate," John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, said via phone amid weeks of attempting to sort out these new demands with government officials on behalf of private schools in his state.  "Because if a school feels like they cannot participate because it's in conflict with their mission or values, if a religious exemption is not granted, you're taking away a program that's feeding low-income kids."

Plan to search school lunches, limit snacks sparks backlash in Pennsylvania district.  A Pennsylvania school on Monday [4/4/2022] started limiting the amount of snacks students can bring to school, sparking outrage from some parents.  A Facebook post from Aliquippa School District posted last week said that Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School students had started bringing an "excessive amounts of outside snacks," like shopping bags full of chips and canned drinks.  Because of that, students' bags will be searched, the district said in the post.  Anything more than one 4-ounce bag of chips and one beverage up to 20 ounces will be thrown out by security.  Students who pack lunch will not get an allowance for additional snacks and will also have their lunches opened and inspected, the district said.

In Free Lunch Fraud, The Friends Of Ilhan Omar.  We are in the early stages of the apparent USDA free lunch food fraud committed under the auspices of the Minnesota nonprofits including Feeding Our Future.  So far, the FBI has unsealed three search warrants that have now been executed.  The warrants and supporting affidavits lay out the (huge) underlying investigation along with the alleged facts of the case.  The Center of the American Experiment's Bill Glahn has posted a handy summary with links to the local coverage of the story in "$455 million in taxpayer money to MN nonprofits named in FBI search warrants".  Bill notes that, although the dollar amounts involved range into the hundreds of millions, the FBI mentions only tens of millions as allegedly missing.

Edina parents concerned about elementary students eating lunch outside in November.  Pictures of Normandale Elementary School in Edina show students eating their lunch outside with hats, coats and mittens on.  "Since the beginning of school, I learned that essentially if you brought a lunch from home, you were eating outside," said Carissa Palm, the mother of a third-grader at the school.  Palm's daughter frequently brings home lunch, although Palm says she won't be anymore after realizing her daughter was still eating outdoors in November.

Supply chain chaos forces schools in Alabama city to ask parents to give their kids breakfast at home and send them to class with snacks.  Parents in multiple Alabama school districts have been warned to give their children breakfast and sent them to school with snacks because supply chain shortages have badly-affected food deliveries.  District leaders are asking parents to feed their own kids and pack snacks before sending them to class as employees work around-the-clock to keep pantries stocked.  The situation is so dire in the state's Dothan City Schools district that officials are mulling switching to virtual learning for part of the week to 'alleviate the stress of our food supplies.'

The Editor says...
Wow, what a brilliant concept:  Please have your kids eat at home.  Imagine the press coverage if Donald Trump had said that.

Under COVID-19, leftists jump to make Vermont school lunches wasteful and 'woke'.  When schools closed in Vermont, lunches were provided to students across the state — often by buses that delivered food instead of picking up children.  The rationale was that some students depended on school meals for nutritional needs:  as the Department of Health and Agency of Education justified: "....the ongoing economic impacts of COVID-19 may mean that many more children are currently facing food insecurity at home."  But this effort has been costly and inequitable — both financially and environmentally.  Overspending, inefficiencies, and unequal distribution of COVID funds are themselves "ongoing economic impacts" that will ensure food insecurity persists for our children.  Part of the 35% COVID-fueled increase in the national debt has been caused by a floodgate of benefits created with borrowed funds.  "Normal" filters against fiscal abuse were set aside when COVID struck, using the "food insecurity" mantra.  Huge waste has resulted, as seen in Vermont.

Schools in N.J. are giving out free meals to kids, regardless of your income.  New Jersey school districts are continuing to give free breakfast and lunches to children after the federal government extended its summer meals program, following pressure from politicians and activists who argued those struggling due to the pandemic were relying on the service.  The Seamless Summer Option program (SSO) lets families pick up free food from their local school district, even if they do not qualify for free and reduced-price meals.  The U.S. Agriculture Department extended the program until Dec. 31, past its normal end date due to the coronavirus.

School District Cracks Down on Free Meals After Parents Caught Selling Them Online.  A Florida school district is cracking down on its free school meal program after it caught parents selling the food online.  Staff at Hillsborough County Public Schools have now installed a tracker on the meals to ensure parents are not cheating the system, WFLA reported.

Panera is teaming up with the USDA to provide cheap meals to needy children who are unable to get free school meals.  Panera is looking to feed hungry kids in Ohio who may not have healthy meals to eat because the coronavirus pandemic closed down their schools.  During a White House press briefing, Panera CEO Niren Chaudhary announced the partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Children's Hunger Alliance to provide meals to needy children in the Buckeye state.  The announcement is a part of an effort from the federal government to create public-private connections to help feed needy children who can't eat free meals at school due to coronavirus shutdowns.

The recrudescence of 'nasty, rotty' school lunches in California.  So what's the verdict on Michelle Obama's "nasty, rotty" school lunch program, supposedly loaded with green vegetables that somehow went onto the trays gray?  We already know the kids couldn't stand it. [...] President Trump has decided to at least partially scrap it. [...] The media is tut-tutting the move, but the Department of Agriculture has decided to allow local school districts to make their own decisions about what local kids can eat, ending the rigid rules that led to the "nasty, rotty" food debacle that was so bad kids rebelled by setting up black markets for "Flamin' Hot Cheeto Fries," discarding the supposedly healthier food into the trash.  I know at least one enterprising kid in Lake Elsinore, Calif., who did just that.  The Trump administration explicitly noted the problem of food waste and it all makes sense.

Trump to roll back Michelle Obama's school lunch rules on vegetables, fruits.  The Trump administration on Friday announced plans to roll back school lunch standards on vegetables and fruits originally promoted by Michelle Obama, unveiling the proposal on the former first lady's birthday.  The new standards will allow schools more flexibility "because they know their children best," the Agriculture Department said in a press release.

Trump Admin Rolls Back Michelle Obama Lunch Rules On Her Birthday.  The Trump administration announced today [1/17/2020] that they were ending the Obama era rules on school lunches that forced districts that received federal money to make sure to have more veggies and fruits.  The federal fiats were somewhat controversial at the time being people wondered aloud why did Washington really need to tell us what to do with everything.  The super-duper ironic things is the Trump Agriculture Dept announced this on Michelle Obamas 56th birthday who just happened to be the really big advocate of getting these rules in place.

Ready to spend $4.5M to make school lunches free?  N.J. lawmakers are.  Families who qualify for reduced price school lunch but struggle to pay for it will no longer have to worry as long as New Jersey lawmakers get their way.  The state Senate and Assembly on Monday each passed a bill requiring the state to spend $4.5 million to pick up the tab for about 518,000 students eligible for reduced price school breakfast and lunch.  If signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, the legislation would erase the 30 cents those students currently pay for reduced price school breakfast and the 40 cents for reduced price lunch.

The Editor says...
The kid who allegedly can't afford 30¢ for breakfast is probably carrying a $300 smart phone and wearing $200 sneakers and a $100 earring.

Dearborn Public Schools Spark Protest by Adopting All Halal Meat Policy.  The Dearborn Public Schools website states it matter-of-factly:  "Dearborn Public Schools ensures all meats served in our schools are certified Halal."  Now one courageous mother is fighting back, challenging Dearborn public school officials to explain why they have done this and to provide options for students who object to halal food.  The mother wrote to Dearborn schools superintendent Glenn Maleyko, noting, "Schools have never changed lunches to fit any other religious needs.  If one needed a special diet due to religion or health, they did what all other students do, bring a lunch from home."  Maleyko responded:  "The decision was based on operational considerations only, not religion.  By implementing an all Halal meat option we have increased the number of students that we are serving[.] ... It would cost a lot more to provide both Halal and non-Halal meat."

Hey, kids!  This week we're going to learn about leverage.
Pupils with $75 lunch debt banned from prom, field trips.  A US school district has banned students who have more than $75 in lunch debt from attending the prom and other extra-curricular activities.  The school board president of Cherry Hill in New Jersey said the plan struck a "balance of compassion" while "holding people accountable".  A businessman said he would settle the debts but the board rejected his offer.

California bills seeks to ban 'lunch shaming,' will guarantee state-funded meals for students.  A new California bill hopes that "lunch shaming" will be a thing of the past as it guarantees that students in schools will receive state-funded lunches, even if their parents have failed to pay meal fees.  Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the new piece of legislation, which bans the process in which institutions deny students a meal of their choice due to unpaid fees.  The law amends the 2017 Child Hunger Prevention and Fair Treatment Act by requiring schools to invalidate policies that ask officials to give alternative meals to students who have unpaid fees, according to Newsom.

Lusher High School principal declines free donation of Chick-fil-A for teachers, provides alternative.  A Lusher Charter school has declined a donation of free lunches from Chick-Fil-A for teachers.  According to Steven Corbett, the principal of Lusher Charter High School, the school declined the free lunches out of empathy for the LGBTQ community.  The lunches were provided by the Louisiana College Football Foundation to support teachers.  Corbett sent an email to staff explaining the decision and said the teachers would be provided another free lunch.

Atlanta School District to Provide Free Lunch Regardless of Income.  Students enrolled in all 77 of Atlanta's public schools would receive a free lunch regardless of their family's income.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reported that the students will start receiving their free meals at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, thanks to a congressional program dating back to 2010 called the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).

School district warns parents:  Pay lunch bill or kids may go into foster care.  A Pennsylvania school district received backlash after warning parents their children could be removed from their homes and placed into foster care if overdue lunch bills are not paid.  The Wyoming Valley West School District in Luzerne County, Pa., said about 1,000 student accounts owe a total amount of more than $20,000 in school lunch debt.  Four parents owe at least $450 each.

PA School District To Parents:  Pay Your Kids' Lunch Bill Or We'll Seize Them.  What happens when a school district needs to collect $20,000 in unpaid lunch fees from parents?  In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, they, um ... repossess your kids.  A letter from the director of federal programs at the Wyoming Valley West School District warns delinquent parents that the district will force their kids into foster care if they don't pay up.

Life if the Democrats take control.  The City of New York has decided to cut their offerings of meat by 50% in all schools and city sites that offer meals.  The reason- cutting meat usage will have a positive effect of climate change.  Is it possible the Mayor of NY believes less meat means less cows and therefore less cow flatulence?  It could also be argued if they doubled the meat portions, it would mean less cows as more would be sent to the slaughterhouse thus reducing cow flatulence.

Chobani CEO offers to pay off Rhode Island lunch money debts after parents say free lunches shame children.  Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya has reportedly offered to pay off student lunch debts in Warwick, Rhode Island.  Many parents voiced their outrage after one school district in came under fire after announcing that students with a negative balance would be given sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches.

Chobani Donates Over $47K to Forgive Student Lunch Debt in Rhode Island.  Chobani donated $47,650 to Warwick Public Schools in Rhode Island to help the district pay off a debt accrued by students unable to pay their lunch fees.  The yogurt company's CEO, Hamdi Ulukaya, made the offer in a Thursday [5/9/2019] tweet, saying that all students should have access to delicious and nutritious food in school, no matter their ability to pay.

The Editor says...
There would be no such thing as "school lunch debt" if school lunches were exclusively available to those who pay in advance.  In this situation, the deadbeat kids were provided with (apparently meager) PB&J sandwiches if they could not pay.  That beats going hungry.

6 States, DC Sue Over Changes to School Lunch Rules.  Six states and the District of Columbia sued the Department of Agriculture on Wednesday, saying it weakened nutritional standards in school breakfasts and lunches when it relaxed the requirements affecting salt and refined grains last year.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Announces 'Meatless Mondays' In Public Schools To 'Save The Earth'.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday [3/11/2019] that NYC's public schools will be going vegetarian one day per week in order to save the Earth.  Local New York media reports that the "Meatless Mondays" pilot program, which brought vegetarian meals to around 15 Brooklyn schools, will expand city-wide for the 2019-2020 school year, and "all schools will serve vegetarian menus on Mondays" to the city's 1.1 million students.  De Blasio told a press conference Monday that the change will help improve the health of New York's students, and will hopefully have an impact on climate change.

In New York City schools it's goodbye chicken nuggets, hello bean curd.  Thanks, Mayor De Blasio.  The mayor of the nation's largest city says the only way to save the planet from an environmental calamity is to force school children to eat twigs and berries.  New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio has issued an edict declaring all public schools to be meat-free zones on at least one day of the week.  "Meatless Mondays" is a national propaganda campaign that purports to promote healthy and environmentally friendly meal options.  Goodbye hot dogs, hello bean curd.

This should have been done a year ago.
Trump Relaxes National Obama-Era Lunch Guidelines.  The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, was one of former first lady Michelle Obama's biggest legacies.  The increased nutrition standards for school lunches were meant to make schools healthier and played a prominent role in the first lady's Let's Move campaign.  Under the guidelines, schools were required to offer students fruits and vegetables every day, to increase their offerings of whole grain foods, to offer only fat-free or low-fat milk, to limit calories based on the age of children, to reduce the amount of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium offered in food.  Now, schools will once again be able to offer foods made mostly of refined grains, such as noodles or biscuits.

Another Odious Obama Rule Repealed:  Kids Can Drink Chocolate Milk at School Again.  Time to celebrate.  Yet another one of the Obama's odious, un-American regulations has been reversed by the Trump administration.  This time it is the end of the rule banning our school children from drinking chocolate milk in school.  You'll recall that buttinsky Michelle Obama jumped in to force her strict dietary ideas on school lunches and when she was done interfering, kids across the country were left starving at lunch and food waste soared as kids threw away the unpalatable garbage that Michele tried to feed them.  But, finally, the Trump administration has put an end to the stupid rules.

Trump USDA Rolls Back Obama Rule Limiting Chocolate Milk in Schools.  President Donald Trump's U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making school lunches great again by easing restrictions on school lunch menus imposed under the Obama administration.  The USDA announced Thursday [12/6/2018] it is rolling back Obama administration rules that limited chocolate milk and other foods items with high sugar, sodium, and fat content from school lunch menus.  The agency eased a regulation banning low-fat chocolate milk, as well as a regulation requiring that only whole grain food would be served in schools.  The initial rules only allowed fat-free chocolate milk and forced schools to obtain a special waiver to serve refined grain foods.

Feds to quit messing with your grits.  As a Northerner, all I know about grits is you have to be a Southerner to understand them.  Yes, I have had them.  I was in the Army, remember.  I would never mess with anyone's grits.  The Obamas did.  They slapped federal rules on school cafeterias that may have been OK at Sidwell Friends School but were a disaster elsewhere.  President Trump, naturally, is ending this nonsense.  The Associated Press got to the heart of the matter, which was a requirement that only whole grains be used.  There were other stupidities as well, but my understanding is this was the deal breaker.  The AP reported, "Finding whole-grain biscuits and grits that students like are a challenge in the U.S. South, she said, while tortillas are a challenge in the Southwest."

Rolled-back school lunch rules put refined grains, low-fat chocolate milk back on menu.  The U.S. school lunch program is making room on menus again for noodles, biscuits, tortillas and other foods made mostly of refined grains.

School cook who served kangaroo meat in a chili loses his job.  A Nebraska public school district says it will not be serving kangaroo meat again after a recent incident that cost a cook his job.  Kevin Frei, the former junior/senior high school head cook at Potter-Dix school district, added kangaroo meat to a chili served for lunch on Oct. 10, according to a Wednesday letter from district superintendent Mike Williams.  When later confronted about the decision to serve the exotic meat mixed with beef, Frei said he used kangaroo meat for its nutritional value.  It's a very lean meat, Frei told Williams, according to the letter.

Scientific studies behind Michelle Obama school lunch program retracted.  We all know that the nutrition industry has more than its share of fakes, charlatans, and snake oil salesmen.  But it was thought that scientific studies published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) had the advantage of being peer-reviewed and critiqued by objective experts.  That may be so.  But the scandal involving one of the most popular — and most published — nutrition researchers in the world should make us question everything we've been told about how to eat healthy.  JAMA announced that it is retracting (removing from publication) six studies on nutrition by Cornell University food scientist Brian Wansink.  That brings the total number of studies by Wansink that have been pulled to 13.  And there are 15 other studies by the good doctor that are under review.

Making school lunches edible again.  The Trump administration is undoing former first lady Michelle Obama's signature school lunch rules and returning those decisions to local public schools.  The rules, which were implemented in 2012 with heavy involvement from Mrs. Obama, required strict calorie limits; the near-elimination of salt; multiple servings of raw vegetables, fruits, and whole grains; restrictions on meat and fat, and bans on vending-machine junk food and bake sales.

Missouri parents outraged after school district bans fast food.  Parents in Missouri are expressing anger after their school district announced it would no longer allow students to eat fast food any time during lunch or school hours.  The new policy for the Richmond School District was announced on social media earlier this month; Dear Elementary posted news of the change on its Facebook page on Aug. 15, and it was promptly met with backlash.

Somewhat off-topic ... maybe.
Islamic Relief Offers Summer Lunch In DeSoto.  The Islamic Relief USA's summer feeding program is being made possible a little closer to home this year since the organization awarded a $10,000 grant to a local group — the Family Joint Venture Foundation (FJV).  The grant is to help feed children during the summer, as part of the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Summer Food Service Program.

The Editor says...
I don't exactly see how the dots connect here, but somehow the USDA — the federal government — is giving money to Islamic Relief USA, to supply meals to low-income kids.  Does an imam pray before the meal?  Is nothing said about Islam after everyone has had lunch?

Know anyone who relies on menu nutrition info to order?  Remember all that debating in Washington over requiring every single eating establishment in these United States to post nutrition information by every single food item you might conceivably order?  The rules, which took effect in May, required rewriting every menu anywhere.  But it was being implemented long before.  These rules were biggies for Michelle Obama, who liked to order french fries anyway.  This was another of those possibly well-meaning federal edicts designed to force Americans to eat healthier than they want because many of us don't.  The former first lady and others thought the federal government has a major role to play in forcing the population to eat what experts think they should eat, right down to reformulating school lunches that didn't go over so well.  Mrs. Obama even wanted restaurants to scrap the most popular menu items if their health formula did not pass her muster.  Look around on the sidewalk at lunch hour, see how well that's working.

Food deliveries are remaking school lunch.  Rachel Harrington wants her children to have nutritious packed lunches to enjoy at school but she gets frustrated trying to create them.  "Making lunches for my kids is one of my least favorite activities.  I'd like to do it the night before, but that never happens," said the mother of two.  "There are a lot of complaints."  It's a chore she's happy to outsource two days a week to a business in her hometown of Lexington, Massachusetts.  "Having two days off is like a dream," she said.  "Sometimes I forgot that it's a Red Apple Lunch day.  When I realize I do not have to make lunches, I'm so happy."

When colleges say 'inclusive,' what they really mean is no conservatives.  Need more evidence that US campuses actively silence conservatives?  Then take a look at a stunning new report by the higher-ed watchdog Campus Reform.  The report notes that at SUNY-Albany last year, 64 speakers identified as liberal were handed the podium, vs. just two conservatives.  Many of the speakers were officials who'd worked in the Obama administration, including two Environmental Protection Agency regional directors and the head of Customs and Border Protection.  Events included discussions on "marginalized communities," "barriers to naturalization for low-income immigrants" and "gender and sexuality from a Jewish lens."

Officials using mobile diners to provide free meals to children.  School is out for the summer, but children who depend on free or reduced lunch don't know where their next meal is coming from.  The Metro Action Commission has partnered with the Tennessee Department of Human Services to provide meals for these students.

The Editor says...
Partner is not a verb.

Here are 1,366 well sourced examples of Barack Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc..  [#43] [Obama fined a] public school $15,000 for selling soda.  The Obama administration fined a high school $15,000 for selling soda to students during lunch. [...] [#116] In 2011, in Lake County, Florida, Obama's new school lunch program caused $75,000 of perfectly good fruits and vegetables to be thrown into the garbage. [...] [#257] In December 2010, Obama signed the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act," which limited school lunches to a maximum of 850 calories.  Students complained that this so-called "hunger-free" program left them feeling hungry.

Donald Trump Dumps Michelle O's Lunch Rule and Brings Chocolate Milk Back to Lunchrooms.  The Trump administration is ending yet another of Michelle Obama's hated, overly strict school lunch rules by bringing chocolate milk back to school lunch menus.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday [11/30/2017] announced a new rule set to take effect on July 1 after the period of public comment.  The new rule relaxes sodium limits and Obama's whole-grain requirements.  The rule will also allow milk with one percent fat back on the menu, ABC News reported.

The Free Lunch Slide into Socialism.  New York City's Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina recently announced the new "Free School Lunch for All" for the big Apple's public schools.  This means that the entire public-school population, some 1.1 million students, will now be provided with free lunches irrespective of family income.  Prior to this, approximately 75 percent of the city's students were getting free lunches.  Under this "Free Lunch for All" program, an additional 200,000 students will now be eligible.  This will save the just included families about $300 a year as the cost of a school lunch is $1.75.  To the precious few in New York City who worry about the cost of public education, officials say not to fret.  This added expenditure won't adversely affect the school's budget.  It's "cost free" to the city as the tab will be paid out of state and federal funds.  That's me and you.  Incidentally, NYC is not breaking new ground here.  Cities including Boston, Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit are already offer free lunches in all in their respective public school.

First day of school brings free lunch and '3K For All'.  The first day of school always means new teachers, new classmates and new adventures, but this year, the 1.1 million students of New York City Public Schools and their families were met with two major new programs, one of which is getting rave reviews, generally.  The other program's success, however, remains to be seen.  Across all schools and grade levels, free lunch became universal on Thursday [9/7/2017], to the general approval of parents who spoke with PIX11 News.  "It's really good," said Barbara Gines, after picking up her first grade son from P.S. 250.  She said that universal free lunch eliminates comparisons among students, economically, "like uniforms do."

The largest school district in the US just started offering free lunch for all 1.1 million students.  The New York City Department of Education announced Wednesday that all public school students, regardless of family income, will receive free lunch. [...] At New York City Public Schools, the largest district in the US with about 1.1 million students, nearly 800,000 students have been estimated to qualify for free lunch.

Bill advancing universal free school meals for California's hungriest kids heads to Assembly.  A bill approved in Assembly Appropriations this past week would expand free and reduced breakfast and lunch for hundreds of thousands of students on Medi-Cal.  SB 138 — the "Feed the Kids Act" will address childhood hunger by removing a massive layer of bureaucratic red tape from the State school meal program enrollment process and by serving all students in very high poverty schools for free.  The legislation would develop a universal enrollment process by ensuring that all school districts utilize Medi-Cal data to seamlessly enroll income-eligible students in free and reduced-price school meals.

Houston school district will give students 3 free meals a day for an entire year in wake of Harvey flooding.  The Houston Independent School District announced Wednesday [8/30/2017] all students will eat all school meals for free during the 2017-2018 school year.  The approval came from the United States Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Agriculture to waive the required application process for the National School Lunch/Breakfast Program.  HISD says the free meals come in the wake of flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey.  "Despite the federal waiver, HISD is still asking parents and guardians to complete and return the application," HISD stated in a press release.

Florida school accused of offering students 'front of lunch line pass' for $100; parents outraged.  A Florida middle school has come under fire after a fundraising form was sent out to parents stating that for a $100 donation a student would be granted a "front of the lunch line pass."  A PTSA sponsorship form for the Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Fla. was sent out to the students' parents to raise money for the school but one offer stuck out.  The form stated that a $100 donation would grant the donor a "last name or company logo feature on the website, as well as PTSA events AND front of the lunch line pass," according to ABC Action News.

Official Who Met With Michelle Obama at WH Indicted for Stealing School Lunch Funds.  A Los Angeles food services director who was invited to the White House by former First Lady Michelle Obama to share his tips for getting kids to eat healthy has been indicted for stealing $65,000 in public funds.  David Binkle, a chef who served as the director of food services for Los Angeles Unified School District until he was fired in 2015, was charged last week with multiple counts of embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, conflict of interest, forgery, and perjury, the L.A. Times reported.

Michelle Obama's 'nasty, rotty' school lunch guru busted for corruption.  The man who brought us the phrase "nasty, rotty" food has unsurprisingly been busted for corruption.  That's one David Binkle, a former chef who bit and clawed his way to the top of the Los Angeles Unified School District's $354 million food operation, running the Michelle Obama-ordained school lunch reform that was so bad in Los Angeles that the students set up a black market in Flamin' Hot Cheetos as a substitute.  His horrible operation gave us that evocative descriptor, "nasty rotty stuff," which got around.  Turns out he was overpaying contractors, taking kickbacks, and billing it all to the taxpayer.

San Francisco bans chocolate milk ... because anything enjoyable is obviously evil.  In the battle to provide nutritional choices for schoolchildren, isn't chocolate milk better than no milk at all?  According to San Francisco legislators and school officials, the answer. apparently. is no.  Students from elementary through high school grades will no longer be able to enjoy this cafeteria staple in the coming school year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Schools Spice Up Student Lunches with Restaurant-Quality International Dishes Designed to Boost Enrollment.  On Wednesday, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue attended the School Nutrition Association's (SNA) annual conference in Atlanta, promising to enable nutrition professionals to prepare meals for students that are more culturally-diverse, appealing and nutritious.  In an effort to combat students' rebellion against the skimpy, tasteless lunches schools mandated by the Obama administration — which resulted in declining enrollment, wasted food, and tighter budgets — schools are now offering a wide range of more flavorful, international, restaurant-quality dishes.  "Students expect their school cafeterias to serve the diversity of flavors they are accustomed to in restaurants," stated the SNA in a press release.

The Editor says...
If the kids are enrolled just for the food, they might as well be in the Army.

Austrian City Bans Pork in Kindergartens to Accommodate Muslim Children.  Salzburg has banned pork in city-run kindergartens in what local officials have defended saying it meets the needs of Muslim children.  The ban was not advertised or announced and has been in place for some time until parents of children attending kindergartens in the city noticed that pork was never present on school menus.  An official from the Salzburg mayor's office said the ban on pork was both for health reasons and "among other things, the needs of Muslim children", Kronen Zeitung reports.  The office of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) deputy mayor Anja Hagenaue confirmed the accusations saying that while there was no official order given by the left wing government, the ban had been in place for around five years.  Ms. Hagenaue added the children preferred chicken and carrots to pork.

States Look To Outlaw 'Lunch Shaming' Of Kids Whose Parents Can't Pay Cafeteria Bill.  Schools across the country deploy a variety of humiliation tactics on students whose parents haven't been able to pay their school lunch bills, whether it's publicly throwing away perfectly good trays of food or marking students' hands.  Some states and schools say these practices go too far and are adopting laws and policies that don't punish schoolchildren for their parents' debts. [...] Meanwhile, Texas adopted a grace period of at least two-weeks that allows students to continue eating the same meal served to others while parents negotiate their debts.  During this grace period, schools must make at least three private attempts to notify parents of the insufficient funds and work out a payment plan, if needed.

The Editor says...
Why would you need to set up a payment plan for school lunches?  How much could a school lunch possibly cost?  I suspect the deadbeats who are that far behind on their school lunch fees are living in a household with at least one very large television, multiple cell phones, and numerous other extravagances.

You're no longer a parasite.  Now you're a victim!
School districts rethink meal debt policies that shame kids.  [Kelvin] Holt has joined a chorus of outrage against lunchroom practices that can humiliate children as public school districts across the United States rethink how they cope with unpaid student lunch debts.  The U.S. Agriculture Department is requiring districts to adopt policies this month for addressing meal debts and to inform parents at the start of the academic year.

The Editor says...
In the good old days, if you didn't bring lunch money, you didn't eat.  You might have been able to mooch off someone else at the table, but not if you made a habit of it.  Normal Americans will lend a helping hand once in a while, but we don't like habitual freeloaders.

Making meatloaf great again: Feds rolling back Obama-era school lunch regs.  I have three sons — one in college and two in high school.  The two that are still in public schools equate cafeteria lunches to having teeth pulled at the dentist.  My youngest, who inherited a sense of humor from one of his parents, said that he actually preferred the dentist over cafeteria food because at least the dentist numbed up his mouth before inflicting pain.

Michelle Obama's Sandwich.  We aren't Leftists.  We are realists.  If the food at school is inadequate, normal Americans adjust and ignore the goofballs who made the menu — either with wink and nod defiance or by simply packing lunches our kids will eat.  But Michelle Obama and others Leftists like her want their hands in everything we do so that we know our place.  They know best.  The point is, and has always been, control.

Michelle Obama Has Snit Fit Over Changes To School Lunch Program.  [Scroll down]  Refer back to the previous tweet.  Is that something you would eat?  Better question: is that something Michelle Obama would eat?  Would she serve that to Barack?  Would she have allowed the White House chef to serve that to her kids? [...] Her kids sure didn't eat that slop at their own high-toned and fancy to-do school.  Why didn't she force that school to serve her kids the same as other kids?  She did very much want Everyone Else's kids to be forced to eat that slop, and still does.

Hey Michelle - Making School Lunches "Healthy" Isn't an Accomplishment if No One Eats Them.  Former First Lady Michelle Obama, speaking at the Partnership for a Healthier America summit in Washington, D.C., didn't hide her feelings about a recent decision by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to give local school districts more flexibility in complying with nutrition requirements for school meal programs.  Her comments went far beyond a little wounded pride and far into conspiracy theory.

Michelle Obama on kids complaining about school meals: 'We are the adults in the room'.  Former first lady Michelle Obama on Friday bashed critics who complain that kids don't like the healthier food served under the school meal changes implemented during the Obama administration.  "How about we not let kids completely guide everything?" she said, speaking at the annual summit on childhood obesity for the Partnership for a Healthier America.  "How about we stop asking kids how they feel about their food?  Kids, my kids included, if they could eat pizza and french fries every day with ice cream on top and a soda, they would think they were happy, until they got sick.

The Editor says...
Mrs. Obams seems to imply that school lunches consisted primarily of french fries and ice cream before she appointed herself to intervene.

Michelle Obama Criticizes Trump School Lunch Decision.  Michelle Obama on Friday criticized a Trump administration decision to delay federal rules aimed at making school lunch healthier, saying kids will end up "eating crap" instead.

USDA to make school lunches edible again.  Michelle Obama hardest hit.  With Sonny Perdue in at Agriculture you might expect him to kick things off with some changes to ethanol subsidies or President Trump's new executive order designed to help out farmers.  But he's got something else on the menu (pardon the pun) which is long overdue and should be considerably easier to accomplish.  While Barack Obama was in office there were some big changes to school lunches which were ostensibly intended to make them more nutritious, but actually wound up making them mostly inedible.

New York State Democrat Assemblyman introduces a bill requiring "Halal Compliant" lunches for public schools.  Don't you find it interesting that such a bill has NEVER before been proposed for Kosher lunches in New York City schools, even though Jewish students make up a vastly larger percentage of the student population than Muslims do?  Whatever happened to bringing a bag lunch when you don't like what's on the menu?

Nanny Group Sues School Districts Over Bacon, Sausage, Bologna Lunches.  Last week, a nanny group that wants to make sure your child eats only food deemed "appropriate" by smart people filed lawsuits against the Poway and Los Angeles unified school districts.  The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., is upset that kids are eating bacon, sausage, and other processed foods in their school lunches. [...] No kid, unless brainwashed by the food police, is thinking about that when he is eating his lunch.  Scaring a kid about what he eats is a great way to turn a child into a neurotic, eating-disordered mess.  If they are worried about what the school is serving, then they can bring their own lunch.

Is Michelle's school lunch program under threat?  Nutrition standards in schools introduced by Michelle Obama to make pupils healthier could be scrapped.  The former First Lady helped establish the new healthy eating standards as part of her Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, as well as her Let's Move campaign.  But the more nutritious meals weren't always popular with schoolchildren, and lobby group the School Nutrition Association wants to see tastier meals introduced, containing more salt and less whole grain.

Schools want out of Michelle Obama's lunch rules, kids say 'Yuck'.  Faced with students who won't buy lunches low in salt and sugar and [artificially enhanced] with bland-tasting grains, the nation's 54,000 school cafeteria workers are urging Washington to junk health-focused rules pushed by former first lady Michelle Obama.  Feeling that they have an ally on their side in the Trump administration, their lobby group, the School Nutrition Association, plans to press for less-strict restrictions on ingredients that taste good.

Students, staff celebrate after school drops Michelle O lunch rules.  Lunch is a drastically different experience now that Penn-Trafford High School is no longer bound by federal food regulations.  District officials removed the high school from the National School Lunch Program after years of struggling to comply with federal regulations that drove down student lunch participation and cafeteria revenues, the Tribune-Review reports.  The freedom from the strict restrictions on calories, fat, sugar, salt and other elements, came at the expense of federal funding to help cover free- and reduced-priced lunches for some students, but district business manager Brett Lago said the decision is already paying off in year one.  "We've lost, to date, about $40,000 worth of reimbursement, but our sales are up about $50,000 over last year," he said.  "Participation has gone from about 25 percent to 45 percent, and we're still providing free lunches to all those students who would have been eligible under the school lunch program."

California Schools Cut Meat, Cheese From Lunches To Fight Global Warming.  Oakland schools partnered with the environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) to fight global warming by making student lunches climate-friendly.  FOE gave kids a lunch menu designed to eliminate foods it says are "unsustainable for our planet."  The new menu features far less meat and more plant-based food.  Any meat or cheese the school did use came from "pastured, organic dairy cows."  The student's lunch menu went from beef hot dogs and pepperoni pizza to vegan stir fry tofu and vegan tostadas.

The Editor says...
Remember this, kids:  If you eat meat, you'll cause global warming and ruin the earth.

USDA Demands Holiday Snacks (and Parents) Be Removed from Schools.  Starting next year, bringing a dozen homemade cupcakes to your child's classroom to celebrate his or her birthday will be tantamount to lighting up a cigarette on the blacktop.  Candy canes and gingerbread men people will be verboten during the school's Christmas party winter celebration.  And this spring, don't expect any candy in the classroom; the Easter fuzzy bunny is strictly prohibited from entering school grounds.  As for next year's Halloween fall festivities:  Kids should brace for water and carrots (hey, they're orange!).  What fun!  This is all good news to writer Bettina Elias Siegel, who recently covered this important school-based cookie crisis for a story in the New York Times.

Under threat in Washington, first lady's food legacy may live on elsewhere.  When President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress take over on Jan. 20, lawmakers are expected to take aim at what one of them has called "burdensome new rules" on food.  School lunches and menu labeling standards are likely to be among the changes that may come under fire.  Trump, a self-professed fan of junk food, has not been explicit on what he plans to do with food policy, although he campaigned for the Nov. 8 election on a broad promise to undo regulations on business.

Generous 'Secret Santa' pays off mounting school lunch debt at elementary school.  A 'Secret Santa' gave some struggling Pennsylvania families an early Christmas present by clearing all outstanding meal accounts for students at a Herminie elementary school.  The generous anonymous donor paid off more than $900 in overdue lunch fees Wednesday because he used to have a child in the school and "just wanted to give back to the district", says HW Good Elementary principal, Amy Larcinese, who spoke to KDKA-TV.

What a Middle Schooler's Arrest for Stealing 65-Cent Carton of Milk Says About America's Justice System.  Teenager Ryan Turk faces criminal charges for disorderly conduct and petit larceny for allegedly stealing a 65 cent carton of milk from his middle school cafeteria in Virginia.  That's right, the criminal justice system is utilizing the time, expense, and effort needed to adjudicate a criminal matter in a dispute over a carton of milk.  The mere fact that an eighth-grader can face a criminal charge for such a minor transgression points to a failed exercise of discretion by both the school administration and the law enforcement official involved in this incident, which can be a significant contributor to overcriminalization — the misuse of criminal laws and penalties to try to solve every problem and punish every mistake.

The Editor says...
When I was a kid, a half-pint carton of milk was ten cents, I think.  Chocolate milk was slightly higher.

Superintendent disputes cafeteria worker's 'shaming' claims.  Stacy Koltiska says she had to take a hot lunch away from a Wylandville Elementary school student because his parents were more than $25 behind on his meal account.  But Superintendent Michael Daniels says the boy was mistakenly given a cold lunch before a cashier realized the account was current and he was given a hot lunch.

San Diego sheeple happily sign petition for "Michelle Obama Soylent Green" school lunch menu.  Mark Dice strikes again.  In this video, the author and political gadfly asks people on a San Diego beach to sign a petition to have San Diego public schools adopt the "Michelle Obama Soylent-Green" lunch menu. [...] One after another, the sheeple in San Diego happily oblige Dice's request, oblivious to the fact that they were signing a (fake) petition to put human flesh on school menus, thereby showing that many Americans not only are ignorant, they'll sign anything as long as they're told it's sponsored by Michelle Obama and is for the good of "the children".

Obama wants to starve kids in Texas.  State officials there are opposed to Obama's edict to allow students to determine which restroom or locker room they use, based solely on how they feel about themselves.  Obama says any state that does not bow to his wishes faces a cutoff of education funding.  Texas gets almost $2 billion a year from the federal government for its school breakfast and lunch programs.  Thus, over an issue affecting less than 0.01 percent of students in Texas, Obama is threatening to take food out of the mouths and bellies of the poorest of the poor children.  And it's not just kids in Texas.  More than a dozen other states are refusing to go along with Obama's edict on bathroom and locker room for so-called "transgendereds."  We're talking about millions of kids not getting breakfast and lunch as a direct result of Obama's bullying.

Study Shows Michelle O's Anti-Obesity Campaign Is Failing.  It's been more than six years since Michelle Obama kicked off her "Let's Move!" initiative to fight against childhood obesity, and children are as overweight as ever before.  That's according to a new study published Tuesday [4/26/2016] in the journal Obesity.  A team led by Duke University scientist Asheley Skinner studied data from the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and found that the percentage of overweight and obese children between 2 and 19 years old has increased across the board since 1999.

Michelle Obama Lunch Rules Ban Fried Foods, Frosted Flakes in Daycare.  New rules stemming from the school lunch law championed by first lady Michelle Obama are banning popular children's cereals like Frosted Flakes in daycare centers.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service issued a final rule Monday that will affect more than 3 million kids in daycare centers across the country.  The regulation will only allow daycare centers to serve juice once a day, will ban fried foods, and encourages centers to not add honey to a child's yogurt.  The regulation is a result of the 2010 law aimed at school lunches, a top priority of Mrs.  Obama's Let's Move anti-obesity initiative.

The School Lunch Debacle.  [Scroll down]  Trusting students and even school administrators to figure out healthy meals on their own isn't exactly what the National School Lunch Program is all about.  The program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, issues mandates and then punishes schools that don't meet the standards the bureaucrats set.  And those standards keep getting stricter:  In 2010, Washington put new calorie, sodium, sugar, and fat limits in place.  School lunches are just one of the child nutrition programs administered by the USDA.  And as the Washington Free Beacon has reported, the department is proposing new rules for the programs, rules to be enforced with fines and other punishments.  The USDA says it is "proposing to establish criteria for assessments against State agencies and program operators who jeopardize the integrity of any Child Nutrition Program.  In plain English, "assessments" means "fines.  The government's proposal also threatens "eliminating cost-reimbursement."

Scientists Prove Even GOATS Won't Eat Michelle Obama's School Lunches.  The healthy school lunch program championed by first lady Michelle Obama is a controversial.  The law she lobbied for was the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act — which not only required the removal of snack food, but limited the calorie intake of students to 750-850 calories.  Actually the calorie intake is much less as students are refusing to eat the Obamafood, rather they are tossing it in the trash, and now we know why.  In a special report Newsbusted Anchor Jodie Miller, we learn that even goats, who are known to eat just about anything are refusing to eat those school lunches.  [Video clip]

CA Teacher, Coach Fired for ... Giving Fruit to Students?!.  A California middle school teacher and multi-sport coach says he was fired for what he thought was a good deed.  Marine veteran Arnold Villalobos, who worked at Center Middle School outside Los Angeles, would collect uneaten fruit in the cafeteria and hand it out to student athletes and others after school.  He says that's when the school district asked him to stop, apparently because it violated state health codes.  He says he complied, but they fired him anyway.

Federal Bureaucrats Stick Their Noses Into School Lunches.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service proposed a regulation on March 28th that would fine schools and state agencies for "egregious or persistent disregard" of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was the product of Michelle Obama's "healthy eating" crusade.  The proposed rule, which calls the fines an "assessment," would allow the agency to confiscate a portion of the school's or state's total meal reimbursements.  Even without violations, enforcement of the new rule will cost states $4.3 million in 2017 and $22.7 million over five years.  These "assessments" are particularly problematic as the USDA has failed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Act itself.

Feds to Fine Schools for Not Following Michelle Obama's Lunch Rules.  The federal government is taking steps to fine schools that do not comply with first lady Michelle Obama's school lunch rules.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service issued a proposed rule Monday [3/28/2016] to codify parts of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by Mrs. Obama.  The regulation would punish schools and state departments with fines for "egregious or persistent disregard" for the lunch rules that imposed sodium and calorie limits and banned white grains.  A West Virginia preschool teacher was threatened with fines for violating the rules by rewarding her students with candy for good behavior in June 2015.  The teacher ultimately did not have to pay, but the school had to develop a "corrective action plan" with training on the policies.

Kent School District Removes Pork From Menus to Appease Muslims.  As recently reported by ACT For America, The Kent, Washington school district has changed their food options and removed all pork products, in order to accommodate Muslim dietary needs according to a frustrated parent.  Dave Brabo, a resident of Renton, Washington recently expressed his concerns with the new policy to school officials.  Specifically Mr. Brabo spoke with the school's Director of Nutritional Services, Tom Ogg, who informed him that "he was well aware of the issues (and the slippery slope) with the changes to menu options due to Muslim religious beliefs, but he said lots of Muslims had complained and threatened the school by reporting them to the U.S. Department of Education."  Mr. Brabo was told that if the school system doesn't "accommodate the Muslim dietary needs that their federal and state funding would be cut or pulled."  He was told that the school system may be doing this in order to better accommodate incoming refugees.

This is only slightly off-topic:
Nashville child care center accused of faking records to receive funds.  A Nashville child care center is accused of altering documents to receive federal funding.  More than $83,000 in federal reimbursements for the Academy for Kidz is now in question after investigators claim the facility's records do not accurately represent how many children were served food.  The for-profit center is licensed by the state to care for 56 children.  These children are fed breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack, the funding for which comes from the federal food program, which is administered by the Tennessee Department of Human Services.

Hungry students revolt against school's 'no snacks' rule.  Students at Amity Regional High School want their snacks back, and they've started a movement to make it happen.  Michelle Obama finger upSchool officials recently decided to enforce a no snacking rule that bans students from consuming anything other than water outside of the cafeteria, a situation that leaves students famished and impacts their health, according to a student petition on Change.org.  "The students of Amity Regional High School contend that the recent enforcement of the 'no snacking' rule is detrimental to their ability to learn and unfair as the faculty does not abide by this rule themselves," the petition reads.

$12 Billion Obama Plan Would Give Lunches to Poor Children in the Summer.  The Obama administration proposes to provide free lunch to millions of children who lose access to the subsidized meals once the school year comes to a close.  Under the program announced Wednesday [1/27/2016], low-income families who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals during the academic year would receive an electronic benefits card loaded monthly with $45 per child.  The benefit would go toward groceries during the summer months when school is closed.

The Editor says...
Mr. Obama has an annoying habit of announcing expensive programs of his own autonomous creation, without mentioning the source of the funding for them.

Agreement Would Ease School Lunch Requirements.  A bipartisan Senate agreement would revise healthier meal standards put into place over the last few years to give schools more flexibility in what they serve the nation's schoolchildren, easing requirements on whole grains and delaying an upcoming deadline to cut sodium levels on the lunch line.

Why Students Hate School Lunches.  More than 30 million children trundle through school cafeteria lines every day in the United States and thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which took effect in 2012, they are no longer served greasy pizza, salty French fries and sauced up chicken wings.  Meals must now be lower in fat, calories and sodium and contain lean proteins, more fruits and vegetables and whole grains.  And kids from coast to coast are wrinkling their noses.  Food and nutrition directors at school districts nationwide say that their trash cans are overflowing while their cash register receipts are diminishing as children either toss out the healthier meals or opt to brown-bag it.

Why the healthy school lunch program is in trouble. Before/after photos of what students ate.  In the war to get America's children to eat healthier, things are not going well.  Student E114 is a case in point.  E114 — the identification code she was assigned by researchers studying eating habits at her public elementary school somewhere in the Northeast — left the lunch line one day carrying a tray full of what looked like a balanced meal:  chicken nuggets, some sort of mushy starch, green beans and milk.  Exactly 13 minutes later she was done.  The chicken nuggets and the starch were gone.  But the green beans?  Still there in a neat pile and headed straight for the trash.

Many Kids Tossing Fruits, Veggies in Trash Since New U.S. School Lunch Rules.  More fruits and vegetables ended up in the garbage after the U.S. government introduced a rule requiring fruits and vegetables to be included with school lunches, a new study finds.  What's more, the amount of fruits and vegetable eaten by kids actually dropped since the introduction of the law.

Children throwing away fruit, vegetables from school lunches.  Despite making it onto lunch trays, fewer fruits and vegetables are actually eaten now than before USDA guidelines were put into place in 2012.

Schoolkids trash fruits, veggies when forced to take them.  Researchers compared lunchtime fruit and vegetable consumption at two elementary schools before and after the mandate kicked in.  The mandate requires students to take either a fruit or vegetable with a meal reimbursable under the school lunch program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The study in the journal Public Health Reports used digital imaging to more accurately track food students took away on their trays, and to compare it with food students dumped into the trash.  It was performed at two elementary schools in the Northeast, surveyed in 2012 before the mandate and the next year after the mandate took effect.

Millions wasted in federal school lunch program.  An exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation reveals millions of dollars worth of fresh fruits and vegetables are being thrown in the trash in school lunch rooms in Ohio and across the country.  The National School Nutrition Association blames new federal nutrition standards requiring students to take more fresh fruits and vegetables as well as increasing the amount of whole grains.  The National School Lunch Program feeds 31 million students across the country, including one million in Ohio.

School lunch study: Visual proof kids are tossing mandated fruits and veggies in trash.  Less than a month before Congress votes on whether to reauthorize a controversial program mandating healthier school lunches, a new study confirms the suspicions of school officials — many students are putting the fruits and vegetables they're now required to take straight into the trash, consuming fewer than they did before the law took effect.

Michelle O's Unintended Consequence: School Lunch Waste Up 56%.  According to a recent study conducted at two northeastern elementary schools, students are throwing away more of the healthy fruits and vegetables mandated by Michelle Obama's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act national school lunch program than ever before.  CBS News reported that researchers from the University of Vermont scoured through hundreds of digital photographs of student lunch trays during the food selection process, as they left the lunch line, and finally, at the trash cans to find out what the children were eating and what they were wasting.

LAUSD Students Trash $18M In Healthy School Lunches Every Year.  Los Angeles Unified School District officials are trying to figure out how to convince students not to dump their healthy lunches.  An estimated $18 million in food — or about $100,000 a day — is tossed out in the nation's second-largest school district every year.

Should Congress trash Michelle Obama's lunch program?  Fewer kids are buying lunch at school, despite the first lady's best efforts.  Since the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010, Michelle Obama's premiere program to fight childhood obesity, participation in the school lunch program has declined by nearly 4 percent.  Some schools have lost revenue due to the decline in participation and are choosing to opt out of the program entirely.  With the HHFKA scheduled for reauthorization this month, it's worth asking:  Is the program is worth its $15 billion costs or is there is a better option?

Schools Nix the Federal Lunch Program 'Cause Kids Won't Eat Healthy Food.  The school district of Campbell County, Kentucky is opting out of its federally funded school lunch program because the students didn't like the healthy food. [...] In the Campbell County school district, 30,000 fewer students a year were buying lunches with the healthier options.  Instead, opting to bring food from home, eating at nearby restaurants or even skipping lunch altogether.  Without kids buying, the district loses money.

School District Quits Fed Lunch Program: 'Kids Won't Eat That'.  More schools are opting out of the program, which requires use of whole grains breads and low-fat or no-fat dairy products among other things.  First lady Michelle Obama championed the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act as part of the national fight against childhood obesity.  But school districts are seeing children throw more food in the garbage.  Worse for school districts: Some students are bringing their own lunches, eating at nearby fast-food restaurants or skipping lunch altogether.  That loss of students taking part in the school lunch program means less money for their school districts at the same time that the districts are having to pay more for the more healthful food required by the law.

What good are school lunches if kids won't eat them?  School lunch programs should serve students healthy, nutritious meals that they will eat.  Auburn-Washburn Unified School district 437 superintendent Brenda Dietrich is concerned that the latest school lunch regulations drafted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture may make it difficult for schools to produce meals within the guidelines that students will want to eat.  The regulations are part of the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010.  The latest guidelines require that all foods in schools, including the stuff in vending machines, meet limits for calories, sodium, fat and sugar, and fill one of four other nutritional criteria.

Idaho cafeteria worker who was fired for giving free lunch is offered her job back.  The cafeteria worker who said she was fired from an Idaho middle school for giving a hungry student a free lunch was offered her job back on Christmas Eve.  The Pocatello/Chubbuck School District released a 615-word statement detailing its role in the community and the importance of nutrition before revealing at the end that Dalene Bowden could return to work.  Bowden said a 12-year-old Irving Middle School student didn't have any money to pay for the hot lunch.  The cost:  $1.70.

First-grader says Washington school denied him free lunch.  A first-grader who is part of a free lunch program at his Washington state school said he was denied a meal last month when a lunch lady told him, "Guess what, you can't have lunch."  Q13Fox.com reported Tuesday [12/15/2015] that the boy, identified by his first name, Xavier, was sent home from school hungry on Oct. 20 because he had a negative lunch balance.  He said that the class was eating from a sack lunch, and when it was passed to him, the lunch lady told him he could not eat.  Cascade View Elementary in Snohomish, Wash., said it is looking into the matter.

Using food as a reward:
Change.org petition ends Wilson's 'smart kids first' lunch line.  For more than two decades, students at Woodrow Wilson Middle School have known what it means when students are in the back of the lunch line — bad grades or bad behavior.  This week, though, an online petition to change the long-standing policy of letting high performing students eat first at lunch has prompted principal Colleen Faucet to put an end to the practice.

School uses lunch line to punish kids for bad grades.  Woodrow Wilson Middle School has found a creative way to offer incentive for good grades and appropriate conduct during school hours, but many parents are taking issue with the approach.  The Tampa, Florida, middle school has been offering high-achieving students a prime position in the front of the school lunch line, while students with a C or lower are made to wait for their lunch — at the back of the line.  Kids who are not doing well at Woodrow Wilson Middle School are being called "no-card" kids, and every single one of their classmates knows exactly why they are standing at the back of the lunch line, according to the reports of a student at the school.

Lunch-line incentive program draws complaints.  For years, Woodrow Wilson Middle School has been rated among the top middle schools in Tampa.  Its success, some say, is due in part to awarding incentive cards.  They're a reward for achievement or improvement.  Kids who get one can go to the head of the lunch line.  Some call the ones in back, the "no-card kids."  "The no-card kids either have a 'C' or a conduct issue.  They eat last," said parent Sonya Brown.  She believes the school should offer incentives, but not in the lunch line.

Kentucky high school student claims cafeteria workers denied lunches over finances.  A Kentucky high school has come under fire after a student's social media post claimed that some students were denied lunch due to their financial situation.  Henry County Schools Superintendent Tim Abrams is looking at the issue and said it was unclear whether any students were denied food, but said the situation was addressed and will not happen again, according to WDRB.

The 7 Keys To Trapping As Many Americans As Possible In Poverty.  You want to make as many Americans poor as possible?  Then start by... [#2] Encouraging Dependency:  You want to keep people poor over the long haul?  Then get them dependent on a government payment that will always keep them poor.  Start them young!  Get as many kids as possible used to taking handouts with free breakfast and lunch programs.  Then when they're adults, make it as easy as possible to get on the dole and stay on it.  In fact, you should spend millions on advertising campaigns letting people know that they're eligible to become dependent on the government.  This keeps people stuck in a no man's land where they're still poor, but they're just comfortable enough that they don't feel compelled to work to get more.

Here's What Michelle Obama Doesn't Want You to Know About Her School Lunch Program.  First Lady Michelle Obama has been pushing her nasty school lunches across the country — and kids and parents alike hate them.

Record number of N.J. students eating free or reduced cost breakfast, report finds.  A record number of low-income New Jersey students are eating breakfast at school, according a new report compiled by advocates for school meal programs.  The NJ School Breakfast Report found 237,000 students enrolled in free or reduced-price meal programs ate breakfast at school this year, up from 136,000 children in 2010.  But the groups say hundreds of thousands of students are still going hungry each morning, hindering their education.

Hundreds of students return to the cafeteria after Montana high school drops Michelle Obama's lunch program.  The decision by officials at a high school in Montana to give up $117,000 in federal money and drop Michelle Obama's healthy lunch program has proved to be a popular and profitable success.  Business has been booming in Bozeman High School's cafeteria since its board members voted to drop the National School Lunch Program in a bid to keep students from leaving campus to eat.  The lunch program set limits on calories, fat and salt in lunches and mandated that more whole grains, fruits and vegetables should be served in order to curb the onset of childhood obesity.

Class Divide: Are More Affluent Kids Opting Out Of School Lunch?  There's a lot of evidence that the meals school cafeterias are serving have gotten healthier since new federal nutrition standards were rolled out.  For instance, a new analysis from the CDC finds that, since the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, there's been a significant increase in the number of schools serving two or more vegetables and whole grain-rich foods each day.  And another study shows kids are tossing less food away.  But some school districts say there's an unintended consequence of the reform:  fewer students are buying lunch.

Thanks to Michelle Obama, 1/2 of School Cafeteria Workers Lose Their Jobs.  In another unintended consequence of mean Michelle Obama's disgusting school lunch menu debacle, schools across the country are firing school cafeteria staff because fewer and fewer kids are bothering to take the school lunches that comply with Michelle's tasteless mandates.  So, Michelle is now responsible for thousands of workers losing their jobs because SHE thinks she should be able to control what our kids eat.

Study finds students toss veggies mandated by federal school lunch program.  Since 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has implemented a requirement — widely championed by First Lady Michelle Obama — that children must select either a fruit or vegetable for school lunches subsidized by the federal government.  However, a new report published this week by researchers at the University of Vermont found that even though students did add more fruits and vegetables to their plates, as the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" enforces, "children consumed fewer [fruits and vegetables] and wasted more during the school year immediately following implementation of the USDA rule."

Report: Half of schools cut cafeteria staff as kids abandon Obama menus.  President and first lady Michelle Obama's bid to cut kid obesity through new demands for more costly but healthier food is financially crushing the nation's school cafeterias, forcing staff cuts, boosting waste and killing plans to buy new equipment, according to an industry association.  A new survey from the School Nutrition Association reported that 70 percent of the nation's lunch programs have been financially "harmed" by the new low-salt, low-sugar menus and that a stunning 93 percent report fewer students buying the chow.

Michelle Obama's school lunch group: Americans 'clearly support' new rules.  How deluded is Michelle Obama's school lunch organization "Let's Move"?  A press release issued in advance of the new school year claims that kids love the new standards, and Americans "clearly support" what they're trying to do. [...] Only someone educated in public schools would be unable to see through this push poll.  The facts are a little different.  [#1] More than a million kids have dropped out of the school lunch program.  [#2] Food waste — that is, the weight of food thrown out by kids who refuse to eat the unappetizing fare — is up 56%.  [#3] Eighty percent of school districts report having financial problems because fewer kids are in the program.

Study finds students toss veggies mandated by federal school lunch program.  Since 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has implemented a requirement — widely championed by First Lady Michelle Obama — that children must select either a fruit or vegetable for school lunches subsidized by the federal government.  However, a new report published this week by researchers at the University of Vermont found that even though students did add more fruits and vegetables to their plates, as the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" enforces, "children consumed fewer [fruits and vegetables] and wasted more during the school year immediately following implementation of the USDA rule."

Michelle O's Unintended Consequence: School Lunch Waste Up 56%.  According to a recent study conducted at two northeastern elementary schools, students are throwing away more of the healthy fruits and vegetables mandated by Michelle Obama's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act national school lunch program than ever before.  CBS News reported that researchers from the University of Vermont scoured through hundreds of digital photographs of student lunch trays during the food selection process, as they left the lunch line, and finally, at the trash cans to find out what the children were eating and what they were wasting.

Michelle Obama's Lunch Rules Have Cost Cafeteria Worker Jobs.  Hundreds of school districts in the country have made layoffs and reduced hours for cafeteria workers due to First Lady Michelle Obama's lunch rules, a new survey has found.  Participation in the school lunch program is down, food waste is up, and 80 percent of districts have taken steps to offset financial losses as a result of the healthy rules, according to a survey released Tuesday [8/25/2015] of more than 1,000 school districts by the Student Nutritional Association (SNA).  "Our waste has increased dramatically," said one district foodservice employee on the effects of the standards.  "It is shameful the food we throw away.  We have the healthiest garbage!"

Amid Declining Participation, USDA's School Lunch Program Embraces 'Cultural Inclusion'.  The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 changed the nutrition requirements for school lunches and breakfasts, but the U.S. Agriculture Department says the law also gives schools the flexibility to prepare meals that are "familiar to kids from culturally diverse backgrounds."  Blogging at the USDA website on Wednesday [8/19/2015], Dr. Katie Wilson, deputy undersecretary for for food, nutrition and consumer services, hailed the nation's "diversity" of people, ideas, and culture:  "One of the way culture is expressed is through the foods we eat," she wrote.  "Our nation's school meals should be no exception."

Michelle Gets Revenge on School Who Drops Her Lunches.  Unfortunately, the Obama regime doesn't like it when people act against their will, and the school district is going to be paying a hefty price for doing so.  How hefty?  Well, they currently receive federal subsidies of $117,000 annually, which they'll be forfeiting for dropping the Queen Bee's lunch menus.  So this school is losing money that goes to educating American children simply because they don't want to follow the horrid lunch program that Michelle forces on kids across the country.  How is that right?

Cafeteria Capitalism in public schools — Black market candy, childhood hunger and obesity in America.  I was sorely tempted to take a serious bit of literary license when I first learned that some enterprising youngsters were selling salt, sugar, and pepper packets in schools to counter the apparently bland taste of food provided by public school lunch programs that have become standard faire courtesy of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFK).  This law represents some significant changes in school meals, as well as likely influencing what vending machines can sell on school property.  Promoted by Mrs. Obama and signed by her husband President Obama, I was tempted to quip "finally the Obama's have created a new industry (cafeteria condiment capitalism) to employ Americans."  But in a spirit of bipartisanship to foster collaboration, I'll avoid such comments.

GOP has knives out for school lunch rules.  Republicans are convening a series of hearings to highlight criticism of the [school lunch] regulations, a pillar of the first lady's initiative to curb childhood obesity in the United States.  School officials say students are turning their noses up to the meals that cap calories and limit sodium.  Republicans also assail the standards as executive overreach.  "To force you to serve food that hungry kids throw out maybe tops the list of things the federal government shouldn't be doing," Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said at a recent hearing.

Kids Create Black Markets for Salt in Cafeterias Due to Michelle Obama's Lunch Rules.  Children are creating their own black markets to trade and sell salt due to First Lady Michelle Obama's school lunch rules.  During a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, chaired by Rep. Todd Rokita (R., Ind.), a school administrator told Congress of the "unintended consequences" of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.  "Perhaps the most colorful example in my district is that students have been caught bringing — and even selling — salt, pepper, and sugar in school to add taste to perceived bland and tasteless cafeteria food," said John S. Payne, the president of Blackford County School Board of Trustees in Hartford City, Indiana.

Ag Commissioner's Plan to Reduce Texas Child Obesity and Return Local Control to Schools.  Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced a five-point program on Thursday morning to attack childhood obesity and return more control of the school lunch program to local administrators.  One objective of the plan (attached below) is to connect Texas farmers with the schools to help develop healthy food menus that children will actually eat.  "What we have been doing to fight childhood obesity for the last ten years has not solved the obesity epidemic in Texas[.]  In fact, it's only gotten worse," Commissioner Miller said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas.

School kitchen manager: I was fired for giving lunches to hungry students.  Della Curry is out of work — and unashamed — after being fired by a school district in a Denver suburb.  A married mother of two, Curry is the former kitchen manager at Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora.  She lost her job on Friday [6/5/2015] after giving school lunches to students who didn't have any money.

School district: Giving free food to kids not why lunch lady was fired.  Della Curry, the former kitchen manager at Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora, lost her job on Friday [6/5/2015] after giving school lunches to students who didn't have any money.  She says she was let go for handing out free meals to kids who couldn't pay.  But in a statement, the school district said:  "Miss Curry was not dismissed for giving free food to financially disadvantaged students.  Numerous documented incidents resulted in the action taken.  We are unable to fully disclose all of the details concerning her dismissal without her permission."

Eligible Maryland schools to provide free meals to all students.  A June 2013 survey of K-8 public-school teachers across the nation reveals that 40 percent of those surveyed considered hunger a serious problem in their classrooms.  Fifty-six percent said that many or most of their students depended on school meals as their primary source of nutrition.  Maryland's Hunger-Free Schools Act, set to take effect today [6/2/2015], will make it possible for entire schools and school districts to provide free meals to students.

USDA Launching Program To Defend Michelle Obama From Criticism Over Horrible School Lunches.  The food is delicious comrade citizen, don't you agree.  Those stories and accompanying pictures of horrible school lunches do not actually exist.  All of the delivered state nutrition is joyful, splendid and inspiring comrade.  Smiles everyone, smiles.

Feds launch social media push to combat complaints about Michelle Obama's lunch program.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is pushing back against a campaign criticizing First Lady Michelle Obama's school lunch rules by showing one picture of a somewhat appetizing child's lunch. [...] The blog post, entitled "Photo Worthy Meals," shows one image of a school lunch served in a New Orleans charter school.  The photo stands in contrast to images of meager portions and unappetizing selections shared with the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama, a Twitter campaign started by students against the healthy eating law.

Why kids who aren't poor are now getting free school lunches.  It used to be that students from families with low incomes qualified for lunches that were either free or available at a reduced price.  That's still true — but now, new federal rules allow kids who aren't poor at many schools to get the same thing.  The change in the rules means not only that more kids will get to eat free- and reduced-price lunch but that what had been broadly used for years as a proxy for poverty rates among schoolchildren will no longer be useful for that purpose.  Policymakers and researchers will have to find another measure of poverty.

The Editor says...
There must be a reason for the Obama regime to want to mask the number of people dependent on government handouts.

Teacher Stops 5-Year-Old From Eating Oreos, Sends Note Home to Mom.  A Colorado mother says her five-year-old daughter was prevented from eating Oreos by her preschool teacher.  Since the cookies were deemed unhealthy, Leeza Pearson said she received the following note, shaming her for what she packed in the lunch.  "Dear Parents, it is very important that all students have a nutritious lunch.  This is a public school setting and all children are required to have a fruit, a vegetable and a heavy snack from home, along with a milk.  If they have potatoes, the child will also need bread to go along with it.  Lunchables, chips, fruit snacks, and peanut butter are not considered to be a healthy snack.  This is a very important part of our program and we need everyone's participation."

Schoolkids Served Six-Year-Old Lunchmeat.  Tennessee school kids were served freezer meat from 2009 — and in some cases children possibly ate pork roast almost as old as they are.  Hawkins County officials acknowledged its cafeterias dished out the flaky, six-year-old slabs last week, after a lunchroom worker at an elementary school leaked photos of the mystery meat.  Parent and county commissioner Michael Herrell told a local TV station that primary-school cooks decided against forking over the ancient grub.  The cuts, however, slipped into other schools, including Cherokee High School.

Hawkins County Schools serves 6-year-old pork.  Hawkins County leaders say cafeteria workers served meat dating to 2009 at several schools last week.  A commissioner and parent alerted the district, after a cafeteria worker sent him a photo of pork roast they used for school meals.  The meat had been frozen and then was thawed for meal preparation.  Hawkins County Commissioner Michael Herrell said the photo was taken at Joseph Rogers Primary School, although the staff there decided not to serve that meat.  It was, however, served at other schools.

6-year-old lunch meat served to students in Hawkins County, TN.  Meat dating back as far as 2009 with what was described as a horrible smell was served to Hawkins County students just last week.  Hawkins County Commissioner Michael Herrell said he received a picture of the expired lunch meat from someone at Joseph Rogers Primary School.  The county reportedly told Herrell that the meat was not served at Joseph Rogers, but said it was served at other schools.  Herrell said anyone who knows anything about pork, knows it's like fixing chicken, " you've got to get it, fix it and be done with it."

Deep Fryers and Sodas Could Come Back to Texas Schools.  Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, the cowboy-hat-wearing champion of local control, is looking to buck a decade-old statewide ban on deep fat fryers in public schools.  Putting decision-making back into the hands of Texas school districts, he says, "isn't about french fries, it's about freedom."

School districts, parents at odds over breakfast in class.  The number of breakfasts served in the nation's schools has doubled in the last two decades, a surge driven largely by a change in how districts deliver the food.

Would you eat this school lunch?  Portsmouth Public Schools admits concern over the presentation of a student's lunch served Tuesday [4/14/2015] at James Hurst Elementary.  Dozens of people reached out to [WJHL] after a student's mother posted a picture of the meal on social media.  It shows cooked corn on a lunch platter, alongside a fish filet with a bun placed on top.

Michelle Obama Mandated School Lunch Goes From Bad To Worse.  Yuck... but hey, the school says it's compliant with Michelle's dictates.

Second-Grader Says Michelle Obama 'Ruined Taco Tuesday'.  It looks like First Lady Michelle Obama has a new critic over the controversial federal school lunch program that she's championed.  A Louisiana second-grader named Trip Klibert wrote a letter to the first lady when he noticed some changes to his school lunches that he didn't care for.

King Barry.  Obama is a lawless leader, choosing to rule by memorandum, regulation and executive order — he is not a president; he is a king. [...] Just look at what our king has done in his first 6 years.  Through Michelle's school lunch program, he has decided what our children eat.  Did anyone vote for Michelle?  Was she ever elected to anything?  Why does she get to decide school menus?  Why is a celery stalk and one peanut (originally it was 2 peanuts and a celery stalk, but she didn't like the optic), the new school lunch?

GOP bill targets Michelle Obama's prized school lunch regs.  Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) is introducing legislation to relax the rules for healthy school lunches.  At the School Nutrition Association's (SNA) 2015 Legislative Action Conference at the JW Marriott Monday [2/2/2015], Hoeven announced the Healthy School Meals Flexibility Act to give schools more flexibility in complying with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations when it comes to whole grains and sodium levels.  The bill would allow schools to revert back to 2012 standards, which require at least half of all grains served in school breakfast and school lunch to be whole grain rich.  The standard now is for 100 percent of all grains offered to be whole grain rich.  The bill also prevents USDA from requiring further sodium reductions in school meals below the current level, which took effect July 2014.

Arizona Education Chief Nullifies Federal Food Fundraising Rules.  A state-level bureaucrat is standing up to the the central government planners is a most unusual way.  Arizona's superintendent of public instruction, Diane Douglas, has informed all school districts in the Grand Canyon State that they have blanket authority to ignore all federal nutrition mandates regulating school fundraisers.  "Forcing parents and other supporters of schools to only offer federally approved food and snacks at fundraisers is a perfect example of the overreach of government and intrusion into local control," Douglas said in a statement.

First Lady: kids will 'eventually' embrace new school lunches.  In an interview with Cooking Light magazine to mark the fifth anniversary of her Let's Move initiative, the first lady says that she sees the effort as "generational."  Eventually, Obama argues, schools will be filled with children who never knew meals that did not conform to new nutritional standards.  "We're really thinking about the kids who are kindergartners today," Obama said.  "If all they know are whole grains and vegetables, by the time they're graduating from high school, this will be their norm; they won't know anything different."

South Carolina schools superintendent defies Michelle Obama by easing up on junk food ban.  South Carolina schools have partially lifted a ban on junk food in defiance of rules championed by first lady Michelle Obama.  State Education Superintendent Molly Spearman has lifted a complete ban on selling unhealthy snacks in schools.  Some sales can take place for certain, approved fundraisers, multiple media outlets reported Sunday [2/1/2015].

The Editor says...
Defiance of Michelle Obama is not a great act of valor.  Michelle Obama is not an elected official or an authority of any kind.

South Carolina schools head partially lifts junk food ban.  State Education Superintendent Molly Spearman has lifted a complete ban on selling unhealthy snacks in schools.  Some sales can take place for certain, approved fundraisers, multiple media outlets reported Sunday [2/1/2015].

Horrors Continue Under Michelle O's Lunch Rules.  Desperate students are still taking to Twitter to reveal the horrors of school lunch under First Lady Michelle Obama's rules, including empty chicken nuggets and complaints that meals taste like "prison food."  While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) raves about "locally sourced chicken sandwiches" that meet nutrition standards served in a school district in South Carolina, students across the country complain about what they are eating under the new rules.

Texas Lawmaker Grants 'Amnesty' to Cupcakes at Schools.  A Texas lawmaker made his first act in office official last week when he granted amnesty to cupcakes at schools.  Now local communities, not the state, will decide whether or not sweets can be served in classrooms and cafeterias.  "The Texas Department of Agriculture has abolished all rules and guidelines that would stop a parent from bringing cupcakes, cookies or snacks to school," new Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Sid Miller said in a press conference.

Experts zero in on pizza as prime target in war on childhood obesity.  On days when children eat pizza, they consume an average of 408 additional calories, three additional grams of fat and 134 additional milligrams of salt compared with their regular diet.  For teens, putting pizza on the day's menu adds 624 calories, five grams of fat and 484 milligrams of salt.  The analysis, published online Monday [1/19/2015] by the journal Pediatrics, examines pizza's contribution to the childhood obesity crisis because it is so widely consumed.

The Editor says...
The article above appears in the liberal LA Times, which is one of the principal supporters of the nanny state and big government in general.  The writer seems to be horrified that kids are being served pizza — something they prefer to eat — instead of broccoli and carrots.  Let the kids eat pizza, I say, if they pay for it with their own money.  Let those who eat from Big Brother's hand be content with whatever Big Brother puts on the menu.  This would serve as an important lesson about free markets:  about the haves and have-nots.  Especially when the kids who are fed by the government are the have-nots, and everyone else is eating pizza.

Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty.  The Southern Education Foundation reports that 51 percent of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year were eligible for the federal program that provides free and reduced-price lunches.  The lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty, but the explosion in the number of needy children in the nation's public classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has been gaining attention among educators, public officials and researchers.

The moldy food, brown water and roaches of Florida's revolting 'high school of horror'.  High school is a tough time for any teenager, but the students at Miami Sunset Senior High School seem to have it a little harder.  Photos from inside the school have surfaced on social media showing horrifying conditions, from a moldy carton of fruit punch, to brown tap water and cockroaches on the walls and the food.

Will School Lunches Destroy Progressivism?  Students across the United States are getting a taste of progressivism.  And it doesn't seem to please their palates.  The implementation of Michelle Obama's anti-obesity lunch standards is encountering backlash from students and school administrators across the country.  The program seems to have taught them a valuable lesson in the realities of progressivism — that when American voters give up power to busy-body progressives, the result is more control over their lives and the loss of individual liberties.  They responded to this newfound reality with boycotts, social media angst, and filled trash cans instead of filled bellies.

New Let's Move Executive Director is a 'Food Justice' Activist.  First Lady Michelle Obama named the new Executive Director of Let's Move on Thursday, Debra Eschmeyer, a self-described "food justice" activist who believes that all aspects of food production and consumption should be "shared fairly."  Eschmeyer, who grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio and is now an organic vegetable farmer, previously campaigned for "school lunch reform" and has been involved in anti-obesity and school gardening initiatives.

This is only slightly off-topic:
Feds target fried food, juice at day cares.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing strict new dietary guidelines for day cares that would prohibit them from frying food that is served to children.  Child care providers would also be formally required to provide children with water upon request, though they would face restrictions on how much apple juice and orange juice they serve.  The proposed nutrition standards are intended to promote the "health and wellness of children" at day cares that participate in government-funded meal programs, the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service said Wednesday [1/14/2015].

Here we go: Feds move to ban all fried foods at day care centers.  Fear not, citizens!  The government is here to save you from yourselves.  And in keeping with the Remember the Children theme, the Department of Agriculture is submitting new guidelines for food served at any day care facility (including some private homes) which qualify for federal funding.

The School Lunches Michelle Obama's Kids Eat Vs. Insect-Filled Crap In Pennsylvania.  Cafeteria workers at three elementary schools in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pa. welcomed students back from Christmas break with heaping helpings of insect-filled brown rice this week.  Meanwhile, at Sidwell Friends, the children of Barack and Michelle Obama are enjoying panzanella salad, ratatouille and all-natural winter chicken stew. [...] The bugs were rice weevils — flying critters that reproduce impressively and can live for up to two years.  School officials believe the weevils came in the sealed bags of brown rice.  None of the 130 kids who may have ingested the beetle-like creatures became ill.

AR school leaders rip Michelle O rules: 'We're feeding trash cans a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables'.  The garbage cans are becoming morbidly obese at Rogers High School.  "We're feeding trash cans a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables," Robin Kinder, president of the Arkansas School Nutrition Association and assistant child nutrition director for Springdale Public Schools, tells NWAonline.com.  In addition to changing the lunch menu to make it "healthier," the school sends students back into the line if they fail to take the required fruits and vegetables mandated by the overhaul of the National School Lunch Program.

2015, the year the GOP strikes back at Obama food policies.  As the opening bell sounds for the 114th Congress, don't be surprised to see GOP lawmakers take on school nutrition.  The $1.1 trillion omnibus this month included provisions to allow states more flexibility to exempt schools from the Department of Agriculture's whole-grain standards if they can show hardship and to halt future sodium restrictions[.]

School cafeterias losing money on Michelle Obama's meals, jeopardizing programs.  More than half of the nation's school cafeteria workers expect to lose money selling low-salt, low-fat meals pushed by first lady Michelle Obama, a "serious" problem that threatens the programs, according to a survey of food providers.  The School Nutrition Association, which is planning to demand changes to the meal requirements to make the food more attractive to students, found that 50.35 percent of cafeteria officials surveyed expect that serving the food will "exceed revenue" next year.  "Of the 92 percent of respondents reporting that rising costs pose a 'serious' or 'moderate' challenge to their programs, 70 percent indicated 'serious,'" said the survey from the group that represents 35,000 school nutrition professionals.

Congress Relaxes Whole Grain Standards For Schools.  A massive year-end spending bill released Tuesday [12/9/2014] doesn't allow schools to opt out of healthier school meal standards championed by first lady Michelle Obama, as House Republicans had sought.  But it would ease standards that require more whole grains in school foods.

The School Lunches Malia And Sasha Eat Vs. The Crap Michelle Obama Has Foisted On America.  For Tuesday, Dec. 9, the scrumptious, bountiful lunch menu for both the middle school and the upper school at Sidwell Friends is:  ["]Potato Sausage Soup; Firecracker Slaw; California Chef's Salad; All Natural Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings; Sweet Potato Black Bean Bake; Sautéed Local Greens; Gemelli Alfredo; Sliced Pineapple["]  This menu of completely free lunch items certainly sounds delicious and nutritious.  Also, to be clear, it's for a single day, not the entire week.  Kids in America's public, taxpayer-funded schools are not as lucky as the children of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

Seven Wyoming school districts abandon Michelle Obama's healthy lunch program citing overwhelming complaints from students.  Several Wyoming schools have dropped the new federal rules pushed by First Lady Michelle Obama after saying they had an overwhelming negative reaction from students.  Wyoming Sheridan Country District One business manager Jeremy Smith said 'there were just too many complaints' for his district to stay in the National School Lunch Program.

School Lunch A Fingerprint Away.  Students at Omaha's Westside High School can now use new technology to pay for their school lunch.  The school installed a biometric scanning system for cashiers in the lunchroom.  Students pay for their items by showing their fingerprint on a pad, which connects to a database retaining all the students' identification.  This way, kids don't have to use cash, though money is still accepted.  "It takes forever," said one student.  "The lines are too long."  "We just got done getting used to the cards and then they come and introduce something new," said another.

The Editor says...
This fingerprint scanner idea prepares the students for the idea of an implanted RFID chip and a cashless society that requires such a chip to buy and sell anything.

'Prisoners eat better food': Students hit back at Michelle Obama's school lunch program with pictures of woeful servings.  School lunches have never been known for being appetizing — but these ones are particularly disgusting.  Students across America are taking it to social media to demonstrate against the school meal rules championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.  They're using the sarcastic hashtag 'ThanksMichelleObama' and posting pictures of piles of mushy lunches, unreasonably small portions and the kind of fare that has some students saying even 'prisoners eat better food.'

Photo ©MadyBixby/Twitter.

NH school drops Michelle O's lunch rules.  Officials at Salem High School are coming to the same conclusion about Michelle Obama's new lunch regulations as hundreds of other schools across the country:  They're better off ditching the restrictive regulations and the federal money that comes with them to serve students healthy food they want to eat.

Six pies on the Obamas' Thanksgiving menu.  Michelle Obama's campaign for healthier eating apparently has taken a holiday.  While schools across the country are offering skimpy lunches to comply with the first lady's initiative, the Obamas will be celebrating Thanksgiving with six pies.

Students tweeting pictures of disgusting school lunches.  It was always a mistake for Michelle Obama to take on the role of national food scold, no matter how sincere her worries over the obesity problems of many Americans.  Telling people what they can and can't eat leads to resentment, anger, and scorn.  That last stage has now been reached, as federally subsidized school lunch programs across the country have resorted to absurd measures trying to meet the guidelines forced on them by the feds, at the behest of the first lady.

Pix of skimpy Michelle O lunches anger parents.  A chicken patty, small scoop of mashed potatoes and carton of milk aren't enough to sustain a high school boy.  But under the school lunch regulations championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, that's what Haskell High School served recently.  Haskell High School senior Darrel Bunch took a photo of one of his recent skimpy school lunches and sent it to Fox 23.  "It's mostly the portions," Bunch says.  "Last year we started getting less food."

GMA Promotes Michelle Obama's School Lunch Program.v  On Monday, ABC's Good Morning America provided First Lady Michelle Obama's school lunch program, entitled the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, with some free publicity.  Co-host George Stephanopoulos touted how "new federal guidelines pushed by the First Lady have cafeterias serving up healthier foods.  And a new study finds those lunches may be better than the ones parents pack for their kids."

Student organizes boycott of school lunches.  A Wisconsin high school student is leading a boycott of school lunches to protest new nutrition rules and calorie limits that she says are leaving her classmates still hungry.  Meghan Hellrood of D.C. Everest High School in Weston, Wisconsin, is the latest student to take on the new school lunch regulations championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

As America's Kids Starve On Government Lunches, Illegals Get Second Helpings And Gitmo's Finest Get Fat.  In a bid to meet the rigid regulations of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, with its one-size-fits-all calorie counts, children are finding their meals the sorriest, measliest and most unappetizing ever served.  It's shocking to see what now passes for meals in school cafeterias under the guise of "healthy":  a couple slices of cheese, some florets of cauliflower, salads "naked" without dressing and assorted mystery meats.  One kid even posted a photo of maggots in his green beans.  That, not surprisingly, is why large amounts of food are going straight to the trash and school districts are dropping out of the federal lunch program at a cost of foregoing federal funding.

Student photos of paltry school lunches raise alarm on social media.  Students in Oklahoma have taken to social media to blast Michelle Obama for their new school lunches.  They have posted photos of their meals which include comments such as:  'Thanks Michelle for the filling lunch' next to an image of an apple, a piece of bread and some breaded nuggets.  Another social media user wrote:  'School lunch or someone's vomit?' next to a snap of broccoli and an unidentifiable food item covered in cheese.

The paltry Michelle Obama school lunch being served up in Oklahoma.  A student has provoked complaints by parents after taking a photo of her paltry school meal of lunch meat, a couple crackers, a slice of cheese and two pieces of cauliflower.  Kaytlin Shelton, 17, who is eight months pregnant, took a photo of the $3 meal at a Chickasha school on Monday and showed it to her father who said it was not satisfactory.

The Editor says...
She's 17 and very pregnant.  That's what should be unsatisfactory.

Yuck: 83% of nation's schools report more lunches dumped by kids.  As school children continue to protest Michelle Obama's push for healthier lunches by dumping their full trays into garbage bins, the nation's school boards are joining in to demand that the Obama administration let them off the hook of serving the costly and tasteless meals.

Michelle Obama's Lunch Rules Limit Children To One Ketchup Packet.  First Lady and school nutrition advocate Michelle Obama's stringent lunch guidelines are limiting children to just one ketchup packet per meal.  A recent EagNews.com article profiled unhappy Idaho customers of the Obama administration's revisions to the National School Lunch program, including a parent who called school lunches "not edible" and kids who have stopped eating lunch completely.

Only slightly off-topic:
Burlington school bans birthday cake, sweets.  Students' birthday celebrations at Burlington Elementary School can include singing, balloons and recognition in morning announcements.  But as of this month they can no longer include cake.  Or ice cream.  Or food, period.  Burlington Elementary School, part of the Boone County school district, revised its wellness policy this year.  Among the changes:  no food allowed at school birthday celebrations.  Non-food treats are still allowed.  The policy gives as examples pencils, erasers, bookmarks.

The Editor says...
Imagine the joy of receiving a pencil as a party favor in lieu of snacks.  Ebenezer Scrooge would consider it a brilliant idea.  This is no way to treat little kids.

How School Lunch Became the Latest Political Battleground.  [Scroll down]  Today the School Nutrition Association is Washington's loudest and most public critic of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.  Even as they claim to support the act, the lunch ladies have become the shock troops in a sometimes absurdly complex battle to roll back the Obama's administration's anti-obesity agenda.

The 'Common Calorie' Revolt.  Yes, there's a fierce debate today over Common Core education standards.  But the debate over "common calories" in school cafeterias is almost as intense.  All over the country, school districts, parents, and students are in revolt at the new nutrition standards being dictated by Washington.  They apply to the 30 million students who eat lunch or breakfast or both at school (for 21 million of them, the meals are free or at nominal cost).  Students complain that stringent new calorie caps along with limits on salt content and fat have created meals they find unappetizing, unappealing, and too small.  Jokes about "bonsai-size breakfasts" and "rabbit-food lunches" are now common in cafeterias, and food waste is up dramatically.

Cookie tradition crumbles with new school snack rules.  There was a time when Pat Gast could easily sell 200 or 300 fresh baked cookies a day during lunchtime at the Grosse Pointe North Student Union.  A staple at the high school for more than 20 years, Union cookies helped raise money for student programs and athletics.  No more.  They've been sliced from the menu by federal school lunch rules and replaced by a new, whole grain-compliant cookie.  "It was a tradition," said Gast, the student activities director who has run the Student Union for two decades.  "But there is no choice anymore."

Shark Meat In, Chicken Fingers Out for School Lunches.  Shark meat is in and chicken fingers are out for some schools abiding by First Lady Michelle Obama's lunch rules.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture highlighted an elementary school in Maine on Wednesday [9/24/2014] that is taking the standards from the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act to a different level.  "The cafeteria is the biggest classroom in the school where students are taught to make healthy choices for themselves beginning in kindergarten," wrote Linda Mailhot, the head cook at Mount Desert Elementary School in Northeast Harbor Maine, in a blog post for the USDA.  Mailhot said that kids get to choose from "nutritious and appealing" foods, such as shark meat, kale salad, and broccoli slaw.  The school also has a "walking club" and students do yoga before class.

Vermont bans brownies, turns kids on to kale, gluten-free paleo lemon bars.  It's a best-seller at bake sales, a king of American confections, even a mandatory munchie of marijuana users.  But the iconic chocolate brownie, that perfect blend of cake and cookie, is banned in Vermont schools.  In its place are new hoped-for kid favorites like fruit shish kebab, kale and even gluten-free paleo lemon bars.  The switch stems from nutrition mandates required under the new Smart-Snacks-in-Schools program in effect for public schools.

Food service changes to take place at F-M High School.  Whether it was through their words or actions — like tossing the majority of the food on their lunch trays into the garbage — Fayetteville-Manlius High School students made it known that they were unhappy with the changes that have taken place in their school cafeteria since the federal government implemented the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010.  They have been heard, and by mid-September will see big changes in the foods offered in their school.

Chick-Fil-A Banned from Donating Food to School Event.  A high school football booster club in Ventura was prohibited from selling Chick-fil-A sandwiches at its back-to-school night event because the principal didn't like the restaurant owner's position on gay marriage, according to CBS Los Angeles.

Salt Lake City School District lunch report shows mistakes made.  On Jan. 28, lunches were taken away from 17 students at Uintah Elementary School and thrown in the garbage.  Following the incident, the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education had two external agencies conduct investigations into the district's lunch policies and procedures.  The school was one of seven investigated that had more than 100 instances of fruit and milk being offered in lieu of a meal.  Uintah, with 1,138 instances, was well above other schools.

A combination of animal rights activism, nanny-state food control and anti-Christian bias:
Public Schools Forcibly Subject Students To 'Meatless Monday' Activism.  Taking a page from long-standing Christian tradition — particularly Catholic tradition — taxpayer-funded public schools across the United States are now denying children the option of eating meat for lunch one day each week.  For Catholics, and for different reasons, that day has been Friday for centuries.  For American school children, the trendy new day of forswearing carnivorous deliciousness is Monday.

School District Trying New Lunch Menu Without Federal Guidelines.  The state's second largest school district has started the school year with a new look for its lunch menu, after opting out of the National School Lunch Program and forfeiting nearly $1 million in federal funding, to gain more freedom in the food it serves students.  In May, the board for Township High School District 214 voted to drop out of the federal program, after deciding its guidelines were too restrictive.  For instance, kids would not have been able to buy hard-boiled eggs or certain types of yogurt.

Illinois' second largest district drops Michelle O's menu.  The federal "healthier" school lunch overhaul, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, has been a boondoggle for public schools across the country.  The tightened restrictions, intended to combat childhood obesity, have driven more than 1 million students away from school lunches and created over $1 billion per year in food waste since they were implemented in 2012.  The drastic drop-off in lunch sales is prompting an increasing number of school districts to ditch the regulations and attached federal funding to save their floundering cafeteria programs.  Just this week, two other New York school districts dropped out.

Metro Schools Hiring 200 New Cafeteria Employees.  Metro Nashville Public Schools is looking to hire more cafeteria staff.  Their new free meal program has created a demand for more workers. The district is serving 17,000 more meals per day than last year, and as a result is looking to hire 200 additional employees.

USDA: Yucky School Lunches Can Produce 'Civic-Minded, Community-Conscious Adults'.  Who imagined that the Obama administration's effort to make school lunches more nutritious (but less delicious) would encourage children to become little community organizers?  The U.S. Agriculture Department has found an upside to all those "healthy" school lunches that students refuse to eat:  It says schools can use the plate waste as a "learning opportunity" to turn young students into "civic-minded, community-conscious adults."  A blog on the USDA website explains that an elementary school in Northern Virginia is now donating untouched food to a local food pantry.

Michelle Obama's Inedible School Lunches Lead to Food Redistribution.  Didn't eat your school lunch?  That's okay.  It wasn't really meant for you.  You were just a vehicle for redistributing it. [...] The entire setup is already pork city (the political kind) with lobbies for various agricultural concerns competing over what should be in the "healthy" menu.

EPA tells new students: Only 1 napkin, 1 salt packet, 1 ketchup pouch at school lunches.  For many students, the unwelcome return to school is often sweetened with a shopping trip for school supplies and new clothes.  Not anymore.  As college, high school and grade school students begin returning to classes, the Environmental Protection Agency is urging students to use recycled material, even garbage, for their supplies and to shop at thrift stores for "retro fashions."  And don't even think about taking more than one napkin or salt packet in the lunch line.

Now Michelle Obama Has Caused America's 'Best Cafeteria Cookie' To Be Outlawed.  An eruption of aggravation about what American schoolchildren can no longer eat in school cafeterias is never far away in the Obama era.  Now, thanks to federal intervention that first lady Michelle has made her signature issue, students in all 11 taxpayer-funded public schools in Elyria, Ohio cannot enjoy the famous Elyria pink cookie anymore.  This cookie is no ordinary cookie, according to The Chronicle-Telegram, the Cleveland suburb's local newspaper.  It's a velvety, cake-like, scrumptious delicacy glazed with a huge dollop of sugary pink icing.  Cleveland magazine dubbed the Elyria pink cookie the "Best Cafeteria Cookie" in 2009.  Locals will even call up asking for special bulk orders of the tasty treat.

Feds Ban School's Beloved "Pink Cookie".  School children in Elyria, Ohio are mourning the demise of a 40-year tradition — the loss of their beloved pink cookie.  The fabled cookie, long served in local school cafeterias, was done in by a pound of butter, six cups of powdered sugar and the Obama administration's food police.  "It no longer meets the national school lunch program guidelines for snacks," said Amy Higgins, the spokesperson for Elyria City Schools.  "It has too many calories."  The USDA "Smart Snacks in School" standards mandate that all snacks must contain less than 200 calories.

Bring Back The Welfare Stigma.  Richmond Public Schools (RPS) recently signed on to a federal program that "encourages school districts to feed everyone by eliminating many of the restrictions in the National School Lunch Program."  It's bad enough that we'll have more students belly up to the government food trough (if you've never had a taste of "free" government lunch, consider yourself lucky); instead, consider RPS Superintendent Dana Bedden's positive gushing about the new program:  "I like it for the health and nutrition aspect, but this also removes the stigma of free lunch.  Everyone can eat."  Ah, "stigma:"  one of the last great impediments to full-blown government dependency.  With all due respect to Bedden, he and the rest of Richmond Public Schools are doing a grave disservice by attempting to remove the "stigma" associated with free government handouts.

Cincinnati Enquirer Keeps Michelle Obama's Name Out of Story on District Ending Federal School Lunches.  Fort Thomas Independent Schools in Northern Kentucky have decided to get out of the federal school lunch program, specifically because of the requirements imposed in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.  Simply put, the district is tired of being forced to give kids food they won't eat.  Until it ran into problems, HHFA was seen as Mrs. Obama's signature achievement, and the press fawned over its alleged awesomeness.  Now that the program has encountered fierce real-world resistance, her association with it seems to have vanished from many press reports.

District drops federal lunch program.  Lunch at Fort Thomas Independent Schools may include more French fries, fewer vegetables and larger portions this year.  One thing that won't be on the menu:  federal dollars.  The Campbell County district is opting out of the federal school lunch program, forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding.  The reason:  Kids didn't like their healthful lunches.  "The calorie limitations and types of foods that have to be provided ... have resulted in the kids just saying 'I'm not going to eat that,'" Fort Thomas Superintendent Gene Kirchner said.

Back to school: No snacks for you, Michelle Obama says.  Michelle Obama's push to stop kids from eating snacks and buying sugary drinks will be realized when kids go back to school. [...] Stories have already started to pop up.  Public schools can't have bake sales anymore to raise money to pay for their music programs.  The Girl Scouts can't sell their cookies on school grounds.  You won't be able to get a decent snack that happens to be over 200 calories.  The school lunches will be basically inedible.  As for soda pop?  Forget about it.  This stems from a law passed in 2010, called the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Schools Act.

Put Down the Cupcake: New Ban Hits School Bake Sales.  A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars.  Jeff Ellsworth, principal of the kindergarten through eighth-grade school in Chapman, Neb., isn't quite sure how to break the news to the kids.  "The chocolate bars are a big seller," said Mr. Ellsworth.

School District Bans Birthday Cupcakes Because They Aren't Fair.  An elementary school in the outer suburbs of Atlanta has outlawed birthday cupcakes, cookies and, in fact, all food from birthday parties over fears that some kids with food allergies could feel sad and left out.  Officials at Brooks Elementary School in Newnan, Ga. announced the draconian new policy for the upcoming school year via a letter to parents, reports The Newnan Times-Herald.

Cafeteria workers offended by Michelle Obama's claim they serve 'junk food'.  School cafeteria workers, already frustrated that kids don't like menus ordered by Michelle Obama and the Agriculture Department, slapped as "offensive" the first lady's latest criticism that some school districts have given up and are just lazily serving junk food.

Ferguson-Florissant, Riverview Gardens, among schools offering free lunches to all students.  Ferguson-Florissant, Riverview Gardens and St. Louis Public Schools are among the school districts in the region that are planning to offer free lunches to all students, regardless of need, through a federal program new to Missouri schools this year.  Some of the districts had been offering free breakfast for all students and will continue to do so.  Now, district officials are participating in the so-called Community Eligibility Provision funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The program is part of the Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010, which was projected to boost federal spending on nutrition programs by $79 million over a decade.

Can healthy eating be forced on children?  Many of the pupils here are from low-income families where processed, unhealthier food tends to be more available.  "They weren't used to eating fruits and vegetables or salads," says school principal Richter Craig.  Newsagents and gas stations selling junk food are within easy reach of the school, making this trickier.  "It's not out of the ordinary to see a student walk into the building with pizza and a soda at eight o'clock," he says.  "So we have to say, let's eat this instead."

Michelle Obama Tells Kids 'Certain Money Interests' Are Trying to Kill Her School Lunch Program.  Friday [7/18/2014] First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the first "Kids State Dinner" in the East Room of the White House, which treated the 54 children who won a nationwide healthy meal recipe contest sponsored by the food magazine Epicurious and the Education and Agriculture departments to a state dinner.

White House asked to stay away from school nutrition summit.  The rebuke shows how ugly the fight has become between the first lady and her supporters, who want kids to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains in their school lunches, and the organization that represents cafeteria workers and their allies who argue that the federal government is going too far in its push for healthier meals.  At stake is the health of millions of kids, an $11 billion school lunch program dominated by big food companies that want to build brand loyalty early and even the legacy of the first lady — who has made combating the childhood obesity epidemic her primary cause.

Mrs. Obama Declares War on Chick-fil-A.  It seems the home of plump juicy breasts and hot buttered buns has run afoul of the new Smart Snacks in School program.  The program is a component of Mrs. Obama's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.  The new government regulations require snack items served in public schools to have less than two hundred calories.  That includes vending machines, lunch rooms and other campus food venues.  And that's really bad news for kids at South Carolina's Socastee High School.  They've just learned they will no longer be allowed to buy Chick-fil-A sandwiches at school.

The Editor says...
What does Michelle Obama have against Chick-Fil-A?

Michelle Obama and School Nutrition Association Battle over Meal Program.  An internecine battle has broken out between the Obama administration and the School Nutrition Association (SNA) over the federal government's requirements for school meal programs.  The fight has gotten so nasty that Michelle Obama's food policy czar, celebrity chef Sam Kass, who handed out awards at the SNA's annual convention in 2012, was refused permission to speak at this year's convention, held in Boston this week and attended by approximately 6,500 school nutrition workers.  According to Politico, the brouhaha arose from the different goals each group has for the $11 billion school lunch program; some food companies "want to build brand loyalty early and even the legacy of the first lady," while Michelle Obama and her supporters, intent on controlling children's food intake, try to impose their views on the program.

Michelle Obama Fights GOP On School Lunch Rules.  She's fighting a House Republican effort to soften a central part of her prized anti-childhood obesity campaign and says she's ready "to fight until the bitter end."

School Lunches Weren't Enough: Michelle Targets School Bake Sales.  In order to comply with federal regulations, the State Board of Education in Tennessee has announced that schools are only allowed to host club bake sales, cook-offs, or any other food-based fundraiser on each campus 30 days per school-year.  The board chose this specific number because if a maximum number of days are not set, schools are not allowed to host any food-related fundraisers at all, according to The Tennessean.  Administrators across the state are lamenting the effect this will have on school club funds.

Cash-Strapped Newark School District Spends Thousands on Take-Out.  Budget cuts and tight resources plague Newark public schools, but even in these tough economic times, the Newark Public Schools District has approved tens of thousands of dollars a month in spending on take-out food and catering, NBC 4 New York's I-Team has found.  An I-Team review of district spending over a 15-month period ending in May found that Newark administrators spent more than $330,000, or an average of about $22,000 a month, on food from places like Sandwiches Unlimited, SuzyQue's BBQ and King's Family Restaurant and Catering even as it faces a $42 million budget gap.

Which is a greater threat to your school kids — cupcakes or cholera?
Healthy School Lunches, Unhealthy Illegal Classmates.  Promoting and preserving good health has become so fundamental to American culture it now justifies stringent bureaucratic oversight to ensure that schoolchildren no longer participate in things like traditional in-classroom birthday and holiday celebrations. [...] So here's the obvious question:  How does the healthy lunch program improve the health of kids forced to share classrooms with illegals sporting head lice and spreading disease microbes long eradicated from the U.S.?  If various infectious diseases are gaining entry into America's classrooms, isn't banning sweets from school grounds an exercise in futility?

City's free meals for kids are back for the summer with more than 1,200 locations.  The city's popular, free summer meals program is back, this time with more sites and tasty items on the menu.  Until Aug. 29, any child under 18 can go to 1,207 sites to get free breakfast or lunch. [...] The food is doled out at a variety of locations, including public schools, NYCHA buildings, libraries and four food trucks.  Roughly 500 of the sites don't accept walk-ins because they cater to special-needs kids, according to Eric Goldstein, CEO of Food Services at the Education Department.

Why This Mom Now Boycotts The Government Picnic Lunch.  Two blocks north of my family's home in our rural Minnesota town sits one of our city parks. [...] But the park, and another across town, now entice in a different way:  For five days a week at midday, the parks become centers of "free" food for children.  At around eleven o'clock in the morning at the park we frequent, trucks pull up to the picnic shelter.  Friendly people wheel out equipment and set out food to serve on picnic tables.  The personnel and the food arrive courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which began in 1968 and has provided millions of kids with nutritious food during summer months.  In essence, the cafeterias from public schools stay open even when school's out.

Free school lunch fraud in NJ districts leads to charges against 6 across the state.  Six public officials face possible prison time after they were charged today [6/23/2014] with filing fraudulent applications for free school lunch for their children — accused of stealing $10,000 in benefits, despite household incomes that in some cases exceeded $100,000.  All six, charged with third-degree theft by deception, face up to three to five years in state prison and fines of up to $15,000, if convicted.  The charges come in a wake of a report by the Office of the State Comptroller, which found what it called "widespread fraud" in the National School Lunch Program throughout New Jersey school districts.

Michelle Obama Tells the Congress 'It's Unacceptable' To End My School Lunch Program.  House Republicans are trying to end Michelle Obama's school lunch initative and the First Lady's not happy about it.  She used a White House event on Tuesday to rally opposition to a bill passed by a House subcommittee that would allow districts to suspend the program.

Gov't Report: Nearly Half Approved School Lunch Applications Found to Be Ineligible.  A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published a month ago but just publicly released on Monday found that while the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken steps to see that ineligible beneficiaries do not receive reduced-price or free school meals, oversight still needs to be improved.  An analysis of a small, "nongeneralizable" sample of twenty-five approved applications found that eleven of them were in fact ineligible.

The Editor says...
Imagine that!  A government handout program that's chock-full of fraud and waste.

Student Lunches Soon Could Be Influenced By Climate Change Concerns.  There's no place in the Dietary Guidelines for a politically extreme environmental agenda, or for that matter any other non-nutritional agenda.  The Guidelines are promoted as providing authoritative nutritional advice — it's deceptive and dangerous to provide Americans nutritional advice knowing that it isn't based solely on their nutritional needs and instead driven by politics.  It's even worse for the government to develop food programs, such as those to feed school children, based on dubious, politicized recommendations.  Human nutritional interests and political environmental agendas are completely unrelated.  Developing legitimate nutritional guidelines therefore becomes an impossible task.

55,000 JCPS students of all incomes to get free meals.  Nearly 55,000 students at 95 public schools in Jefferson County would receive free breakfast and lunch this fall — regardless of their income — under a plan the school board is expected to approve Tuesday night [6/10/2014].  New federal eligibility rules enable high-poverty districts across the country to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students at schools with enough kids that are certified as qualifying for free lunch, said Julia Bauscher, director of School and Community Nutrition Services with Jefferson County Public Schools.

Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move!' goes too far.  [A]s is often the case with mammoth federal programs, one size does not fit all.  Many school districts have inadequate funding to meet the new nutrition standards and have had to borrow from educational programs, in some cases shutting them down.  Moreover, the kids detest the food and are tossing their lunches, so to speak, into the dumpster.  Some school districts report having to purchase or lease more trash cans to accommodate the extra garbage, increasing their waste-collection costs as well.

DC Children Avoiding Michelle Obama's Healthy Lunches.  A report by local Washington D.C. news station NBC4 indicates that over 60,000 low-income students in the metro area are skipping lunch, dissatisfied with the food offered to them by their schools.  In Fairfax County, Virginia, which contains much of D.C.'s Virginia suburbs, 16 percent of students eligible for free lunch don't eat on a typical day.  In Washington itself, the figure is 24 percent.  In Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland, over a quarter of low-income students don't eat lunch per day.

Michelle Gone Wild: First Lady Targets White Potatoes and Republicans.  Michelle Obama won't rest until we are all scrounging for berries and chomping leafy vegetation in the forest.  Or until she and her fellow progressives regulate the entire food industry Soviet-style.  Four years and $12 billion later, her campaign to replace French fries and pizza with green pepper strips and Mexican turnip roots in school cafeterias has tanked.  Kids in Kentucky said the food tasted like "vomit."  Students in California were selling chips and candy bars on the black market.  Lunch ladies and food service workers report that the K-12 crowd would rather skip meals than eat kale.  Kids dumped mystery meat into trash cans faster than Michelle dumped patients at the University of Chicago Medical Center.  More than 500 schools have already opted out to get away from federal regulations and Michelle's constant nitpicking.  So why are the little ones trashing the government-sanctioned slop?

Michelle Obama: House Wants To 'Override Science' On Childhood Nutrition.  First lady Michelle Obama used the pages of The New York Times Thursday to slam Republicans who she believes have stood in the way of her Let's Move! campaign to fight childhood obesity.  "When we began our Let's Move! initiative four years ago, we set one simple but ambitious goal:  to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthy," wrote Obama.  She touted the program's "evidence-based" approach, which relies on "the most current science," she said.  Science has led to a revamping of school lunches to be lower in sugar, salt and fat.

First lady defeated in panel vote.  Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee tried and failed Thursday to stop a Republican attempt to allow schools to opt out of nutrition standards backed by first lady Michelle Obama.  In a party-line, 22-29 vote, the panel rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) to kill language that would allow schools to opt out of offering lunches that meet higher nutrition standards.  The vote came after nearly one hour and 40 minutes of debate, the longest on any amendment during the 2015 spending bill process.  The language backed by Republicans would require the Department of Agriculture to grant waivers to school lunch programs that can show they have operated at a net loss over six months.

School lunches are now a 'right,' according to Mrs. Obama.
Michelle O: 'Parents Have Right to Expect Their Kids Will Get Decent Food in Our Schools'.  First lady Michelle Obama says parents "are looking for help" in making sure their children get balanced meals — and they "don't want their efforts undermined when they send their kids off to school."  "Parents have a right to expect that their kids will get decent food in our schools," Mrs. Obama said at the White House on Tuesday [5/27/2014].  "And we all have a right to expect that our hard-earned taxpayer dollars won't be spent on junk food for our kids."  The first lady said congressional efforts to ease the new school lunch rules are "unacceptable."

Thin skin: First lady bemoans opposition to her unpopular school lunch program.  First lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday chided congressional Republicans for attempting to roll back her school lunch standards, calling the effort "unacceptable" and accusing lawmakers of playing politics with the health of young students.  The unusual step by Mrs. Obama, who largely has avoided political scuffles during her husband's time in office, underscores the growing unrest around the initiative and a real chance that the standards, at least in their current form, may not survive much longer.

Public School Kids Protest 'Let's Move' Lunches As First Daughters Get Meatball Subs, Ice Cream.  With public school students using #ThanksMichelle to tweet photos of their skimpy, stomach-turning school lunches, I decided to look at what Michelle Obama's daughters are served at Sidwell Friends school, and it turns out the girls dine on lunches from menus designed by chefs.  While the Obama daughters have enjoyed dishes like chicken coconut soup, local butternut squash soup, crusted tilapia, they also get their fill of what Mrs. Obama might consider junk food.

While Public School Kids Eat 'Healthy Lunches,'Obama Girls Dine On Meatball Subs And Ice Cream.  Not only have disgruntled kids across America voiced their displeasure over First Lady Michelle Obama's school lunch program from the beginning, many have used #ThanksMichelle to tweet photos of their daily choices. [...] By contrast, the prestigious Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where the Obamas send their children to school, serves school lunches designed by chefs.  This week, for example, they might enjoy meatball subs, BBQ wings and ice cream, in addition to chicken curry, deviled egg salad and the "Chef's Choice."

First Lady Set to Respond to School Meal Critics.  The School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition directors and companies that sell food to schools, has lobbied for changes to the standards, saying some are too restrictive.

Michelle Obama Moves To Quell School Lunch Revolt.  First Lady Michelle Obama is moving to quell the revolt against the school meal nutrition standards that she helped set in place.  House Republicans are supporting a measure that would allow some school districts to opt out of the standards — if they can prove that it is affecting their school budgets.  In response, Michelle Obama is scheduled to meet with school leaders and experts on nutrition Tuesday [5/27/2014] to discuss the importance of federal regulation of school meals.  The strict rules, passed in 2010, limit the amount of fat, calories, sugar, and sodium served during school meals and requires more whole grains.

House GOP wants to roll back school lunch rules championed by Michelle Obama.  House Republicans are proposing to let some schools opt out of healthier school lunch and breakfast programs if they are losing money.  A GOP spending bill for agriculture and food programs released Monday would allow schools to apply for waivers if they have a net loss on school food programs for a six month period.  Championed by first lady Michelle Obama, the new standards have been phased in over the last two school years, with more changes coming in 2014.  The rules set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond.

Connecticut proposes chocolate milk ban in schools.  School children in Connecticut may soon be forced to go without their midday chocolate kick.  Connecticut lawmakers are awaiting Gov. Dannel Malloy's signature on a bill that would ban chocolate milk and some juices from school cafeterias in the state.  If he signs it, Connecticut would be the first state in the country — not just a single school district — to ban chocolate milk in school cafeterias.  The law would go into effect next September.

Nike Shoe Bribe to Keep Federal and State Money Flowing to 95% Black Detroit Public School System.  Though every student, K-12, in the 95 percent Black Detroit Public Schools (DPS) system already gets a free lunch, this isn't enough of a bargaining chip to keep them in class.  As part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Community Eligibility Option Program, each student in the DPS eats a free lunch every school day in a bid to remove the stigma of being from a "low income."

Teens Blame Michelle Obama for Their 'Nasty' Tater Tot-Free Lunches.  Caitlin Tagner, a high school sophomore from North Carolina, is very clear about who she blames for her school's "nasty" lunches:  "I blame Michelle Obama."  It's great that schools are trying to make lunches better, they're not doing a very good job of it.  "Starving kids at school isn't exactly a way to (get) kids' obesity down," Tagner added.  "I feel like it's just been taken too far."

Schools seek changes to healthier lunch standards.  Starting next school year, pasta and other grain products in schools will have to be whole-grain rich, or more than half whole grain.

Texas Students Launch Movement to Stand Up to FLOTUS Over School Lunch.  Students are fed up with the meager portion sizes and bland taste of Michelle Obama-mandated school lunches. [...] The Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act has been in effect for a few years now.  Yet, it seems to have done just the opposite of its stated intent.  Kids aren't getting enough to eat thanks to the law's stringent requirements; others are skipping lunch altogether because it tastes so bad.  What's more, obesity among school-aged children is still on the rise.

Feds to Ban Junk Food in Schools.  The government is putting its (big) foot down.  No more junk food in schools.

Michelle Obama's Food Program Is Non-Nutritious Waste Of Money.  The $12 billion federal student lunch program, which serves 30.7 million kids, is losing participants fast — more than a million just last year, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.  The reason:  the first lady's Healthy Hunger-free Kids Act, an act that has accomplished exactly the opposite of what it claimed it would — leaving hungry, angry, disgusted kids and dumpsters full of wasted food.  Kids have taken to Twitter to post photographs of the wretched results of the new federal guidelines that any school participating in the National School Lunch Program must follow to comply with the government-knows-best program for nutrition.

The Children's Crusade against Michelle O's school lunches.  America's school children have had enough and they're not going to take it anymore.  Faced with the meager, unappetizing school lunches required under First Lady Michelle Obama's nutritional program, students have taken to social media to express their outrage and disgust at what they're forced to eat for lunch.

Students sick of smaller, healthier portions take to social media.  American public school students sick of the smaller portions and healthier offerings they get at lunch thanks to Michelle Obama's anti-obesity initiatives are sounding off on social media.  Just a month after school lunch participation saw the steepest drop on record following the implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, students tired of going home hungry are making sure the first lady knows why.  'I'll never forgive Michelle Obama for this school lunch,' tweeted one angry student.

Cell phone snapshots illustrate the inedible dreck served for lunch in public schools.
Students Fed Up With Michelle Obama's School Lunch Overhaul.  First, about one million public school students said "no way" to their cafeteria menus after Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign led to anger and frustration over food that apparently many American kids didn't want to stomach.  But for those without other options, all that's left is the power of social media and cell phone cameras when they simply can't take another bite.

Solutions sought to reduce food waste in schools.  It's lunchtime at Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, but 16-year-old Parrish Jackson has barely touched her turkey burger and apricots.  She's dumping them into the trash can.  The apricots are "sour," the junior says.  The meat is "nasty."  If it were up to her, she would just have taken the potato wedges — they're close enough to fries — then headed to the student store to fuel up on hot Cheetos and juice.

Former Elizabeth school board president convicted in free lunch scam.  Former Elizabeth school board president Marie Munn was convicted today of stealing from the district's federal lunch program after falsifying applications to obtain free meals for her children.  She faces three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000 when she is sentenced in May.  The charges against Munn came after an investigation by The Star-Ledger into abuses in Elizabeth's school lunch program found she had been receiving free or subsidized lunch for her children for several years despite an income that exceeded federal eligibility limits.

Republicans Hope to Slim Chunky Federal School Lunch Regulations.  In response to public outcry and several "brown bag-ins" in schools across the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture loosened new meat and grain restrictions on school lunches in December.  Two Republicans have introduced separate bills that would give the meal changes some teeth.  Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD) introduced a school nutrition bill in December that would reduce federal school lunch mandates.  Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) put forth legislation to require the White House and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to abide by the same nutritional standards they impose on U.S. students.  "While state dinners can serve up thousands of calories for a single meal, one million fewer kids were participating in the National School Lunch program because of these onerous regulations," said Davis spokesman Andrew Flach.

Waterford school districts drop federal lunch program.  New federal requirements that foods sold in schools be healthier have some area school districts opting out of the federal lunch program that provides subsidies for serving free or reduced-price meals to low-income students.  Opting out means the districts do not have to follow food healthiness requirements.  But it also means the districts lose federal money that covers the cost of free and reduced-price meals for poorer students.  The Waterford Graded and Waterford High School districts have weighed their options and decided they'd rather forego the money and serve what they want.

Federal audit calls new school lunch rules a failure.  The federal government's changes to school lunch menus have been disastrous, causing problems for cafeterias trying to comply with the rules and leaving the menu so expensive or unpalatable that more than 1 million students have stopped buying lunch, according to a government audit released Thursday.  One school district told federal investigators that it had to add unhealthy pudding and potato chips to its menu to meet the government's minimum calorie requirements.  Other school districts removed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from their elementary school menus.

This happened in England, but it could easily happen here, too.
Headmaster expelled boy, 6, for junk food in his lunchbox.  A headteacher who expelled a six-year-old boy after he brought in Mini Cheddars for his packed lunch fed pupils food from McDonald's, it was revealed today [2/17/2014].  Jeremy Meek ordered the notorious junk food for youngsters at Colnbrook Church of England Primary School in Berkshire, just weeks before kicking out a pupil in a row over healthy eating.

All Mrs. Obama's calories.  That was some spread Barack and Michelle Obama put out the other night for François Hollande — a feast fit for the leader of a nation that gave the world haute cuisine.  Even so, it has one Republican congressman steaming.  Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis wants to know what example the White House is setting with a 2,500-calorie dinner (with 153 grams of fat to boot).  Because that's a day's worth of calories the USDA recommends for an average man.  And it's three times the calories the USDA allows American students in the school lunch program.

When Socialists gorge at the White House.  Obesity isn't a factor when it's dinner for poo-bahs and not for school cafeteria menus.

Sacrebleu! Obamas to serve gut-busting 2,500-calorie state dinner for Hollande.  Rep. Rodney Davis, Illinois Republican and a critic of the administration's school-lunch requirements, called the high-calorie State Dinner menu "the height of hypocrisy." "Even if you're estimating a small cut of steak, this is a menu where you're talking 2,500 calories, which is almost three times as much as what the first lady and the USDA allow our school kids to eat in the school lunch program," Mr. Davis said.

Cafeteria Nazis Take Lunches from Kids, Toss it in the Trash.  Because nothing says "nurturing children" like snatching their lunches out of their wee little hands and throwing the food in the garbage can.

Lunch Commissars On The March In Utah.  What does it take to turn an ordinary school official into a red-star commissar remorselessly yanking lunches from hungry kids and tossing them in the trash?  Try an anti-school choice union and a big bureaucracy.

Reports: Lunches seized from Utah schoolkids because of unpaid bills.  Dozens of children at a Utah school had their lunches seized and thrown away because they did not have enough money in their accounts, prompting an angry response from parents, it was reported.  "She took my lunch away and said, 'Go get a milk,'" Sophia Isom, a fifth-grader at Salt Lake City's Uintah Elementary School, told NBC affiliate KSL.com.  "I came back and asked, 'What's going on?' Then she handed me an orange.  She said, 'You don't have any money in your account so you can't get lunch.'"  Up to 40 kids suffered similar treatment, given fruit and milk as their lunches were thrown away, the station reported.

Christie Touts Free Dinner Program For Camden Kids.  Gov. Chris Christie is praising a new pilot program that is offering free hot dinners to students in a half-dozen Camden schools.

School lunch program to cost $16.4B.  Thursday's [1/16/2014] edition of the Federal Register contains 185 new agency submissions, including an update to the cost of the National School Lunch Program. [...] The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, which provides free and low-cost healthy meals to more than 31 million students, is projected to cost taxpayers $16.4 billion in 2014.  The costs will continue to grow over the next couple years, according to government estimates, adding up to $17 billion by 2016.

USDA To Permanently Loosen Requirements For First Lady's Unpopular School Lunch Program.  Parents, teachers and students who have been complaining for the past couple of years about the unappetizing, and unfilling lunches Michelle Obama's signature anti-obesity program has imposed on schools, finally have something to cheer about.  USDA regulators have agreed to relax rules that imposed reductions in calories and portion sizes as part of the law designed to improve school breakfasts and lunches, and ironically called the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

Let Them Eat Sandwiches: USDA Eases School Lunch Restrictions.  After the the school lunch program was overhauled in 2012 to curb childhood obesity, lots of kids began complaining that lunches were too skimpy.  Why?  Because in some cases, schools had to limit healthy foods — such as sandwiches served on whole-grain bread or salads topped with grilled chicken — due to restrictions the U.S. Department of Agriculture set on the amount of grains and protein that could be served at meal-time.  In some districts, program participation dropped as more kids decided to brown-bag it and bring their own food to school.

More students qualifying for free or reduced lunches.  The rates of children who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches has ballooned over a decade.  Yet area school officials say there are more eligible families who don't apply for the program, which not only provides access to meals but also qualifies schools for federal grants and additional state money.  The percentage of students in New Hampshire who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches grew by 66 percent over 10 years.

Feds' ban on milk-only option angers Manchester school officials.  Students must take a meal at school even if they only want a carton of milk, according to federal regulations presented at the Board of School Committee meeting Monday [11/25/2013].  Mayor Ted Gatsas and other school board members reacted with dismay to the rules, which they say have contributed to waste when students, some of whom bring lunches from home and only want milk, toss the school-provided fare in the trash.

Got milk? School lunch madness.  The Obama administration's unquenchable ambition to replace Americans' own choices with those made by bureaucrats in Washington has taken yet another stupid turn, it appears.  Either that, or the federal school lunch policy is so confusing that city officials cannot figure out how to serve milk.  "We're not able to offer the free milk-only option.  In order to have the free milk, the students are required to choose the required meal component," Manchester Superintendent Debra Livingston told the Board of School Committee on Monday night [11/25/2013].

Mom fined $10 by daycare for packing 'unhealthy' lunch.  Kristin Barkiw of Rossburn, Manitoba, Canada brought two of her children home from Little Cub's Den daycare when she saw that her kids were sent home with a note.  As reported by CTV, the message told the mom she had failed to provide a nutritionally balanced lunch for her children, 5-year-old Logan and 3-year-old Natalie.

Tennessee High School Segregates Students at Lunch Based on Grades.  A Tennessee high school is stirring up controversy for a policy that separates students at lunch based on their grades.  Specifically, La Vergne High School student who are making poor grades are separated from their classmates and made to eat lunch in a separate location.

The Editor says...
I thought self-esteem trumped everything in the government schools.

Epping preschool rejects candy corn mom packed into daughter's lunch.  Michelle Kelly recently decided to reward her 4-year-old daughter, Sarah, with a little bag of candy corn for getting ready for school on time.  Kelly packed the bag with Sarah's otherwise healthy snack and lunch and sent her off to Epping's public preschool.  Kelly didn't think too much of it when Sarah came home from school with the bag of candy uneaten.  She packed it again as a treat the next day, but when Sarah returned home with the candy corn a second time, Kelly asked her why she didn't eat it.  "She said, 'My teacher told me I couldn't have any candy,'" Kelly said.

The Editor says...
Why is a four-year-old in a public school anyway?  What happened to the custom of starting school at age six?

Chuck Norris says no to school lunch.  The Child Nutrition Act provides breakfasts and lunches to 31 million students at the cost of $12 billion annually.  Despite the fact that government-subsidized lunches are supposed to stay within certain fat, caloric and nutritional standards, 20 percent of schools also sell fast food, such as McDonald's burgers and french fries and Pizza Hut and Little Caesars pizza.  Eighty percent of schools do not meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture's standards for fat content in foods.  U.S. elementary school lunches average 821 calories each.  Forty-three percent of U.S. elementary schools, 74 percent of middle schools and nearly all high schools have soda vending machines on campus.

USDA Claims Highly Criticized Lunch Standards are 'Proving Popular'.  The USDA video claims that the "vast majority of schools across the country report having successfully implemented the new school standards.  However, numerous news reports from across the country in recent months show many schools are having trouble implementing the rules.  Additionally, districts are dropping out of the program due to financial burdens and kids' distaste for new menus finds the healthier food in the trash.  "They say it tastes like vomit," one Harlan County, Ky. school board member said at a meeting last month, according to the Daily Mail.  A group serving 12 districts in New York said implementing the standards was a "disaster."

Family Income Not A Factor As Students Eat Free.  The nation's oldest school system has joined a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that has spread to 10 states and the District of Columbia that offers students two free meals every school day, whether or not their families can afford them.

Some school districts quit healthier lunch program.  After just one year, some schools around the country are dropping out of the healthier new federal lunch program, complaining that so many students turned up their noses at meals packed with whole grains, fruits and vegetables that the cafeterias were losing money.

The Editor says...
Nobody cares if the food tastes like swill — until the cafeteria starts losing money!

Kentucky students to first lady Michelle Obama: Your food 'tastes like vomit'.  Students in a rural Kentucky county — and their parents — are the latest to join a growing national chorus of scorn for the healthy school lunches touted by first lady Michelle Obama.  "They say it tastes like vomit," said Harlan County Public Schools board member Myra Mosley at a contentious board meeting last week, reports The Harlan Daily Enterprise.

Regulations Prompt Schools to Ditch Federal Lunch Subsidies.  Approximately 200 school districts across the country have opted out of federal lunch requirements, leaving them free from regulations Michelle Obama pushed in 2010, but without federal subsidies for school lunches.  "It was basically about watching the amount of food get thrown away last year.  The kids just didn't like what we had to offer them," said Gary Lewis, superintendent of Catlin Public Schools in Illinois.  "The new guidelines from the federal level for us were too restrictive."  Through the lunch program, the federal government dictates the type, amount, and even color of food in public schools.

Why Did a Tennessee Grade School Ban Pork?  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. [...] "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 or pork rinds.

The Editor says...
The ban was quickly lifted, but don't ever forget that they tried to impose Islamic (halal) restrictions on food that the kids were bringing from their homes!  Even the Food Police have never been so brazen, but the Muslims are, and I suspect that's who is at the root of this ill-conceived order.

Fraud widespread in New Jersey free lunch program -state official.  New Jersey will refer 109 names to criminal investigators after a probe allegedly found pervasive fraud in the federal free and low-cost lunch program in the state's schools, a state official said on Wednesday [7/17/2013].

Indiana school district loses $300K because students refuse to buy first lady's healthy meals.  School officials in Carmel Clay, Ind., said they lost $300,000 last school year because students are rejecting the healthy menu changes brought on by First Lady Michelle Obama's federal lunch regulations.  "I've had a lot of complaints, especially with the little guys," Linda Wireman, a food service director for North White School Corp., told JCOnline.  "They get a three-quarters cup of vegetables, but if it's something they don't like, it goes down the garbage disposal.  So there are a lot of complaints they're going home hungry."

First lady-backed school lunch regs cost school district $100,000.  A New York school district is giving the boot to the National School Lunch Program (NLSP) [sic] 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.

New York school drops Michelle Obama lunch standards: Kids too hungry.  New York's Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district has become the latest casualty in first lady Michelle Obama's preferred lunch plan, dropping the menu after too many students complained of hunger.  "[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," said Assistant Superintendent Chris Abdoo about the National School Lunch Program in a statement reported by EAGNews.org.  "Students complained of being hungry with these lunches and the district lost money."

Feds add Greek yogurt to school lunches.  The Obama administration wants to add Greek yogurt to school lunch menus.  On Monday [7/8/2013], the Department of Agriculture announced it was looking to buy the yogurt for schools participating in a federally assisted program that subsidizes school lunches.  A department official said in a statement that the introduction of Greek yogurt, which is high in protein, was aimed at helping schools offer a variety of healthy foods to kids.

Michelle knows best — but schools struggle to meet Obama's new lunch rules.  Schools are having a difficult time meeting new federal requirements for leaner student lunches championed by First Lady Michelle Obama and in some cases are adding less healthy foods to meet calorie limits, investigators have found.  The problems are so widespread that the Government Accountability Office is recommending that the Agriculture Department ease or change some requirements to avoid the unexpected consequences of Mrs. Obama's signature effort to address childhood obesity.

Michelle Obama's school lunch rules to kick off next year.  High-calorie sports drinks and candy bars will be removed from school vending machines and cafeteria lines as soon as next year — to be replaced with diet drinks [and] granola bars.  The Agriculture Department said today that for the first time it will make sure that all foods sold in the nation's 100,000 schools are healthier by expanding fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits to almost everything sold during the school day.

Menu Changes Are Driving Children Out of the Lunch Line.  The attempt to legislate nutrition is causing problems in the nation's public schools.  Food waste is up and the number of students buying school lunches is down, witnesses told a congressional panel on Thursday [6/27/2013].  And the maximum weekly limits on protein and grain servings, although temporarily suspended, are particularly troublesome.

New federal rules require healthier school snacks.  Candy bars, doughnuts and regular potato chips will become scarce in schools under new federal rules released Thursday, replaced by healthier options such as granola bars, trail mix and baked chips.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's new "Smart Snacks in School" nutrition standards represent the first nutritional overhaul of school snacks in more than 30 years.

New rules make school a junk food-free zone.  High-calorie sports drinks and candy bars will be removed from school vending machines and cafeteria lines as soon as next year, replaced with diet drinks, granola bars and other healthier items.

We pay for lunch, breakfast, and a couple of carry-out meals for the weekend.
If you eat from the government's hand, you are the government's slave.
Food Bank distributed record number of weekend backpacks to hungry kids.  The Kansas Food Bank gave out record numbers of Friday food packages to schoolchildren in Wichita and throughout the state this year as part of its Food 4 Kids program.  The highest number of backpacks of food handed out to needy school children was 7,158 during a week in February, said Larry Gunkel, a Food Bank official running the program.

[NY] City Education Department cracking down on school kitchens' use of butter.  Butter was exiled from school cafeterias as far back 2008 in an effort to make meals healthier.  But some school kitchen managers say they are being 'bullied' on how to prepare meals and threatened with 'disciplinary action' should they go against the ban.

Free Breakfasts: Another Destructive Progressive Idea.  The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced last week that it will discontinue the free school breakfast plan it initiated last year.  Called "Food for Thought," the plan provides school breakfasts to about 200,000 students.  It was funded by the LAUSD and the nonprofit Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, whose goal is to raise the number who participate to about 450,000 students (out of a total of 645,000 in the entire district).

Michelle Obama: USDA working on 'delicious' school lunches.  First lady Michelle Obama said Friday [5/3/2013] that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) was working on making school lunches "delicious" after the implementation of new school meal regulations that have drawn fire from some conservative critics.

Study Says Free Lunches Overpriced, Lack Nutrition.  A controversial government study today revealed an astounding conclusion: free lunches are expensive and lack nutrition.  All copies of the study have since disappeared and the members of the blue-ribbon panel which produced it have not been seen since it was released.

Parents outraged that Mass. kids were denied lunch.  As many as 25 students at a Massachusetts school were denied lunch this week — with at least some forced to dump their food in the garbage — because they couldn't pay, school officials and parents said.

Creating Dependency, One Mouthful at a Time.  To illustrate the pernicious character of today's largesse, consider the school free lunch program.  It is only one of several food programs; others include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (commonly called food stamps), the WIC program for pregnant and breastfeeding women, and NSIP, which provides food for the elderly.  Administrative details aside, all share common traits.  Free school lunches started small shortly after WWII to reduce government surplus milk and cheese.  The program has, predictably, exploded in size and scope, far beyond what population increase would require.

Dem bill would expand school lunch program to weekends, holidays.  Four House Democrats have proposed legislation that would expand school lunch programs to weekends and holidays.  Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) proposed the bill, which would amend the Richard Russell National School Lunch Act to set up weekend and holiday "feeding programs."  The proposal is meant to help ensure that at-risk school children meet their nutritional needs, but it would only extend this help during the school year, not during the summer.

If you brought a sandwich to school, do not share it with anyone else.
Maryland school district outlaws hugging, homemade food, pushing kids on swings.  The Old Line State — where kids have been suspended for making guns with their fingers and with toaster pastries — now boasts a school district that prohibits hugging and homemade food in public elementary schools for anyone except a parent's own children.

More kids get free lunch in D.C.'s wealthy suburbs.  The Washington area's wealthy suburbs have seen a sharp rise in the portion of children receiving free, government-funded lunches over the last several years, an indication of rising poverty levels.  In Fairfax County, the second-wealthiest county in the country, nearly 27 percent — 47,874 — of the public school system's 179,253 students receive free or subsidized school lunches this year, up from 21 percent — 33,479 — of 162,986 just five years ago, data show.

Sixty-four Percent of Schoolchildren Fed on Federal Subsidies.  In fiscal year 1969 (which started in 1968), there were approximately 47,906,000 American children enrolled in elementary and high schools, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  During the average school month in that year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 19,400,000 of these students ate lunches subsidized by the National School Lunch Program.  That means that in 1969, about 40 percent of all elementary and high school students ate federally subsidized lunches.

New federal rules for school food will cost millions, group says.  Newly proposed federal regulations aimed at the snack foods and drinks served in the nation's schools could come with a hefty price tag.  The American Action Forum estimates the regulations, which include caps on serving sizes and calorie counts, will cost schools $127 million and require more than 926,000 hours of paperwork.

This is just slightly off-topic:
Columbia students costing college $5,000 a week for Nutella at campus dining halls.  Columbia students are addicted to Nutella — and are feeding a $5,000-a-week habit. [...] The problem is that undergrads are not just filling up while in the cafeterias.  They's pilfering it to eat elsewhere.

Phila. school lunches: Goodbye fries, hello fennel.  People For People is one of four schools participating in the "Eatiquette" program, which was designed by local chef Marc Vetri to provide nutritious, low-cost lunches in a setting that reinforces social niceties and communication skills.

Food control: New regulations target meals sold in schools.  Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

Soda, candy out under USDA's proposed school snack rules.  The Obama administration proposed regulations Friday that would prohibit U.S. schools from selling unhealthy snacks.  The 160-page regulation from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) would enact nutrition standards for "competitive" foods not included in the official school meal.  In practice, the proposed rules would replace traditional potato chips with baked versions and candy with granola.  Regular soda is out, though high-schoolers may have access to diet versions.

No Pork at TX College? The Nanny State Continues.  Are you sending your son or daughter off to college?  If you are, have you given your adult (or close to adult) child instructions on eating a healthy diet?  Or, are you anticipating that the school will make these choices for your young adult?  At Paul Quinn College in Dallas (a small private college) the president of the school is making these decisions for you.  President Michael Sorrell came to the conclusion that pork is not a nutritious food and therefore banned it from the school cafeterias.  All pork.  Not just bacon, not just pork rinds.

"Do as we say, not as we do."
Obama gut-busting lunch menu tops 3,000 calories.  The ceremonial lunch President Obama and his former congressional colleagues are eating Monday [1/21/2013] tops out at 3,000 calories, according to a website that has tallied up the luxurious menu of lobster, bison and apple pie.

47 million Americans on food stamps, Obamas pig out on a 3,000 calorie inaugural luncheon.  Although Obamacare requires restaurants to post calorie counts for all their menu items, Dear Leader's inaugural luncheon got a pass.  It's good to be king!  Of course, if you tried to serve this lunch in your local high school cafeteria, Moochelle would have you arrested.

The Regulatory Landscape in America — A Morass Of Red Tape.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture in January published stringent nutrition standards for school lunch and breakfast programs.  More than 98,000 elementary and secondary schools are affected — at a cost exceeding $3.4 billion over the next four years.

The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012.  [#6]  School Lunch Standards:  The U.S. Department of Agriculture in January published stringent nutrition standards for school lunch and breakfast programs.  More than 98,000 elementary and secondary schools are affected — at a cost exceeding $3.4 billion over the next four years.  The dietary rules have drawn protests from students, including the YouTube video "We Are Hungry" from a Kansas high school and a lunch boycott by high school students in Wisconsin.

Food allergy discrimination fight.  Back in the 1960s, there was real discrimination in American colleges.  At places like the University of Mississippi, students were threatened, assaulted, and arrested for demanding equal rights.  The U.S. Justice Department (with just a handful of lawyers) fought hard, serious battles to stop these civil rights abuses.  Today, with a staff of 800 and a 2012 appropriation of $145 million, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is suing universities over the food they do, and do not, serve in student cafeterias.

Reprieve! More Meat for School Lunches.  The Agriculture Department says it will issue new rules on school lunches that will increase the daily and weekly allowance of meat and grains.  This follows on the heels of several well publicized lunchtime protests by students who rebelled against the mostly vegetarian fare that the Agriculture Department had previously recommended.

Blow to Michelle Obama as regulators loosen stringent school meal regulations.  U.S. regulators dealt a blow to First Lady Michelle Obama's anti-childhood obesity campaign by announcing they are relaxing school meal rules.  Mrs Obama had supported new rules that would restrict calories and limit portion sizes in school meals but some students, parents and lawmakers complained that new stricter policies left many children hungry.

Ag Department: Those 'exciting changes' to school lunches aren't working out so well.  It only took a few months for the food cops and nutrition nannies in DC to come to a collective epiphany:  By the time these kids grow up they may well have forgotten who exactly stuck them with trillions and trillions worth of debt, but they will always remember who made them eat [bad] pizza.

Hungry kids revolt against Michelle Obama's tiny school lunches.  Voters turned out in force to demand a second helping of Barack Obama, but Michelle's signature effort, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, has left a lot of hungry kids hoping for a change back to larger lunches.

Feds handing NYC kids $30 million for free lunches as Sandy aid — whether they need it or not.  Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch has never dined with Uncle Sam.  Even as the nation teeters on the edge of the fiscal cliff, the feds have found $30 million in extra lunch money to shower on city schoolchildren in the name of hurricane relief.

A New Kind of Paternalism.  According to Bob Barnes, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction at West Hoke Elementary in Raeford, North Carolina (the "scene of the crime," if you will), an agent from the Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Child Development and Early Education was at the school that day, and examined six student lunches.  The lunch that this alphabet soup determined to not meet necessary nutritional criteria?  A turkey and cheese sandwich on white wheat bread, potato chips, a banana, and apple juice.  According to the Carolina Journal, this lunch did not meet specific guidelines outlined by the US Department of Agriculture:  one serving each of meat (or meat replacement), dairy, grain, and two servings of fruit and vegetables.  As such, the child's lunch was taken away, replaced by the school's lunch (chicken nuggets), and the parents were billed as a result — although the 5-year-old girl was so shaken from the incident that she barely ate at all.