The new changes to school lunches that have been happening across the nation are not that popular with students.
Didn’t see that coming.
According to Anthony Gallimore, a high school senior from Georgia, the new menu is just nonsensical. He says most people “put up with” the lunch, but many of the students have started bringing their own. “Health-wise, I’d say it’s an illusion of benefit. The food even LOOKED more presentable before,” he said, adding, “And if nobody chooses to eat the gross food, then it can’t possibly be helping anyone. It’s just being thrown out anyway.
“Students blame Michelle Obama and her Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act for the bland and sometimes ridiculous changes and have spurred a movement to post nasty lunch pictures on social media, like this one:
Thanks Michelle Obama @BrytonDaniels pic.twitter.com/ETkwXYIJCf
— S. (@Ssssarahv) April 2, 2014
Which is exactly the point stressed by some school nutrition directors who want the Department of Agriculture of loosen up the new lunch requirements so students will stop throwing away their food. Nutritionists almost unanimously agree that changes were needed to reduce the by-gone lunches composed mostly of greasy pizza and soggy fries. However, they say the rules are so stringent that they are draining budgets and throwing away tens of thousands of dollars in fruits and vegetables that students are required to select.
“The regulations are so prescriptive, so it’s difficult to manage not only the nutrition side of your businesses but the business side of your business,” Domokos-Bays, a school nutrition director, said.
In order to make the transition easier, The School Nutrition Association has asked Congress and USDA to only require that 50 percent of foods be whole grain-rich, to suspend the 2017 sodium requirements and to stop requiring students to take a fruit or vegetable.
This will cut down on the waste, but won’t do a whole lot to curb obesity. Therein lies the dilemma.
“I think they’re just disingenuous,” child nutrition advocate Ann Cooper said of the kids protesting their lunches. She doesn’t think Michelle Obama is to blame in the ordeal. “Because what I think they would like, instead of having fruits and vegetables… they’d like to have four pieces of pizza … There’s plenty of schools that are not serving good food, but that has nothing to do with the guidelines.”
I be lookin at the school lunch like pic.twitter.com/kLleF944d9
— Kahlil Pinkney (@yung_scoopgod) May 5, 2014
What is to be done? Should the government take a step back from trying to regulate school lunches or should the fight continue until the adjustment period settles down?
Image Via YouTube