Michelle Obama has taken it upon herself to decide not only what children in the country will eat but what they can sell in fund raisers:
At Chapman School in Nebraska, resourceful students hawk pizza and cookie dough to raise money for school supplies, field trips and an eighth-grade excursion to Washington. They peddle chocolate bars to help fund the yearbook.
But the sales won’t be so sweet starting this fall. Campus bake sales—a mainstay of school fundraisers—are going on a diet. 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.
The restrictions that took effect in July stem from the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by first lady Michelle Obama and her “Let’s Move!” campaign. The law overhauled nutrition standards affecting more than 30 million children. Among the changes: fatty french fries were out, while baked sweet potato fries were deemed to be fine.
The law also required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to set standards for all food and beverages sold during the school day, which includes vending machines, snack carts and daytime fundraisers. It allowed for “infrequent” fundraisers, and states were allowed to decide how many bake sales they would have that didn’t meet nutrition standards.
Without state-approved exemptions, any treats sold would have to meet calorie, sodium, fat and other requirements. The law permits states to fine schools that don’t comply.
People aren’t happy with the Food Nazi:
According to a report from the National Resources Defense Council, close to 40 percent of food in the U.S. is never eaten, which is approximately $165 billion in waste. Liberals should be outraged, but Mrs. Obama and the administration’s mandates are adding to the problem of more food being thrown away at the schools.
In her recent New York Times editorial, Mrs. Obama even picked a fight with the beloved potato (my daughter’s favorite vegetable). She argues that “many women and children already consume enough potatoes.” Really? Are mashed potatoes that bad for you? Speak for yourself, Mrs. Obama. It is stressful enough for families these days, especially single moms who are working, raising children and figuring out what to make for dinner every night for their children. Women do not need the first lady or the Obama administration to tell them what and how to eat. The Republicans simply want to provide flexibility to low-income women who receive WIC benefits so that they are in charge of making food choices for their families.
Obama’s Diktat is costly and wasteful
As students flood Twitter with images of inedible slop, it’s clear that Michelle Obama’s government school lunch revamp is a costly failure. It’s time to get the feds out of kids’ lunch boxes.
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.
Meager burgers on soggy buns and sorry little skim milk cartons amid otherwise bare lunch trays, mystery meat, tiny little teaspoons of taco meat amid a few straggly cheese shreds on a massive tortilla, and tiny pebble-like chicken nuggets a cat wouldn’t eat are pretty much the result of calorie-limiting, one-size-fits-all, anything-but-buy-local, lunch programs.
I was in Newport Rhode Island recently and saw this in the lobby of our hotel:
ALL proceeds donated to ovarian cancer. Can’t have that. Not healthy. Michelle needs to squash it immediately.
Liberals want to control every aspect of your life. Under the Obama dictator partnership you might be a little more healthy and a little more physically fit, but you will not be free.
Next up: the ban on birthday cakes.
image courtesy of rightpunditry
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.