The road to gastric hell is paved with first lady Michelle Obama’s Nanny State intentions. Don’t take my word for it. School kids in Los Angeles have blown the whistle on the east wing chef-in-chief’s healthy lunch diktats. Get your Pepto Bismol ready. The taste of government waste is indigestion-inducing.
According to a weekend report by the Los Angeles Times, the city’s “trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop.” In response to the public hectoring and financial inducement of Mrs. Obama’s federally subsidized anti-obesity campaign, the district dropped chicken nuggets, corn dogs and flavored milk from the menu for “beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets, and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads.”
Sounds delectable in theory. But in practice, the initiative has been what L.A. Unified’s food services director Dennis Barrett plainly concludes is a “disaster.” While the Obama administration has showered the nation’s second-largest school district with nutrition awards, thousands of students voted with their upset tummies and abandoned the program. A forbidden-food black market — stoked not just by students, but also by teachers — is now thriving. Moreover, “(p)rincipals report massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away.”
This despite a massive increase in spending on nutritional improvements — from $2 million to $20 million alone in the last five years on fresh produce.
This despite a nearly half-billion-dollar budget shortfall and 3,000 layoffs earlier this year.Earlier this spring, L.A. school officials acknowledged that the sprawling district is left with a whopping 21,000 uneaten meals a day, in part because the federal school lunch program “sometimes requires more food to be served than a child wants to eat.” The leftovers will now be donated to nonprofit agencies. But after the recipients hear about students’ reports of moldy noodles, undercooked meat and hard rice, one wonders how much of the “free” food will go down the hatch — or down the drain. Ahhh, savor the flavor of one-size-fits-all mandates.
There’s nothing wrong with encouraging our children to eat healthier, of course. There’s nothing wrong with well-run, locally based and parent-driven efforts. But as I’ve noted before, the federal foodie cops care much less about students’ waistlines than they do about boosting government and public union payrolls.
From the names of these foods they might also be too highly spiced for young, sensitive tastebuds.
What’s wrong with baked fish, apple or peach wedges, low-fat cole slaw?
Or how about white-meat chicken or turkey prepared in pot pie w/veggies or over noodles or in a fricasse with dumplings, carrots, celery?
Not all beef is fatty like Obama’s favorite Kobe beef!
How about a low fat cut of beef in a nice stew with potatoes and carrots in it?
Plain whole-wheat bread on the side.
These are the kinds of healthy, bland foods children adore.
They like sandwiches, too.
Would Michelle serve that sludge to her family? Is it palatable when cooked by WH chefs, but not the low-skilled cafeteria workers? Once more michelle antoinette’s misunderstood the common man. Let them eat lentils and back-eyed peas!
When will people learn? There is nothing wrong with eating cheese burgers, fries, fried food, sweets, soda pops, etc…. But in moderation, and with other healthy habits. People in America have eaten those foods for years, yet still remained thin, and were not over weight. But now that we have an epidemic of obesity Big Brother does what Big Brother will do, they go after the external substance. And what do libs love more than anything at all? Making laws for other people to live by. It takes change from the inside out, not the other way around. It takes parents raising kids with healthy values. Opps! Parents, and values are dirty words now! Oh well!
Maybe Michelle knows more about what is better for kids to eat, just like her husband knows what’s best for the adults. Just put our kids in Michell’s hands and the adult’s in Barack’s and everything will be fine, but, he will need another term and several DEMOCRATIC presidents after him to accomplish it. Let’s try it and see what happens. LOL