Posted on 06/21/2014 3:54:55 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign is claiming that salad bars have increased student participation in school lunch, despite a report that found one million children fled the lunch line in response to her new lunch standards.
“Let’s Move!” released findings from their own survey for its “Salad Bars to Schools” program on Thursday, touting the addition of salad bars in some schools.
“More than 1.7 million school-age children in the United States have better access to fresh fruits and vegetables thanks to new salad bars donated to schools through Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools,” Let’s Move said in a blog post. “Recently, the program partnership released results of a survey of recipient school districts. Among the benefits of school salad bars reported by school food service directors were increased student access to fresh fruits and vegetables and increased student participation in the school lunch program.”
The campaign is making the claim based on their survey of 357 school districts, with the report finding, among other things, that 78 percent of schools bought more fruits and vegetables because they now have salad bars.
They also claimed that 57 percent of the schools saw increased participation in school lunch, which they credited to salad bars.
“School administrators, teachers, staff, and parents are supportive of school salad bars,” another finding read.
Let’s Move failed to mention other reports that found school lunch participation has declined since the implementation of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, which was championed by the first lady.
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), one million kids stopped participating in the school lunch program during the 2012-2013 school year, the first year the law went into effect. Forty-eight out of 50 states faced challenges implementing the new healthier standards, which resulted in kids throwing out their fruits and vegetables, student boycotts, higher lunch costs, and odd food pairings such as “cheese stick with shrimp” in order for schools to comply with the complicated rules.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has touted the new standards as “popular,” despite complaints from children that the food “tastes like vomit.”
Salad Bars to Schools is Let’s Move’s partnership between the Food Family Farming Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, United Fresh Produce Association Foundation, and Whole Foods Market. The organizations have donated roughly 3,400 salad bars to schools across the country.
“School salad bars are gaining momentum from coast-to-coast,” said Ann Cooper, founder of the Food Family Farming Foundation. “It’s gratifying to see kids, teachers, and parents getting excited about fresh fruits and vegetables.”
More than 30 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program every day, including 19 million that receive free lunch. The program cost $11.6 billion in fiscal year 2012. The program also has a high rate of fraud, as 15.69 percent of its payments were improper last year, amounting to $1.8 billion.
Schools have asked Congress and the Obama administration to roll back the lunch rules due to the cost and difficulty of putting them in place.
Mrs. Obama responded on Thursday and defending the standards, saying it would be “unacceptable” to go back to the way lunches were.
“Of course it’s hard. That we expected,” she said. “We expected those challenges, particularly among our oldest kids who’ve grown up eating junk food.”
“But what we did not expect was for the grownups to go along with it and say, ‘Well, this is too hard and it costs too much money so let’s stop even though we have 90 percent compliance,’” Mrs. Obama said.
As I recall from my Jersey City days, my parents paid for the school lunches.
Nothing was free.
In HS we had approx. 300 in the entire school
But we had an award winning basketball team, all on scholarship
My parents directly paid for those scholarships.......and my tuition....and my lunch!
She and daddy pack their lunches together every morning!!!
^^THIS^^
Blah blah blah.
Salad bars in schools are not new. They have been tried and discontinued in some places. They have been tried and been successful in some places. Our elementary school offers salads usually already put in take out plastic containers. They look like something I might eat. The children pick their dressing, pour it on their salads, close the containers, and shake them up. And they actually eat a good bit of these salads. One of our boys will choose salad when the other food looks yucky. He eats a good bit of the salad. And then there are other students who I have watched choose salad and then sit through lunch and not eat a bite. They then throw the salad away though they could take it home. That is a big waste. The culprit is RITALIN. That makes me soooo unhappy. I blame parents and teachers for causing these children to have volatile emotions, appetites, etc.
When I was in HS, in Brooklyn, if I wanted cafeteria lunch it came out of my allowance.
We had an award winning basketball team as well, none of them were on scholarship, as it was a totally academic school and still ranks in the top 100 college prep high schools in the nation when all are considered and in the top 10 in New York.
I’m class of ‘78 and tuition was $660 a year ($60 a month) now tuition is $9,500 ($950 a month) and yes, there are scholarships now because they still want the best, even if they can’t afford it.
Of course I was too stupid to comprehend what it meant.
Back in the 70's we all got used and manipulated.
I still occasionally get pissed off about this.
Most of our local school have reduced the number of salad bar days because of the high cost of produce.
“... findings from their own survey....”
About as reliable and unbiased as the surveys from the MSM administration pimps and pimpettes.
“School administrators, teachers, staff, and parents are supportive of school salad bars,” another finding read.
For FEAR of Moochie’s WRATH and loss of their children, jobs and/or tenure!
I have a hard time believing this. I have a grand daughter who hates vegetables and would not choose a salad bar at all.
Loogies in the lettuce?
I do know some kids who hate veggies - but I also know a lot who absolutely would love having a salad bar at school especially if it also had fruit.
If there was a salad bar at school, that could be had without also purchasing everything else on the days menu, my daughter would go for it in a heart beat.
The way it works here is the kids can’t buy a piece of fruit, to get the fruit they have to buy the entire lunch, even if they bring their own.
And just how germy is a salad bar?????
I gave them up many many years ago after my Dad and I went to a buffet. We had just taken our seats, looked over at the buffet when a man expelled a horrific amount of goob out of his nostrils, wiped it off with his hand and then picked up the entre spoon with the same hand. Just think everyone there after who ate chicken with their fingers or ate a roll. . .ingested the germs from that man’s nose. I know I can go on and on but that was the defining moment of the salad bar/buffet dining for me. I know the horrific stories behind the scenes ordering a la carte :) but given the times. . .I truly believe the hedge of protection has been lifted from us. . . .everyone needs to claim Psalm 91.
Thanks for the ping!
How ironic she’s trying to thin down America’s kids. You could play racket ball on he ass!
The First Lady as school food czar: an unconstitutional position with unconstitutional authority over an unconstitutional program in an area the federal government has no enumerated power to control. The whole thing is an affront to the Founding Fathers and people who give a crap about the Constitution. Whose numbers are apparently dwindling daily.
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