Free Republic

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...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Some 500 former military leaders are deploying to Capitol Hill in an attempt to save Michelle Obama’s changes to the National School Lunch Program. Politico reports:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Some 500 former military leaders are deploying to Capitol Hill in an attempt to save Michelle Obama’s changes to the National School Lunch Program. Politico reports: Mission: Readiness, a group of nearly 500 former military leaders, is planning to “storm the Hill” when Congress comes back to town next month and urge lawmakers to keep new school nutrition standards intact. “We’re not going to retreat our way out of the problem,” said Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, who served in the Air Force for 35 years and is now a vocal advocate for the group. (snip) While that...

First lady Michelle Obama said something Wednesday that seems preposterously ironic to many American school kids: "No one really cares what you had for lunch." "I tease my kids," Michelle Obama said at a White House event on women's empowerment with Laura Bush. "I tell them I want them to use Instagram to take a picture of something really important rather than their food... I mean, no one really cares what you had for lunch." The audience laughed. The irony here is that public school children subjected to Michelle's vaunted "Let's Move" lunches have been tweeting photos of their lunches...

Michelle Obama’s food policy czar, celebrity chef Sam Kass, was once so in with the lunch lady crowd, he landed a guest judge spot on a tearful school lunch episode of Food Network’s “Chopped” and handed out awards at the School Nutrition Association’s convention in Denver. Two years later, when he asked to speak at the group’s annual convention this week in Boston, the answer: “No.” 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...

New York's $75 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that began last week includes the first step toward offering free lunch for all 1.1 million students, expanding a program now reserved only for the city's poorest children. Starting in September, the city will spend an additional $6.25 million a year so that all 177,000 students in the sixth through eighth grades will qualify for free breakfast and lunch. By expanding the program, advocates seek to eliminate the shame and embarrassment that keep many children who qualify for the free lunches from receiving them.

Bean burgers, peanut butter substitutes and pre-sliced vegetable packets were on the menu Monday as school lunchroom managers from around the country sampled offerings in a hunt for fare that will meet stricter health mandates — without turning off sometimes-finicky students. "I have my work cut out for me," said Sara Gasiorowski, who was among the roughly 6,500 people attending a conference for school nutrition professionals at the convention center. This fall, new requirements from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will alter the makeup of school meals, calling for less sodium and more fruits and vegetables. Grain-based foods such as...

54 students of a government middle school in Bihar's Sitamarhi district fell ill today after eating a mid-day meal in which a 'snake' was found. Sursand block development officer Vinod Kumar said the children of Meghpur Middle School at Sursand developed symptoms of nausea and fell unconsciousness after eating the meal. They were rushed to a nearby public health centre, given medicines and kept under observation. None of them were in critical condition, he said. "We have seized the khichdi that was given to the students. A long, black object was found in it and we suspect that it could...

I mentioned two days ago the decision of schools to ban birthday cupcakes. Michelle Obama is essentially fighting with students to get them to change what they eat. But what is missing from this story is the proper context. The fact is that our bad eating habits are getting encouraged by taxpayer money. In fact, the government arguably changed our dietary habits to their present behavior. The Foundation for Economic Education came out with an article yesterday about dealing with “food deserts.”

Local school districts in Wisconsin are opting out of the onerous school lunch guidelines that have been pushed largely by First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her campaign to fight obesity, choosing instead to make their own guidelines about proper food nutrition at the local level. As the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports, Rick Petfalski, school board president of the Muskego-Norway School District, said, “We believe that proper food nutrition and meal portion guidelines are best decided at a local level.” Petfalski’s school district’s decision to opt out of the National School Lunch Program means it will no longer receive...

NORTH SMITHFIELD, R.I. – First Lady Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch menu is finally getting some love from a group of young eaters. Some 3,000 pigs at My Blue Heaven Farm in Rhode Island have been dining on students’ lunch leftovers from two nearby school systems, according to WoonsocketCall.com.The pigs are enjoying “half-eaten tuna sandwiches and other food scraps students discard during their lunch periods” as part of a new recycling program established by the town of Cumberland, the news site reports.The recycling program has been so successful that officials are planning to expand it in the fall.The school food...

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...

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. From Fox News: Seeing her nutritional standards under threat, the first lady hosted a discussion with school leaders on Tuesday afternoon at the White House where she ripped efforts to roll back those guidelines. “This is unacceptable,” Obama said. The first lady said families realize the country is facing a “health crisis,” and the...

It’s just so confusing. Do you feed your kids bologna sandwiches or pieces of wet cardboard? Can you give them PlayDoh on a dead mackerel?Modern grads of Ivy League colleges don’t have the time to figure all this stuff out. That’s why there are government bureaucrats who tell schools what to feed kids so they don’t die of cardboard overdose.And there’s Michelle Obama who spends more time obsessed with what your kids eat than most major food conglomerates. In an interview with MSN.com, First Lady Michelle Obama explained she used to struggle to feed her kids right—even though she received...

As the U.S. House of Representatives prepared to consider the fiscal year 2015 agricultural appropriations bill, the White House threatened to veto the legislation due to opposition related to funding provisions related to school nutrition programs, potatoes in the Women, Infants and Children program and other policy issues.This is the first veto threat from the White House for fiscal year 2015 spending bills.“The bill undermines key investments in financial oversight, injects political decision-making into science-based nutrition standards, and includes objectionable language riders,” said the official Statement of Administration Policy. “If the President were presented with H.R. 4800, his senior advisors...

First lady Michelle Obama and school lunch ladies used to be on the same team, but now they’re locked in a political war against each other. For the first three years of Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, the School Nutrition Association, a powerful group that represents 55,000 cafeteria professionals, was a close ally in the White House push to get kids to eat healthier. The group helped lobby for the legislation at the center of the debate: the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, a law championed by the first lady that mandates more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and less sodium...

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. To achieve this goal, we have adhered to one clear standard: what works. The initiatives we undertake are evidence-based, and we rely on the most current science. Research indicated that kids needed less sugar, salt and fat in their diets, so we revamped school lunch menus accordingly. When data showed that the lack of nearby grocery stores negatively affected people’s eating habits, we worked...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - Can Americans Be Trusted to Oversee School Lunches Themselves?Posted By Arnold Ahlert On May 29, 2014 @ 12:25 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments On Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama took on House Republicans, criticizing their attempt to roll back the current guidelines for school lunches. “It’s unacceptable to me, not just as first lady but also as a mother,” she declared during a White House meeting with school nutrition officials. “The last thing we can afford to do right now is play politics with our kids’ health. Now is not the time to roll back everything...

There’s a hashtag filled with colorful commentary and color pictures of the devastation Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative has wrought on the plastic platters of America’s school children. There’s a GAO report showing participation in the school lunch program down more than 1 million students— the first such decline in years— while costs are up and the actual nutritional value of these allegedly improved meals remains in question. But none of this requires reevaluation. The real problem with Michelle Obama’s crusade and a top-down, inflexible federal mandate for students of varying sizes and tastes is that Republicans are pointing...

Today’s reflection: “Obama Unleashes His Inner Geek (Again) at White House Science Fair.”"The last thing we can afford to do right now is play politics with our kids' health."The science is settled then: if you want to eat, you’ll eat what we tell you to eat. Posted from: Michelle Obama’s Mirror