Free Republic

ROTTERDAM, N.Y. (AP) — One student complains because his cafeteria no longer serves chicken nuggets. Another gripes that her school lunch just isn't filling. A third student says he's happy to eat an extra apple with his lunch, even as he's noshing on his own sub. Leaner, greener school lunches served under new federal standards are getting mixed grades from students piling more carrots, more apples and fewer fatty foods on their trays.

DENVER (AP) -- There will be more whole grains on school lunch menus this year, along with a wider selection of fruits and vegetables and other healthy options. The challenge is getting children to eat them. "We don't want healthy trash cans. We want kids who are eating this stuff," said Kern Halls, a former Disney World restaurant manager who now works in school nutrition at Orange County Public Schools in Florida. At a School Nutrition Association conference in Denver this summer, food workers heard tips about how to get children to make healthy food choices in the cafeteria.

New federal demands for healthier school lunches are causing a summer scramble for Long Island school districts to meet the new demands. The real impact will likely be felt during the first weeks of school in September, when many kids begin to notice smaller portions of meat and increased portions of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Across the region, and the nation, districts are struggling with both the need to match new guidelines and to communicate the changes to parents and students. Districts are having to respond to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by President Obama and First Lady...

In a new interview made available Monday, first lady Michelle Obama defended her “Let’s Move!” anti-obesity program against critics who call it a government intrusion. “‘Let’s Move!’ is not about having government tell people what to do, because government doesn't have all the answers,” Mrs. Obama said in an interview with Topanga Sena, age 11, a reporter for Scholastic News in Florida. “A problem that's this big and affects so many people requires everyone to step up. So we're asking everyone to step up.” Obama has toured the country for the second anniversary of her anti-obesity initiative, leading school groups...

A North Carolina teacher has now been suspended indefinitely for her involvement in a food-police incident in which a preschooler’s lunch was “supplemented” with chicken nuggets, sparking national outrage last month. The Carolina Journal reports parents of students in the pre-kindergarten program at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford, N.C., received a letter from an assistant superintendent last week saying a substitute teacher would take over the preschool class until the “issue” is resolved. Ads by Google Online Police TrainingEarn Your Degree Online and Start a Career in Police/Law Enforcement. HerzingOnline.edu/Criminal-Justice Teacher Online DegreeTeacher Degrees 100% Online. You May Qualify...

The National Center for Public Policy Research hosted a “lunch-in” today at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.The target of the protest? “[F]ederal school nutrition guidelines that allegedly forced at least one student to forgo her mother’s home-packed lunch in favor of chicken nuggets,” a press release announcing today’s event read. The alleged lunch incident happened in North Carolina. “A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because the school told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious,” a local reporter wrote last week. “The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato...

All praise be to Allah! The federal government apparently has eradicated the illegal immigration that cripples America. It has eliminated the staggering unemployment that has brought so much misery to so many families. And, apparently, it has erased the suffocating debt and added enough spunk to the economy that it no longer needs all of those little tax dollars that small businesses provide. That is why the federal government has so much time these days for fine-tuning our society in ways that might seem frivolous if we didn’t have so much patience and extra money lying around. Just last week,...

What if the children, whose packed lunches were forbidden, were suffering from food allergies? What if the oil that the chicken nuggets were cooked in was a no-no for that child? What if they were allergic to nightshade foods like potatoes? Finally, what if the children got sick from the school lunches? Who is responsible for making that boy or girl sick?

Michelle Obama's campaign to transform school foodguidelines is not your typical first lady literacy or "just say no to drugs" project. No, hers is an all-out insidious plan to use food, a basic biological need and foundation of the mother-child relationship, to nudge parents out of the way at the ground level.The first lady's deceptive initiative has closely followed the Center for American Progress' policies set out in their 2008 report Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44 th President. Led by John Podesta and funded by George Soros, CAP began working on the plan for President Obama's...

North Carolina officials have said there was a misunderstanding when a preschooler’s homemade lunch was sent home for not meeting certain nutritional requirements, but now a second mother from the same school has come forward exclusively to The Blaze to say the same thing happened to her daughter. Diane Zambrano says her 4-year-old daughter, Jazlyn, is in the same West Hoke Elementary School class as the little girl whose lunch gained national attention earlier this week. When Zambrano picked Jazlyn up from school late last month, she was told by Jazlyn’s teacher that the lunch she had packed that day...

Just the Facts: State vs. Federal School Nutrition ProgramsPosted by Courtney Rowe, Press Secretary, USDA, on February 16, 2012 at 1:21 PM In the past 24 hours, we’ve seen a lot of chatter online regarding a story from North Carolina in which a pre-school student’s lunch was deemed “unhealthy.” We’d like to set the record straight. As established by law, USDA promotes healthier lifestyles for our nation’s school children through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. The Department sets science-based nutritional standards for and oversees State administration of schools that choose to participate in these national programs. In exchange...

A preschooler in the Hoke County public school system in Raeford, North Carolina was force fed chicken nuggets for lunch because a state worker determined that her homemade lunch lacked nutritional value.

RUSH: This is from Rayford, North Carolina. Carolina Journal. I'm gonna read it to you exactly as it printed out here: "A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips and apple juice did not meet US Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day." Again, let me read this to you again: "The...

State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food instead RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious. The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day. The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services...

A mother in Hoke County complains her daughter was forced to eat a school lunch because a government inspector determined her home-made lunch did not meet nutrition requirements. In fact, all of the students in the NC Pre-K program classroom at West Hoke Elementary School in Raeford had to accept a school lunch in addition to their lunches brought from home.

Less salt and fat. More whole grains, fruit, veggies and low-fat dairy. This is what kids can expect in the school lunchroom soon, according to new nutrition standards for school meals announced today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and first lady Michelle Obama. "When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won't be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home," Obama said in a statement. "We want the food they get at school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our...

First Lady Michelle Obama received a warm welcome from the students and teachers at an elementary school Wednesday where she promoted new tougher nutrition standards for school meals. The students clapped and cheered as Mrs. Obama entered the cafeteria at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. The first lady, who was was joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, picked up food from the lunch line before sitting with the kids and teachers. Obama and Vilsack unveiled the updated nutrition standards for school meals required by the 2010 school nutrition bill.

How many children can say they have had lunch with the First Lady? Parklawn Elementary School students were joined Wednesday by First Lady Michelle Obama, who visited the school during lunchtime to unveil new national health standards for school cafeteria meals. “When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” Obama said during a meeting with parents and press in Parklawn’s library before having a turkey-taco lunch with second- and fourth-grade students in the cafeteria. The school’s menu...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The revamped school lunches at Los Angeles Unified School District have won awards, commending them for improving the menu at the second largest school district in the nation. Too bad the students don’t agree. Rejecting healthful alternatives like vegetarian curries and tamales, quinoa salads and pad Thai noodles, students are throwing them in the trash by the thousands, bringing junk food from home and buying instant noodles and other decidedly unhealthy fare from the “black markets” that have begun to thrive at campuses across the district, according to the Los Angeles Times. The wholesale rejection to...

"Nasty, Rotty Stuff" That's the verdict from student Mayra Gutierrez on the new healthful menu introduced this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District. And she's not alone, according to the L.A. Times. "At Van Nuys High School," reports the paper, "complaints about the food were so widespread that Principal Judith Vanderbok wrote to [food services director Dennis] Barrett with the plea: 'Please help! Bring back better food!'" Readers might wonder how, with all of the challenges in reading, writing and arithmetic, school administrators decided that reducing fat and sodium at the cafeteria was a top priority for L.A....