Michelle Obama’s Unsavory School Lunch Flop

Michelle Malkin ^ | December 22, 2011 | Michelle Malkin

[Academiadotorg]

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.

[autumnraine]

Ohhhh, I see.

Sorry, didn’t realize the kids should be starving to eat what even I would consider crap.

[trisham]

It may be appealing to some adults, but to offer that menu to children is unrealistic and a misuse of taxpayer's money. The Obamas are out of touch liberals, as are those who would support this nonsense.

Public schools. A big, expensive mistake that indoctrinates and prepares children for servitude to the state and socialism.

[autumnraine]

Not just ‘dangerous’, but “TIME CONSUMING!!!!” My daughter’s school removed recess. Recess is a perfect time to burn off lunch.

[A_perfect_lady]

I’ll let you know when I start finding little skeletons in the hallway.

[trisham]

That would be so kind of you.

[bootless]

What Moochelle and her cuisine czars doesn’t seem to understand is that children have a LOT more taste buds - and the sensitivity to strong tastes (and the mental unreadiness for really complex flavors). Babies have taste buds everywhere, even inside their cheeks. They start to thin out after that, but that’s a physical reason why young children normally will not or cannot eat strongly flavored foods.

They also get used to stronger flavors as they mature, but the taste bud concentration continues to diminish as well. Which explains why my mom used to eat raw onions and hot peppers with no issue. Yikes!

[Fire_on_High]

Spag bol is only considered snooty liberal food here in the US....it’s considered a guilty favorite in Aus. I spent quite a number of years in an Aussie guild in EQ and they talked about food a lot...that was pretty much a universal favorite, comfort food sort of thing.