Students, stomachs grumble over Michelle O’s menu

eagnews.org ^ | 10-08-2014 | Kyle Olson

[Red Badger]

BURLEY, Idaho – Burley High School has seen a 25 percent decrease in participation since changes to the National School Lunch Program went into effect.

Michelle Obama hand on student 337x244Those students now “bring sack lunches, dash off campus for fast food or skip the meal altogether,” according to the Times-News.

“It was not edible. It was a greasy little hot pocket,” parent Steve Wells says. “When we were little, everything at school was homemade.”

The school lunch “doesn’t taste as good,” student Ana Inzunza tells the paper. “It’s missing flavor and tastes plain.”

“There are a lot of challenges,” Cassia County schools food service director, Angela Rodriquez, says of the new rules championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

“The students have noticed there is not as much flavor in the food.”

Meanwhile, students in Austintown, Ohio aren’t faring much better.

“Kids can’t take two ketchup packets [for burgers] because that would set them over on calories” for that condiment, Natalie Winkle, district food-service secretary and assistant tells The Vindicator.

The district’s food service director says costs are up and revenues are down.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana parent Janina Martinez is concerned, too.

“And as the years progressed, I seemed to be sending lunch more often for both Daniela and Alex,” Martinez says, according to 225BatonRouge.com.

“One time she came home and told me about the chicken jiggling like Jell-O.”

The news site continues:

It was eye-opening for Martinez, but she says she really started to wonder about the food when Alex came home and exclaimed, “Mommy, they managed to mess up the pizza. The pizza!” …

To meet the new mandates, the school district removed hot dogs, chili and macaroni and cheese from its menu, opting for more beans and burritos. It also changed its buns from white to whole wheat.

“The National School Lunch Program has enjoyed years of steady growth, but what we’re now seeing is a lot of waste, mostly with fruits and vegetables,” School Nutrition Association spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner tells the news site.

Many students are finding the food inedible.

“The chicken, sandwiches and burgers and even the pizza crust” didn’t taste right, Huntington County, Indiana student Matthew Karst tells the Journal-Gazette.

“For example, they had biscuits and gravy for lunch. I look at the biscuits, and it’s a whole grain. I took one bite of the chicken patty and it was so disgusting, I couldn’t finish it.”

Candice Hagar, director of nutrition services at Fort Wayne Community Schools, tells the paper she’s seen more waste this year because her schools are serving more things that kids don’t want to eat.

“There’s nothing I can do about it,” Hagar says. “I do need those reimbursements from the federal government in order to feed my children.”

At Matanzas High School, in Florida’s Flagler County district, the News-Journal reports the students can, “Forget mystery meat. Students are discovering mystery vegetables in their lunch line now, and they can’t check out without loading up on them because of increasingly strict federal rules that tell cafeteria workers what they must serve — and what’s forbidden.”

“I think it all goes in the garbage,” a 17-year-old student tells the paper.

Contradicting the rhetoric of proponents claiming lunches are now less processed, the paper reports:

The school still sells sandwiches and wraps, but they’re pre-made for the students, which allows cafeteria workers to ensure that every meal meets federal requirements.

Student Lindsey Ryan summed up the point of all of this: “Forcing us to put broccoli on our plate is not going to make us eat it.”

Or, to put it another way:

[Texan5]

I went to Catholic school and I hate fish sticks!

The only day I liked to eat the cafeteria fare was on Tuesday-baked or fried chicken, and I chose salad over corn-we had enough fresh corn at home...

[IamConservative]

When I was in school (30+ years ago) there was a kitchen at the school and cooks in there cooking. You could start to smell it around 10:00 or so. On days when we had chili, you could smell it the rest of the day, but I digress.

For the entire time my kids were in school in the 90’s and 00’s, the school had a kitchen, but they did not cook. It was all just warmed up fast food or locally purchased fast food. The only appliances in the kitchen were warming ovens. When the PTO wanted to have a pancake breakfast, we had to bring griddles in to cook.

Never did understand that. I can see Michelle’s point, but I don’t think it is the role of the Federal Government to intervene.

[Catsrus]

I remember grade school and yes, the cooks did cook. There were no free lunches for the underprivileged kids. If your parents couldn’t afford lunch - then you worked in the cafeteria to pay for it. Our food was good and I loved the fish on Fridays.

[Texan5]

All the cafeterias still had real cooks even when my kid was in school-you could smell food actually being cooked all morning. I wouldn’t have a kid of mine eating packaged re-warmed crap...

There was no such thing as free lunch in private school-or in public school either-everyone who didn’t want that day’s lunch had a brown bag, and kids were not singled out as “underprivileged”-that is cruel, and almost like bullying.

I love fish, but not fish sticks...

[punknpuss]

Great, now school lunch rooms will be putting more people out of work because the kids won’t eat lunch.

When I was growing up we only had brown bag lunches, sometimes pb&j, sometimes bologna or potted meat, sometimes pimento cheese. We would buy milk and that was lunch. My parents did not let us buy lunch because they had 6 kids.

My son took a lunch box to school almost every day except for Fridays when I let him buy lunch. That was a treat.

[Bitsy]

BURLEY, Idaho

If they hitched their carriage to the obama horse, they have to take the ride. You have no choices in progressive world.

[erkelly]

I remember those days, too. If you could not pay for lunches, you worked. I also remember that in our sixth-grade class, a boy from the one of the most prominent and well-to-do families in town was told he had to work for his lunches; because his father felt he was old enough to start contributing economically and that there was no such thing as a free lunch. This decision by this man took all stigma away for the children whose parents could not afford to pay for their lunches. All these years later, I still think of that boy's parents with such admiration!

[Graybeard58]

I don’t eat hot dogs, but my husband did-it is processed mystery meat

You got it, everything but the pig's whistle ground up in hot dogs, plus, let's not forget, "mechanically separated chicken". About once or twice a year, I might have a Nathan's or Hebrew National, both Kosher.

[Red Badger]

Whatever happened to the ‘Right to Choose’?

I guess if you ‘choose’ to have an abortion at 15, it’s okay, but not to ‘choose’ more than one packet of ketchup because it’s verboten...........

[Bitsy]

yep. Makes sense doesn’t it?/s

[Texan5]

I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know how chicken is “mechanically separated”-or any other mystery meat...