Posted on 06/26/2015 8:10:47 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(CNSNews.com)-- The School Nutrition Association (SNA), which represents 55,000 school nutritionists nationwide, is pointing to data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to draw awareness to the fact that “after 30 years of steady growth in the National School Lunch Program, student participation is abruptly down in 49 states."
The nutritionists attribute the drop to new nutrition standards that were instituted by USDA in 2012.
Total national participation in the School Lunch Program peaked in 2010 and 2011 at 31.8 million, according to USDA. In 2012, it was 31.7 million. But in 2013, it dropped by 1 million participants, to 30.7 million. In 2014, it declined again to 30.4 million
Since its peak of 31.8 million in 2011, school lunch participation has dropped by 1.4 million, according to the USDA.
“More than one million fewer students choose school lunch each day, thwarting the goal of promoting healthier diets for all students,” the SNA stated, adding that “school lunch revenue is down and food waste is up.”
The group is asking Congress to “provide reasonable flexibility to help schools plan healthy meals that students will eat.”
Students across the country have been complaining about the new school lunch program touted by First Lady Michelle Obama, and posting photos on Twitter at #ThanksMichelleObama. One recent comment: “It looks great, for an earthworm. We get to eat this and it tastes like dirt.”
Lynn Harvey, an SNA member and chief of school nutrition services for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, testified on Wednesday before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce that the new nutrition standards have “created unintended consequences”.
North Carolina was one of the first states to comply with the new standards, which require that all grain-based items be made of 100 percent whole grains. But Harvey told the committee that “the addition of whole grain flour has created products that are dense, compact, dry and crumbly instead of light, moist, tender and flakey.”
“Students tell us these newly modified items are unpalatable and therefore unacceptable.” she said, leading to waste and lost revenue in the state’s school systems.
But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended child nutrition programs such as the “School Breakfast Program” (SBP) and “Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program” (FFVP) because he said they allow the federal government “get a handle on the obesity issue … to the extent that we provide proper nutrition to kids who are living in food-insecure homes.”
As a result of these programs, “we’re going to see better health outcomes … and better cognizant development,” Vilsack testified last week at a House hearing entitled “Child Nutrition Assistance: Are Federal Rules and Regulations Serving the Best Interests of School and Families?”
Vilsack said that the purpose of these programs, which are authorized by the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010” (HHFKA), is to “determine the best practices for increasing fruit (both fresh and dried) and fresh vegetable consumption in schools.”
On February 26, 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service proposed regulations under the 2010 HHFKA in the form of local school wellness policies. These proposals include “nutrition promotion, nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness.”
Vilsack touted the success of the USDA’s child nutrition programs and the positive impact HHFKA has already had in schools across the nation. He noted that these programs have been receiving positive responses from teachers at the participating schools as well.
“A hungry child is not a child who is willing to learn,” he said.
“One of the reasons that this is so important is the ongoing epidemic of obesity in this country. Today, more than one third of U.S. children are overweight or obese. We know that this impacts both their immediate and long-term health and well-being.
“Youth who are obese are likely to be obese as adults and are therefore at higher risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and several types of cancer,” Vilsack added.
“The legislative changes championed by this Committee, and enacted through the passage of the HHFKA in December of 2010, have already resulted in major accomplishments on the ground: We have updated the nutrition standards for school meals to put greater emphasis on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low fat dairy products, as well as provide portion sizes in line with scientific recommendations. Even prior to the change in meal standards, many schools around the country had already begun making these changes, many through USDA’s Healthier U.S. School Challenge,” Vilsack testified.
“Improved meals mean that on an average day, the 31 million children who eat lunch at schools and the almost 14 million who eat breakfast have greater access to nutritious food that can help put them on a path towards healthy eating for the rest of their lives.
“Ninety-five percent of school districts have been certified as meeting the new standards by their States. This certification, grounded in detailed reviews of their meal service, is the basis for receiving additional performance based funding provided by HHFKA,” he noted.
However, the SNA says that before 2014, “the U.S. Department of Agriculture had no data to show that 90% of schools were ‘successfully’ meeting standards. Schools were not asked to report on how new standards have impacted student participation, costs, revenues and food waste.
“While there have been many successes, such as offering a wider variety of vegetables and exposing students to more whole grains, the significant challenges and unintended negative consequences of meeting the standards are a reality for schools across the country,” the nutritionist group noted.
In addition, “the mandate to serve a fruit or vegetable with each school meal results in a nearly 100% increase in waste with about $3.8 million worth of produce being thrown in the trash each day.”
An audit released last month by the USDA inspector general also found that $12.5 million was spent on free school lunches for ineligible children, including “an elementary school principal and his wife, a high school assistant principal” in Chicago who “asked the principal’s mother to submit an application for their children because their annual income together exceeded $230,000.”
Why don’t the SCOTUS just MAKE us eat it, like they did with the LGBT ruling.
Kids rejecting Moochie Meals.
Big Brother will not be happy.
Another liberal, progressive utopia bites the dust.
Chewbacca is an idiot!
Thanks for the ping!
So which is the 50th state where kids enjoy hamster kibble?
That’s what I was wondering. My other thought was, is the 50th state only moderately down rather than substantially down.
Oddly enough, I don’t care one way or the other re: whole-grain breads; in fact, it was the one edible item on my HS lunch plate...on days that they served it...
They had a catering company from Houston bring breakfast and lunch (the charter school district is HQ’ed in Houston); as such, the food was cold once it arrived in Dallas, *even with the cooler sealed*.
The canteen has a full kitchen; no one bothers using it...smh
Tip: The charter school system is run by Ottoman Moslems. In the classrooms, the instructors only make passing references to their “religion”, usually if one of the pupils asks. With the current geopolitical situation, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve gone on defence...
Isn’t it a GOOD thing when fewer people are participating in a welfare program?
Let them eat cake!
Likely, the garbage at Sidwell is more nutritious and palatable.
But, by Supreme Court decree, the words mean what they want them to mean when they want them to mean it, inasmuch as they mean anything at all.
The whole language, one formerly of semantic precision, has been rendered meaningless by these boobs.
This has to be the poster for the biggest waste of time and taxpayer money and a demonstration of idiocy of the American people
great job ya shelf ass wookie bitch moochelle.
Now who could have seen this coming...
Your point raises another question - how many fewer are purchasing school lunches altogether that aren’t on this program? I bet that data is even more striking.
Reminds me of a joke a traveler to Europe told me. Just after the plane reached cruising altitude, the pretty stewardess announced "Velcome to Lufthansa, YOU VILL ENJOY THE FLIGHT!"
And you vill be fed if you vill just sit down and OBEY ORDERS!!!
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