'Bureaucracy run amok': School dumps federal lunch program, is deemed 'processing plant'

FOX News ^ | October 21, 2015 | FoxNews.com

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Nathan Greenberg believes he runs a school district, but government bureaucrats look at his Londonderry, N.H., operation and see …. a food processing plant?

That’s the strange dilemma the 5,000-student district finds itself in after deciding at the end of the last school year to pull the high school out of the unpopular National School Lunch Program. While the district’s elementary and middle schools remain in the program, which sets portion and nutrition guidelines for students, provides low cost staples and subsidizes meals of low-income pupils, it proved immensely unpopular at the high school.

“We saw the [federally-mandated] food going right into the garbage,” said Greenberg. “We had some of the healthiest trash cans in the state of New Hampshire.”

Before the current school year began in the town of 24,000 neighboring Manchester, the district decided to pull the older students out of the program. Doing so gave officials flexibility in what meals they offered and how they were prepared. The high school now has a new snack room, a coffee bar and a frozen-yogurt machine, and a salad bar is set to open next month. Participation in the school lunch program rose from 29 percent to 33 percent, according to officials.

Greenberg’s goal was not to provide a less healthy menu, but to provide more choices and ensure the food was actually consumed.

“We knew full well that in doing so, we would have to pick up the tab for the [high school] kids who got free and reduced-price lunches,” Greenberg said. “We were okay with that.

“We were able to offer nutritious lunches with greater variety,” he continued. “We have seen greater participation and enthusiasm, as well as significantly less waste.”

[Mears]

“I can remember having to learn EVERY country, capital, mtn. range, river name, etc. in World Geography. I’ve seen too many ‘man on the street’ clips to hope govt schools today are even the SAME as then.”

—

That’s how I learned also.

I knew those days were gone when a college student was asked to name the country north of the USA.

Her answer—Hawaii.

.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

DEATH TO CARROTS AND CELERY STICKS!!!

[tdscpa]

I could very well be wrong. Old-timers disease, you know. In 1967 I was a college senior. My schools had cafeterias in the early 50’s when I started grade school. All of the schools in NW KS had school lunches during all my grade school years.

[T-Bird45]

Interesting about cafeterias in NW KS in the 50s & 60s. Is it possible that it had to do with the rural nature of the area, i.e. long distances? I grew up in Arkansas City KS, population around 13,000 in my youth. In the 50s and into the early 60s, there were still one-room rural schools in operation in that county with grades 1-8.

[tdscpa]

I was born and raised in Colby, about 4,000 pop. at that time. On further thought, I think I did carry a lunch box to school for a year or two (1st & 2nd grade) before they built a new “middle school” (Jr. High) that had the cafeteria.

[T-Bird45]

I spent several unhappy days in Colby back in the 90s, waiting on a broke-down truck to get fixed. Parts don’t get there very quickly. Nice town, though. Thanks for the check back on the discussion!