Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Suburban School District Drops Out Of

May 8, 2014 ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (CBS) – It might seem like a no-brainer to give kids healthier lunch options, but one suburban school district wants to keep their pizza and fries, because they don’t think students will buy the healthier menu.

Township High School District 214, the state’s second largest high school district with 12,000 students, has dropped out of the National School Lunch Program.

A district spokesperson said the new school lunch guidelines are too restrictive; for example, not allowing kids to buy hard-boiled eggs or certain yogurts. School officials also have noted the new guidelines consider hummus to be too high in fat, and pretzels to be too high in salt; non-fat milk containers larger than 12 ounces could not be sold either.
Pulling out of the federal lunch program would mean also giving up $900,000 in federal aid, but the district fears it might not get that money anyway, as they’d only receive the aid if students purchase the healthy food required by the new guidelines, and officials believe kids would simply choose to go off-campus to get food instead.
The District 214 board voted Thursday night to drop out of the federal program.
The strict Smart Snacks in Schools guidelines requires schools to sell only snacks that have fewer than 200 calories and no more than 230 milligrams of sodium. Snacks need to be either rich in whole grains, or mostly made of fruits or vegetables.
The Chicago Tribune reports most of District 214’s food revenue comes from its a la carte menu, which includes pizza, fries, and Subway sandwiches; and generates $2.2 million in revenue. Vending machines add another $543,000.
The new federal guidelines take affect July 1. Thousands of schools have decided to stay on the federal school lunch program and make the necessary changes to their vending machines and lunchroom menus.
A spokesperson said if the District 214 – which serves the suburbs of Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, and Wheeling – drops out of the federal school lunch program, officials would create a new menu with 10 to 12 healthy lunch options. Officials believe they can in crease profits by 10 percent if they come up with a healthy menu their own way.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/05/08/suburban-school-district-might-drop-out-of-federal-lunch-program/

Schools Across US Drop Out of Federal Lunch Program
Program to curb childhood obesity faces a nationwide backlash because cafeterias are losing money.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/schools-us-drop-federal-lunch-program-20090777

http://eagnews.org/federal-report-identifies-numerous-problems-that-were-created-by-michelle-obamas-healthy-school-lunch-overhaul/

July 15, 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A newly released report by the Government Accountability Office finds numerous problems have been created by the National School Lunch Program overhaul pushed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Those problems have been magnified in recent weeks, as several school districts across the nation have either dropped out of the voluntary federal lunch program or have increased prices of school lunches to make up for a drop in sales attributed to federal menu changes.

The report, presented to a subcommittee of the House Education and Workforce Committee, detailed visits to eight school districts by GAO bureaucrats to see the impact of the regulations.

“Although the eight districts GAO visited expressed support for the improvements to the nutritional quality of school lunch, they reported additional challenges meeting the new requirements, such as student acceptance, food waste, costs, and participation,” the report states.

The report notes the absurd conflicts and inconsistencies created by the changes. For example, cheeseburgers were removed from one district’s elementary and middle school lunch menus because adding cheese to the burger “would have made it difficult to stay within the weekly meat maximums.” Another district switched from shredded cheese to cheese sauce because the liquid cheese “does not count as a meat alternate.”

Cheese is cheese, unless you’re writing government regulations, apparently.

Similarly, another school district switched from whole grain chips to potato chips because “the potato chip did not count as a grain.”

The report also found schools didn’t necessarily increase healthy options for students.

“To comply with both the meat and grain maximums and the required calorie minimums for lunches, some districts added foods that generally did not improve the nutritional value of the lunches.

“In three of the districts we visited, the [School Food Authorities] reported adding pudding to certain high school menus to bring the menus into compliance with the calorie minimum. Some SFAs also added gelatin, ice cream, or condiments such as butter, jelly, ranch dressing or cheese sauce to become complaint. … While these additional menu items provided needed calories to lunches, they also likely increased the amount of sugar, sodium, or fat in the meal, potentially undercutting the federal law’s goal of improving the nutritional quality of lunches.”

Some districts tried to keep their students’ taste buds happy by offering them a shadow of their previous helpings.

One district wanted to continue offering cheeseburgers and in order to operate within the regulations, it created a 1.5 ounce burger patty – “which is less than half the size of a ¼ pound burger,” the report notes.

Is it any wonder students are left hungry?

School districts noted the difficulty in complying with the calorie maximums for students based on grade, as students from varying grades use the same cafeteria lines. They fear the rigid rules will lead to “increased costs and administrative burden.”

Another problem created by the regulations is food waste.

“Food waste is also an indicator of lack of student acceptance of the new lunch requirements,” the report states.

Six of the eight schools “we visited told us they believe food waste has increased because of the new lunch requirements. In particular, (school officials) said that the fruits and vegetables students are now required to take sometimes end up thrown away, and in our lunch period observations in 7 of 7 schools, we saw many students throw some or all of their fruits and vegetables away,” the study finds.

The GAO report found the changes were leaving some students hungry.

“…Athletic coaches expressed concerns that student athletes were hungrier after school than they were in previous years and staff reported that more students were distracted during the final period of the school day than in previous years.”

The report concludes those new problems are a result of “decreased entrée sizes.”

Where the black bean burger meets the mouth

The Fairfield, Connecticut school district will be raising its lunch prices to deal with the changes. Due to a combination of increasing employee pension costs, and a 20 percent decline in food sales, the district will be raising prices by 10 cents per meal.

The Fairfield Daily Voice reported the food service program “hopes to persuade more students to buy lunches in school,” to offset the financial losses.

The paper noted the new regulations “included portion limits and requiring each student to take at least one fruit or vegetable.”

“Not only here in Fairfield, but throughout the state and across the United States, a lot of students rejected … being forced to have to take something,” Food Services Department head John White told the paper.

School officials hope hanging posters with fun facts about the healthy foods will generate “a lot of excitement” about the changes.

Call us skeptical, but seeing a picture and some “fun facts” about a black bean burger wouldn’t make us any more likely to eat it.

Similarly, Portsmouth, New Hampshire schools are raising prices by 25 cents per meal, citing “dwindling participation” in the lunch program.

A New York district lost $100,000 last school year in its lunch program while an Indiana district lost $300,000.

The New York district, Burnt Hills-Balston Lake, dropped out of the federal lunch program altogether. The Catlin, Illinois district recently made the same move.

Are these just growing pains or were new problems unnecessarily created by Mrs. Obama and Washington, D.C. bureaucrats? Time will tell.

A Congressional hearing took place in late June to address the problems created by the federal lunch standards. Congressman Todd Rokita (R-IN), who was chairman of the hearing, said, “…Today we are looking at the cost of burdensome regulations. Providing students healthier meals is a laudable goal we all share, but the stringent rules are creating serious headaches for schools and students.”

EAGnews attempted to contact both Rokita, as well as staff of the Education and Workforce Committee, to determine if there would be legislative action on the problems. Those phone calls and emails went unreturned.

But if there is congressional action, it isn’t coming a moment too soon.


Michelle Obama’s nutritious lunch program FAILED

I’m surprised that Michelle Lunch Program Obama hadn’t issued a proclamation, “If you like your nutrition plan, you can keep your nutrition plan.”
Because one of her first acts as First Lady was to serve America’s school children crap.

That’s why schools had to go BACK to “junk meals.” And apparently they get to keep them. As reported in Medical Daily:

In a reversal, the Obama administration on Thursday announced they would permanently relax [emphasis added] unpopular nutrition rules for the federal school lunch program.

The rules were intended to fight childhood obesity by lowering calories and portion sizes, but proved wildly unpopular with students and parents throughout the country.

Let’s wait to see what the definition of “relax” is. And I love that Liberals always have programs that “intend” to do the things that they never accomplish. In Michelle Obama’s case, her “get fit” school lunch program cut down on obesity, while increasing anorexia, because the kids refused to eat it!

“Earlier this school year, USDA made a commitment to school nutrition professionals that we would make the meat and grain flexibility permanent and provide needed stability for long-term planning. We have delivered on that promise,” Agriculture Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon said.

Nice try by Concannon to help Michelle Obama save face.

Like her husband has done with healthcare, Michelle Obama has meddled where none was needed. Kids were eating fine. The fact that kids are fat in America is a testament to how well-fed they are.

Liberal elitists must tinker, as a meth head tweaks. They break things in such a way that what they break is never the same again. In the case of food, they blame fast-food, junk food, and about everything else, but they won’t blame the group they should, which is the kids’ parents!

It’s not foods’ fault for fat kids. It’s parents who allow them to over-indulge. Believe it or not, you can survive on McDonald’s and you can do it without getting fat. Who is to say what food is better. I’d like to see some elitist puke eat only $100 an ounce caviar.

How much money have we spent changing the program, only to essentially change it back to what worked to begin with. If you’ve never had Kobe beef, you won’t miss it. Most poor kids are happy to eat, and they were surviving, dare I say thriving before they even knew who Michelle Obama was.

Government is in the business of keeping busy…keeping busy spending our money. These bureaucrats should mind their own business, and get their hands out of the pockets of taxpaying American citizens.

Read more at http://theblacksphere.net/2014/01/michelle-obamas-nutritious-lunch-program-failed/#mx2DquZ1ETTxUbRd.99