Take a look at the pictures of the food kids were served. Don’t blame them for not wanting to eat that garbage!
Daily Mail: The decision by officials at a high school in Montana to give up $117,000 in federal money and drop Michelle Obama’s healthy lunch program has proved to be a popular and profitable success. Business has been booming in Bozeman High School’s cafeteria since its board members voted to drop the National School Lunch Program in a bid to keep students from leaving campus to eat.
The lunch program set limits on calories, fat and salt in lunches and mandated that more whole grains, fruits and vegetables should be served in order to curb the onset of childhood obesity. Many students who weren’t fans of the lunch program would leave campus to get fast food at lunch, but they’ve been returning now that the program is gone, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
Sales of ‘extra food’ – anything considered less than a complete meal – exceeded $54,000 for the school district in September, up from $37,000 last year and $48,000 the year before that. Bob Burrows, the district’s food service director, said: ‘We’re off to a good start. Our traffic is way up – over 1,000 (customers a day) regularly.‘
While some parents and students were against the switch, other saw it as a necessary move in order to prevent the school from losing money. Alison Beckman, the high school’s food service manager, said over the summer : ‘They’re young adults. At this age you’re not going to tell them what to eat. All the new rules and mandates have done is push students off campus to the fast food restaurants.‘
More than half of the food being served is made from scratch in school kitchens and the district has started using local beef, honey and other fare instead of relying on pre-packaged ingredients. There is a smartphone app and website that both allow parents and students to take a look at what is being served and access the nutritional information about menu choices.
Although most of the complete meals are fairly close to the guidelines set under the federal lunch program, the school is serving snacks and drinks that are not healthy and have no nutritional value. Pizza is also available every day at the 11th Avenue Grill at the high school.
Bozeman High School is not the only institution that had issues after serving up food that was mandated by the First Lady and the USDA. Last year, students in Oklahoma took to social media and posted photos of meals from the National School Lunch Program that looked unappetizing in some cases and downright gross in others.
The pictures from several schools in Tulsa sparked debate about whether placing a calorie limit on school lunches was actually a viable strategy for combating childhood obesity.
People came down on both sides of the issue, but a representative from Tulsa Public Schools insisted the meals were designed to teach kids how to eat well, NewsOn6 reported. TPS rep Kit Hines said: ‘We have nutrition education opportunities where we go in the classroom and teach children about good nutrition. We have a high poverty rate, so basically our problem is, is a lot of our students when they are not at school, what types of meals are they going to be exposed to? So what we are trying to do is educate our students and make sure they know what those healthy choices are.’
DCG