Robert Gebelhoff reports for the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel that beginning July 1, 2014, public schools across America participating in the the National School Lunch Program, are coping with new stricter standards for school lunches from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, championed by First Lady of Snot Michelle Obama to eliminate empty calories.
What can students expect to find? Wheat bread, low-calorie drinks, meals with limited sugar, fat and salt.
The Edmonds School District in Washington even banned cupcakes for birthday celebrations.
But some school district officials are saying they’re all for healthy food, but they have to sell enough hot lunches to break even on their program — and that won’t work if the kids shun the food. They also are a little prickly about federal officials telling them what to do.
Rick Petfalski, School Board president for the Muskego-Norway School District, said “We believe that proper food nutrition and meal portion guidelines are best decided at a local level.”
So the Muskego-Norway School District opted out of the program, which means the district will no longer receive federal money for its meals, but it also means the district is free to serve whatever it wants. Already losing money because fewer kids were buying the meals, the district will now have to cover the cost of free and reduced lunches on its own, partly by spending less on foods that students don’t eat and increasing the number of kids buying lunches by providing tastier meals.
Under the school lunch program regulations, Petfalski said, the district’s food service was projected to be headed toward a $54,000 deficit. By opting out — and presumably selling more food — he expects about a $7,100 surplus. “By leaving the program we will not be required to follow these onerous guidelines, pushed by and large by Michelle Obama, who last I checked has been elected by no one,” Petfalski said.
Frustration by schools and parents across the country prompted Republicans in Congress to propose a waiver system that would allow schools strapped for cash the chance to receive federal subsidies from the government without having to comply with the USDA’s requirements. If it becomes law, schools that can demonstrate a net loss over a six-month period in their food service would be eligible to operate outside the standards.
In a guest column in The New York Times, First Lady of Itchy Crotch Mooch has vowed to fight the waiver.
Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin)
The waiver proposal is also being fought by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin), the same Congresswoman who said black Americans would rather be dead than eat Ramen noodles.
~Eowyn
