I’m probably
gonna get slammed for this, but I have to ask. Is it more important that our
kids eat in school or what they eat? In a perfect world, they would eat
healthy, fresh food and toss out only the empty plate. But that’s not the case.
Admittedly,
before this school year, my attention to Mrs. Obama’s healthy school lunch
initiative was, ‘oh, okay, that may suck’. But really … it does suck. Maybe not
for the privileged schools who don’t rely on government funding. But for those
who do … lunch time is bogus.
The guidelines
are strict, if you don’t follow them, you don’t get funding. Sure there are
creative ways and tasty ways around the lunches, but a small school or low
income school doesn’t have the funds or resources to get creative.
What they are
left with are lunches that follow the guide lines. The lunch lady’s hands are
tied.
Some kids get one
good meal a day. They rely heavily on the school lunch.. One … and now, that
one healthy lunch, their only meal, ends up in the garbage. We waste.
While the well
funded, privately funded schools can tastefully dart their way around, low
budgets are stuck with what they can afford. And it isn’t great. Whole grain
pasta … is gummy. Kids won’t eat it. Whole grain pizza … really? Whole grain
bread … dry.
Try as they may,
the lunch ladies can only do so much with the guidelines and funding. Take a
look at some of these lunches.
I have seen it
first hand, volunteering in the cafeteria, I watch kids throw away more than
they eat. The ones that eat all their lunches are the ones that pack. And I’ll
tell you, the parents don’t follow guidelines, they follow instincts on what
their children will eat.
I understand the
need for healthy. And yes, let’s make sure lunch is balanced. The five food
groups offered at every meal. But if a child will eat a plate of pizza and have
a fully belly, to me it is better than a full plate going in the trash. A
hungry child will not have a good day in school.
Kids have been
eating school lunches for decades without issues.
The government can
push healthy lunches on a kid, but if he or she doesn’t eat it, you can bet
when they get home from school, they’ll chow down on junk. So what’s the
alternative.
What a child eats
should be a parent’s choice. Let the lunch ladies do what they do and make a
good lunch, if a prent doesn’t think that lunch is healthy, let the parent PACK
the healthy lunch.
Lots of pictures
of Mrs. Obama eating at a school cafeteria, but I can bet if she had to eat the
inner city, low income school lunches, she’d have a different attitude.
She doesn’t eat school lunches every day, our kids do.
By the way, I’m
still convinced her healthy eating is a front. Bet me she has Oreos in her
closet, Ben and Jerry’s in the white House Freezer and Dominoes on Speed dial.
We just don’t know it.
