Michelle Obama Wants To Feed Your Kids This Sad School Lunch

I’m sure we all remember what school lunch was like when we were kids. Bountiful mountains of mashed potatoes coated in gravy and shredded turkey. Greasy pizza and a teensy cup of “salad” that was basically shredded lettuce and a bunch of cheese. Chicken patty day (yesss!), taco day and the beloved Breakfast For Lunch. Was it healthful? Definitely not. Were you full afterward if you ate it? Absolutely. Well, I am here to tell you that those days are over in schools where the new Michelle Obama/USDA-mandated school lunch has become the norm. Behold:

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(Via Twitter)

According to The Daily Mail, 8-months pregnant Oklahoma high school student Kaytlin Shelton took this photo of the USDA-approved lunch she bought at school. The photo made the rounds and has elicited complaints from parents for the quality of the food and the paltry portion sizes. The response from administrators has been mixed. Some defend it and some admit it’s not satisfactory:

‘We have a meat-meat alternate, we have a bread grain, we have vegetable,’ Asst. State Superintendent for Child Nutrition Joanie Hildenbrand told the news station after looking at the photo.

‘It’s the student’s choice of what they want to take.’

 

The Superintendent David Cash admits the meals, which have a calorie limit dependent on the student’s age, are not satisfactory.

‘You’ve got in some cases little kids that they’re only two meals are breakfast and lunch at school and they’re getting you know a grand total of 1100 calories. That’s not enough,’ he said. 

There are no exceptions for students who are pregnant or those who are athletes and burn more calories on a daily basis. 

USDA regulations now require foods in the school lunch line to be healthier.

Healthier, fine. I think most parents would be fully on board with that. But the above photo is what they are feeding a high school student? Let alone, a pregnant high school student or an athlete? I have a 40-pounds-when-soaking-wet kindergartner who would eat that amount of food in about two minutes flat and ask for more. I have a lot of trouble believing that two sad stalks of cauliflower constitutes a serving of vegetables and in what world is deli ham, cheese and crackers a health food? It sounds like the USDA is using very loose definitions for what constitutes a meat or grain.

The fact that most students see these lunches as unappetizing is starting to show as far as what kind of profit the school lunches are bringing in.

School nutritionists and foodservice workers, and their unions, hailed the law’s passage but have since turned on Mrs Obama, saying her caloric inflexibility has sparked a dramatic downturn in lunch sales.

Many school districts, they say, are now losing money on food instead of turning a profit that pays for books, computers and football-field scoreboards.

I cannot say I blame the kids for not wanting to eat lunch if it’s two slices of ham, crackers and a few bites of cauliflower. Let’s return to the days of greasy pizza and “chicken” patties. Even if it’s not the healthiest, at least their bellies will be full.

(Image: meltechfoto/Shutterstock)

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