School officials in Carmel Clay, Ind., said they
lost $300,000 last school year because students are rejecting the healthy menu
changes brought on by First Lady Michelle Obama’s federal lunch regulations.
“I’ve had a lot of complaints, especially with the
little guys,” Linda Wireman, a food service director for North White School
Corp., told JCOnline. “They get a three-quarters cup of vegetables, but if it’s
something they don’t like, it goes down the garbage disposal. So there are a
lot of complaints they’re going home hungry.”
Amy Anderson, the food service director for the
school district, said the rules made her feel less like an educator and more
like a “food cop.” The changes have even made her consider retiring early.
Lori Shofroth, Tippecanoe School Corp.’s food
service director, said many students are throwing food away, putting a dent in
the district’s budget.
“They’re teaching our kids with this meal pattern
that it’s OK to throw away,” she told JCOnline. “We did a waste study on three
different schools, and there was a huge amount of waste. That was just with
produce, fruit or vegetables or milk.”
Other students don’t eat the lunches at all,
resulting in a $300,000 loss for the district.
“I’ve got kids who can stop at Panera and pick up a
sandwich that meets none of these criteria. I’m not maybe your typical school
district, and they’re assuming that every student doesn’t have access to food,
and that’s incorrect in this community,” Amy Anderson told the paper. “Our kids
can just wait and just hop in their BMWs and go to McDonald’s, which they’re
rebuilding, making it bigger.”
As reported by the Harvard School of Public
Health Childhood
obesity has been called “one of the most serious public health challenges of
the 21st century,” and with good reason.
Obesity can harm nearly every system in a child’s
body—heart and lungs, muscles and bones, kidneys and digestive tract, as well
as the hormones that control blood sugar and puberty—and can also take a heavy
social and emotional toll. (2) What’s worse, youth
who are overweight or obese have substantially higher odds of remaining
overweight or obese into adulthood, (3) increasing their risk
of disease and disability later in life.
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