Originally Posted By DyGDisney <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/congress-pushes-back-healthier-school-lunches-045719660.html" target="_blank">http://news.yahoo.com/congress...660.html</a> "Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.....The school lunch proposal is based on 2009 recommendations by the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said they are necessary to reduce childhood obesity and future health care costs. USDA spokeswoman Courtney Rowe said Tuesday that the department will continue its efforts to make lunches healthier. "While it's unfortunate that some members of Congress continue to put special interests ahead of the health of America's children, USDA remains committed to practical, science-based standards for school meals," she said in a statement." More...unfortunately...at the link.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney Oh, and what I think is a key point in this article, "In an effort many 9-year-olds will cheer, Congress wants pizza and french fries to stay on school lunch lines and is fighting the Obama administration's efforts to take unhealthy foods out of schools." Fighting the Obama administration...the GOP's mantra. Wouldn't it be great to elect politicians who aren't easily influenced by lobbies and big business?
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 It's not just the school or the governments responsibility they're just one part. Parents also have to make an effort to make sure their kids eat healthier and are active. And while it maybe difficult for some families you at least have to put the effort into it.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 <<Wouldn't it be great to elect politicians who aren't easily influenced by lobbies and big business?>> Well that's never going to happen
Originally Posted By DyGDisney >>Well that's never going to happen<<< Maybe not in our lifetime, but someday....I can dream! I always imagine some ideal, futuristic world. Like on the Star Trek movie where they return to Earth. Nachos are an offering in my child's elementary school cafeteria. Chips and nacho cheese. Is that even real cheese? Yet there are kids who get that for lunch every day. How hard is it to put something better on the menu? I always send my kids lunch, but some kids buy everyday and parents can't be there to choose for their child. Where is Jamie Oliver when we need him?
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 ^^^ That is a good point. Leave it up to the States or the individual school districts.
Originally Posted By queenbee If you left it up the states or indiviual school districts, school children would simply go hungry.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 That's also where the parents have to come in and I realize sadly many don't step up and you know be actual parents. And it's because we've been trained to think that it will be handed to us or someone will do it for us. And then if it's not we blame somebody else for our failings.
Originally Posted By queenbee That may be the case DDMAN, how many children should go hungry because their parents "blame somebody else?"
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 And there always is the option of bringing lunch to school. And here's another thing especially when the weather is nice. Tell your kid to go outside and play. And even if it's winter, provided it's not too cold out they can still go outside.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Well the one place a child will get something to eat is at school regardless of who's running it.
Originally Posted By queenbee To bring lunch to school assusmes there is food in the house to bring. To play outside assumes a safe neighborhood to play in. Poverty is very powerful, more powerful than you realize, I think.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<That's also where the parents have to come in and I realize sadly many don't step up and you know be actual parents. And it's because we've been trained to think that it will be handed to us or someone will do it for us. And then if it's not we blame somebody else for our failings.>> Take your teabagging rhetoric and stuff it. Tens of millions of parents today are struggling just to keep a damned roof over their families' heads, let alone provide three nutritious meals each day. So the one simple relatively inexpensive thing our government can do is to provide at least one healthy nutritious meal to those kids so they can remain focused in school and actually learn something in order to improve their lives as adults. It's time to actually acknowledge the tens of millions in this country who have fallen between the cracks or will shortly. The blame falls squarely on the greedy 1% who've spent billions to buy government over the last three decades to do their bidding and ditch on us. Your GOP talking point about pulling one's self up by the bootstraps is nothing but a lie. And as evidenced by last Tuesday's election, the country is finally starting to wake up to the lies and is rejecting them.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 I realize that. But they're are those who do have the means to provide and simply don't want to. I'm for helping the poor and helpless, not the dumb and clueless.
Originally Posted By queenbee <<Well the one place a child will get something to eat is at school regardless of who's running it>> I would like to keep it this way and keep the federally funded lunch and breakfast program. Sure, we need to balance the budget, but not on the backs of poor kids.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<I'm for helping the poor and helpless, not the dumb and clueless.>> Those individuals are in far fewer number than the poor and helpless. And you cannot force individuals into poverty simply because they lack the IQ and/or education to act differently. So you would punish those who are struggling but failing simply because you believe the majority of those who need help are too lazy to work for it? You're still a water carrier for the 1%. Unbelievable.
Originally Posted By queenbee So, the children of the poor and helpless can eat but the children of the dumb and clueless cannot? You realize the food is not for parents. I obviously can't speak for all schools but where I work parents are not allowed to share food with the student.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<If it's a lie then how did you get to your current status in life?>> Simple. I'm old. I was born in an era when public education was basically free. What minimal fees and tuition weren't covered by grant money, I made up for with some money from my folks, salary I earned while working, and very small student loans. And I was able to pay off those loans in the first five years after grad school, because I was able to get an excellent permanent salaried position with free health care, paid vacation, matching 401K from my employer, as well as stipends for continuing education if I wanted a second graduate degree, like a doctorate. But those days are gone baby gone. Today, it's far more difficult to land a good job with benefits right out of school, let alone find one as an experienced professional. The job I was doing back then is currently done either overseas or by consultants making far less salary with zero benefits. No one works in my former field as a permanent salaried professional. No one. Times have changed in professional America and not for the better. People would be more than willing to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps if they wouldn't keep breaking off. You're still living in the past, DD. You simply refuse to recognize reality as it is today, right now.
