After This Decision, Pigs Are Big Fans of Michelle Obama
Author: Editor
Posted: July 2, 2014
There has been many stories from across the country from how dissatisfied school districts and students are with the new, federally-mandated school lunch requirements. Not long ago, the General Accounting Office found that 48 out of 50 states had major problems complying with the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act nutrition standards last week Act.
With restrictive calorie and nutrition requirements — often at a level far too low for active kids — schools are forced to get creative with their already limited options.
And in record number, kids are deciding to not buy school lunch anymore:
The new standards led to kids throwing out their fruits and vegetables, student boycotts, higher lunch costs, and odd food pairings such as “cheese stick with shrimp” in order for schools to comply with the complicated rules.
The National School Lunch Program saw a sharp decline in participation once the healthy standards went into effect during the 2012-2013 school year. A total of 1,086,000 students stopped buying school lunch, after participation had increased steadily for nearly a decade.
The report found that 321 districts left the National School Lunch Program altogether, many of which cited the new standards as a factor.
The decline was “influenced by changes made to comply with the new lunch content and nutrition standards,” state and local officials said.
Though the USDA has claimed the standards were “proving popular,” the GAO report cited numerous cases where kids are unhappy with their new menus.
The standards forced some schools to stop serving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and led middle school and high school students to opt for vending machines or buying food off campus to avoid the lunch line.
As it turns out, one school district in Rhode Island may have found an answer for all of those school lunches! Feed them to pigs:
NORTH SMITHFIELD – Half-eaten tuna sandwiches and other food scraps students discard during their lunch periods in North Smithfield are being repurposed as feed for more than 3,000 pigs living in Burrillville.
Through a new recycling program established and overseen by town Recycling Coordinator Donna Kaehler, the North Smithfield High School, Middle School and Halliwell School turns food scraps leftover from school lunches to nutritious food for pigs at My Blue Heaven Farm in Pascoag.
The program, which mirrors a similar food scraps recycling program in Burrillville public schools involving the same farm, has been so successful in North Smithfield that Kaehler is planning to include the North Smithfield Elementary School in the program this September.
The real problem with infamously bad school lunches wasn’t the lack of federal mandates. Instead, the problem consists of too many regulations, combined with strict requirements that limit menu choices.
If schools could contract out lunch services, an array of healthy alternatives could be offered… And thanks to market forces, they will have to make sure the food is still delicious enough to not end up with the swines.
Oink, oink America!
Read more:
http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/decision-pigs-big-fans-michelle-obama/#ixzz36PVsWAn8
