Michelle Obama to parents: we can’t leave it up to you to feed kids the right food UPDATE: National Security at risk
Thank goodness the Mommy in Chief is on the job. Our kids are overweight and parents are abdicating. So Michelle, forging ahead with her obesity obsession, tells American parents we just can’t leave it up to you parents to do the right thing. Thus, the state will now control your children’s diet. No really. Go ahead. Click read more.
This from CNS News Service via Hot Air:
Speaking at Monday’s signing ceremony for the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act”– a law that will subsidize and regulate what children eat before school, at lunch, after school, and during summer vacations in federally funded school-based feeding programs — First Lady Michelle Obama said of deciding what American children should eat: “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.”
Of course you can’t and my biggest fear is there are people in this country who will cheer this and quickly abdicate. Afterall, parents have more important stuff to do than actually feed the kids. Ughh.
“But when our kids spend so much of their time each day in school, and when many children get up to half their daily calories from school meals, it’s clear that we as a nation have a responsibility to meet as well,” Mrs. Obama said. “We can’t just leave it up to the parents. I think that parents have a right to expect that their efforts at home won’t be undone each day in the school cafeteria or in the vending machine in the hallway. I think that our parents have a right to expect that their kids will be served fresh, healthy food that meets high nutritional standards.”
The law, the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, has been approved by both the House and thee Senate, will cost $4.5 billion dollars and leave it up to the DOA to craft new menus for the kiddies. Oh, and there’s an organic pilot program in there too. Good to know.
According to CNS:
Obama said that if the bill had not reached his desk for his signature, “I would be sleeping on the couch.”
I’m sure.
UPDATE: here’s a link to Howard Portnoy’s column at Hot Air. He tackles the unbelievable comment by Michelle that we talked about this morning. Michelle Obama also said that obesity in our kids threatens national security because it reduces the pool of available recruits. Nonsense says Portnoy.
In addition, there are currently 75.2 million children living in the U.S., judging from the best available data. As of September 30, 2010, there were 1.4 million Americans on active duty in the military with another 850,000 on standby in the seven reserve components. Combined, those numbers come to 2.25 million, which means that discounting the “one in four”—or 18.8 million—American children who are obese leaves a pool of 56.4 million able-bodied future volunteers.
Well done.
22 Comments
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When school lunch programs cease being a money making machine then maybe (just maybe) I might consider letting my kids eat at school. Simply put, I can't afford $25/week/kid for them to eat a la carte at school. And since when was breakfast replaced by school lunch as the most important meal of the day? Since Mrs. Obama said so? Thanks Mrs. First Lady, ma'am…I think I can handle feeding my kids all by myself.
If they add Polish Kielbasa to the menu, I am for it 🙂
Obama said that if the bill had not reached his desk for his signature, “I would be sleeping on the couch.”
And the other day Bill clinton said to him, "Just go", When he said he kept the first lady waiting.
Check yourself Mr. President. Was Sarah Palin correct, literally??? (no cajones)
Jim… you cant just say "no" to everything the Obamas propose! Mrs Obama is trying… has forwarded a concrete plan- in legislative fashion! Talk radio tends to just go the other direction yet never proposes or offers hard plans in detail
Jim, I am sending this message on this site since for some reason I can't get in on your email account.
The time has come for you to get a guest who understands what is really happening in Ct. Educational System. You and your listeners frequently make comments that are so outdated and not factual.
I am making reference to the importance of school breakfasts and Lunch programs. The poor eat less healthy at home than if the poorest of meals were planned in school. Most intercity kids's meals are the ones served in school. When you mention parents more than 78% of the larger city schools have one or no parents. When you get the time to speak to a person who watches what the kids eat in the inner city schools then you will realize they eat EVERTHING because this is all they normally get.
Please become informed and speak to people who live in the "trenches". When I have spoken to these people I have become educated in areas I have never been exposed to.
When anyone says, "When I went to school it was……" Anyone who starts a conversation like that have there heads in the sand. Those days are long gone.
I would suggest you start with New Haven school system they are setting the stage for "Economic Growth" with Yale and the Community. Check out what is being done in Washington DC
check the new teacher Evaluation Process. The "Dead Weight" are being eliminated and the Unions supports this new policy. again check out New Haven to become enlightened. Jeff
Jim, I should have carefully proof read my post. Please excuse the errors I rushed through this one.
Please understand my message not my errors. thanks Jeff
I think the real problem isn't what kids eat in school, I think they are playing too much xbox.I think that public schools should do what my boarding school does. Instead of gym class every student was required to do an afternoon activity (play a sport) each semester you got half a credit for each sport played. When I was at that school I was in the best shape of my life. I didn't have to worry about what I was eating at all. Just a thought.
"trickle down gastronomics". From the Michelle's Kitchen to your local school cafeteria- boiled vegetables and Jamaican beef patties with a certain je ne sais quois! I hope Barry's picture hangs in every cafeteria- so the kids establish brand loyalty to the Democrat Party!
Jeff: Thanks for the comments, especially the hopeful comment about efforts in the New Haven school system. There is always too much negativity and not enough recognition of sincere efforts to fix problems, whether made by Laura Bush or Michele Obama. Negativity is a very profitable industry.
She is not really talking about abdicating, she is talking about when the kids go to school that they have healthy choices that they can make. The state controls the diet already in the schools, why not make sure that they have healthy choices. The 4.5 billion must be some give away cause I can't image how you could spend that kind of money. Based on 40 million students that is $112.50 per student. HUH? to figure out what to eat? That does not make sense. I think you should focus on thing like the cost VS. trying to personally attack her which is petty and a turn off to thinking people.
As a thinking person, what turns me off is that you liberal morons think we should pay for the lunches of other people's children or for other people's health care! Take the pirate suit off, move out of your mom's basement, and get a job. The Obamas never do anything of substance, and they'll never actually fix anything (Like Social Security), they just rearrange the deck chairs and stage Potemkin photo-ops while the unsinkable ship is tanking!
Personally, I think Michelle picked a pet project out of a hat and it was (ta da!) lack of nutrition in public school lunches. Eventually people will look at her the way they looked at Hillary Clinton with health care reform in the 90s…wishing that she'd please just go away, because we did not elect her to public office and her opinion is irrelevant (at least to me) when it comes to feeding my children.
All I can say is I like the balance of opinion on this post. Thanks all.
Oh, if the solutions were easy. I recall a Bridgeport school teacher telling me that by the time the kids reached his seventh grade classroom, they were already "defeated". For what ever reasons, they had lost the hope and confidence that's common among suburban kids. What do you do to give these kids a chance: to help these kids become productive members of society? For purely selfish reasons, you help them now so they won't be costly to society in the future. For humanitarian reasons, you give them a fighting chance to claim a measure of dignity. A decent meal is the least we can do.
The kids are broken because their families are broken. The only ghetto kids who have a chance are the ones with grandparents or some other foundation in their lives. I think our government is at fault for destroying the family by devaluing our dollars and taxing us to the extreme that parents are both working, working too hard, and are forced to neglect domestic and parenting duties. And at other extreme, government rewards bad behavior as a perpetual enabler for those who tend to lack initiative.
Government rewards bad behavior on a massive scale, but we might disagree on where that happens. Wall Street and the Banks have been bailed out, which I think was necessary, but with minimal consequences that permitted huge bonuses for gambling the world economy to the brink of collapse. Upwards of 10 to 20 million people lost jobs world-wide. And the corporate survivors won't even have to pay taxes at the same rate they did during the Clinton Administration. (I recommend the the film "Inside Job" for the details.)
Come on!! healthy meals in schools is a good thing, but taxpayers pay STATE taxes to fund their schools. We should not let the FEDERAL government dictate what the STATE does.
This is not a case of the Feds telling states how to spend their money. The Fed gov't subsidizes lunches for poor people with grants provided by the Dept of Agriculture. States are required to provide matching funds equal to 30% of the Feds contribution. Doesn't it make perfect sense, and isn't it in the tax payers interest, that our tax dollars are spent on nutritious food that will help kids learn, rather than junk foods that in some cases make it harder for them to pay attention?
I am disappointed that Mrs. Obama did not tkae the opportunity to empower parents, especially the mothers to ensure proper diets both from their own tables and pushing the schools.
Instead, she is not only eroding good parental skills, she is also insinuates that the states cannot handle this responsibility.
I guess the nanny state mentality has overtaken her as well.
Something that prevents parents from feeding their kids 100% healthy meals is the price of food. The price of fresh produce is ridiculous as is the price of organic foods. I do what I can on a tight budget, but it isn't always possible to meet all the government rda's. Common sense & creativity are needed in the kitchen when attempting to constantly create healthy meals. Cut from the food budget in my house? Soda & junk food. Makes the good stuff that much more affordable. The kids complain, but I ignore.
If the children aren't eating proper meals at home, then neither are their parents! Where does all of the food stamp money go? Where does the charity end? Why do I have to tithe to the church of liberalism? Why must Barry take $2 from me before he can give $1 to someone else?
JollyRoger: I have been in line at Walmart buying pet food (with cash) while I watched the woman in front of me take her silver Connecticut "cash assistance" card and use it as an ATM card. She bought some lip balm and Mentos & walked away with $200+ in "change". And it was not a quick transaction. Three times her number had to be entered by hand, and the cashier was helping her clean her card of whatever balance was on there. By the way…
What is the RDA for Mentos and lip balm?