The NY Times had a few good articles today on the National School Lunch Program. It's original goal is nothing compared to what it is today.
First up:
A survey of 4th graders was done in all states and the average came to over 50% that qualified for free/reduced lunches. Over 50% of any 4th grade class in any city in the US on average qualifies for free/reduced lunch.
Here's an interactive map where you can mouse over your state to see the actual stats. In Texas, 65% of 4th graders qualify for free/reduced lunch.
Rates of Increase in Subsidized Lunches - Interactive Map - NYTimes.com
Second up:
The food industry has it's claws in the school lunch program with a few big players, two of which are foreign (France, Britain).
They take the free raw commodities and turn them into processed food at a loss to school districts. Much of this is because school districts don't want to manage full kitchens and professional cooks.
And now we know who was behind the "tablespoon of tomato paste counts as a vegetable".
So, instead they pay these management companies to take the raw commodities and turn them into literal junk food (raw chicken turned into deep fried chicken nuggets). And, the food management companies get "rebates" from the food processors for using them. Who loses out ...why the taxpayer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/op...&ref=education
An increasingly cozy alliance between companies that manufacture processed foods and companies that serve the meals is making students — a captive market — fat and sick while pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
..
The Michigan Department of Education, for example, gets free raw chicken worth $11.40 a case and sends it for processing into nuggets at $33.45 a case. The schools in San Bernardino, Calif., spend $14.75 to make French fries out of $5.95 worth of potatoes.
..
Aramark, Sodexo and Chartwells, as well as food processing companies like ConAgra, wrote letters arguing, among other things, that children may not want to eat healthier food. Any increase in fruit and vegetables might result in “plate waste,” wrote Sodexo. A protein requirement at breakfast, Aramark said, would hamper efforts to offer “popular breakfast items.”
Their lobbying persuaded members of Congress to block a once-a-week limit on starchy vegetables and to continue to allow a few tablespoons of tomato sauce on pizza to count as a vegetable serving.
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Free food should be of the same quality as prison food. I want the kids to harass their parents every morning to not "inflict" govt food on them.
