The First Nanny: We Can't Just Leave It Up To The Parents

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

The First Nanny got her big union payoff/control over America's children today in her pet project food bill. What she says is telling about the progressive mindset...we can't let people raise their own children:

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2010/12/flotus-on-deciding-what-kids-eat-we-cant-just-leave-it-up-to-the-parents/#comment-214312

Of course the first step is to control those kids getting free/reduced price meals. But since every public school also gets federal money somewhere in the pipeline, you know where this is going next.

Comments

[pattyoplenty.livejournal.com]

I can't even deal with this, srsly. This is redonkulous to say the least. Wow, where does Michelle get off telling people what to feed their kids? The nerve.

[pattyoplenty.livejournal.com]

My kids schools have always served a well balance meal plan. But yeah, my kids think caf food is ewwy so I brown bag a nice turkey or pbj sandwich usually, an apple or banana & a bottle of water pretty much every day. I don't think the government needs to nanny me personally or my kids schools. Whatever happened to the concept of personal responsibility especially for a person's own kids? I don't get Hillary's it takes a village to raise a child nonsense.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of with you on this. If all the vending machines offer is cheap sugar and fat in a chocolate coating, no wonder the kids find it difficult to keep fit. I was an overweight kid - not that much actually when I look at the pictures; in fact I'm always fascinated by how normal I look as opposed to my remembered experience - and I was relentlessly bullied by the other kids for being "fat." It's enough to make a child's life miserable, and that's even before we go into the health issues. So even though I'm not massively keen on Nanny Michelle, I think the cause is a good one.

[pattyoplenty.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I got lost in thought. I think the OP had an issue with the quote of Michelle saying, "We can’t just leave it up to the parents" specifically, but yes you are right in how you are reading the article. :)

[shaolin.livejournal.com]

My old school district's lunches are free for all students. Lower income kids get free breakfast (or maybe now it's free for everyone--I don't know) and they also get sent home on Fridays with lunches for the weekend. I don't think it's that big of a leap to assume that free dinners will be offered soon, particularly considering that my old school district keeps extending the school day. And I think they took away all of the vending machines quite awhile ago, back when I was in high school (early aughts).

Some time ago, I encountered an article where Michelle My Belle was going on about how children, particularly in urban areas, needed salad bars in their schools' cafeterias. It made me laugh because while my old schools weren't serving the highest quality of vegetables, they weren't terrible and I ate them usually (I was an evil, privileged child from a middle class family, yet this food wasn't ~beneath me~). But most kids? They threw fruits and vegetables around the cafeteria or they'd mutilate it and make weird art out of it and leave it on the tray, because they thought it was funny. And this was an urban school district and a majority of the students' families were on some form of welfare. So, yeah, I'm sure the salad bars are going to go over great!

[shaolin.livejournal.com]

Organic, low-fat, low-sodium soup and locally grown, organic vegetables and fruit, right?

[shaolin.livejournal.com]

[Edited after I saw your edit]

"Nice?" It should be a requirement. And salt should be banned from school cafeterias entirely. Don't you care enough about school children?

What about locally-grown produce?

[shaolin.livejournal.com]

I'm a monster for wondering how we'd pay for all of this and the logical means of distributing all of this healthy food, I guess. :C

[Edit] What other foods should be banned for our safety? :)

[shaolin.livejournal.com]

I've been to those blogs quite a bit in the past, so...

Well, the problem that I see with fresh food, particularly salad and fruit is the distribution problem which I've never really seen covered by these blogs. I don't know how other states work, but in my home state, each district would get a shipment of food (from where, I have no idea) and then they'd cycle each meal throughout the schools. The preservative-laden food serves a purpose because the school district could make sure that the food would keep throughout this process and all the cafeteria workers had to do was heat up food around breakfast time and lunchtime.

If you bring in fresh vegetables, you have to worry about spoilage. And then there's the issue of preparing all of this food, because depending on what type of vegetables are used, things have to be washed, peeled or cut. I used to work for my college's cafeteria and my college had a smaller student body than my high school had, yet the college had a huge swath of full-timers, plus student workers like me. There were tons of people preparing the vegetables and fruit for the salad bar. So, cue in a bunch of more workers for each school district or possibly for each school and I'm still not sure where all of this fresh produce is supposed to come from, particularly for northern states in the winter.

The other problem is that even if, say, the school districts employed more cafeteria workers and extended their hours so that they could make food on the premise (in the interest of providing healthier, non-fried food) is that even then, they're still probably going to use preservative-laden ingredients, just due to the sheer quantity of food that they have to make every day. And it's likely, at least in the case of my old high school, that they'd have to build kitchens, because the preparation areas probably aren't large enough to handle the making of that much food.

Then the third problem is ensuring that kids know how to eat properly, so they make good choices when school is not in session. Because, especially in urban environments, there are always corner stores to buy junk food as soon as school ends. But, at least in my experience, we did cover nutrition quite a bit, yet it never seemed to really stick in a lot of cases (me included!). And, in the case of my school district, a lot of the parents weren't engaged with their children, so the schools in my district had to teach all sorts of things, from sex ed. to nutrition to child-raising to hygiene. So you'd have to devote more hours to learning nutrition. And then you have to ask, what happens to academics--y'know, the stuff that people actually are being sent to school for (or so I thought)?

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Well, what's wrong with canned and frozen vegetables? They're good too!

[shaolin.livejournal.com]

I don't see anything wrong with either, but this was all in regard to Michelle Obama's drive to put salad bars in schools (http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/food-safety/130399-michelle-obama-inspires-school-salad-bar-initiative). And, within that, I would assume, some of the produce would have to be fresh. Just regarding lettuce alone, my school district used to have huge trouble keeping lettuce fresh by the time it got to us stduents.

[cakemaven.livejournal.com]

frozen are often healthier even, as they are flash frozen, most often within 24 hours of harvest, reducing the nutrient loss that occurs over time as fresh food spoils and as canned food cooks during the canning process.

[archerstar.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad that you ban salt in your own home if that's a healthy step for you.

But I've got a metabolic condition and low blood pressure (that I've had since I was 11) and I will literally die without a high-salt diet. It's not just yourself you have to think about. Maybe you and your kids will do better without it, but there are others who won't.

[pattyoplenty.livejournal.com]

Why can't parents just feed their own kids...why?

[cakemaven.livejournal.com]

Her comments are being taken out of context. As much as I despise the woman, I kind of agree with her on this one. I mean, her point is basically: those who rely on the government to feed their kids, because they are unable to provide adequately for their children, kind of suck at life and are probably not good role models for their children. SO yeah, if the government is paying for your kids' meals, the government gets a say in what is in them. It's the whole "while you live under my roof..." kind of thing.

[archerstar.livejournal.com]

those who rely on the government to feed their kids, because they are unable to provide adequately for their children, kind of suck at life

I take offense to Michelle saying it, and you for agreeing with it.

What if you've been laid off and you are now presented with the choice between getting your electricity/gas turned off in 10 degree weather, or buying a full meal for your kids when you know that they can get fed at school? I know that this isn't always the case, but come on.

I have no problem with the principle of the matter (if they are going to be eating them, the government can decide what they eat), but to say that people who choose for their children to use these programs are failures at life and parenting? I have a problem with that.

[cakemaven.livejournal.com]

There will always be exceptions, but generally speaking, most people whose children rely on school lunch programs to be fed, are in the situation they are in because they have a history of making poor choices. There is a huge difference between a lifestyle of living on those programs and using them to get by when times are tough.

There are church programs and other organizations who help families in need with food. There is no excuse for a child to go hungry unless the parents are not putting in the effort to obtain the food needed to feed the child. I was a single mom once and there were times when I struggled to pay the bills, but never once did my child go hungry. So if the argument is that these kids who get fed by the school ONLY get one or two meals a day, provided by the schools, then yes, the parents are failing.

Just like with WIC, where they tell the recipient exactly what to buy with those WIC checks, they are paying for it, so they get that right. If a recipient doesn't like it, they can choose not to participate.

[cakemaven.livejournal.com]

and by "rely on" I mean using it as their only source of food. Just wanted to clarify that.

[cakemaven.livejournal.com]

The left keeps screaming "for lots of these kids, this is the ONLY meal they get in a day!" So if that is the case, then the parents are not adequately caring for their children.