(R-IA) King: School lunch rules leave kids with growling tummies (Michelle Obama's project)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Joseph Morton

WASHINGTON — New school lunch standards aimed at getting kids to eat healthier have drawn fire from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

The new rules from the U.S. Department of Agriculture require that meals include certain helpings of fruits and vegetables and set caps, based on grade level, as to how many calories students can consume.

It's part of first lady Michelle Obama's efforts to get the country's young people to get fit. The Obama administration notes that one in three children is obese and that kids consume half their meals in schools. About 32 million students across the country will benefit from healthier lunches, according to the USDA.

But King said the calorie counts are misguided and will leave students with growling stomachs. King is running for re-election this November against Democrat Christie Vilsack, who is married to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120918/NEWS/709189959/1685#king-school-lunch-rules-leave-kids-with-growling-tummies

[liberal N proud]

1. King is only thinking of his lobby - in this case the Iowa Corn Growers

They want more High Fructose Corn Syrup in those kids diet and they want the government to subsidize it through the school lunch program.

[cynzke]

19. High Fructose Corn Syrup is high octane to cancer cells. They grow and divide at a faster pace.

[rsweets]

2. Mr King .. these are children not cattle

fill 'em full of filler and steroids & just watch
their test scores go through the roof....

[djean111]

3. I need to look into this more - but assigning number of calories

by grade level is ridiculous. Just get rid of the fructose and empty calories.
I know King is just looking for any and all ways to criticize, and that he is owned by big business - but it is not up to the government to literally put the bigger kids or the kids with faster metabolisms or the kids with less activity levels on a weight-loss diet.
Is there more to the lunch formula than just grade level? A hungry kid is a hungry kid, his stomach doesn't understand the details, and his attention span sure won't.
(Not a troll, and I am voting for Obama).

[bread_and_roses]

7. Grade school lunches are too skimpy, where I live

At least if a child is - say - in the 99nth percentile instead of say the average in height. Or if the child has a high metabolism. And probably if the child had a less- than perfect breakfast or is one of those kids who have a hard time eating anything much in the AM.

I am all for healthy, and as you say, King is no doubt shilling for his big-Agra buds and would be thrilled with fat-and-corn-syrup loaded food bloating up our children with residual steroids and hormones and antibiotics and/or goddess knows what and developing a good ol' all-American life-long craving for sugars and salt. Like I said - I'm all for healthy. But restricting calories for children is not the way to go. Some need more than others, period.

And in a nation with such a huge % of our children in poverty, it's crazy.

The whole school lunch program needs to be rethought.

[AlbertCat]

9. Just get rid of the fructose

You mean, no fruits?

The real way to do it is by the kid's weight.... but that would be a disaster! So I understand by grade. Not the best choice, but the least offensive one.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Your choice: healthy kids or quiet docile kids. nt

[djean111]

8. I don't think the choice is that simplistic.

Bigger salad bars, more vegetables. Not just calorie count. That's all I'm saying.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Steve King growls all the time. nt

[exboyfil]

6. My daughter's High School took down the salad bar

They attributed it to the new rules. Ketchup packs are being distributed by lunch personnel. My daughter is packing her lunch now (also avoids having to eat on the floor of the cafeteria because she can't get through the line fast enough to get outside and eat - they won't let her go outside after a certain time period).

My daughter, a junior, is so ready to get out of High School. The fact that they may not be offering exemptions for P.E. with full loads will probably send her over the edge. I expect she will leave early (she will have enough academic credits at the end of this semester).

[LuckyLib]

21. This is the kind of treatment of adolescents that

makes you want to cry: "also avoids having to eat on the floor of the cafeteria because she can't get through the line fast enough to get outside and eat" -- I've also heard of kids in high schools sitting on the floor because there are not enough seats/tables in the cafeteria. Can you imagine workplaces treating adults in such a manner? The lack of respect just glares, and is not lost on our young people.

[RevStPatrick]

10. Awww... Isn't that cute?

Steve King is thinking of the children!
Such a humanitarian...

[Cairycat]

11. Elementary school lunch lady here

who's one of the ones actually carrying out the program. My opinion? The program is great (not perfect) and Steve King, like most R's, is a stupid whiner. I see kids, only a month into the school year, taking and even eating more fruits and vegetables that they were previously. I see kids who were never exposed to things like sweet potatoes or kiwi, having a chance to try and to enjoy them.

There were calorie minimums and maximums before now, for a long time. After I serve breakfast, I'll get my chart that shows all the changes, but I don't think calories were significantly reduced. The number of bread servings was reduced - but you need to realize that it was at 12 servings for elementary and 15 for secondary (over the course of a week - a serving being the equivalent of one slice of bread).

The new breakdown of age levels is PreK, K-5, 6-8, and grades 9-12. This is awkward for my school district, since we have K-6 elementary, 7-9 junior high, and 10-12 high school.

No, my off-the-cuff opinion is that student lunches are healthier than ever before, and if a student eats one or more of the fruits or vegetables offered, there is no need for growling stomachs.

[djean111]

12. Thank you for the explanation.

[Tikki]

17. I also worked as a luch lady and back when much of the food was calorie high and...

nutrition lacking. I appauld the new guide~lines.


Tikki

[goclark]

22. Excellent!

[mwooldri]

13. Mr. King does have a valid point.

You may be thinking whaaa? - but hang in with me here.

For too many children, school lunch is the only decent food they have and some it is the ONLY food they have. If there is a calorie cap for school lunch (and if offered breakfast) - well evening meal doesn't exist and therefore that child will not get all the calories they need. However regardless of calories, a decent meal will not leave anyone (child or adult) with growling stomachs.

However it does not mean that eating more healthily and having a calorie cap is bad - far from it. Most kids do actually get fed well enough outside of school. I believe this will help in fighting obesity.

This though is reminding me of Mr. Romney's fundraiser. 47% think that they are entitled to healthcare, food, housing - provided through the government, according to him. I will disagree with him on a few points. 100% of people should be entitled to healthcare, food and housing. Those who cannot get it on their own ought to have assistance from somewhere to get all of the above. Also if things are bought in bulk, usually there are savings. That's one reason why other countries that provide healthcare for all have it cheaper because they buy in bulk. That's one reason why warehouse clubs exist - it is cheaper to buy in bulk. And... that's why "housing projects" exist because it's cheaper to build lots of houses at once. The government is best placed to be that "bulk buyer".

So - Mr. King should re-assess his thoughts on this. The children with growling stomachs are those not getting the food outside of school. And since the Reverse-icans want government out of peoples' lives what should be the solution? No school lunches? Scrap food "stamps" ? Would that be the better solution?

[Cairycat]

14. Current rules

Calories - average per meal, averaged over the week:
550-650 K-5
600-700 6-8
750-850 9-12

saturated fat is to be less than 10% of total calories

Sodium (levels to be achieved by 2014/2015 school year)
1230 mg K-5
1360 mg 6-8
1420 mg 9-12

We used to let kids take their own packets of ketchup, etc. We tried to limit them to 2. But there were lots of kids who grabbed a handful, as though they were at McDonald's. Now, we hand them one packet. When you consider that a packet of ketchup has 150 mgs. of sodium, you can see why it has to be strictly controlled or it gets out of hand.

Fruits & Vegetables
Maximum of 50% may come from juice
Daily minimum: K-8 = 1/2 cup; 9-12 = 1 full cup i.e. each student must take this much
The program must offer students minimum amounts of vegetable subgroups. New subgroups include leafy greens, red/orange vegetables, and legumes.

Meat/meat alternates:
Minimum serving went from 2 oz. per day for all students to 1 oz. for K-8, 2 oz for 9-12; total oz. for the week are 8-10 for K-5, up to 10-12 oz. for high schoolers.

Grains: went from 12-15 servings per week, with whole grains "encouraged" to a maximum ranging from 8 or 9 servings for elementary to 10-12 servings for high schoolers; whole grain rich must be served at a 50% level this year; 100% level next year. Only two grain-based desserts are allowed each week.

[4th law of robotics]

16. 850 calories per meal for a teenager could be low

If they ate every meal like that it would be 2550 calories per day.

Plenty for most people but for a large active teenage boy? I remember how I ate back then (more than 2505 calories a day) and I was still pretty skinny.

[Cairycat]

15. Effects of the new rules

I don't know if you had the patience to wade through all of the new rules ( think of me, trying to remember all this stuff, in a noisy, crowded lunch room - !) but thought I would give you my perspective on the effect of these rules.

The school I work in (in the neighborhood I live in, my kids went to this school) has a wide range of socio-economic levels. There are kids for whom school breakfast and lunch is most of the food they get that day. There are kids who live in 300K houses, and there's everything in between. The median is working class, middle income.

I have not heard a lot of complaints about there isn't enough food, large enough servings of meat, enough servings of grains. There are a few kids who resent having to take a fruit or vegetable. We used to have desserts 3-4 times a week, now we're lucky to have it that often in a month, and that's the major source of complaints. Some of those kids whose parents can afford it are bringing lunch, but participation in the school lunch program is not down a whole lot.

Kids are definitely eating more fruits and vegetables, which have more fiber and thus are more filling. The six foot tall sixth grader who has hollow legs will have to learn to take and eat the fruits and veggies offered to stay full until after school. And that's a good thing!

[HockeyMom]

18. Rice with black beans, small salad, orange, and milk

What is wrong with that? I was a TA and some of the lunch people said that was not a balanced meal for a child. The kid didn't want to eat "icky chicken nuggets or hard burger". I argued for the kid. Rice = grain, beans = protein, salad = veggies, orange = fruit, and milk = dairy. Totally balanced, and healthy, lunch. Another time one child wanted WATER to drink instead of milk or juice. Their meal contained cheese and an apple for desert. They ATE their dairy and fruit. They don't need to DRINK it. What is wrong with WATER?

You would think the lunch people WOULD KNOW something like this? Sorry, for my rant.

[Cairycat]

23. Under the new rules, that would be an acceptable meal

Assuming it was brown rice, and there was an adequate serving of beans. In my district, we haven't required the kids to take milk for at least 11 years. Under the new guidelines, water must be offered (can be a drinking fountain next to the lunchroom), and I see quite a few kids with a water bottle instead of milk.

[HockeyMom]

25. It was white rice, but the black beans

were cooked right in with the rice. Not a mix but cooked by staff. The school had a large Latino and Haitian population.

This state still pushed milk at lunch and breakfast, but not whole milk. It was also in South Florida and the kids went outside for recess in the 90+ degree heat. They needed a lot of hydration for that. They didn't have water bottles. Drinking enough water/liquids at lunch was good, but when I was outside with them, I stopped their playing for water fountain breaks. Tough if administration didn't like that. The kids' SAFETY is the number #1 concern. Yes, I heard that I wasn't supposed to do that, but if a child is red in the face and crying they need a DRINK, I am not going to deny them a drink of water in the heat.

[cynzke]

20. Like he really cares?

It probably more likely that the GOP wants cut federal spending for school lunch programs.

[dogday]

24. Growling stomachs makes for better little

learning soldiers. Do what you are told, we will tell you what to eat.... that is all for now, back to your regular scheduled programming.

[missingthebigdog]

26. Really?

Like it was so much better when we were telling them to eat the crap that was being served prior to these standards.

If you don't want your kid to be programmed to eat fruits and vegetables, pack them a lunch. They can have all of the sugar-coated, deep fat-fried lard they care to ingest.

[dogday]

27. Good deal then n/t