Awww, gee

[Hawkmoon]

Boo, hoo. I'm seeing multiple reports that Michele Obama got all teary-eyed and emotional while giving her farewell speech ...

Wait. WHAT? Why did Michele Obama give a farewell speech, and why does anyone care? She wasn't elected to anything, she didn't hold any job or title in the government except spendthrift-in-chief. Why did she give a farewell speech? Did Mamie Eisenhower give a farewell speech? Did Lady Bird Johnson give a farewell speech? Did Rosalynn Carter give a farewell speech?

WTF? Inquiring minds want to know.

[HankB]

. . . she didn't hold any job or title in the government except spendthrift-in-chief . . .

She was - at least unofficially - the nation's public school nutrition czar.

Of course, her standards did NOT apply to the lunches at the Sidwell Friends school she sent her daughters to.



 

[K Frame]

I read something some time ago that since the advent of "nutritious lunches" at schools, the number of students purchasing lunches has dropped dramatically, and the amount of food thrown away has skyrocketed.

Ah, here's the waste thing...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/school-lunch-fruits-and-veggies-often-tossed-in-trash-study-finds/

The study showed that food waste increased by almost 60%.

And let's not even talk about the caloric requirements reducing school lunches to, in some cases, even LESS than what is shown in the picture on the left in the OP.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Los-Angeles-Unified-School-District-LAUSD-Nutrition-School-Lunch-No-Kid-Hungry-171439851.html


 

[grampster]

What is good for thee is not good enough for me.

[makattak]

I read something some time ago that since the advent of "nutritious lunches" at schools, the number of students purchasing lunches has dropped dramatically, and the amount of food thrown away has skyrocketed.

Ah, here's the waste thing...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/school-lunch-fruits-and-veggies-often-tossed-in-trash-study-finds/

The study showed that food waste increased by almost 60%.

And let's not even talk about the caloric requirements reducing school lunches to, in some cases, even LESS than what is shown in the picture on the left in the OP.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Los-Angeles-Unified-School-District-LAUSD-Nutrition-School-Lunch-No-Kid-Hungry-171439851.html

“Johnson! I want this new dog food school lunches in every newspaper in America! Get me the most expensive PR company you can find!”

“Right away, MO.”

“And I want ads on every billboard and TV station in the country. Hire me the best advertising agency on Madison Avenue!”

“Right away, MO.”

“And I want every office worker in America talking dog food school lunches around the water cooler — get the Leno and Letterman people on the phone!”

“Sure thing, MO.”

“Oh and find us the hottest celebrity spokesperson out there, tell them money is no object!”

“Absolutely, MO.”

Two months later, sales are flat. Huge inventories of dog food school lunches are piling up cross the country and the company country is going broke (In an unrelated matter). The enraged CEO first lady calls the marketing director back into his her office.

“Johnson!!!”

“Yes, MO?”

“This is a disaster!! Did you hire that PR firm like I told you?!”

“Yes, MO.”

“And what about the ad agency, did they do that Superbowl spot?!”

“Won an award for it, MO.”

“And Letterman and Leno? Did they do the jokes?!”

“Every night for the last two months, MO.”

“And Lady Gaga, she’s talking dog food, dog food, dog food school lunches around the clock?!”

“Sure is, MO.”

“Then I don’t understand it! We’ve done everything! We’ve been in newspapers! We’ve been on TV! We’ve shouted about this new dog food school lunch from every blasted hilltop!! What the hell is going wrong?!!!!”

The exhausted Johnson drops his armloads of reports and charts, sits down on the desk and sighs.

“It’s the darn dogs kids, MO. They just won’t eat it.”

[mtnbkr]

I have two kids in public school.  I've eaten lunches with them at the elementary school, but not at the Intermediate and Middle schools.  At the Elementary school, the food is at least as good as what I got and maybe better.  Judging by the menu, the other two schools are far better and more varied than anything I got even in college.  My kids are somewhat picky and we gladly make lunch for them if they don't want what is on the school menu.  Even so, my oldest eats the school lunch most of the time and the youngest about 1-2 days a week (she's VERY picky).  It isn't "Sidwell Friends", but it isn't the "Public School" example shown above either.

Chris

[Hawkmoon]

Chris, you're lucky. (Or your kids are lucky.) I've read reports of schools where kids have brought their own lunches from home, lovingly prepared and packed by Mom, and the school confiscated the home-made lunch because it didn't conform to Michele's guidelines.

[KD5NRH]

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Los-Angeles-Unified-School-District-LAUSD-Nutrition-School-Lunch-No-Kid-Hungry-171439851.html

"We are Hungry" was created by students and two teachers at a high school in Kansas in response to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act passed by Congress in 2010, which limits calories to 850 for high school students, 750 for middle school children and 650 for elementary students.

Never mind what the rest of their daily nutrition looks like, or how active they are, of course.  As I recall, in HS, my lunch was about 1,400 calories, and I wasn't gaining weight on it...and that was after I gave up track, so the only real activity was a bit of cycling and a fair amount of hiking on the weekends.  (Plus all of a certain extracurricular activity I could get...and I was dating a girl who could actually wear me out 3-7 nights a week.)  Of course, breakfast was at most a breakfast burrito and a soda, but dinner was a full home cooked meal of probably at least another thousand calories, plus a few more sodas over the course of the day.  Then again, it doesn't take much to be more active than the average American these days.

[Scout26]

I pack my boys lunches, because they would otherwise get the Moobacca lunch.   Since the schools don't make the food on-site any more.  (Cost cutting) It comes from either Sodexho or Chartwells.   I've had it.  I've gone to their "Have breakfast (and/or) lunch with your student" Day  and the food was horrid.  Like really, really, bad hospital food.  Not cooked or prepped on site, it is brought in pizza delivery bags, and put either under heat lamps or in a pan on a steamtable.  It is tasteless, bland, flavourless, and has horrible mouthfeel.  The stuff that you see when people post about "Moobacca Lunches".

If I'm really pissed at one or both of them, I skip making their lunch that day.  They usually apologize or make things right when they get home... (as they are usually pretty hungry at that point...) 

[KD5NRH]

Like really, really, bad hospital food.  Not cooked or prepped on site, it is brought in pizza delivery bags, and put either under heat lamps or in a pan on a steamtable.  It is tasteless, bland, flavourless, and has horrible mouthfeel.

Yeah, one of the comments at the Parker County Jail was "it could be worse, you could be in school with that b___ making you eat worse than this."

And that's the place even the hardliners were telling me was not worth sitting out a ticket in.

[Andiron]

That's a bummer on the prepared food.  Sodexo ran a very good chowhall back in the day.  Of course, all the food was prepared there, so that probably makes a difference.

[HankB]

Chris, you're lucky. (Or your kids are lucky.) I've read reports of schools where kids have brought their own lunches from home, lovingly prepared and packed by Mom, and the school confiscated the home-made lunch because it didn't conform to Michele's guidelines.

I've heard that too . . . always in the context of early elementary school, where the kids are more easily abused.

As kids get older, it gets harder - in 8th grade a teacher tried to take my lunch away; he was unsuccessful.

[DittoHead]

Wait. WHAT? Why did Michele Obama give a farewell speech, and why does anyone care? She wasn't elected to anything, she didn't hold any job or title in the government except spendthrift-in-chief. Why did she give a farewell speech?

Don't ask me why, but Michele is actually pretty popular https://www.theatlas.com/charts/SJCBvjXJx
I guess people would rather hear a speech from her instead of her husband (or most other politicians apparently)