War on school lunch

Much attention has been given to the story of the now famous turkey sandwich and apple juice confiscated from a preschool student by the food nazi. That incident started a firestorm of internet activity and even a protest “Lunch In” in Washington, D.C., but not a lot of talk has surfaced about the origins of the recent school lunch takeover movement and the true impact on individual school districts.

Admitting failure

“For the federal government, admitting failure is a difficult thing.”

Remember the Food Pyramid? For decades, school children from the age of 4 have been taught about the pyramid (and now the “plate” model) in a myriad of subjects. In elementary school, the students learn to read, have science lessons and even take special classes using texts about nutrition guidelines set by the U.S. Departments of Health, Education and Agriculture. As the students grow within the public school system, the nutrition lessons become more intense and continue to infiltrate multiple class subjects until high school where students can take an entire semester or more related to the federal government’s nutrition guidelines.

A great deal of money and resources have been spent in schools across the country to “educate” our youth about proper nutrition. The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act signed into law in 2010 slates more than $4.5 billion toward the federal takeover of school lunch menus.

If the billions of dollars spent on nutrition programs were working, the U.S. wouldn’t have obesity issues in children or a need for more “programs” right? Clearly, the federal government has not proven itself trustworthy to properly and effectively educate children in the subject of nutrition.

Follow the money

Obviously, the programs instituted to keep children nutritionally balanced as seen fit by the federal government have thus far failed by their own stated goals. So what is the real reason for the push to control school lunch?

Since the passing of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act of 1946, the federal government has been manipulating school lunches across the country. The original law was “enacted with the intent to provide free and reduced lunches to children whose families were suffering financially and to inflate the decreased food prices that resulted from farm surpluses.” (Examiner.com) For decades now, Congress has repeatedly perverted and amended the legislation to include nutrition standards and increased federal authority over individual school districts, which has inevitably provided financial opportunity by way of farm subsidies and government contracts.

Page 117 of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act reads:
“Procurement and Processing of Food Service Products and Commodities – The Secretary shall identify, develop, disseminate to State departments of agriculture and education, school food authorities, local educational agencies, and local processing entities, model product specifications and practices for foods offered in school nutrition programs under this Act.”

Translation: The federal government will control every aspect of school food from its production to the time it reaches your child’s mouth. The Secretary of Education will have the authority to determine which foods schools will be allowed to provide and where those foods will be purchased, as well as HOW those foods will be processed and distributed.

The Act grants the Department of Education to dictate how the foods will be stored and prepared as well. Can you say, “GE Refrigerators?”

The law also states that the Secretary will determine if certain foods are in surplus and thus require their purchase by service institutions. So if California has an abundance of oranges in February, Minnesotans could potentially be required to purchase them and serve them to school children, regardless of cost, or face the possibility of not receiving federal funding for free and reduced school lunches that they MUST provide under penalty of federal law. How much gas money would it take to ship fresh oranges from L.A. to St. Paul?

It doesn’t stop at schools

According to the Act, which seems to be the driving force behind the food nazis in public schools, the law expands the reach of government’s greedy fingers into other “service institutions.”

“The term ‘service institution’ means a public or private nonprofit school food authority, local municipal, or country government, public or private higher education institution participating in the National Youth Sports Program, or residential public or private nonprofit summer camp, that develops special summer or school vacation programs providing food service similar to food service made available to children during the school year under the school lunch program.”

Uh, what? So will local Vacation Bible Schools have to adhere to the energy standards of the HHFKA? What about the Boy Scouts camps? Will they be able to supply Oscar Mayer hot dogs and s’mores ’round the campfire? Or will they have to check with the Secretary of the United States Department of Education?
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For more on the HHFKA and the Child Nutrition Scam, click here.