Michelle Obama is starving our kids

MaBelleVie

Sun, Dec 07 2014, 12:05 pm

winter_rose wrote:

I read a great article by a woman who was on government assistance and drove a luxury vehicle. The vehicle was only a few years old but had been purchased new and paid in full before the market crashed and the family lost their money and their jobs. Because resale value is so poor and having a reliable vehicle is important, the family would not be able to purchase a good reliable car and have liquidable assets that would realistically help them through a tough time by selling the car.

I read that article too, and I thought it was excellent! Unfortunately, that is not the scenario I was describing. I used luxury vehicles as an example, but these people were spending money on luxuries like new gaming systems WHILE their children were not being adequately fed.

HindaRochel

Sun, Dec 07 2014, 12:20 pm

MaBelleVie wrote:

This has often been the complaint of people regarding subsidies etc.
How often does it really happen?
Isn't it possible that the games came from elsewhere, that the families didn't pay? Or saved up little by little through the year so their child would have something?

southernbubby

Sun, Dec 07 2014, 1:03 pm

If you ask anyone from inner city public school teachers to inner city ER personnel such as physicians and nurses, you will hear that it is a common occurrence that people who don't have enough money to eat properly, buy diapers, or spend on healthcare, often have other trappings of wealth and luxury. Tattoos, piercings, high end bags, shoes, or clothes, or high end phones, (not the ones that the government gives out), are commonly seen. It may just be that people can't live their entire lives deprived of everything that others take for granted. Most of us, however, can't understand the mis-prioritizing but then most of us don't live with that constant level of deprivation. There is also the fact that many of us don't prioritize "correctly" either. People also know that when push comes to shove, there are food and diaper banks and soup kitchens so they probably won't starve to death.

HindaRochel

Sun, Dec 07 2014, 1:14 pm

southernbubby wrote:

If we sat down with each other's budgets wouldn't we all find something wrong with how the other person managed their finances?

I urge people to read "Nickle and Dimed."

blueberries

Tue, Dec 09 2014, 11:22 am

Seven Wyoming school districts drop Michelle O’s lunch rules

RANCHESTER, Wyo. – You know it’s bad when the school employees admit even they wouldn’t eat the food they’re serving to students.

Michelle Obama huhWyoming’s Sheridan County District One business manager Jeremy Smith says his district dropped out of the National School Lunch Program “because there were just too many complaints,” according to Wyoming Public Media.

“Universally, it was, ‘We are starving. We are hungry. This isn’t enough food for us.’ But we couldn’t blame them, because I looked at that school lunch and said, ‘I wouldn’t eat it either,’” Smith says.

The district saw a 20 percent spike in sales this school year after it dropped the federal rules championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

The district increased participation, but increased prices, too, to offer bigger portions to growing students.

They’re also offering “locally sourced produce and beef.”

The news station observed one student asking for – and receiving – a double helping of popcorn chicken.

“A one-size-fits-all program doesn’t work everywhere,” Dennis Decker, the district’s food service director tells the NPR affiliate.

“And I also think that food is a little too personal to make a law. You can tell someone they can’t speed, but I don’t you can tell everybody what they have to eat every day.”

All told, seven Wyoming school districts have dropped out of the federal program and are forgoing the reimbursements.

“Well, last year the portions just weren’t big enough,” says Big Horn student Ethyn Etchechoury. “I would always bring cold lunch to school. I’ve seen drastic changes. I’ve never brought a bag lunch this year.”

Another student tells WPM that half of the students brought a home-packed lunch last year. Now, only a handful do.

A rural district in Oregon dropped the regulations, too.

“Kids quit eating,” LeeAnn Conro, business manager for the Jordan Valley District, tells Oregon Public Broadcasting. She thinks it was because of federal rules. “More whole wheat, more green veggies, no salt — it’s not as palatable.”

The amount of paperwork became unpalatable, too.

According to Conro, the school has to prove how every piece of food complies with the standards that regulate calories, sodium, fat and sugar.

“The record keeping became cumbersome to say the least,” she says.

Heidi Dupuis of the Oregon Department of Education says it’s harder for smaller districts because they often have one person tackling several tasks.

“…It’s a one-person show for who is planning meals, purchasing the food, preparing the food, serving the food, counting it. And now we have this, an additional level of documentation.”

“Nobody’s going hungry here,” Conro contends.

http://eagnews.org/seven-wyomi.....ules/