It kills me at how the government is willing to throw our money around.. I saw an article about this last week but came across it again tonight so I had to post a link to it since I finally was able to see the last of the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution this week and we are going to spend money to fix the school lunch problem but isn’t the USDA part of the government too???? We steal from Peter to pay Paul… Gotta love IT !
First read this..
The growing rate of obesity in young Americans could undermine the future of the United States military, as many potential recruits are too overweight to join, two retired generals stated on Friday.
In a commentary written by retired generals John Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, two former chairs of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said: “Obesity rates threaten the overall health of America and the future strength of our military.”
The retired generals approved a plan by President Obama’s administration to increase funding by one billion dollars over a ten year period for nutrition in schools. The investment plan makes sense as the country already spends 75 billion dollars per year on medical costs due to obesity, they said.
this is a link to the entire article:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1858530/us_military_warns_on_american_obesity
Now this…
Jamie discovered two main problems. The parents that were allowing their kids to brown bag it were essentially feeding them junk. Jamie counted 40 brown bag lunches and only one had fruit. Several of the kids had prepackaged meals, like Lunchables, which are loaded with processed food products. “If a child is bringing in a brown paper lunch then it should meet our standards,” said Principal Patrick O’Neal. “But if the parent packs their lunch, that’s what they get.” Nearby was a child whose lunch consisted of two bags of potato chips and a bag of jelly beans. Yes, really.
The other problem is the Byzantine system known as the USDA National School Lunch Program. It would take an encyclopedic level book to break down the history and the legacy of this institution. It has roots back in the turn of the 20th century, and got a big boost during the Great Depression as the federal government stepped in to help kids get healthy meals. Most of what our guidelines are now are based on legislation enacted in 1966. Those guidelines have been steadily warped by food lobbying interests looking to gain advantages and create loopholes.
It has left us with a USDA school lunch program where you need an “allowance” to be able to buy fresh food and not processed frozen junk.
A child in the public school system will eat between 2,400 and 2,800 meals through the USDA School Lunch Program. Jamie made it quite clear that he did his best to get the message out and there’s been some successes, but it’s time for individual Americans to get involved and take it to the next level.
The full article is at this link:
http://www.thatsfit.com/2010/04/26/food-revolution-jamie-oliver-vs-the-usda/
