"US Gov't Is Making School Kids Eat Broccoli
From Connecticut's New Haven Register:
School cafeterias to require fruits and vegetables nationwide
By Brian McCready
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Beginning next school year, students across the country may be in for a shock when they purchase their lunch in the cafeteria.
In an effort to fight childhood obesity and diabetes, the federal government is requiring students of all ages to buy at least one serving of fresh fruit or vegetable for lunch. Even if they toss the produce into the garbage.
Fresh fruit and vegetable portions will double next year. "Some students don't take one now, but they will have to," Eileen Faustich, Milford's food services director, said Friday. "We can't let a child go by the cashier without a fruit or vegetable on their tray."
So it turns out that the federal government can not only make us buy health insurance, they can make us buy broccoli.
There's more, a lot more, in the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act.
Brought to you by Michelle Obama and her good friends at the SEIU.
Next year, students can buy only nonfat flavored milk or 1 percent white milk. Half of the grains must be "whole" next year. In 2013-14, all products must be whole grain. School cafeterias must offer green and orange leafy vegetables, and drastically reduce sodium use over the next three years. Trans-fats are banned.
If a student refuses to take the fruit or vegetable, the cafeteria employees will have to charge an a la carte fee, which typically is higher because the lunch will not be reimbursable under federal guidelines.
Which sounds like a tax to us. Unless it is better to not call it a tax.
The federal mandate will result in extra costs for municipalities nationwide. Federal officials estimate there will be a 30-cent increase in lunch prices, and the government will provide another 6-cent reimbursement.
It may be difficult for local school districts to not raise lunch prices, food service officials predict.
State Department of Education spokesman James Polites [sic] said if a student next year declined to take a fresh fruit or vegetable, the school system cannot claim the lunch for federal reimbursement.
Polites added the new federal mandates tie in with Gov. Dannel [sic] P. Malloy's education reforms on healthful eating.
Connecticut Association of Boards of Education Policy Director Vin Mustaro said the impetus for the federal program is to combat childhood obesity, and to tackle childhood hunger.
And what better way to do that than by raising the price of school lunches by 30 cents?
Faustich said cafeteria employees will do their best to make the mandate fun, including offering samples and incentives such as giving bookmarks to students who choose fruit.
She said a majority of students already take two or three servings of fruit and vegetables daily, but estimated 20 percent of students take no produce. Faustich said cafeteria workers nationwide have no wiggle room in implementing the new mandate.
There will be no 'waivers.'
Schools receive federal reimbursement for school lunches. In order for a meal to qualify, a student must choose three of five requirements from proteins, grains, two choices of fresh produce, and milk. If a student, for example, just takes a slice of pizza, that does not count as a federally approved lunch, and the child will be charged a higher, a la carte fee…
But it's not a tax. Unless it needs to be called a tax.
"You're defrauding the government if you're not meeting a minimum requirement," Faustich said. "If you don't have all three components, you can't claim it as a meal."
Ms. Faustich would have made a good Nazi. She is at best a dangerous fool.
Also notice how, despite 'mandates' being in the news right now, this country-wide development is only being reported by one local newspaper. Why is that?"
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