Retired generals back FLOTUS in food fight

[Lemongrass Gogulope]

First lady Michelle Obama has an unexpected force backing her up in the simmering fight over school lunch standards: retired admirals and generals.
Mission: Readiness, a group of nearly 500 former military leaders, is planning to “storm the Hill” when Congress comes back to town next month and urge lawmakers to keep new school nutrition standards intact.


“We’re not going to retreat our way out of the problem,” said Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, who served in the Air Force for 35 years and is now a vocal advocate for the group.


Formed in 2008, Mission: Readiness aims to ensure kids are healthy and educated enough to serve in the military — or just be productive civilians. For the top military brass, the obesity epidemic is increasingly seen as a threat to national security.


About 75 percent of young adults are not eligible to serve in the military because of obesity, lack of education and/or criminal records, according to Defense Department data (http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/MR_Too_Fat_to_Fight-1.pdf) cited by the retired military leaders.


The organization strongly backed the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, a bipartisan law that overhauled the National School Lunch Program and set new health standards for all food sold in schools. Now, the admirals and generals are gearing up for a back-to-school campaign to ensure that Congress doesn’t weaken the standards this school year — or in 2015, when the law is set to be reauthorized.

>snip<


House Republicans inserted a provision into an agriculture spending bill that would have allowed schools losing money under the new rules to opt out of all the standards for a year. The move sparked a bitter political fight, with the first lady coming out strongly (http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/michelle-obama-kids-state-dinner-109113.html) against relaxing the rules.
The generals were not pleased, either.


Mission: Readiness flew in four retired generals from Kentucky last month to meet with Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, to discuss their concerns.


Maj. Gen. D. Allen Youngman, who served for more than 34 years in the U.S. Army, National Guard and Reserve, reminded Rogers that in Kentucky they used to sell cigarettes in schools.


“Nobody’s looking back on that as the good ol’ days,” said Amy Dawson Taggart, national director and founder of Mission: Readiness. Just like cigarettes have been kicked out of schools, so must junk food.


“He’s very concerned about his own district,” she said of Rogers, noting that Kentucky has some of the highest rates of obesity in the country. “I think he’s also hearing a lot [of concern] from school nutrition directors.”


The School Nutrition Association, which represents 55,000 school cafeteria administrators, has been active in its lobbying push to relax the standards and give schools more flexibility. But the rank and file of Mission: Readiness is ramping up its engagement on Capitol Hill to fight back. Its message is simple: Retreat is not an option.


The group will be releasing a national report with that very title in September, along with a handful of state-level reports targeting lawmakers who are central to the school nutrition debate.

Full story:
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/michelle-obama-school-lunch-fight-109914.html#ixzz3ACJ4A9QT

So, does anyone want to reconsider their position on the FLOTUS's lunch program now that it appears to be a matter of military readiness?

[Gaffer]

You can buy a kid lunch, but you can't make them eat it.

Kids are obese because they sit around doing nothing all day except play video games and texting.

When the draft becomes necessary and the military needs bodies, the standards will drop considerably.

Want to straighten kids out that are always in trouble with the law. Give em the choice, jail for a year or two years in the army. Can even set up special battalions to deal with them after they join.

Regular food choices properly prepared will get eaten. Fancy diet shit will get thrown in the trash. It really is that simple.

[NightTrain]

The retired Generals need a hobby.

The reason kids are out of shape is because they're playing video games and screwing around on the internet instead of out riding bikes, playing football, swimming, etc. It's not because of the food served at school.

I didn't have an ounce of fat on me until I was 34 or so, and that happened because I got a desk job & got hooked on computers. Age was a factor, too, of course.

[Lemongrass Gogulope]

You can buy a kid lunch, but you can't make them eat it.

Kids are obese because they sit around doing nothing all day except play video games and texting.

When the draft becomes necessary and the military needs bodies, the standards will drop considerably.

Want to straighten kids out that are always in trouble with the law. Give em the choice, jail for a year or two years in the army. Can even set up special battalions to deal with them after they join.

Regular food choices properly prepared will get eaten. Fancy diet shit will get thrown in the trash. It really is that simple.
This was a little random on your part but I'm surprisingly okay with it.

[Gaffer]

This was a little random on your part but I'm surprisingly okay with it.

It was done frequently in the 60's. I knew a number of guys that ended up in the army that way and they became fine upstanding citizens. A punishment that actually builds character.

[NightTrain]

It was done frequently in the 60's. I knew a number of guys that ended up in the army that way and they became fine upstanding citizens. A punishment that actually builds character.

Yep.

Nothing straightens a troubled young person out faster than a mean-faced DI making you push the Great State of Alabama down 2 inches.:laugh:

[gabosaurus]

Dammit people, I thought you were talking about a real food fight...

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[Kathianne]

Most schools have kitchens that are now used only to heat up very bad food from food services at high prices. Anyone that had room and board at universities in 70's and 80's know how bad that food can be. Same folks are still at it, SAGA and ARA.

Universities overcame the problem by turning dorm rooms into suites and getting professional chefs on board to oversee kitchen staffs. At. A. Price.

Schools that return to operating with kitchen ladies, with 'healthy eating guidelines' will see a change, save money, and the kids will eat the food.

Why? They can cook.

While the food services will take any food the government wishes to give them, they will follow the guidelines to the hilt. No salt? No problem. Need to serve at least one dark green vegetable? No problem. Kale, broccoli, spinach without salt. They'll do that! No problem. In the garbage.

The idea of using some olive oil, red pepper flakes, citrus? No way, too costly. The kitchen ladies would find a way, they were paid hourly. Besides that, they actually liked kids.

Only one example, but often the type of example by kids of why they won't eat the 'awful' stuff.

[Jeff]

I have two young boys and there school had a Thanksgiving dinner per say, I went and Laughed so hard it was unreal, they had a slice of cheap deli turkey a Mashed Potatoes with no gravy ( powdered of course ) something that looked like broken up bread ( stuffing ) and desert ( a piece of cake ) the kids all ate the cake and explained they only get it on special days and 95% of them threw everything else in the garbage while their parents watched ( yes it was that bad ) You may also stop in at lunch and visit with the kids on any day ( both of mine are in the same grade so yes I do this from time to time ) and it is worse much worse on a regular day. A Pack of ketchup is considered a vegetable again no spice what so ever ( you spread your vegetable over the food to make it taste like something :laugh: ) Honestly I don't remember what the meat was but I do remember asking what it was and I asked for salt and pepper and the lady working the register LOL at me ( yes I know her ) They would be a lot better off just not having a lunch and letting the kids out 45 mins earlier because it is a complete waste of money.

[Thunderknuckles]

This is such a big waste of time, money, and resources. It does NOTHING for child obesity. Do the math.
Assuming a child eats 3 times a day, that amounts to 1,095 meals in a year.
Assuming a minimum of 180 days in which a child must be in school, that amounts to 180 school meals in a year.

So, the government has gone out of it's way to set nutritional guidelines that cost schools more money and result in kids throwing the crap away just to "cure" 16% of a child's total meals that may or may not be "bad" for them. Schools either get on board with the program or lose federal funding. Nice.
Text book example of government overreach, waste, and inefficiency.

Healthy eating starts at home with parents. I'm sure if Michelle Obama and her generals had their way, we'd all be consuming MREs or Soylent Green by government mandate.