This isn't like back east and the urban ghettos. Our kids are not sedentary and fat. So here comes Barack and Michelle Obama deciding in their stilted mindset what our children (not theirs mind you) are supposed to eat. One size fits all -- from Washington DC and urban America top down dictates are playing out in Bozeman, Montana. Thank you Dear President. Thank you know-it-all First Lady. Thank you America.
Today's front page news:
Drop out? Bozeman High weighs leaving federal lunch program
To fight an epidemic of obesity and get American kids to eat healthier food, the Obama administration has imposed new rules on school lunches.
Limited calories per meal. More fruits and vegetables. Whole wheat only. No more white bread, fattening chips, soda, brownies or ice cream sandwiches.
It may sound great to health-conscious parents, but at Bozeman High School, many teens are just saying no.
“They’re voting with their feet,” said Bob Burrows, support services and food service director for the Bozeman School District.
For the first time in 20 years, Bozeman’s school lunch program is losing money. As of February, revenue had dropped from $1.2 million to $1 million. Most of the loss happened at Bozeman High.
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| Michelle says it is "unacceptable" to run the program any other way -- uninformed arrogance speaking. In Bozeman, our children eat food, not labels. |
The high school has long had an open campus at lunchtime. Students have the option to walk or drive off campus, and they can easily eat at nearby restaurants.
So Burrows is asking the Bozeman School Board for permission for the high school to drop out of the Obama administration’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act school lunch program.
It would mean losing $117,500 a year in federal subsidies. However, Burrows calculates the switch would raise more than enough revenue to cover that loss and put the high school lunch program back in the black.
For the past 32 years, the Bozeman School District has required its food service to be financially self-supporting so that it doesn’t eat into money dedicated to educating students.
Jesus Burgers is starting up this WEDNESDAY!
(Jesus Burgers is our weekly outreach to Bozeman High School. At 10:00am we start cooking and preparing for the 250 students who walk over to have a free burger in our church) We are in need of help. We need grillers, people to help set up and clean, and servers. If you've never been to Jesus Burgers come and join us and I promise you'll love it! If you can help please contact Pastor Patrick at the church or leave a comment. THANKS!
Financially self-supporting is not a term in Obama's vocabulary. Here they can and will do the right thing. In Washington they won't and don't. Pay no attention people. Move on.
UPDATE: As someone who was 5'10" tall when I started high school and weighed in at 112 pounds, I can vouch for the reality that for many maturing youths the Obama program is mean spirited bunk. As a parent of three appropriate weight children I am tired of seeing my kids come home starving because they couldn't stomach the muck that was being served up in the schools. So I am happy to report that the Bozeman School board did the right thing.
The Bozeman School Board voted 5-3 Monday to leave the National School Lunch Program because its nutrition rules, designed to fight the national obesity epidemic, were deemed too strict.
The school’s food program lost $35,000 last year, and while that wasn’t as bad as the $205,000 mid-year loss, the program is supposed to be self-supporting to avoid eating into classroom dollars. Officials predicted that losses would deepen as federal food rules tighten in the next few years.
School Board trustees, in a rare split vote, agreed to adopt Superintendent Rob Watson’s recommendation to suspend the high school’s participation in the national lunch program. Bozeman’s elementary and middle schools will stay in the program.
Bozeman High’s dropping out will mean losing a $117,000 federal subsidy, but it will let teens have choices like Rice Krispy treats and other snacks, which will be outlawed under the Obama administration’s food rules this coming school year.“We’re going to continue to serve healthy, wholesome meals,” promised Bob Burrows, food service director. He argued Bozeman High can continue to follow the old federal guidelines for making lunches healthier, and may actually be able to do more with local foods under more flexible food rules.
Burrows said the “one-size-fits-all” federal limit of 850 calories per meal was too low for active kids like athletes. And its limits on salt in future years would make it tough to offer most meals with meats.
Last school year under the federal program, white bread, Gatorade, tater tots, mini-burgers, goldfish crackers and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were banned from the menu, and cookies were shrunk in size. Next year, cocoa and other snacks would have been off limits.
With Bozeman High’s long tradition of an open campus at lunchtime, that would mean more students voting with their feet and eating at nearby fast-food restaurants and grocery stores.
“I think we can do far better than the federal program’s restrictions,” Vice Chair Andy Willett said. There’s a risk of a public backlash, he added, but the school district just spent $4.5 million to renovate and expand its food service building to create a top-notch food program.
“Our kids are far better off if they stay on campus than if we send them out into the world of fast food,” Trustee Douglas Fischer said.
Kenzie Bradley, a Montana State University student, told the board that the cafeteria can offer food that’s “as nutritious as you want,” but if teens don’t think it’s good, they won’t eat it.We will identify the three one-size-fits-all communist thugs who voted against free choice and work to ensure they are not re-elected in future school board elections.
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