The improperly named ‘Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act,’ Michelle Obama’s signature school lunch program, is getting something of a reboot to address issues “on the ground.”
I honestly do not see what the FDA and Gov’t Inc. are upset about. Costs are up, waste is at a historic high, and kids are still hungry. It sounds like a centrally-planned disaster running on all cylinders.
Truth be told, the Fed’s are good with all of that. The waste and hunger is not the issue. Their concern is compliance. There isn’t enough waste and hunger. Some kids are getting lunches they will actually eat and enjoy because not everyone is following the letter of the law. To end this heresy the schools that are tweaking or ignoring the rules from on-high could faces fines.
The federal government is taking steps to fine schools that misuse funds under national school lunch rules. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service issued a proposed rule Monday to codify parts of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by first lady Michelle Obama.
The regulation would punish schools and state departments with fines for “egregious or persistent disregard” for the lunch rules that imposed sodium and calorie limits and banned white grains.
Because…it’s for the children…running Washington.
The legislative form of Michelle Obama’s meddling was the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. It passed in the waning days of a Democrat majority House and Senate (Republicans are not responsible for this disaster), and was promoted as necessary to eliminate hunger and improve nutrition. What it did was institutionalize redistributive forces that changed menus, drove up costs, wasted food, and imparted on unsuspecting students a lesson in the joys of central planning.
There is no shortage of exposition on this topic at GraniteGrok.com. There are at least a dozen posts on this topic. From driving up the prices charged by federal mandate, how that forced increase went (LITERALLY) to waste (also here), who from New Hampshire voted for the mandates, the superior benefit of local control, the local revolution against the mandate, and plenty more.
I can only hope, as I’ve said repeatedly in the past, that the hungry students see this for what it is and learn from the experience of top-down, centrally-planned government. It is a system abhors personal freedom and individual choice and no matter how you try to live your life they will find a way to interfere with it, and will not stop, until you bend to their will.
