It’s Hunger Games from DC. After all, don’t they know what is BEST for us all – even if the lunch programs are losing money, food is just thrown away, and kids opt out by brown bagging it, scampering out to the closes fast food joint, or go into a homegrown “food black market”. We’ve documented all this for years (re: “Thanks Michelle”).
So Londonderry, NH decided to opt out like a rising number of districts who, by the way, almost immediately see participation rates go back up, happier kids, and programs no longer losing money. So, in the face of this rebellion from our Betters, what happened (emphasis mine, reformatted)?
School officials will grapple tonight with a new wrinkle resulting from the decision to remove its high school from the national school lunch program. Londonderry opted out of federal guidelines for nutrition and portion size in school lunches at the start of this school year, saying students weren’t eating the lunches and both money and food were being wasted.
So, Government created a problem for which locals had to create a solution. They did:
That meant forgoing federal funding for the 8 percent of high school students who receive free and reduced-price meals. The price of lunch increased by 55 cents to $2.75 to help offset the loss.
They decided that the “free money” was not really free – the “strings attached” had become a thick rope tied in a noose. So what did DC do? Of COURSE! They tied up another noose:
Yup – one cannot go against “The Plan” – bureaucracies will slap you silly if you show them up and put on an exhibit of how “The Plan” isn’t working. How DARE they – Londonderry did and the Department of Agriculture (front group for Michelle’s dictum on what students WILL eat) dropped the “or else” on them:
Dining services director Amanda Venezia said Monday she was told in a conference call last week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture may now treat the school as a processing facility. The categorization would impose substantial regulatory and financial burdens, she said, requiring at least one new hire and lots of paperwork.
Paperwork – the toolbox of bureaucracies everywhere – a time sucking, money sucking, and Freedom sucking cudgel to make sure that all toe the line. It’s the corollary of the Washington Monument syndrome – don’t like the bad? We’ll make it worse and more expensive for you. Now, doesn’t the original Plan sound just SOOOO much better? Now get in line like a good little doobie and things will go, ahem, well for you. After all, doesn’t bad seem just SOOOO much better than worse?
Late Monday afternoon, a USDA spokesperson said she did not have enough information to comment.
Of course – this is the variant of the “privacy or the HIPPAA (if ANY little tittle of “medical” can be dragged into a CYA opportunity). Shine the Big Flashlight on this “Lunch Totalitarianism” (even if for “good intentions” and we all know where the “road of good intentions” leads to), the rats run away to hide.
But this is what gets me – that once set upon, even another level of Government has to run to Government to remedy a grievance??
Londonderry Superintendent Nathan Greenberg said officials plan to ask the school board to contact legislators, who could help secure a waiver for the school.
In today’s hyper-partisan, it is probably clear that the Rs (Guinta, Ayotte) would at least say something. The question is whether or not Ann Kuster or Jeanne Shaheen (the dismal Democrat duo) will rise up and stand up to Michelle? Even if it is shown that the locals DO know better than Moochella (who, IMHO, should have kept her nose in DC and go bother the folks at the Friends school where her two girls go (protected with men with arugala and submachine guns)):
Since opting out of the national program, the school has had more leeway to design its own dining offerings. Rolled out in three stages, the options include new menu items, a new snack room, a coffee bar and a frozen-yogurt machine that officials said has sold like gangbusters since its introduction a few days ago. A salad bar is forthcoming next month. Venezia said she feels the school’s program now meets adequate nutritional standards while providing food students will actually eat. About 33 percent of students participated in the school lunch program this September, up from 29 percent last September when the school was still part of the federal program.
Locals did better than those in DC “…here to help you” – and I’m betting they WILL pay a price for it.
(H/T: Union Leader)