Did Michelle Obama really change school lunches for the worse, as she is often blamed? How have American school lunches evolved over time?

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mothwhimsy@reddit

American School lunches have always been bad Michelle Obama tried to mitigate that problem and make lunches more nutritious, but how successful she was really depended on the school and how much money and effort they were willing to put into meeting the nutritional requirements.

For a lot of schools, very little money or effort was put into it.

Mine was was of them. After her policy was implemented, we were required to have a serving of unseasoned, boiled vegetables on our tray even if we weren't going to eat them. Very few people ate them because they were disgusting (and not even in an 'ew broccoli' way, they were just prepared in a way that made them nearly inedible), so tons of veggies were wasted every day.

Since they were wasting all this money on vegetables, they had to cut corners in other places. Before Michelle Obama, we got four chicken tenders, a side of rice, and a side of something else (fruit or veggies) that varried. After, that same meal became 4 chicken nuggets that were less than half the size of the tenders, a side of rice, and a side of the terrible veggies that no one ate. We were in high school. Everyone was starving by the end of the day.

A lot of the food was like that. Either the portions shrunk or the quality in food dropped so drastically that it was unappetizing. It was a little funny to see the loopholes they could come up with though. Because there's no way the cheaper stuff was more nutritionous. It just had fewer calories. Or like "pizza counts as a vegetable"

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SeanSweetMuzik@reddit

Nutritious food doesn't have to be gross, but they managed to make it that way.

The starving at the end of the day is so true, I remember coming home at 3PM and eating like 3 bowls of cereal most days because I was so hungry, and then at like 5:30PM eating a full dinner.

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Odd-Help-4293@reddit

She led an initiative to try to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables and drink less sugary sodas. IIRC, this resulted in schools selling more juice and flavored waters instead of Coke and Pepsi, using whole wheat bread instead of white bread, etc.

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LookAtTheFlowers@reddit

this resulted in schools selling more juice and flavored waters instead of Coke and Pepsi

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Donfukaroun@reddit

33% of fruit and 50% of vegetables in school lunch end up in the trash. It will get better when RFK is in charge.

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Bubbaman78@reddit

In the 80s all our food was fresh made by cooks at our school, in the late 90s it went to complete shit because they had to meet “guidelines” set by the government. We had maybe 1 overweight kid per class. Look at what we have now.

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Clever_plover@reddit

We had maybe 1 overweight kid per class. Look at what we have now.

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TerribleAttitude@reddit

Not soon. In the foreseeable future, it will almost certainly get significantly worse.

There is a reason if you go to a bakery, they don't just sell the one "best" bread, but instead many different kinds. All of the popular breads that continue to exist have a role. Different breads have different crumb texture, crust and flavor profile. And which ones are best depends on the context you're using it in.

I have baked white bread at home that's rich and flavorful. Many kinds of non-wheat bread can have interesting flavor like potato bread, sourdough, foccacia, etc. Wheat VS white isn't really a quality or depth thing. It sounds like you're comparing the best of wheat to the worst of white rather than a level comparison.

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More_Shoulder5634@reddit

I'm sure you're aware of this, but I'm just gonna throw this out there for context. The McDonald's McChicken patty, well they're made by a company called keystone foods. Anyhoo that same chicken patty is all over county jails and school lunches. Or at least the three jails in three states I've been in (never for a long time) and the two schools im familiar with in adulthood. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just a little factoid.

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AspieAsshole@reddit

The food in the jail I was in ranged from barely to inedible. I lost 20 lbs in 4 weeks.

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More_Shoulder5634@reddit

I've been in a few, only been in three jails for more than a week. Benton county and Washington county Arkansas, terrible food. Benton county everything was cold, like lunch meat or cereal three times a day and you got powdered milk for breakfast. This despite being in a super affluent place (Walmart headquarters). Adair county Oklahoma, one of the poorest places in America, great food. Chili cheese burritos, heck the churches brought us all Styrofoam takeout boxes like chock full of turkey dinner for thanksgiving. We couldn't even finish them like six pounds of food probably. Always thought that was weird

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AspieAsshole@reddit

How bizarre, but completely unsurprising of Arkansas.

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RedPlaidPierogies@reddit

TBH I didn't care for wheat bread back in the day and I was (wrongly) angry at her for making that change. Whole wheat bread. Whole wheat breaded chicken patty. Whole wheat hot dog buns. I was firmly into the "you can't tell me what to do" mindset.

I will admit that I was wrong.

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symmetrical_kettle@reddit

Americans only switch to whole wheat bread to be healthy. But once we get used to it, it's hard to go back.

My parents grew up on wonder bread. It wastes like a cloud and turns into a goopy sugary mash in your mouth. I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally marketed as "healthier" also since they add vitamins to the dough (but they add those to all bread/pasta products here)

People think making kids eat wheat bread is unfair cause it's not as fun. Some people still think of wheat bread as an acquired taste. There's a clear line between "adult food" and "kid food" in american culture.

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PlasticMechanic3869@reddit

Wonder bread is cake. As a non-American, I can tell you - it is not bread, it is cake. It was absolutely shocking to try it.

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idontknowdudess@reddit

I don't understand how there's so much sugar in it. I make my own bread a lot and add a dash of sugar at most and it tastes so similar to me.

I still only like white bread lol.

My husband once made bread according to a recipe he found that had sugar similar to sandwich bread, it was inedible because it was so sweet. Why can't I taste the sugar in wonder bread?

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well as an example, my school moved to having whole wheat pizza, it was also a very small portion, so that it’d be low calories, and it was disgusting. it still cost as much as it did before when you got twice as much and it was actually good, and it was the only option on wednesdays. most of the changes to our menu were just smaller portions for the same price as before.

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Superb_Yak7074@reddit

It should be noted that during the Reagan years they decided that ketchup could be considered a vegetable when determining nutritional values for school lunches. Prior to Michelle Obama’s initiative, many school lunches were little more than trays full of low quality crap and were tossed by the kids because they were so unpalatable. The kids bought sodas and snacks to eat instead.

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Damn for kids I would’ve thought a 500calorie meal is much more acceptable. Also I can’t blame the kids, the veggies I got were flavorless, soggy and gross

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ColdAnalyst6736@reddit

like idiots. they decided the same fucking calorie amount for kids 5th grade to 12th grade.

like a 6’5 senior in football eats the same as a middle school girl

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RD__III@reddit

No offense, that study is sort of Psuedo Scientific bullshit. It divides the two study groups into pre-determined categories; then uses the definition of the categories to establish that they are different. It’s like taking two students, giving one an apple, one a cookie, and then stating student one eats more fruit.

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HiTekRednek10@reddit

Of course we threw away the veggies no one wants colored mush. Not that it would’ve supplemented my 6 chicken nuggets and 12oz of chocolate milk anyway

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dantevonlocke@reddit

Here's the biggest issue with it. There is no single school system in the US. There's 50 states with their own systems and then how many ever districts in those states. You could visit one school in say rural KY(where I'm from) and go over to the next district and have not only different lunch but different classes and even different schedules for the day(like number of classes). So blaming Michelle Obama for school lunches being worse is like blaming the accountant for your business for bad janitors.

darkchocoIate@reddit

Although, was that really the Obama's fault or the school lunch program's fault?

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maggie081670@reddit

Anything to absolve the sainted Obama's from any and all criticism. So good, smart & pure. Those people never made a mistake. It was everyone and everything else that was at fault. Always.

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darkchocoIate@reddit

Whoa, you're going really far into the weeds here. The Obama's wanted kids to eat healthier. They didn't buy the food, design the menus or cook the meals.

Not to mention - Michelle had no official position. So what you're left with is a misguided attempt to blame someone for what was really a series of widespread failures at the local level.

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FerricDonkey@reddit

Wanting kids to eat healthier is a noble goal. Actions in pursuit of noble goals are worthless if they don't produce noble results, and worse than worthless if they make things worse.

If, because of your noble goal of getting kids to eat healthier, you restrict unhealthy things from cafeterias but do not provide money to cover putting better food in cafeterias, then cafeterias that do not already have money for good healthy food simply will not have good healthy food or the less healthy food that kids would actually eat.

If the result of this is that kids don't eat the food in the cafeteria, then you have reduced the effectiveness of using school cafeterias to feed kids, and also failed to get kids to eat healthier. Because of the way you acted on your noble goal.

copious amounts of salt and sugar better?

Problem was they swung the pendulum all the way to the other side. They removed all of that and served stuff that wouldn't be eaten. What ended up happening was kids who still didn't get nutritious meals but also didn't eat as much food. They only ate the stuff that still has sugar and salt.

Canned green beans aren't bad with a ton of salt, there not bad with a normal amount of salt, they are bad with no salt.

Result was hungry kids.

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lannister80@reddit

It was broken before (feeding kids garbage).

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How can there be enough produce to feed all the kids?

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haileyskydiamonds@reddit

At an elementary school, there could be an professional adult gardener who maintains things, and each class could have their own plot (or beds) to tend. They could focus on things like salad vegetables or vegetables for side dishes: potatoes, carrots, onions, peas, green beans, cucumbers, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, and tomatoes. They could have fruit trees, blueberry bushes, strawberries, and melons.

With every class participating, then they could produce enough food to serve at least three days a week. They don’t have to eat everything every day, and some things could be preserved. (Cucumbers could become pickles; tomatoes could be used for spaghetti and salsa, etc.)

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ladyelenawf@reddit

My kids' school district has a dedicated farm. They take field trips to it. Their free breakfasts and lunches are better than anything I can cook considering the variety. I'm insanely jealous.

There are 3 options every day and on half days they are sent home with bag lunches. Now those are horrible because they use some weird brand of sunflower butter, but not everything can be perfect. They offer free lunches to anyone 18 and under during the summer, too.

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Ralph--Hinkley@reddit

Eight states have free lunches for all.

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sariagazala00@reddit (OP)

Really? What were they serving for it to be that bad?

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CharlesFXD@reddit

A lot of the food is the same. The menu didn’t change but the ingredients did. Less or no salt. Much less sugar. “Healthy” ingredients.

Less fats, salt, sugar = less flavor and terrible textures.

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BananaMapleIceCream@reddit

School lunches are always terrible. Adding vegetables just meant more boiled, bland lumps.

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saberlight81@reddit

I am convinced that the entire reason "kids hate vegetables" is a trope is that we serve them to kids in the most unappetizing way possible expecting them to just accept any bland slop. Boiled, unseasoned broccoli was a stable of my childhood. I was a picky eater until I moved out and learned how to cook for myself, and I know this isn't just a case of having grown up, because I'd go back home and eat my mom's cooking again and it was still terrible.

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Prosciutto7@reddit

Growing up, school lunches were absolutely disgusting. When my son was in elementary school, he got the good stuff. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies to choose from. A couple different kinds of salad and dressings. Locally made bread rolls. As much food as possible was sourced locally. I know some parents who would go eat with their kids a few times a week because for $6 they'd get a really good, nutritious meal.

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StanleyQPrick@reddit

This wasn’t my experience at all. My public school kid in Kentucky was given lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and healthy protein choices and plenty of it all. I heard zero complaints even when I visited the cafeteria and joined the kids for lunch.

HailState17@reddit

School lunches have been shit since I was in school in the 90s. So, no.

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RegressToTheMean@reddit

Old man checking in. Reagan argued that ketchup was a vegetable back in the 80s

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burninstarlight@reddit

In my district, the tomato sauce on pizza is considered a vegetable

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dgillz@reddit

He did more than argue it, he passed it by fiat. The USDA rescinded it 1 month later however.

Most people think a tomato is a vegetable, so it really wasn't that outrageous to call ketchup a vegetable. It was just wrong.

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Randolpho@reddit

so it really wasn't that outrageous to call ketchup a vegetable

The fuck you say? It's ABSOLUTELY ridiculous to call ketchup a vegetable, regardless of whether or not a tomato is a vegetable or a fruit.

Ketchup is neither a vegetable NOR a fruit.

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SimpleVegetable5715@reddit

Exactly, it's a condiment.

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KaizDaddy5@reddit

It counts as a serving of vegetables. Same way we call bread a grain.

Not according the Supreme Court

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/149/304/

School lunches at some parts of the country did get better. My daughter's elementary school now offers a salad bar, rice bowls, fresh fruit and a host of healthy options for every mean.

And because i live in California every meal is free for students.

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Pitiful_Structure899@reddit

WRONG

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Eagle_Fang135@reddit

I know Mississippi is not the gold standard but they called pizza a vegetable serving because of the tomato paste on it.

Schools in rich areas used school lunches for revenue so served popular but maybe not as great nutrition. They charged much more and just absorbed the losses on the few subsidized lunches.

Schools in poor areas like inner cities lost money on lunches due to high subsidized rates do made the cheapest lunches they could within the rules. That is the school lunch you and I remember.

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SimpleVegetable5715@reddit

Yeah my (rich) school had a Pizza Hut and a Subway, and the kids like me who couldn't afford $5 a day for lunch got a 25 cent peanut butter sandwich. I would totally eat these balanced meals I see around YouTube now instead. I spent all of grade school so hungry! They didn't serve breakfast back then either. It was hard to focus in class. Why did I not bring a lunch? Columbine times, we didn't have lockers.

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latkd@reddit

My school called pizza the “most nutritious meal” because it contains protein (pepperoni), carbohydrates (crust), and vegetables/fibre (tomato sauce). 🥴

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Sadimal@reddit

In 2011, Congress ruled that pizza can be considered a vegetable if it has more than two tablespoons of tomato sauce. It's the main reason why schools are still allowed to serve pizza.

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Saltpork545@reddit

It's called commodity pizza and that's far from the only reason. Most of not all now also contains whole flour and uses turkey instead of pork.

You can buy it by the case from food distributors. It's 96 slices per case, 8 pieces fit a half sheet pan and I always have some in my deep freeze.

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Well, we we no longer allowed to have cheese on our burgers, only plain hamburgers. I guess that one slice of cheese was too much. The new burger had the worst quality whole wheat bun you can imagine, mixed with the driest beef patty of all time. Just awful.

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symmetrical_kettle@reddit

Poptarts or toaster strudel or donuts as the main course for breakfast was actually a thing. A chocolate chip muffin was considered "healthy" rather than a "treat".

We never had soda available for lunch either. There were soda machines in the school, but they weren't available during lunch.

I lived in a small school that was considered ‘poor’

I think the problem was that they took away unhealthy food and didn’t replace them with an alternative. However, that’s just one school out of the whole country. So, I’m sure it worked for some and didn’t for others.

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psychocentric@reddit

The schools in our state are all pretty rural and poor. We ran into the same issue you're talking about. There was a list of things you can't have now, but nothing to replace them at the same pricepoint. Some schools got a little more creative, but some (quite a bit) of ours are from very poor communities without the ability to get their hands on fresh foods most of the year.

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AdjustedTitan1@reddit

Which is an easily predicted outcome. She didn’t (or couldn’t) increase their budgets, healthier mass produced food is not gonna taste as good

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JudgmentalRavenclaw@reddit

Yes. This. Michelle Obama was an easy scapegoat. They could skimp out on the food purchasing and say their hands were tied.

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TheBimpo@reddit

The "Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act" and Let's Move.

The effects of which have been studied by sociologists, education specialists, etc. And of course there's tons of plain opinion.

School nutrition is hard. Schools have to provide food that kids will eat, in huge quantities, in a short period of time, with a limited budget and limited resources.

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Puzzleheaded-Pick285@reddit

Rice or Noodles, veggies, legumes, sauces and spices (Indian, Italian, Mexican and Asian style dishes FTW)

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy

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symmetrical_kettle@reddit

We can't expect our kids to eat that weird foreign stuff. It's anti-American.

Unfortunately, the above is a very real sentiment shared by a good number of the more outspoken type of parents, even in our more progressive school districts.

American foods, even homemade family dishes, mostly only use salt, pepper, and sugar (bread and tomato sauce both have ridiculous amounts of sugar) for seasoning.

A lot of dishes from other cuisines that tend to incorporate more veggies into their food (like lentil soup or chicken ghallaba) have spices that kids here aren't used to eating. Also, spices are expensive.

I think it comes down to:

1) What will most kids reliably eat, so as to prevent kids from throwing it away and encouraging them to buy it and

2) What's cheap? (ingredients but also labor)

So when we get rules like "meals need a veggie" we start thinking "what's the cheapest way to add a veggie" and end up offering the saddest looking side of salad and a whole piece of fruit.

Hummus is cheap, but it's way more expensive than chopped salad, because the chopped salad comes from the company that we have a contract for school lunch with, and they make it in bulk so it comes out to 2 cents per serving, and they don't sell hummus, but if they did, it would cost at least 50 cents per serving since they're not making as large batches of it because they also cater to 1000 other school districts and 900 of those aren't willing to feed their kids "weird foreign foods" because the parents would protest. The remaining 100 aren't willing to pay 20x the price when they can meet government requirements for a lower cost.

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4MuddyPaws@reddit

Except rice and noodles are pretty much empty calories. Fine in small amounts, but not that great for a lot of people. Especially with kids/teens who have a chance of diabetes. Mostly type 2.

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Puzzleheaded-Pick285@reddit

That's false, Brown rice has a low glycemic index

Brown rice also contains high levels of magnesium, and studies show that eating more whole grains, including brown rice, could reduce your risk of heart disease by up to 22% and your risk of stroke by as much as 12%.

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4MuddyPaws@reddit

As I have diabetes, I can assure you that it does spike blood sugar, which is bad for kids who have that propensity.

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Is there something about America specifically that makes it so difficult.

Schools have to provide food that kids will eat, in huge quantities, in a short period of time, with a limited budget and limited resources.

I'd imagine the fact that cities and states have autonomy in educational standards would be the greatest barrier.

It's a barrier but also gives states a lot of freedom. Some states like Michigan and Minnesota have prioritized school lunches (and breakfasts, and even programs for meals outside of school hours).

It's complicated. Kids have eating preferences, kids have dietary concerns, kids have food aversions, parents have opinions about what's being served, schools have limited budgets and limited resources.

We have a lot of protections for kids who have unique needs, many are on 504 plans or IEPs so schools are addressing their individual concerns. This can include eating/lunch demands.

It's hard enough to come up with a meal plan for a single family that everyone agrees on for a week. Multiply that by 400 kids in an elementary school with 400 different families with 400 different outlooks and perspectives on meals.

Then you mix in the political concerns that go into public services. There are people who don't feel that their taxes should go towards feeding other people, that this is the responsibility of the family, not the public.

It's very, very complicated. It's not as simple as "just feed the kids!", when you have 400 unique situations in each elementary school. Some kids don't/can't eat meat, or dairy, or cheese, or unless they've had their medication first. How do your provide equally, for all?

What does MyCountry do when students have allergies, aversions to certain foods, are vegetarian, etc?

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sariagazala00@reddit (OP)

Thank you so much for your in-depth explanation! I really appreciate it.

I don't think I know a single vegetarian, so we don't offer specifically "vegetarian" labeled meals due to the rarity of the cultural practice, but as our cuisine involves lots of fruits and vegetables anyways, I'd imagine they could find something to eat.

Aversions to certain foods? Hmm. I don't think "picky eating" is as common as it is in America, either. There are foods I don't like and foods my friends don't like, but we always had something that we would eat. I wonder why that is? I remember watching American TV and always wondering about the jokes they made about children not eating their vegetables.

Allergens? Once again, it must be less common for a reason I'm unaware of, but I've never really thought about or considered it either.

I'm from Jordan, by the way! I don't think my user flair shows up?

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RedRatedRat@reddit

Choosing to be vegetarian is a luxury.

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aculady@reddit

Not if you have alpha-gal.

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PikaPonderosa@reddit

I think that fits the definition of "not a choice."

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TheBimpo@reddit

I don't think I know a single vegetarian

About 5% of Americans are and some are for religious/cultural reasons. Remember, we're a melting pot of people from the entire world.

I'd imagine they could find something to eat.

What? What would they eat every day? If school is serving chicken enchiladas, a piece of fruit, cornbread, and beverages for lunch...What does the vegetarian kid eat? Do they have a caloric deficiency and are hungry through the afternoon because they had an apple and a roll for lunch?

I don't think "picky eating" is as common as it is in America, either.

Perhaps we're more sensitive to the needs of children and refusing them necessary calories because they have a psychological aversion to eating chicken or ground beef isn't a great way to raise a kid. I know children that flat out will not put chicken in their mouth. So their behavior goes haywire because they're hungry. What do you do in a school with this? You're serving baked chicken today, but some kids won't eat it. Now what?

but we always had something that we would eat

The school would have to offer and prepare this. They have limited resources. What are these kids going to eat? Be specific. "Something" isn't an answer and doesn't go in bellies. What are they going to eat? Do they have to eat the same thing every day because of budget and time? What if that causes social problems?

Allergens? Once again, it must be less common for a reason I'm unaware of

About 8% of kids have food allergies. Myself, I can't enjoy anything with a lot of lactose. Lasagna or enchiladas or a cheese heavy meal would cause me a lot of distress. Are you offering alternatives for the 32 kids in the school that can't eat cheese?

We're dealing with 7 year olds with distracted parents here, assume the parents AREN'T checking the menu days in advance and providing healthy alternatives. That's why we have school lunch in the first place, to feed kids because they're hungry. If parents fail that day, the kid fails that day.

I'm from Jordan, by the way! I don't think my user flair shows up?

I use old.reddit still, so not for me.

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sariagazala00@reddit (OP)

I think you're misunderstanding my tone, which is partially my fault since I speak formally. I wasn't offering suggestions for how to improve the American school lunch system, I thought you were asking about my own experiences and how it works differently in my country. I agree with you on all counts, and I'm not really sure how to fix the problems you've laid out! Thank you, once again, for your expansion upon this topic.

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TheBimpo@reddit

I understand. I wasn't challenging you, put trying to illustrate the many many many problems with trying to provide meals for large groups of children every day. Simply saying "This is the menu, eat it or don't" is going to end up failing kids who need it the most. It's complicated and we all wish every family had easy and workable solutions for all of their kids, but we don't have that.

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captainstormy@reddit

One thing that makes it difficult is that unlike many (most?) countries America doesn't have a staple food that most of the meals are built around.

For example many countries have a food or handful of foods that make up a large portion of their diet. For example Mexico with tortillas, rice and beans. Asian countries with rice based meals, Italy and pasta, etc etc.

In the US we have a huge variety of food and every family eats differently according to their own tastes and habits.

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ostiarius@reddit

My school lunches in the 90s were so greasy you could see through the paper plate.

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EricKei@reddit

They were shit back in the 70s and 80s, too. Trust me on this.

And yes, that was indeed the intention of her plan. The issue was a predictable one: That many kids refused to eat the healthier foods.

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drsfmd@reddit

She attempted to make them more nutritious.

It was a highly misguided effort though. An 850 calorie lunch might be more than adequate for an elementary schooler. For a high school athlete? Completely inadequate... they just plain need more calories.

Moreover, the food just wasn't palatable. A single slide of bread, bit of turkey, and a scoop of green beans or mystery veggie slop is just gross. Kids wanted pizza, chicken nuggets, and the like. My kids came home from school starving every single day, and would eat as soon as they got home... and then eat dinner again a couple of hours later.

Absolutely, yes. I think a lot of people don't actually know much of what she did, but I was an area cafeteria supervisor for one of the largest districts in the country at the time.

I believe the initiative started before her, but the first thing she did was limit soda and snack availability, putting a greater focus on juice and water (and milk fuckin milk lobby is crazy).

She also implemented a new farm to school fruit and vegetable program. Each month, schools got fresh produce (really nice stuff, generally) from local or regional farms. Usually a specific veg, like butter lettuce or fancy tomatoes. We were given flyers of information about the farm and the veg, and recipes to serve (or we could get our own approved).

There was a focus on health and meal quality as well. Fewer unhealthy meals, more consistent calories and nutrition. Bread was wheat instead of white, most frozen foods were removed except for emergencies, etc. She also encouraged cooperation between major districts and corporations to get higher quality food, like Tyson chicken instead of nameless mush. I know one common complaint was that slightly lower calorie counts was bad for kids in sports, which is understandable to some extent

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throwawayzdrewyey@reddit

I was also in school at the time and had the opposite happen at my school.

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skt71@reddit

My youngest says she ruined school lunches, but she’s always kind of joking. She insisted on whole wheat pizza crusts…which is healthier, but I agree with the kids. That classic school pizza is delish. Whole wheat pizza crusts are not good.

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Itriedbeingniceonce@reddit

No

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lord_hufflepuff@reddit

She implemented calorie caps on meals which lead to some becoming pitifully small. Instead of like, changing the meals to have less calorie dense foods a lot of schools just cut the portion sizes of their already small (but unhealthy) foods.

sariagazala00@reddit (OP)

I don't think snacking is particularly an American thing, but it's the way that Americans approach it that makes it bad. I and many other people from my country grew up with fruits, nuts, little pastries, small appetizers, all of that as snacks to go along with tea or coffee, but I definitely never had a lot of boxed foods or anything. Why do you think this culture of convenience has taken over?

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Working-Office-7215@reddit

Yes, it's ultraprocessed foods that people snack on. And we snack on it at our desks, in our cars, at the playground with our kids, when they kids are bored and standing in line. After a 30 minute 5 yo soccer game, the parents will bring gatorades and cookies and chips to hand out for "snack." Etc.

Yes. I’m definitely ashamed of being a Texan and I’m so glad I already graduated.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/19/texas-bible-curriculum-education

They don’t care about the kids. They don’t care about helping marginalized or disabled or mentally ill kids. And if they don’t care about those things, they definitely don’t care about them being malnourished. So that budget goes elsewhere - the curriculum system which focuses on indoctrinating students and teaching them unreliable history.

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sariagazala00@reddit (OP)

Perhaps I'm biased, but that doesn't seem like the most unreasonable measure ever - not coming from an American perspective, that is. The article says it's optional and that they'll just schools more if they do it, and doesn't imply much beyond basic moral teachings?

Then again, in my country, we have Islamic education in schools and I read the Qu'ran, but I don't think it offended anyone since those of other faiths are of such a small minority.

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reputction@reddit

No, it’s absolutely unreasonable. This state has strong conservative roots, and state-wide conservatism is something they want to enforce. As an American and Texan who lives here, it’s an automatic violation in the constituted separation of Church and State. It exists so that people are not forced into beliefs they don’t want to partake in.

Morality does not come from the Bible. You don’t need the Bible to teach morals. I’m someone who grew up in a Christian household and I don’t believe in forcing kids to take tests on a religion that has a reputation of being bigoted and hateful towards those who don’t follow it. Plus, they’re not developmentally able to separate and think on their own. There’s a reason religion is a class you can take on your own in college, because you’re old enough to decipher things. The new curriculum isn’t going to be about analyzing the text from an academic perspective, it’s an obvious incentive to try and “parent” the kids not educate them.

My mother-in-law was a lunch lady during the transition from pre-Michelle to post Michelle. Her observation is that waste increased dramatically, basically kids weren’t eating the food. And teachers noticed a lot more behavior issues post lunch because kids were hungry.

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dementian174@reddit

My mother in law complained vehemently that Michelle Obama ruined everything by taking sugar out of spaghetti sauce in kids lunches. Like, went on and on, whining about how it wasn’t fair to the kids. We don’t visit her on holidays.

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Chefman11@reddit

Director of Nutrition for school lunch program checking in...

When calculations are done considering food costs, wages, utensils, paper products such as napkins or plates, cleaning supplies, equipment costs, maintenance on equipment, and the many other costs associated with serving 1000+ kids per day, you're left with under $1 USD per child/student.

When you pair that with required serving sizes (age dependant) of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein, and milk, it doesn't leave a lot of room for fresh anything.

My agency typically spends $30-40 thousand a month more than we receive in USDA funding, simply trying to keep up with livable wages (WA State), and provide fresh options on our menus.

Ultimately, it's a constant struggle to prepare meals that are both healthy, fresh, and appetizing to kids.

To answer the actual question, no. Michelle Obama didn't gut school Nutrition. The changes made just don't reflect the cost increase vs. funding associated with the new requirements.

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GlitteringGrocery605@reddit

According to my kids, the gist of the changes was that kids were forced to take a fruit and/or veggie when they went through the line. Most did not eat what they took, and some literally threw it in the trash before they even sat down with their tray.

Michelle Obama’s intentions were good, but I think it’s going to take a massive cultural shift to change kids’ diets, not just edicts from above.

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Hawaii__Pistol@reddit

Yup, those were terrible times. Bland sh*t that was thrown out by everyone. I remember when my pizzas were triangles & then it turned into that nasty cardboard filled with holes/oval one. I remember when they took away my delicious iced triangle juice thing for those nasty cups of fruit. I remember when my choco milk turned into that blue & white boxed milk. So much food was wasted.

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idiot-prodigy@reddit

Yes she did, with no thought of the athletes and poor children that relied on those calories.

Human beings do NOT have the exact same daily caloric needs.

Michelle changed food standards in school lunches, both the calories, and the amount of vegetables/fruits.

That was fine for a fat inactive kid.

It was NOT fine for the athletes in the high school playing football.

It was also NOT fine for poor children.

My mother was a public school teacher in a poorer neighborhood. By no means was it the poorest school in her district, but the children definitely were not from well off families. She told me her school provided free breakfast and lunch to these children as they knew if they only provided lunch that would be the only meal most of those children had that day.

Michelle obviously had no idea that was the reality for many children in the USA, if she did know, she would not have put celery on their plate for the day.

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CharlesFXD@reddit

I remember the change. My kid complained constantly that the food was dense, tasteless and boring after the changes. We started sending her with lunches.

This was years ago.

Our youngest daughter is in school now and the food seems “better” but we send her with a lunch as well even though school lunches are “free” now.

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ItsJust_ME@reddit

I think the program would've been reviewed better if they hadn't done away with crispito day.

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KolonelJoe@reddit

I can tell a lot of these commenters were not in school when this happened. I was in fourth grade when her lunch changes started, and it was sooo bad. There wasn't a kid in my school that didn't hate her.

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NormanQuacks345@reddit

My 5th grade class were full-on Mitt Romney supporters in 2012, and most of us not because our parents were.

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Manaliv3@reddit

Is that because it was bad food, or because you were so used to eating crap, you didn't like the contrast?

Most comme ts here imply Americans eat salty sugary shit to the point that actual food tastes off to them. Does that align with your experience?

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mothwhimsy@reddit

Yeah, my school cutting the chicken portions in half must have been all in my head cuz what really happened is I was used to drinking ketchup directly from the bottle and was no longer allowed to do that. Get real.

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huhwhat90@reddit

No, based on a lot of these comments, I think a lot of it came down to preparation. They just boiled veggies with no seasoning. I don't think anyone would like that.

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JustDontBeFat_GodDam@reddit

because you were so used to eating crap, you didn't like the contrast?

Are you suggesting school lunches became good after Michelle Obama’s meddling?

the actual initiative had absolutely nothing to do with the outrage! republicans are great at creating a sh¡t storm where one did not exist…

ie: tanned suits, critical race theory, public washrooms, little litters in school washrooms, and the list goes on!

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noldshit@reddit

She pushed for healthy, kids pushed back by not eating it.

Her idea was sound but the issue was most public schools no longer have real kitchens. Kids are getting served the equivalent of frozen meals.

You just gotta make it appetizing, wrap up beans, rice and veggies in a burrito with guac and salsa

Or blend the veggies into the marinara and toss it on some whole grain noodles

It was backed by doctors who took the examples you made into account. And if you played sports in high school you already knew to avoid school lunches cuz it’s just junk. Your coaches would have told you that.

We had wraps and salads made every day. They were delicious. We also had hot lunches and fries once a week. There were other hot options like a chicken sandwich or burger or cheese burger. Fresh fruit, too.

We used to have fries and personal pizzas every day but kids would eat only pizza or only fires every single day so they had to stop serving it because too many kids were just eating that alone.

I’m 27 so Obama’s second term was when I was in high school and I’m also old enough to remember school lunch before and after the changes took place.

We lost ice cream sandwhiches and soda from the “snack bar” where you could buy extras at lunch. Our school store which sold chocolate chip cookies had to switch to a different brand bc they had like 100% of your daily fat in two cookies or something like that lol.

I actually LOVED the changes to our lunches. We got the option for fresh little side salads every day, and sometimes a veggie soup? I think. And could choose a fruit juice instead of canned fruit. The actual lunches were fine - I remember other kids complaining about the whole wheat pasta etc but I never thought it was that bad.

I also lost about 25 lbs from jr year to sr year and contribute a lot of that to the school lunches being balanced and also having nutrition information that was easily accessible

That said I went to school in one of the wealthiest towns in my state, so they were actually able to follow the guidelines

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Bulliwyf@reddit

Mum’s an elementary school teacher in Ga - she mentioned that after the changes, there was more food waste and more empty bellies.

Reduced salt content? Well that has a much lower manufacturing volume (Americans love salty foods, so that's what gets made), so it costs more per unit. Again, the $5 hasn't changed, so the extra cost comes out of other items on the plate.

A greater serving of vegetables? Just means a smaller serving of everything else. You see where this is going.

To be fair to the Obamas, I don't believe they were totally unaware that this is how things work. I think they assumed that future contracts would have the schools shelling out the extra costs for more nutritious foods (both of President Obama's terms were defined in large part by similar faulty assumptions). But if there's one thing American schools are known for, it's being critically underfunded, so no such cost compensation has been forthcoming. Resulting in unpalatable school lunches, hungry students, and Michelle Obama's stained legacy.

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Ok-Drag-5929@reddit

It was a good idea but was very poorly executed. If schools (at least the ones I went too) had actually started serving fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as good "healthy food" kids would have been upset but it would have been alright. Instead schools started serving expired and sometimes rotten food. I had rotten apples and bananas several times. Add that to the fact that kids like sugar and they took majority of it away or limited access to it and it ended badly. Once a week my school had a chicken place bring chicken wings to the school and everyone looked forward to it. When they took it away they almost had a teenage riot on their hands.

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MG_Robert_Smalls@reddit

she infringed on our American right to be fatties and drink choccy milk, apparently

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OkBlock1637@reddit

It was a good idea, but the execution was awful. As a student during this time period I can speak to my personal experience.

My Highschool had about every option for lunch. Soft Service Ice Cream, Soft drinks, Pizza, Bagels etc. You could get a filling meal for $2.00. When they enacted the change, all of the extra's (Which were cheap) were removed. We could only eat provided healthy meal. The portions were much smaller and were not nearly as filling. I used to have to buy double or triple portions just to be full, then eventually I started packing lunch. So it went from $2.00 day to $4-6.00.

As an example I remember vividly fish sticks. We used to get a healthy handful of them. The year it was enacted I got 3. Athletic, 6'2" 15 YO and I was expected to be full with 3 fish sticks..

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Swing-Too-Hard@reddit

All I can say is during his presidency the ingredients they used in these lunches got worse and worse. The problem was they didn't realize this shit costs more money so you ended up with bad tasting food that was only mildly healthier for kids.

My mom was a lunch lady at this time and would bring home food they didn't sell. By the end of it I didn't want any of the trash they were giving to these kids... and less and less kids were buying the lunches. Michelle Obama fucked it up.

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Karfedix_of_Pain@reddit

Did Michelle Obama really change school lunches for the worse, as she is often blamed?

No.

How have American school lunches evolved over time?

So, school lunches have kind of always been an issue... Schools, in general, often have issues with funding. Lots of schools struggle to provide nutritious, palatable food for their students.

Michelle Obama led an initiative to make school lunches more nutritious. And there's some evidence that it was successful - reporting indicates that schools started selling more juice and flavored water than soda. But there's also issues in making nutritious food taste good to children for a low price. And there's reporting that indicates kids just didn't want to eat the food.

Of course that was all something like a decade ago... As soon as Trump took office back in 2016 he started reversing Obama-era initiatives. I'm not sure how much influence Michelle has on modern-day school lunches.

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nccatfan@reddit

Fox News and Rush and the rest of the blithering idiots we call the thrashed her for “forcing” Kids to eat healthy. Of course they trashed Barack for wearing a khaki suit and for not saluting soldiers “the right way” so, yeah. Guess it does come down to …

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glycophosphate@reddit

The contents of American school lunches are controlled, at the Federal level, by the Department of Agriculture. Michelle Obama has never been the Secretary of Agriculture. She was, however, a black woman, so people accused (and still accuse) her of all manner of perfidy.

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CatchMeIfYouCan09@reddit

The only damn change i get irritated about is the school is obligated to feed my kids. IE... They're not allowed to say no of the kid wants more food.

My kids eat BF before they go to school and take lunch and snacks with them. On more then one occasion they have given my Autistic 4yo lunch because he was confused and got into the wrong line. The teacher didn't redirect him.

Yeah. Vegetables are tricky to do in large schools with limited funds. If it's not salad, it's steamed, flavorless canned or frozen varieties.

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snickelbetches@reddit

People are dogging on "red states" schools pushing back. But it is an expensive waste if it's not being eaten. I live in a red state and we give all of our students free lunch so it's not as backwards as people think.

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PineappleSlices@reddit

A lot of educational policy is tricky because its often dependent on cultural shift to really function properly. A policy that's good in theory but realistically needs 10+ years to really get functioning properly will be implemented, and then retracted when it isn't immediately successful.

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attlerexLSPDFR@reddit

A lot of GOP officials have said it's not about waste it's just literally not their job. They have said it's socialism, and that parents should just work more.

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Fappy_as_a_Clam@reddit

They have said it's socialism

Did they really say this or did someone say they said this?

Because I have a hard time believing someone would say its socialism. I can believe them saying "not my job or the tax payers job to feed your kids" but calling it socialism seems like a pretty far stretch.

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snickelbetches@reddit

Again, I live in a red state. Purple county with a red school board and we are giving free lunch. ANYONE can benefit from it, not just the super poor. We also include free breakfast.

The painting people in one broad stroke is getting our country into a mess where we cannot come together. This is a local issue.

John Oliver did a deep dive on school lunches recently. It's worth a watch.

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SillyBanana123@reddit

I was in elementary school at the time and the quality and taste really plummeted. I remember that the chicken nuggets they started serving bounced way more than they should’ve

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MSXzigerzh0@reddit

My elementary school used to serve dominos pizza every single Friday for lunch. I didn't like pizza during for the most part of elementary school lol! When I finally did in 4th grade for a about a month I would get dominos pizza it was the standard pizza.

So, here’s the thing, and I’ve been posting about this a lot lately.

Where Michelle Obama failed wasn’t so much in trying to make school lunches healthier. She screwed up by not realizing that you have to provide healthy meals that students will eat. If they are just dumping trays of things like steamed veggies into the trash, nothing has been accomplished outside of wasting food and money.

There are many countries that provide healthy and delicious meals to students. But in most school cafeterias, food is pre-prepared and heated to serve. And, of course, districts were still under contract to their procurers, so all that happened was that they purchased the “healthy” meals that students wouldn’t eat.

If kids aren’t eating the healthy food, they aren’t getting the healthy nutrients.

Additionally, the calorie guidelines were ridiculous because they considered all children as one and the same. A 70-lb girl has different needs than a 220-lb linebacker, and trying to fit them into the same calorie range is ridiculous. For many children, a school lunch is effectively their single hot meal of the day, and I want them to eat up. For others, well, they’re eating elsewhere.

There is no one-stop solution here.

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50ShadesOfKrillin@reddit

as someone who was in grade school during the Obama administration, school lunches definitely took a nose dive

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Weeksieee_@reddit

The interesting thing is that it probably depends on where you went and lived. During Obama my school district had shifted to things like fresher foods and more variety. Before it was the normal school lunch, afterward stuff like sweet & sour chicken with rice, fresher vegetables, and better meat.

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DontrentWNC@reddit

Yeah people blame the guidelines but it is up to the school districts to implement them.

AcrossTheNight@reddit

At the time, I was substitute teaching and I remember one day I was at the high school, and they came on the intercom and basically said that Michelle Obama said that they had to remove the vending machines.

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Apprehensive_Check97@reddit

My understanding is she started a federal program that would provide funds to school districts, provided they follow specific nutritional guidelines. It was an opt in program and it’s down to the school district to design the menu, as long as it follows those nutritional guidelines. That’s why experiences can vary so much with some students feeling like the food was “disgusting” and others not feeling that way. So no, she’s not to blame for bland, overcooked veggies being served or stale wheat bread. That’s on the specific school district!

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AdmiralAkbar1@reddit

Did she single-handedly customize the menu of every single public school? No. But she was very much the public face of encouraging healthy eating in schools and updating nutritional requirements for school lunches.

NothingLikeCoffee@reddit

As a former public school student throughout the entire Obama administration, there was a noticeable downgrade in the taste of school food throughout her different plans.

Same here. I transfered schools a few times during the Obama administration and school lunches lowered in quality fairly universally. They weren't good to begin with but they were passable.

A huge amount of the hate came from the removal of "break" days. One school I went to would cater a different restaurant on every second Friday so students could get real pizza, chicken, etc. Her policies removed it so all that was left were less filling and worse tasting lunches. Basically half of the students in my high school switched to bringing lunches in because the ones provided by the district were atrocious.

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devnullopinions@reddit

Michelle Obama didn’t dictate what foods your school could make. The law dictated guidelines around things like how much sodium and fat a meal could contain and the relative proportions of fruits and vegetables.

If your school lunch food sucked it’s because your school cooked shit food.

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cbf1232@reddit

I wonder if the healthier ingredients cost more so they didn't have the money to make it taste good?

Working in the school systems it's been a night and day difference in how much food goes in the trash since the Obamas got involved.

Mass produced pizza things get placed into a special cellophane bag for easy reheating. It gets frozen and shipped and stored in regional warehouses. They get put in steam cabinets to heat up. The dough is often not cooked, or perhaps it is the steam bags that make it soggy? There is cheese or pepperoni. The cheese is like cheese whiz. The pepperoni is like shoe leather. My youngest brought one home for me to inspect. I opened it and placed it no a paper towel. In the morning the towel was sticky with lard.

And the breakfast cookies. Oatmeal, molasses and chunks of things packed somewhere far away. By the time they reached my kids they were like a hockey puck. The way to eat them is to open up the milk carton and soak them enough to be chewed.

Or there were chicken nuggets. None of it resembled chicken or any fried chicken I ever ate. It was fuzzy crumbs on the outside and this paste on the inside. I do not remember the other choices. None of the food is assembled in the school. It comes in plastic bags from somewhere.

Michelle Obama suggested we eat more fresh vegetables and fruits and grew a garden at the White House.

Why is that bad? The Kock brothers were the ones who made the foods listed at the top. Moving away from their packaged 'meals' would reduce their business. It is threatening to them. The Koch brothers companies are most of the processed food brands you see in the grocery stores, along with paper products and cleaning products. They advertise on Fox and donate to many republicans. So anything that interferes with their profit margin gets on fox as a bad thing.

Are lunches better or worse? I think there is no change really. Putting out the same pizza means no change. Putting out carrot sticks and tomatoes next to them is also good.

When I was a kid we all told bad things about school lunches. My options were cooked by my neighbors in huge pots. Mac and cheese, and the cheese was always a little different. Goulash. Again, always different.

The Old Days: One day a deer got hit by a car in the road in front of my school. The state trooper came and handled that. And before the day was out that deer was hanging up and getting processed by some hunters, and some PTA moms who did the work in the kitchen. We had mini venison steaks and fresh green beens for lunch the next day. And the day after we got mini venison sausages. I think this is the real threat to the Kochs: people producing their own food.

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JudgmentalRavenclaw@reddit

Some school districts’ budgets for school lunches are in a fund that can go toward other things—often they will skimp on lunch (following the very MINIMUM of the guidelines) to have money for other things, so they buy the cheapest stuff.

Also, speaking of my school—students often say the food is “disgusting” bc it is healthy and not full of sugar and artificial flavorings and things they’re used to in their takis chips and fast foods. It doesn’t taste like THAT so it’s automatically “gross”.

Growing in the 90s our school lunches were delicious, but definitely not healthy lol

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60MinMan-13@reddit

When I went to school in the mid-60s and 70s, each school had a fully cooking kitchen, so lunches were made on site, and most always tasted very good. They served real Hamburgers, Hotdogs, pizza, whole milk,real chocolate milk, and the best homemade peanut butter fudge. Later in high school, we could purchase fountain soda and Tasty-cake snacks and peanut butter crackers as well as other foods,snacks, and salads.

Something during the late 70s, they stopped cooking in the elementary schools and started delivering precooked food from the Junior and Senior High schools.

Later,while working for this same large school system in Maryland (2000-19). I would service the kitchens, and sometimes the staff would offer me a free lunch and / or breakfast. After a couple of times, I found them to be tasteless and bland, and I would turn down any future offers.

I understand why most kids throw away most of their lunche, milk, and tasteless juices.

I actually asked the upper food management why they would even order the crappie tasteless food. They just told me they had to follow certain guidelines.

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TruckADuck42@reddit

Biggest issue was low sodium. To the point that they'd serve unsalted canned green beans with no salt or butter available to put on them because that would be unhealthy.

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spontaneous-potato@reddit

I remember my school switching lunches soon after President Obama took office and the lunches were changed to meet the standards that Michelle Obama developed.

Did it look uglier? In my school, absolutely ugly, but it was definitely a LOT healthier. People did start sneaking in chips, energy drinks, sweets, and a lot of the older school food they created from memory, but made it like 5-6x saltier.

Explains why high bp was common among my graduating batch 5-6 years later compared to my friend’s group where they were all somewhat healthier, but a lot of them became vapers. Trading one poison for another I guess.

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machagogo@reddit

No. The project she spearheaded was well intentioned and should have been for the better. Trying to require actual nutritious and balanced foods is not a bad thing.

Local implementation has been shit in places, but that isn't really on her.

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thepoptartkid47@reddit

Yup. I was in my senior year when the changes started rolling out. The school my friends in the rich town went to had more fresh options, well-prepared and flavorful food. My broke-ass district got half-sized “whole wheat” hockeypucks that tasted like sawdust and “kale” that was just lukewarm green slime.

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taftpanda@reddit

I was in school while the program was happening, in two different districts. In one, it was awesome. They added in fresh options like a stir fry bar where you got to choose your ingredients and they had a lot of homemade soups and other just generally good stuff.

This thread is a really good explanation of American politics.

Michelle Obama was the First Lady. Her powers within the American government are... basically nothing. She is firmly authorized to decorate the white house and entertain. That's pretty much the limits to her official duties.

So her idea, and she used a lot of publicity on it, was to make school lunches more nutritious and wholesome for students.

Might I remind you that the USA was, and still is, in the middle of an obesity problem.

So consulting with nutritionists and doctors to come up with guidelines to make lunches more nutritious - by setting guidelines for the amount of salt, sugar, fats, and calories in the meal - is certainly a weird thing to blame a first lady for.

And of course, it also shows that the Republican congress took food away from children to show how bad their oponenets were.

No, she didn't make school lunches worse.

She pushed for healthier school lunches, and encouraged schools to substitute heavily processed and very unhealthy food choices with slightly healthier ones that weren't as popular, so people who were looking for reasons to be outraged got outraged.

These were the same people who got angry because President Obama wore a tan suit once, or asked for dijon mustard to go on his sandwich.

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sariagazala00@reddit (OP)

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DeathStarVet@reddit

I hope it isn't. But the GOP has been eyeing up dismantling a bunch of departments since at least when Obama was in office. Here's Rick Perry naming it for destruction in 2011.

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furiously_curious12@reddit

We had wraps and salads made every day. They were delicious. We also had hot lunches and fries once a week. There were other hot options like a chicken sandwich or burger or cheese burger. Fresh fruit, too.

We used to have fries and personal pizzas every day but kids would eat only pizza or only fires every single day so they had to stop serving it because too many kids were just eating that alone.

No, that's propaganda. If anything, she made them better.

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Petitels@reddit

School lunches have always been junk food crap since the 60s at least. She attempted to make them healthier.

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BioDriver@reddit

My wife is a dietitian and did her school lunch internship during the Obama-Trump shift.

Under Obama, school lunches were more nutritious and healthier for kids. However, it was more expensive for school districts and GOP politicians hated it. They spun it as bad for kids due to the cost and tried arguing that it was not beneficial from a health standpoint.

Under Trump, a lot of those measures were rolled back to allow more sugar, higher fat, and objectively less healthy options. Because it was cheaper and allowed CPG lobbyists and companies to more easily push their products in cafeterias.

During the transition she saw that school boards were happier with the changes but parents were not. She heard complaints that kids were not feeling well when they got home (imagine - eating crappy food then running around during recess makes you feel like crap. Who knew???) but was explicitly told by the district to not report the nutritional changes. Instead, the district and school boards said the changes were necessary due to “budgetary constraints.”

In other words, it’s GOP bullshit

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greenblue703@reddit

The big thing was they cut the amount of salt you’re allowed to have in the food. Since they already serve foods high in sodium they aren’t able to add more salt. Thanks to fast food most Americans (even kids) have an extremely over-salted palate and so the school food just tastes extremely bland and flavorless to many

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UltimateAnswer42@reddit

American government made it worse.

She tried to get sugar reduced and more fruits and vegetables served.

I live in Connecticut so we might have gotten more funding for good food.

Our high school got completely rebuilt and modernized so our lunches were actually really good. We also had a sandwich wrap station where someone would make us a sandwich of our choice. I got so many chicken Cesar spinach wraps and it was glorious.

Tbh when I was in the shitty middle school the lunches were significantly worse. But what I say with a grain of salt, Michelle Obama prob wasn’t the fully reason why the lunches got better and more so our high school got completely rebuilt and they trained the lunch ladies to make sandwiches and more healthy options

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DullQuestion666@reddit

Children are always allowed to bring their own food to replace or supplement school provided meals.

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doubtinggull@reddit

Michelle Obama, as First Lady, held only a ceremonial position. She had no power to affect school lunches directly. She led a public campaign that championed nutrition and reducing childhood obesity.

Part of that campaign was support for the Hunger Free Kids Act, which was signed into law in 2010. That legislation, among other things, updated the nutrition guidelines put out by the government and made reforms to school lunch and breakfast programs. Lunches were held to minimum amounts of fruit and vegetables and maximum amounts of sodium and sugar, for example.

School lunches are just as shitty as they’ve ever been, and they certainly aren’t more shitty than they previously were.

Nutjobs just make shit up based on her campaign to make school lunches healthier.

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dupontred@reddit

She wanted people to drink more water and eat more vegetables and the right freaked out about that too. Water. SMDH.

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AgathaM@reddit

She wanted lunches to be healthier and actually have things like vegetables. School districts in red states did not want to spend the money required to bring them up to the new standards so they badmouthed it. There are some states that allow ketchup to be classified as a vegetable so that it meets standards on nutrition.