The "We Are Hungry" video out of Kansas has made the big time.
I'm not talking about the Today Show or Fox News, where it has been featured. No, it made it on to The Daily Show tonight, where Jon Stewart picked up on the association between favorable media coverage for the video and negative coverage for any association with Michelle Obama.
That's easily evident in one of Linda O'Connor's (the teacher who helped make the video) own recent interviews, in which she states that "I guess my biggest problem is when media consult the U.S. government for guidelines, when (the government) set the guidelines."
Perhaps she is unaware that the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, actually says that school meals must reflect the latest Dietary Guidelines and the regulations are based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine. Some people will recall that the Institute of Medicine, "the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which was chartered under President Abraham Lincoln in 1863," is an independent, nonprofit organization that provides unbiased and authoritative advice.
Now maybe an English teacher in Kansas knows more about child nutrition, but I think I will go with the advice of an organization whose "members are elected for their excellence and professional achievement" in their field.
You also have to wonder why a teacher and students in a school district with just a few hundred students is driving so much of the attention around this story. O'Connor states that half of the high school students aren't eating in the cafeteria now, but that is just 30 students!
She also states that "we're getting the great foods and the healthy foods, but it's the negation of the fuel." She wants the kids to get more of the protein and carbohydrates "that give us our energy for the day." So instead of the USDA and IOM setting the guidelines for what kids should eat in school, I guess she wants to do it.
Politics is everywhere these days. Lets keep it away from what we need to do to keep our kids safe and healthy.
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Perhaps it’s your politics that are showing. Maybe you don’t like it when a group of High School Students from Kansas trump the media of your taste. You are sadly hypocritical when you ask to keep politics out of something which Michelle Obama has inserted her self into, isn’t that the definition of politics? The arrogance of Physicians maybe you should be reading the recent Wall Street Journal coverage of the lakc of ethics in your profession.
My agenda is clear – promoting the health and safety of children and typically mirrors that of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Michelle Obama is the First Lady of the United States and like her recent predecessors, Hillary Clinton (healthcare) and Laura Bush (childhood literacy), she has promoted an important cause with her Let’s Move campaign – fighting childhood obesity. Besides such things as:
launching the Chefs Move to Schools program, which works to “match schools with a local chef to incorporate new techniques and healthy recipes into school meals and show kids that eating right is delicious and fun”
urging more schools to take the HealthierUS School Challenge, which “establishes rigorous standards for schools’ food quality, participation in meal programs, physical activity opportunities, and nutrition education,”
trying to get salad bars into schools
how is she inserting herself into the school lunch issue?
i work at a school with 800 students and yes this is a sad thing for our schools… these mandates my government. You have a 6′ 200 lb teenage boy given 1 c of pasta 2 oz of meat (that’s the size of half a deck of cards) 1 c of veggies 1 c of milk 1 c of fruit… that is not a lot for a student who is active and plays sports. It is not enough food for the many students that the only place they can eat is at school, where Friday is sad b/c they won’t get to eat again until Monday and we tell them sorry… the government says we cannot give you no more food… do the politicians know all of this? do the doctors know all of this?
That is indeed tragic and is something I addressed in my previous post – Kids in Kansas are Going Hungry. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 14.9 percent (17.9 million households) of households in the United States are food insecure, having “difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources,” including 10% of households with children.
The National School Lunch Program is one of the programs that helps feed children, but it does not provide food for kids to eat at home.
There are other programs that try to address that need, including:
Kids Cafe – a national program operated by local Feeding America food banks that “provide free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of community locations where children already congregate during the afterschool hours—such as Boys and Girls Clubs, churches or public schools.”
Feeding America BackPack Program – provides nutritious and easy-to-prepare food to kids over the weekend
School Pantry Program – provide nutritious, healthy food to children at-risk of hunger for preparation and consumption at their place of residence.
Perhaps you could see if one of these programs is available in your area to help these students.
I recently started volunteering with Hunger Busters, which provides meals for kids to take home after school. It is a local program, but there may be something similar in your area too.
As a mom and 13-year teacher in the Sharon Springs school, I can tell you that Linda is only stating the reality that she is observing in her students. With only 65 students in the school, you have an idea of what they have eaten at school, what they are eating at home and what their schedule is like. You know that most start their day at 6:00 AM, they have a full day of classes, they have a weight-lifting class (we have been State weightlifting champs the past 2 years) and then have a very strenuous sports practice (the football team is presently rated 2nd in the state). The fall play has started, (most of the student body is participating) with rehearsal at 6:30 pm to 8:30. We only have one grocery store in the county which closes at 6 PM.
Not asking for sympathy, just want to point out that these national mandates were not designed for our situation. They are one-size-fits-all federal mandates, and yet we are forced to follow them. What if we as parents, teachers and school board members were free to design a lunch that fits our students’ lifestyle?
“Not asking for sympathy, just want to point out that these national mandates were not designed for our situation. They are one-size-fits-all federal mandates, and yet we are forced to follow them. What if we as parents, teachers and school board members were free to design a lunch that fits our students’ lifestyle?”
Even the site from which you seem to use as a source, kidshealth.org, send me this response:
The federally subsidized National School Lunch Program serves more than 31 million children every day in over 100,000 schools. Rather than allow every school to design their own lunch, wouldn’t it make more sense to make an effort to adapt to the new guidelines? Your school might get some help using the USDA Best Practices Sharing Center. I particularly liked the article, “We Can Do This: Advice and Resources for Meeting the New Meal Pattern,” by the School Nutrition Association.
These Healthier Kansas Menus from the Kansas State Department of Education might also be helpful.