Congress looking at school lunch program
...The retired officers are saying that school lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment is in jeopardy.
A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier...
...This isn't the first time the military has gotten involved in the debate over school lunches. During World War II, military leaders had the opposite problem, reporting that many recruits were rejected because of stunted growth and inadequate nutrition. After the war, military leaders pushed Congress to establish the national school lunch program so children would grow up healthier.
The program was established in 1946, "as a measure of national security," according to the original bill language.
Today, the group is urging Congress to eliminate junk food and high-calorie beverages from schools, put more money into the school lunch program and develop new strategies that help children develop healthier habits.
The school lunch bill, currently awaiting a Senate vote, would establish healthier options for all foods in schools, including vending machine items. The legislation would spend $4.5 billion more over 10 years for nutrition programs.
It is not the school lunches that is making these kids fat. It is the constant use of the vending machines inside the schools. In ten years of working in a high school the rule about the use of vending machines ONLY before school, during lunch, and after school was never enforced. The machines cause kids to skip classes, use bogus excuses for hall passes, create chaos in the hallways, and sell nothing but fattening food.
ReplyDeleteFrom one prison population to another...
ReplyDeleteAPRIL 27, 2010
Jailbirds Order Up Hot Wings
Junk Food Lifts Inmates' Spirits, Prison Revenue, but Envy and Diet Are Concerns
By STEPHANIE SIMON
In a bid to raise cash and keep the peace in crowded jails, wardens nationwide are offering inmates the chance to order meatball subs, cheeseburgers, chicken parmesan—even a "Pizza and Wings Party Pack," complete with celery, blue cheese and a Pepsi. Read rest at http://bit.ly/aGSSs9