I remember this old saying that I often heard from behind closed doors throughout my (not so) calm teenage years: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Evidently, they seem to be having the opposite problem now...
WASHINGTON - School lunches need more fruits, veggies and whole grains and a limit on calories, says a report urging an update of the nation's 14-year-old standards for cafeteria fare.
So, now it seems that we're leading the "horses" to "water", but we can't stop them from "drinking". Well now, isn't it great to be in a country where there can be such an abundance? In any case, I suppose it's a good thing to keep children healthy, right?
But the changes won't come cheaply.
Wow. What a surprise there. "Nothing is free", right? Well, anyway, let's ask... What "changes" need to be made in order to save our children from looking not unlike beach balls?
Schools can't put just anything on a kid's lunch tray. They must follow federal standards, because the government's school lunch program subsidizes lunch and breakfast for needy kids in nearly every public school and many private ones.Yet those standards are lacking, according to an Institute of Medicine report released Tuesday. They don't restrict the number of calories kids are offered, even though childhood obesity keeps climbing.And they don't match up with the government's own dietary guidelines, which serve as the basis for the familiar Food Pyramid and were updated in 2005. They call for lots of fresh fruit and veggies and more whole grains.
Ok. More fresh fruits, whole grains, all those nutritious things. This sounds wonderful. Throw in a few incentives to get kids active and we're made. However, now back to that wonderful spot where we get to talk business. What exactly is "not cheap"?
The committee said breakfast prices could soar 20 percent, and lunch prices could rise by 4 percent. That's daunting for school kitchens, which get less from the government, $2.68, than it actually costs to make each free lunch, about $2.92, according to a recent survey done by the School Nutrition Association. Combine that with rising food and fuel prices, and school kitchens are feeling the squeeze. The federal dollars "simply do not keep pace with rising costs on everything from food and labor to napkins and spoons," Dora Rivas, president of the association and head of food and nutrition in Dallas public schools, said in a statement last week
Well, this seems to put a slight crimp on our plans, now doesn't it? How on earth are we going to pay for this? Now, for the biggest surprise in this entire post...
The group is pressuring Congress to boost spending on school lunches. The Institute of Medicine committeeagreed, saying the reimbursement should be raised to cover the cost of adding more fruits and veggies to the menu and substituting healthier whole grains for refined grains.
My god! That's it! Get congress to spend more money! See? Problem solved. After all, I was reading an article just the other day about how much money we have just lying around now... Oh, wait... That's a negative sign in front of the $1.4 trillion dollars for 2009 alone... I must confess this idea is sheer lunacy. I remember many days when we did not eat in the cafeteria at all. In fact, this was not unique to me at all. There were many children who chose not to partake in the school meals, and many were known to bring their own. In all honesty, it matters very little what you put on those kids plates in the cafeteria. There was nowhere to buy soda in our school during school hours (there was one soda machine, but it was set to "no sale" until about 20 minutes after school let out), however, despite this, there were countless carbonated, sugar rich beverages in our cafeteria every day. Put whatever you want on these kids plates, it doesn't matter. The obesity "issue" has definitely grown from an "issue" to a 'problem'.
"Today, overweight children outnumber undernourished children, and childhood obesity is often referred to as an epidemic in both the medical and community settings," Virginia Stallings, who chaired the report committee, wrote.
However, despite what our government would wish us to believe, you can not fix a problem merely by throwing more money at it. In my opinion, you could give $100,000,000,000 to schools to spend on school lunches. They could have nothing but the healthiest salads and nutrient-enriched water in my cafeteria, but I firmly believe the kids would still gain weight. Why, you ask? Because that won't stop them from going home and downing half a tub of ice cream while watching their favorite show! I'm sorry, you can only blame the schools so much. In my opinion, at worst, the schools may 'not be helping' the problem. I would argue that this is still a far cry from actually causing the obesity issue today.
Again, I see a shining example of another death in the realm of personal responsibility. No matter what, a six year old will choose ice cream over tofu nuggets. Every time, guaranteed. That's just the way it is. This is where these long-lost things called "parents" come in to play. Believe it or not, it takes more than just "having a kid" to make one a parent. Long, long ago, most children did have these things called "parents". Some even had two! These "parents" would ensure that their children made healthy (both physically and/or morally) choices, and took it upon themselves to guide these children in the right way. As much as the government may like to think so, a teacher can never replace the parents ("parents" being defined as either a single or double parent family).
If we, as American citizens, really wish to fix this obesity problem, we have to start in the home. The problem starts in the home, as that is where the vast majority of junk foods and sugary drinks are stored and consumed. If we wish to fix this problem, we must change the "live-in friends" we seem to have today into parents, parents that might actually watch what their child eats. Occasionally, these parents may even take their children out and play for a good hour or so. Granted, I understand that today's life is very demanding, and that it may not always be easy to find time to play with our children, and to keep an eye on what they are putting in their body. However, this is no excuse for shoving them off and making them the governments problem. I do not wish for the government telling me what I can and can not eat, but this seems to be where we are heading. Sadly, we seem so willing today to give up our personal choices in favor of responsibility-free living. More and more seem only too happy to blame little Johnny's obesity issue on his school lunches, and then take him to McDonald's after voting for a school lunch reform. The concept that today's citizens seem to have lost is that freedom can not exist without personal responsibility, and I personally believe that the time is coming very soon (much sooner than one might think), when we will have to decide exactly how much we want to keep our freedom.
---TNJ
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