"school lunches" news and stories

Sarah Palin is going head-to-head with Michele Obama's efforts to get healthier meals into America's public schools, reports Bloomberg Business Week. The would-be president's latest challenge to the President's wife came as a protest to Pennsylvania Board of Education guidelines that would limit holiday and birthday celebrations -- and thus cake, cookies and candy -- at school. Last week, reported ABC News, Palin showed up at a Bucks Country fundraiser bearing 200 cookies to protest "nanny state" regulations she said were best left to parents.

Next year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will issue a new version of its controversial food pyramid, which will surely influence what will be served in school cafeterias down the line. Will sugar-coated Sarah and her Tea Party pals swallow any of this? Fat chance. Just look at what happened in Britain a few years ago when a school district banned hamburgers, fries and other fast-food favorites from the lunchroom, while at the same time not letting children who weren't going directly home for lunch leave the grounds. The New York Times reported that mothers, who acquired the nickname "meat-pie mums," began sneaking the forbidden food to their kids over schoolyard fences.

Who's right? Take our poll.

• The nation's gone back to school -- and no one seems to like the school lunch...
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• Tuna steaks are so nice, the Boston Globe cooks 'em twice.

It would seem First Lady Michelle Obama's strong call to action in her Washington Post op-ed Monday has been heard loud and clear. The Senate, yesterday, unanimously passed the Child Nutrition Act (which expires every five Septembers), calling it the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, The New York Times reported. The Act, which will provide $4.5 billion over the next ten years, now needs to be cleared by the House before September 30.

The breakdown after the jump...

Pity the school lunch lady. Not only does she have to wear a hairnet and clumpy clogs, her customers -- hordes of hungry school kids -- tend to deride her food offerings. Well, how much can she be expected to do with those government-subsidized tater tots and fish sticks?

That may be about to change. First Lady Michelle Obama is spearheading new programs to battle childhood obesity, and among them is Chefs Move to Schools, an initiative where top-notch chefs "adopt" a local school and "become healthy food educators," helping students, staff and families to take on healthier eating habits.

Processed chicken nuggets, syrupy chocolate milk, heaps of salty French fries: It's no real secret that the state of American public school lunches is a mess. But things are even more depressing than you thought: Inmates – yes, actual criminals behind bars – are probably eating better than our kids.

In a recent article for the Tennessee's Herald-Tribune, reporter Tracey Hackett investigated what comes out of the kitchen at the state's Putnam County Justice Center. She found that each inmate gets two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. (Inmates can buy lunchtime snacks if they have an account, as many do). Hackett found that inmates were typically eating from-scratch, balanced meals -- a far cry from the frozen, chemical-laden processed food our kids are getting.

Sarah Parsons at Sustainable Food, a division of Change.org, makes no bones about it, writing that "When you take a look at the school lunches kids receive in America's cafeterias, jail food looks like a meal at a five-star restaurant."