You may have already heard about a new Twitter hashtag that’s making national news: disgruntled kids are taking photos of their unappetizing school lunches and sharing them on Twitter with a sarcastic #thanksmichelleobama. A recent Buzz Feed post about the trend has already received an astonishing two million views.
Some of the photos shared by students are indeed stomach-turning. This one in particular has received a lot of attention, for obvious reasons:
I have a few things to say about all this:
- First, a word to the kids tweeting these photos. Um, guys, you know Michelle Obama’s not actually in your school kitchen, right? The First Lady supports common sense nutrition standards, like “kids need more fruits and vegetables,” but she has nothing to do with school menus (that would be your district) and she’s never instructed anyone to put disgusting glop on your tray. Whoever prepared the travesty pictured above probably should be publicly shamed — but that person isn’t Michelle Obama.
- This isn’t the first time photos of unappetizing school food have gone viral; last year I wrote a post (“School Food Gets Its Close-Up, But Is It a Fair One?”) about another, similar campaign. Kids griping about school food is a time-honored tradition that’s likely been going on for as long as we’ve had school food, and certainly well before we had cell phones, but that doesn’t mean all school meals are bad. In fact, some are pretty great.
- As I wrote in the post mentioned above, if you’re using a cell phone camera to make food look as disgusting as possible, you’re likely to succeed. Even when I use my cell phone camera to make food look good, I sometimes fail miserably. Here’s an Indian dinner I once cooked for my family including chana masala, whole wheat naan, homemade raita and chutney:
You’ll have to take my word for it when I say this meal was delicious, but I’m guessing few of you would want to try it based on this photo. And you can imagine how much worse this nutritious, home-cooked and mostly organic meal would have looked slopped onto a styrofoam tray and photographed under a cafeteria’s fluorescent lights, especially if the photographer were trying to make it look terrible.
- Here’s another example. This #thanksmichelleobama photo appeared in the New York Daily News and many other outlets and, at first glance, it looks awful.
But if you take a minute, you’ll realize you’re looking at some pretty benign refried beans with melted cheese, next to a tortilla. I happen to live in Tex-Mex country and can tell you that no extreme close-up of refried beans (especially when served with an ice-cream scoop) is ever going to look much better than that.
- But what annoys me most about the #thanksmichelleobama hashtag is how, predictably, it’s been seized upon by some on the political right in their never-ending campaign to demonize the First Lady for – gasp! – supporting science-based nutritional standards for school food. These standards were not her creation; rather, they were recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and are considered the “gold standard for evidence-based health analysis.” And, by the way, when Congress authorized the USDA to improve school food (which led the USDA to commission the IOM report), the sitting president at the time wasn’t Democrat Barack Obama. It was Republican George W. Bush.
Now let me tell you why I’m saying, without a trace of sarcasm and with profound gratitude, #Thanks4RealMichelleObama:
- In 2010, Congress passed the most sweeping overhaul of school food in decades, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA). That landmark event might not have happened without the First Lady’s determined and vocal support of the law in the months leading up to its passage.
- Under the HHFKA, kids are now being served less sodium, fat and sugar and more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, all of which is consistent with those IOM recommendations. Those changes are critical if this and future generations are to reverse current trends toward obesity and diet-related disease.
- According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, “Our nation’s schools and schoolchildren are thriving under the new standards. School lunch revenue is up.”
- A recent Harvard School of Public Health study showed that kids are now eating 16 percent more vegetables and 23 percent more fruit at lunch — and that figure is likely to go up significantly as the new standards become more familiar to students over time.
- A peer-reviewed study in Childhood Obesity found that, after initial complaints, kids now actually like the healthier school food. It also found that among socioeconomically disadvantaged schools (where school meals are of obvious, critical importance), administrators perceived that “more students were buying lunch and that students were eating more of the meal than in the previous year.”
- Under the HHFKA’s direct certification and community eligibility provisions, more economically disadvantaged kids than ever now have easy access to school food, which for many is their primary source of daily nutrition.
If you’re a Twitter user and agree that these significant accomplishments are worthy of some gratitude, please click here to automatically send this message to the First Lady, or use my hashtag #Thanks4RealMichelleObama with your own text:
Thanks @FLOTUS for championing healthier school food for all kids! http://ctt.ec/X418t+ #Thanks4RealMichelleObama #thanksmichelleobama
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Casey says
As an advocate for healthier school lunches, I am grateful to Michelle Obama for leading the effort. For some time though, I’ve been concerned though that the new standards are not high enough because there are no rules on added sugar or extra carbohydrates from processed food. Researchers from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health released a new study recommending “expanding federal school meal rules to include an increase in the amount of whole grain and whole food products served, as well as limits on added sugar and processed foods, could help ensure kids are eating the right carbohydrates.” (link below)
Waivers that take us even further from these recommendations are not the answer. Future rates of obesity, diabetes, fatty liver disease and other diet-related chronic diseases depend on us getting this right.
http://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/education-news-745/school-meal-requirements-may-promote-unhealthy-eating-habits-693797.html#.VHDXb7aWbd0.twitter
arthur says
Obama is a failure. A catastrophic failure. I cannot believe you are defending this dystopian crap. What kind of society do you want? You want a federal government, with unbridled power, to regulate all forms of life? You are insane! You are letting your emotions get in the way of your logic. Not all kids need the same calories. NOT ALL HUMAN BODIES ARE IDENTICAL.
you are absolutely illogical and pathetic to defend this utter lunacy. If dystopia comes to America, it will come from you leftists, unequivocally.
Beth @ Goodness Gracious Living says
I tweeted my disappointment about how FLOTUS was being blamed for what the food service director should be responsible. Boy did I get slammed politically! I replied to some, but then had to turn a blind eye to the rest as it was overwhelming. I tweeted out your tweet and agree with you on all points. Check out my Twitter war @GGLiving. I’m glad it only lasted for that day. I don’t know how FLOTUS takes it. Thanks for the post!
Keith says
If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past year, it’s that Twitter is not the place for anything remotely close to productive discussion.
Don Croker says
Talk about patronizing! This article is adressed “to the kids” as though there a bunch of moorons. One would think that since they are the ones being forced to eat this glop, they would know a little. Do you really believe the complaints are based on food being poorly lit? Cmon. Theres evidence nationwide of food being thrown away every day. We all want kids to eat healthier, but if your not eating the food and whats being forced on you is a disgusting mess. Ironically, whats happening, especially with high schools, is that kids are going to Burger King and Taco Bell- after school. So how is that helping?
Uly says
Except that there’s evidence that food was thrown away before as well. The real question – and one very few people try to answer – is “are they eating the same amount as they were before?”
jonny says
No… I graduated high school in 06, near the end of my senior year, they started testing out the “healthier” food, the pizza crust was probably worse than cardboard, the worst thing I ever ate from school, went to a good school, almost always good food, I don’t know what restrictions were placed on nutritional value but there has to be a middle ground.
mommm!!!! says
I agree Don. And no one is talking about the financial aspect at school either. For those kids that don’t have a way to get to a fast food stop on the way home, they are buying more at the school cafeteria.
So yes, technically, sales may be up in some districts. But they don’t say WHY sales are up. They ELUDE to it being a success story of the whole overhaul of school lunches. But that’s not what’s actually happening. The kids complaints are two fold:
1.) The food itself is disgusting and\or rotting\spoiled. I Think those are pretty valid complaints.
2.) The portions are tiny, but the prices are the same. So a kid that is willing to stomach the school lunch in a district that is indeed serving slop, is spending more via a la carte items to supplement the lack of food included in the original lunch. And no one is talking about this aspect. Disappointing.
And voila! Sales are up! It’s like magic. The problem is….the parents are catching on. And they aren’t too happy about spending twice as much for their kid to eat at school. And the kids that have cars, can leave campus for lunch, and have money…yes, their hitting the fast food joints. Just like we did when we were in high school. And sales reports from all fast food joints with the exception of McDs says sales are up! 1 step forward….3 steps back.
Amber says
I think that people that are in the spotlight within American culture need to start speaking out. But of course that takes courage. Michelle Obama taking a stand is a good first step but more needs to be done, things like reforming the lunches from within the school.
mommm!!!! says
So it’s been awhile since I’ve been on here, but I had to come here to see if there was any chatter about this whole twitter campaign happening with the state of school lunches today. I’m kind of disappointed to see so few comments considering we would have pretty lengthy conversations prior to the new school lunch rules. We all pretty agreed that the state of the lunches in our public schools was bad…lots of processed fatty foods with sugar on top. Right? Right! It was awful!
But NOW….I think it’s gotten worse. I’m surprised, actually, that the adults aren’t more supportive. Sure they are kids. But what does that mean? They should shut up and be thankful? For what? Rotten fruit? Paying full price for a bag of chips with 3 chips in it? How about the districts that don’t allow kids to bring their own lunches? I mean seriously….when did school lunch reform somehow morph into the worst examples of communism in our history? And by that, I mean, feeding kids prison style.
I’m all for serving healthy lunches. And sure, you can justify a scoop of refried beans as looking gross no matter what. But you really can’t ignore a lot of what is happening out there right now. In many districts the quality of the food has actually taken a nose dive. Ignoring it is not going to help. A kids voice shouldn’t be discounted just because they are not legal adults or just because they used Twitter. Ridiculous.