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Open in TheBrain

School Lunch

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target?!michelle?! primary 3 25 maga mike pjt 2025 mofo’s

recall kid  tax credit end 2022?

see SNAP WIC

see hunger/ obesity

see social safety net

helps farmers, local economy ROI #X?!

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mma Some on the right have acknowledged the importance of Meals on Wheels. The Trump administration has threatened its future.

04/11/25

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the Trump administration is cutting over $600 million from a program designed to help schools and child care facilities buy healthy food from local farmers, the GOP’s latest attack on poor families. The administration is also cutting a similar program that helps local food banks and other organizations feed people. In total, Politico reported, the cuts come to over $1 billion.

“Roughly $660 million that schools and child care facilities were counting on to purchase food from nearby farms through the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program in 2025 has been canceled, according to the School Nutrition Association,” Politico reported. “State officials were notified Friday of USDA’s decision to end the LFS program for this year.”

Coincidentally, last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) celebrated National School Breakfast Week:

The decision by the USDA to eliminate funding for healthy food from local farmers also comes as congressional Republicans target programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for cuts.

READ MORE: Democrat Schools Musk on ‘What Makes America Great’ After He’s Called a ‘Traitor’

“Late last month,” Axios reported on Saturday, “House Republicans voted to pass a budget resolution that sets the stage for $230 billion or more in cuts to agriculture programs, with a large chunk expected to come from SNAP.”

The move to ax funding for programs that help children eat healthy foods appears to conflict with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim to want to “Make America Healthy Again.”

That slogan has led RFK Jr. to announce he wants to curtail the types of foods families can buy through SNAP, which could especially affect Americans living in rural areas or “food deserts,” as Axios also reported last month.

According to The Guardian, “more than one in eight households say they have difficulty getting enough food.” SNAP, “formerly known as food stamps, helps more than 42 million people fill those gaps, and is considered the country’s most effective tool to fight hunger. But now, the USDA-run program is facing attacks from House Republicans who see deep cuts as a way to pay for an extension of the 2017 tax bill that benefits the very wealthy.”

READ MORE: ‘Chilling’: Amid Recession Alarms and Market Nosedive Trump White House Blames Biden

Critics are blasting the cuts.

“Taking $230 billion out of the food economy hurts the farmers who grow our food, the truckers who move it, the processors who package it and the grocery stores that sell it,” House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (D-MN) said in a statement in February. “Cutting farm bill nutrition programs does not make life affordable for everyday people. Instead of cutting SNAP to pay for handouts to wealthy donors, Republicans should prioritize helping working people and rural economies.”

Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health remarked, “Trump is cutting $660M meant for local farmers to provide healthy food for kids in schools. Big win for the giant processed food corporations who poured millions into Donald Trump’s campaign. How does hurting farmers and kids make America great again?”

Zach Rodvold, director of public affairs at Second Harvest Heartland, a hunger-relief organization, wrote: “With hunger rates soaring and the farm economy under threat, now is not the time to cut funding for local farm-to-school and food bank programs. (In fact, we should be doing just the opposite.)”

“This is absolutely unacceptable. They’re literally taking kids’ lunch money and farmers’ incomes so they can give tax cuts to billionaires,” observed U.S. Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY).

“Cutting food aid hurts kids, farmers and struggling folks,” noted U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA). “Why is Trump doing it? To help pay for his tax cut for the rich. Heartless.”

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Democrats are voicing strong opposition to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s budget framework, which narrowly passed Tuesday night by a razor-thin margin of 217-215.

The framework is widely expected to cut $880 billion from Medicaid, a program that helps one in four Americans, and another $230 billion from SNAP, which helps feed about one in eight Americans — while raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion to provide a massive $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, largely for the wealthiest of Americans. People making less than $200,000 a year could effectively see their taxes rise, because Johnson’s legislation does not renew tax cuts from 2017. Johnson’s budget, supported by President Donald Trump, requires a minimum of $2 trillion in cuts to the federal budget.

Every Republican except one voted for Johnson’s budget legislation. U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only holdout, refusing to give in to pressure from GOP leadership.

Every Democrat present voted against the bill. Only one was not present due to his battle against cancer.

READ MORE: House GOP: Federal Employees Are ‘Bloated Bureaucrats’ Who ‘Do Not Deserve Their Jobs’

But every other Democrat showed up and stood firm.

“After 3 surgeries, a blood clot, an infection, & being hospitalized for over a week – the moment I was discharged from the hospital, I immediately rushed to the airport so I could fly to D.C. and vote NO on Republicans’ disastrous budget plan. I’m proud to stand with @HouseDemocrats to fight Republican’s extreme agenda,” wrote U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, (D-CA).

Republicans refused to allow U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), out on maternity leave, to vote by proxy, so she traveled across the country with her four-week old newborn, Sam, to vote against the GOP budget.

I have a message for Donald Trump: nobody fights harder than a mom.

Republican leadership may have denied my ability to vote by proxy but that didn’t stop us from voting against this disastrous budget that strips away health care and food for seniors, veterans, kids and… pic.twitter.com/rfoKNoyeVJ

— U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (@RepPettersen) February 26, 2025

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), largely seen as the loudest and most consistent voice on the left opposing President Donald Trump’s agenda, tore into Republicans.

“Good morning. The House voted yesterday to kick millions of off their health care, close rural hospitals, and shut down addiction clinics. All in order to afford a giant tax cut for Elon Musk, Donald Trump and their billionaire and corporate friends,” he charged Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Senator Murphy denounced the GOP’s “greed” at an outdoor press conference.

Calling the Republicans’ budget framework “the most massive transfer of wealth and resources from poor people in the middle class to the billionaires and corporations in the history of this country,” Murphy (video below) said, “You’re talking about 880 billion dollars of cuts to Medicaid.”

“Now I get it, like, $880 billion. Like, what does that mean? Right? That’s a huge number, nobody understands. Let me tell you what that means. That that means that sick kids die in this country. That means that hospitals in depressed communities and rural communities close their doors. Right? That means that drug and addiction treatment centers disappear. All across this country.”

:{READ MORE: Refusing to Publicly Reveal DOGE Head, White House Says It’s Been ‘Incredibly Transparent’

“That means that millions of working families who have insurance today, because by the way, 24% of Americans get their health care from Medicaid, they all of a sudden don’t have their health care tomorrow,” he continued, adding, “the scope of this greed is something that we have never ever seen before in this country, and we should not accept it as normal in the United States of America.”

24% of Americans get their health insurance from Medicaid.

Seniors. Working families. Millions of kids.

Republicans voted tonight to burn Medicaid to the ground.

And for what? To fund a giant tax cut for their billionaire friends.

A moral abomination. pic.twitter.com/Xez9GmzJlC

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 26, 2025

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) explained how Johnson’s budget legislation came together, and all the things Republicans voted against.

He said Democrats asked Republicans to “vote against tax breaks for people earning over $100 million per year.”

“Every Republican vote no,” he said, regarding that proposal, as well as on protections for large numbers of Americans who need support.

Republicans voted against assuring “the American people that they’re not gonna steal school meals from kids in order to give tax breaks for millionaires,” and on protecting Medicaid, which McGovern noted, “covers 41% of all births in the United States.”

“Nearly half of children with special healthcare needs and five in eight nursing home residents,” he said, are also covered by Medicaid.

“Democrats offered an amendment preventing tax giveaways for people earning over $1 million a year. Every Republican voted no,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. “We even offered an amendment preventing tax cuts for people with a net worth of over, get this, $1 billion. Every Republican voted no.”

McGovern: Democrats offered an amendment to protect Medicaid. Every Republican voted no.

Democrats offered an amendment to extend tax cuts for people making under $400,000 while ensuring that corporations and billionaires pay their fair share. Every Republican voted no.… pic.twitter.com/IiuC8skXc2

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 25, 2025

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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mma

Project 2025 seeks to fulfill the right-wing media dream of cutting vital food assistance

The extreme right-wing initiative proposes cuts to programs benefiting millions of Americans

Written by Casey Wexler & Reed McMaster

Published 10/29/24 mma

Right-wing media have spent over a decade attacking and calling for cuts to vital food assistance programs, with particular focus on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as “food stamps”) as well as free school lunch programs.

Now, Project 2025 — an extreme right-wing initiative organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide policy and personnel to the next Republican presidential administration — proposes fulfilling their wish of cutting off hundreds of thousands of Americans from vital food assistance.

Project 2025 calls for sweeping cuts to the food stamp program, which would eliminate food assistance for some Americans and slash the purchasing power of families

Project 2025 also aims to cut free school lunch programs, cutting children off from vital nutrition

* In 2010, Rush Limbaugh attacked school lunches and suggested hungry children should “dumpster dive.” Limbaugh provided a list of places kids could supposedly go to get meals such as their own kitchens, McDonald’s, and a dumpster, stating, “There are videos that have been produced to show you how to healthfully dine and how to dumpster dive and survive until school kicks back up in August.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Rush Limbaugh Show*, [6/16/10]

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Floridians could have gotten $120 for each child to help feed the underprivileged — but the state wasn’t interested - Alternet.org

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Republican supermajority in the North Dakota State Senate recently approved a measure boosting their meal stipends just days after they rejected funding for providing free school meals to poor students, Heartland Signal reported on Tuesday.

GOP lawmakers "passed Senate Bill 2124, which raises the amount of money state senators and their staff can receive from meal reimbursements. Just days prior, the same body voted down House Bill 1491 23-24, a bill that would cover lunch for school children whose parents’ income falls 200% below the poverty line," according to the outlet.

Social media exploded with outrage and disgust.

READ MORE: Watch: North Dakota Republican blames 'parents being negligent with their kids' for students going hungry

Sonny J Lewis: "Zilch for the kids but up to $55/day if I'm reading the law right. They should be more than ashamed of themselves."

:{:(style="background-color:initial"):}:Linda Hillemann: "Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Oh, and anyone who knows these people should remind them of Jesus’ story about the rich man and poor Lazarus. (Luke 16: 19-31) It doesn't end well for the rich guy. Or in this case, legislators who steal from children."

badger person: "Pick 50 of those students at random and they'd do a better job running the state."

Elon Sucks: "The cruelty is the point."

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better cps 3 23

https://www.alternet.org/ben-shapiro-free-lunches/

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https://truthout.org/articles/universal-school-meals-programs-are-being-cut-despite-1-in-8-kids-going-hungry/

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no lnx

it is deeply immoral for lawmakers to decide that the needs of a growing number of people do not matter,” Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice, told Truthout. “The immorality of knowing what is needed and then refusing to provide it is cruel and shows the disdain of our society for both kids and the poor.” Theoharis could be speaking about a number of things — inaction on climate change, gun control or single-payer health insurance, among them — but she is not. Instead, she is expressing her outrage over the federal government’s refusal to continue a universal school meals program that provided free daily breakfast and lunch to 50.6 million U.S. public school children during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program expired in June 2022. “Republicans stopped free food distribution,” Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, told Truthout. “Some Democrats pushed for continuation of universal meals from behind the scenes, but they did not make it a public political issue. That was a mistake. You can’t win a fight you don’t have. This, plus the tendency to pretend that the pandemic has gone away” allowed free meal provision to end in favor of a “return to normalcy.”As a result, we now have a patchwork, with individual states determining school meal policy for the students who are enrolled in their schools. California, Colorado and Maine, along with a handful of cities including Boston, Chicago and New York, have opted to provide universal free meals to all, but the remaining 47 states and most cities have, for the most part, reverted to a means-tested system in which caregivers have to complete an application to determine their child’s eligibility for meal subsidies. This puts students in one of three categories: full payers, partial payers and nonpayers.RELATED STORY A child takes her tray back to her seat during lunch at North Star Elementary School on June 5, 2017, in Thornton, Colorado. NEWS | EDUCATION & YOUTH Colorado Votes to Provide Universal Free School Meals by Taxing the Wealthy The measure will reduce the state tax deduction that can be taken by people making $300,000 or more a year. By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT November 10, 2022]

But even this tells only part of the story since there are numerous policies that further complicate the program’s administration. For example, some students — those whose families receive SNAP (“food stamps”) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (welfare) — are automatically eligible for free school meals. Similarly, kids in Head Start, foster care or who are homeless, are also automatically eligible.And then there’s the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). Under CEP, schools in which 40 percent of the student body qualify for free or reduced-fee meals can provide free food to every student. During the 2021-22 year, 33,330 schools — one-third of the total — participated; more than 16 million kids a day were fed. Non-CEP schools, however, continue to be hamstrung by paperwork to determine payment tiers for each student. “We’ve heard about families that are over the income eligibility limit (between 130 and 185 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, a maximum of $33,874 for a household of two or $51,338 for four), but are still struggling to pay their bills,” Diane Pratt-Heavner, director of media relations at the School Nutrition Association (SNA), told Truthout. “The application only takes income into account, so if you’ve had a health crisis that left you with outstanding bills, or have been hit with a huge rent increase, these expenses are not factored in.” The result is that schools and students are scrambling. A few states, including Massachusetts, Nevada and Vermont, have extended universal meal access through the end of the 2022-23 school year, and advocates are working hard — pressuring lawmakers and mobilizing impacted students, families, educators and education activists — to make the programs permanent. “Kids in Vermont and Alabama have the same nutritional needs,” Pratt-Heavner says. “Hunger is a federal problem and it needs a federal solution.” Nutrition professionals, she adds, stress the importance of school meals. In fact, it is well-documented that hunger is directly tied to poor academic performance. “No child should have to learn on an empty belly,” National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle wrote in an email to Truthout. Furthermore, she points out that while food insecurity can be found in every community, the crisis is the worst in low-income Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. This has had a discernible impact on classroom learning, Pringle says. Furthermore, she reports that educators repeatedly tell the NEA that they’re seeing increased student hunger, with distracted and tired kids having trouble concentrating, staying motivated and behaving appropriately in class. Child nutritionists say that these are typical symptoms of nutritional deficits, which is why school meals are required to adhere to strict nutritional standards, with fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains and protein in every meal. But even this can be problematic. Tammra Fabis is a food service team leader in the Huntley, Illinois, school district. While she supports universal meals for all, she told Truthout that she is nonetheless concerned about food waste. “We are required to give every child three of five components at lunchtime: a dairy product, something whole grain, a protein, a vegetable and a piece of fruit,” she begins. “Kids might only want French fries but we have to give them the full meal. This means that a lot of food ends up in the garbage. We have set up a sharing table, where a student can put unwanted packaged vegetables or fruit, but it seems as if every good intention butts up against a rule that creates other problems.” Then there is the issue of arrears, money owed by students and their families for unpaid meals. “By Illinois law, a student can go up to $500 negative without repercussions,” Fabis says. And while cafeteria staff make sure not to shame students whose caregivers have fallen behind, skyrocketing food and utility costs have made it difficult for many cafeterias to make ends meet. The federal government, Pratt-Heavner says, is well aware of the problem, and in July 2022 allocated an additional 40 cents per lunch and 15 cents per breakfast to the amount it reimburses schools for each meal served. “Even with the higher rate,” she says, “schools are struggling to cover costs.” This year, she explains, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees school food distribution and program administration, gives schools $4.45 for every lunch dished out. This fee is expected to cover everything: from food to labor. Pratt-Heavner stresses that it does not. What’s more, a fall 2022 survey conducted by SNA revealed accumulated debt of $19.2 million in overdue meal fees. “School meals programs are facing a looming financial crisis,” Pratt-Heavner says. “By next year, some school meals programs will be unable to pay their expenses.” They not only need arrears to be paid, but they need a higher government reimbursement rate. “Every program is expected to be financially self-sufficient,” she says, “and operate in the black through federal reimbursement and food sales. This is increasingly impossible.” Pratt-Heaver adds that despite an annual readjustment of reimbursement levels, the rates have not kept pace with inflation. They have also sidestepped supply chain disruptions. “Charitable contributions have helped,” she adds, “but donations are not a sustainable solution to the hunger crisis. We need federal movement on this.” Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC),agrees, but adds that she does not expect much movement from the current Congress. Instead, FRAC is putting energy into state universal meal campaigns — campaigns that are already winning modest reforms. North Carolina, for one, recently eliminated the reduced-fee copay for the 2022-23 year so students are either full-payers or eat for free; Pennsylvania allocated funding so that every student can receive a free breakfast five days a week. Still, advocates concede that a great deal remains to be done to eliminate child hunger — a condition that Feeding America estimates impacts 1 in 8 U.S. kids. Part of the challenge, FitzSimons says, is addressing stigma. “Before the pandemic, 29 million kids were certified as eligible for free or reduced-fee meals, but only 22 million took advantage of it. We see kids who are eligible opt out — in some cases they do not want to stand in a separate line to be handed a meal — especially as they get older. This is another advantage of universal meals.” Neil Rickard, a child nutrition advocate at Utahns Against Hunger, says that stigma is particularly high among newly arrived immigrants in his state who fear that taking any kind of assistance will negatively impact their application for asylum. While it will not, he says that fear of being a “public charge” remains high. In addition, he says that particularly in rural Utah, parents are often unaware that universal meals have ended and do not realize that they need to fill out an application form. “Some parts of Utah have limited internet access,” he says, “and particularly in areas where much of the population can’t read English, they don’t know how to fill out the paperwork or who to ask for help.” School pantries have been an important stop-gap for these families. “Schools try to send kids home with as much food as possible,” he says. But in states like Mississippi, food insecurity is just one of many issues facing low-income residents. Danyelle Holmes, national social justice organizer at Repairers of the Breach/Poor People’s Campaign in Jackson, says that since the start of the 2022-23 school year, the ongoing water crisis has repeatedly shuttered schools throughout the city. “Pipes freeze. Water mains break almost daily. When schools close because of lack of water or issues of inadequate water pressure, the schools prepare bag lunches for the students. But the food has to be picked up. The buses don’t make deliveries to students when classes go virtual. Many parents don’t have cars, and walking a mile or two through dangerous areas to get a brown bag lunch is not an option. Kids literally go hungry when schools are closed,” Holmes told Truthout. She blames long-term intentional neglect and racism for Jackson’s predicament. Holmes is not alone in drawing this conclusion. Hunger Free Vermont, a 30-year-old group working to end food insecurity in the Green Mountain state, lists numerous underlying causes of poverty and hunger: white supremacy and race-based inequities; the lack of affordable and available housing and child care; a shortage of living-wage jobs; and the high price of food, heat, medical care, and other essentials. “We know that kids can’t learn well if they’re hungry,” Teddy Waszazak, universal school meals campaign director at Hunger Free Vermont, told Truthout. “This year, the state is providing free breakfast and lunch to all Vermont school kids and participation is up 16 percent overall. We have seen kids fall through the cracks when paperwork is required for them to eat. Our position is that as long as kids are required to spend eight hours a day, 180 days a year, in school, they should be fed.” Hunger Free Vermont is working to make the state’s one-year universal food extension permanent, and it is mobilizing every impacted constituency — students, parents, social welfare agencies, unions, teachers, community activists and advocates — to demand that state lawmakers enact legislation that will do this. Waszazak is confident that these efforts will make headway, but like other food activists, his goal is universal school meals in every region of the country, a demand that is echoed by the School Nutrition Association. At the same time, SNA supports incremental efforts, from the elimination of the reduced-fee meal copay, to lifting the free-meal eligibility threshold to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, to lowering Community Eligibility Provision eligibility so that more schools qualify, to upping USDA reimbursement levels to schools. “Every child should have equal access to nutritious meals,” Pratt-Heavner says. “States and the federal government need to step up.”

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deal between Democratic and Republican committee leaders would help school meal providers facing higher food costs as well as ease a transition from federal government policies that provided universal free meals to many children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and ranking member John Boozman, R-Ark., and House Education and Labor Chairman Robert C. Scott, D-Va., and ranking member Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., announced an agreement and legislation that would provide higher lunch and breakfast per-meal reimbursements for the 2022-23 school year.

The bill would provide 40 cents in federal reimbursement per lunch and 15 cents in reimbursement per breakfast meal above the annual adjustment for inflation. The next adjustment is July 1.

The two committees have jurisdiction over child nutrition programs, including the national school lunch and breakfast programs. To pay for the policies, more than $3 billion would be rescinded from three pandemic relief bills.

Foxx said the deal balanced costs and needs to “uphold our responsibility to taxpayers and abide by the principle that aid should be targeted and temporary while also helping students truly in need.”...

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more burgers and fries?

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420 ew

Wonder Bread is once again off the cafeteria menu as a federal district judge Monday struck down a Trump administration rollback of nutrition standards for children's school lunches.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trumps-troll-presidency-takes-another-pointlessly-cruel-action/

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Trump’s troll presidency takes another pointlessly cruel action

Trump eating McDonald's fast food/InstagramTrump eating McDonald's fast food/Instagram

Written by David Atkins January 19, 2020

There is so much news happening in the last 24 hours that it feels like drinking from a fire hose. Others like our own Martin Longman can analyze the situation around Lev Parnas better than I can—and it’s a very busy weekend for me, so apologies in advance. But I would be remiss not to highlight one of the more minor stories of the day that might otherwise escape attention, if only because it puts in sharp focus the pointless, petty cruelty of this administration.

The Trump Administration decided to roll back the amount of fruits and vegetables given to school children. This is obviously terrible, so why do it? Well, because it was a Michelle Obama initiative, that’s why. Why do it now? It was Michelle Obama’s birthday.

No, seriously.

The Trump administration moved on Friday to roll back school nutrition standards championed by Michelle Obama, an effort long sought by food manufacturers and some school districts that have chafed at the cost of Mrs. Obama’s prescriptions for fresh fruit and vegetables…

Combating childhood obesity was Mrs. Obama’s signature issue, a rallying cry for her supporters and a lightning rod for conservative critics who saw it as epitomizing the liberal “nanny state” of the Obama era.

The administration says, of course, that it was just a coincidence and not intentional:

A spokeswoman for the department said that it had not intended to roll out the proposed rule on Mrs. Obama’s birthday, although some Democratic aides on Capitol Hill had their doubts. Food companies applauded the proposal, while nutritionists condemned it, predicting that starchy foods like potatoes would replace green vegetables and that fattening foods like hamburgers would be served daily as “snacks.”

Sure. The folks at Red State are certainly celebrating it as an act of aggressive trolling.So even in the unlikely event it wasn’t intentional, Trump’s base is reveling in the meanness of it nonetheless. Which is further astonishing since…don’t some of these people also have kids who go to public schools? Certainly they must. Do they not care about their own children’s health? Apparently not as much as scoring a point against their hated political opponents.

It’s just another reminder that we don’t actually have a government. We have a cult of grievance orchestrated by a cable news network for bitter, angry bigots with a cruelty streak.

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NJ school district debates whether or not to feed kids who owe more than $20 in school lunch ‘debt’

Marissa Higgins / Daily Kos

Another day, another school debating whether or not to punish hungry kids because they can’t afford to pay for their lunches. Today’s horror brings us to New Jersey.

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AN pa threat to jail take kids] links to

Last year in Texas, as his friends stood and watched, a 12-year old boy had his school breakfast taken from him and thrown in the trash. It wasn't the class bully acting out, it was a school cafeteria worker supposedly following policy. Why? The child's meals card, which can be refilled by parents, was 30 cents short. This week, it happened again, only it wasn't a 12-year old boy in Texas, it was 40 elementary school kids in Utah who had their school lunches taken out of their hands and thrown in the trash in front of them. The reason? Insufficient funds on their meals cards. The Salt Lake Tribune interviewed one parent, who said she had not been notified that her child's meals card was overdrawn.

The school claims to have notified all the parents and saw a growing problem with non-payment, so they took action -- by literally taking food away from hungry children, in front of their friends. Apparently, no teacher or administrator stepped in to stop the madness, although one teacher may have paid for some of the lunches from her own pocket. "It was pretty traumatic and humiliating," said Erica Lukes, whose 11-year-old daughter had her cafeteria lunch taken from her as she stood in line Tuesday at Uintah Elementary School," the Salt Lake Tribune reports. "Lukes said as far as she knew, she was all paid up. 'I think it's despicable,' she said. 'These are young children that shouldn't be punished or humiliated for something the parents obviously need to clear up.'" KSL reports "Sophia Isom, Lukes' daughter, was met by a district nutrition manager who was monitoring accounts."

"SO SHE TOOK MY LUNCH AWAY AND SAID, 'GO GET A MILK,' " SOPHIA SAID. "I CAME BACK AND ASKED, 'WHAT'S GOING ON?' THEN SHE HANDED ME AN ORANGE. SHE SAID, 'YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY IN YOUR ACCOUNT SO YOU CAN'T GET LUNCH.' " SHE SAID THE FOOD WAS BEING THROWN OUT. SOPHIA SAID THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO MANY STUDENTS, AND IT WAS THE TALK OF THE LUNCH PERIOD.

Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, said the district's child-nutrition department became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches. As a result, the child-nutrition manager visited the school and decided to withhold lunches to deal with the issue, he said. The school district released a statement saying the "situation could have and should have been handled in a different manner. We apologize." The statement, posted to Facebook, has almost 6000 comments, most of them negative.

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75th anniv of valdiv sp raid Fr cops grabbed jews

kids who ask for free lunch asked about immigr status of parents

https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-july-17-2017/

http://www.alternet.org/food/nations-second-largest-school-district-wants-kick-mcdonalds-out

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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/paul-ryan-free-lunches-make-kids-soulless.html?imw=Y&f=most-viewed-24h10

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http://jimhightower.com/node/8336#.U4jSpfldWfg

Ah, progress! In the 2012 elections, Republicans cast themselves as budget balancers by promising to whack welfare programs for the poor, snarling that such people are "takers" and "moochers."

Such vindictive sourness didn't play too well with voters, and Republicans now seem to have learned their lesson. Oh, they're still going after food stamps, school lunches, etc. with a vengeance – but this time, with a gentle, even loving tone.

The GOP's official message massagers now have their members saying that they want to "help the poor" by eliminating those programs, referring to them as soulless giveaways that sap their initiative and tether them to the cold, uncaring hand of government. The message is: We're doing this for the poor people's own good. Their chief budgeteer, Rep. Paul Ryan, trotted this theme out at a recent right-wing rally, condemning school lunches as unloving "Obamafare" plopped on plates by unsmiling cafeteria personnel: "What they're offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul," he oozed.

If that doesn't make you gag, try another subsidized lunch program that tender-hearted GOP budget whackers never mention, much less demand that it be eliminated. It's the tax subsidy for corporate meals, drinks, and entertainment. Multimillionaire CEOs can go wining and dining on your and my dime, writing off their high-dollar lunches, cocktails, dinners, and club hopping as a business expense. And expensive it is for us taxpayers – this subsidy adds up to more than $12 billion a year. And that doesn't count the human cost of executive initiative that is sapped by this giveaway and the lack of love a CEO feels from being dependent on unsmiling taxpayers.

We ought to be subsidizing healthy meals for poor people, but not a dime for fat cat CEOs dining out at Chez Gourmand.

"A Nation Of Takers?" The New York Times, March 27, 2014.

"Schools' healthy lunch goal lacking bipartisan support," Austin American Statesman, March 21, 2014.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/michelle-obamas-school-lunch-agenda-faces-backlash-from-some-school-nutrition-officials/2014/05/29/6a8e4af6-e744-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html

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http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/gop-republicans-school-lunch-block-agriculture-bill-michelle-obama-107216.html

...The House Appropriations Committee voted, 31-18, Thursday to advance a fiscal 2015 agriculture spending bill with a controversial rider that would allow schools to opt out of nutrition rules requiring more fruits and vegetables, less sodium and more whole grain-rich products if they are losing money from the healthier meals.

(Also on POLITICO: Panel backs school lunch waivers)

The move sets up what promises to be a contentious conference between the House and Senate bills, although the measures have yet to clear either chamber.

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, told POLITICO after the vote that he’s confident Republicans will ultimately prevail in giving school districts the option of a waiver.

“I think that between now and when we go to conference, that you’re going to hear the school nutritionists speak very loudly to [lawmakers],” said Aderholt, who predicted that some Democrats will break ranks and back the effort.

“This is not a roll back and so I think that people, when they see what the language is, they’ll be very open to this,” Aderholt said.

But Democrats are digging in their heels, buoyed by uncharacteristically public political support from first lady and the fact that the Senate Appropriations Committee did not include the waiver in the recent approval its agriculture spending bill.

White House spokesman Jay Carney responded to the House Appropriations Committee action during the daily briefing on Thursday, calling the rider on school lunches “a provision that replaces the judgment of doctors and

“The House Republican proposal would undercut school nutrition standards that have already been successfully implemented in over 90% of schools,” Carney said. “These are the same people who just last year declared pizza as a vegetable and who now think that decisions about kids’ health should be made by politicians instead of pediatricians.”

The Senate spending bill does not contain waiver language but includes a much more limited amendment that asks the Department of Agriculture to further study the next wave of rules that would mandate all breads, pastas and cereals be whole grain rich and set stricter limits on sodium in school meals. It also asks the department to ensure products like whole grain tortillas and biscuits are adequately available to schools.

The White House and nutrition advocates, however, view the waiver as a veiled attempt to gut the law until Congress reauthorizes child nutrition programs next year.

House Democrats vociferously fought back during the markup of the House spending bill Thursday, but failed to pass an amendment by Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) to strip the waiver language from the measure. The panel rejected the amendment by a 29-22 vote.

“Congress should know better,” said Farr during the meeting. “Let’s put kids’ health first.”

“We don’t tell kids, ‘Look, you don’t have to take math if it’s hard or science if it’s hard,’” Farr said. “This opt out of nutrition is just the wrong way to go.”

Aderholt, however, strongly defended what he called “a very real problem in many school districts across the country.”

“We’ve had calls, we’ve had emails, we’ve had meetings with school nutritionists, who some of us affectionately know as lunch ladies,” he said.

Aderholt emphasized that the waiver only allows schools a one-year break on regulations “if and only if a school has lost money over a six-month period.”

In a particularly pointed exchange during markup, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) asked Republicans on the committee whether they are aiming to make waivers permanent – a concern that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and others have raised in recent days.

“So the majority does not intend to eliminate these nutrition standards?” asked Wasserman Shultz.

“Not in this bill,” Aderholt said. The packed room erupted in laughter and then Aderholt noted that the waiver would only apply to the next school year.

The opposition to many of the new nutrition standards, which stem from the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, has been fueled primarily by an extensive lobbying effort by the School Nutrition Association.

The group, which represents 55,000 school nutrition professionals and the food companies that supply the National School Lunch Program, has been flying in school meal directors and cafeteria workers from across the country to ask lawmakers to give schools some regulatory relief by “hitting the pause button” on the sweeping rules.

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House panel votes to allow school districts to temporarily opt out of dietary rules

Despite White House pressure, the House Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to allow school districts to temporarily  opt out of school dietary requirements championed by first lady Michelle Obama.

The party-line vote was hailed by an organization of school nutritionists and Republicans, but criticized by Democrats and health advocacy groups.

After more than 90 minutes of sharply partisan debate, the spending panel voted 29 to 22 to reject an amendment from Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) to kill the  GOP language, which would allow the  Department of Agriculture to grant waivers to any school district that could show that their lunch programs operated at a net loss over six months.

Some school officials say the losses are tied to the imposition of stiff new rules requiring whole wheat products and fruits and vegetables as part of the school lunch program. Others heralded the new dietary standards for reducing obesity and changing the eating habits of young people for the better. Republicans, led by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), rejected claims that the waivers would  gut the nutrition standards. Rather, he said they are necessary to give schools time to implement cumbersome changes.

Aderholt said he is open to modifying the language in the agriculture spending bill to make it clear that the waiver is only temporary. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a companion spending bill that does not permit waivers. It authorizes  delays in some food rules and the study of others.

The White House has pushed hard against the waivers, saying they would roll back gains in child nutrition. On Tuesday,  Michelle Obama hosted a discussion with nutritionists calling for a fight against the legislation, and she authored an op-ed piece opposing the waivers proposal in the New York Times.

The most powerful lobby on this topic, the School Nutrition Association, applauded the lawmakers' decision.   "We appreciate the House Appropriations Committee’s support for this waiver to give temporary needed relief to some schools across the country,” said SNA President Leah Schmidt.  “This will not halt the progress in school cafeterias;  it is a temporary reprieve to allow schools to catch up."

She also called on the  Agriculture Department  to  provide additional flexibility in implementing the law.

If USDA refuses to act, Schmidt said she hoped "Congress will stand up to protect America’s school meal programs from unintended negative consequences that could derail future successes in cafeterias nationwide.”

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http://www.schoolnutrition.org/

SNA Board of Directors

Listed below is the current Board of Directors for the School Nutrition Association.

PRESIDENT

Leah Schmidt, SNS

Hickman Mills C-1 School District

Kansas City, MO

PRESIDENT-ELECT

Julia Bauscher, SNS

Jefferson County School District

Louisville, KY

VICE PRESIDENT

Jean Ronnei, SNS

St. Paul Public Schools

St. Paul, MN

SECRETARY/TREASURER

Melanie Konarik, SNS

Spring Independent School District

Houston, TX

Regional Directors

MIDEAST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Sara Gasiorowski, SNS

Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township

Indianapolis, IN

MIDWEST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Micheline Piekarski

Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200

Oak Park, IL

NORTHEAST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Cheryl Goffus, SNS

New Jersey Department of Agriculture

Trenton, NJ

NORTHWEST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Linda Aljets

Woodburn School District #103

Woodburn, OR

SOUTHEAST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Jonathan Dickl, MBA, SNS

Knox County Schools

Knoxville, TN

SOUTHWEST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Jill Vincent, SNS

Emporia Unified School District #253

Emporia, KS

WEST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Lynnelle Grumbles, SNS

Visalia Unified School District

Visalia, CA

Committee Chairs

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

Gay Anderson

Brandon Valley School District

Brandon, SD

MEMBER SERVICES COMMITTEE

Sheila Parisien, SNS

Manchester Essex Regional School District

Manchester, MA

NUTRITION COMMITTEE

Becky Domokos-Bays, PhD, SNS

Alexandria City Public Schools

Alexandria, VA

PUBLIC POLICY & LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

Wendy Weyer, SNS

Seattle School District

Seattle, WA

RESEARCH COMMITTEE

Jill Kidd, SNS

Pueblo School District 60

Pueblo, CO

Other Representatives

SCHOOL NUTRITION EMPLOYEE/MANAGER REPRESENTATIVE

Nancy Thatcher

Carlsbad Municipal Schools

Carlsbad, NM

STATE AGENCY REPRESENTATIVE

Lynn Harvey

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

Raleigh, NC

INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE

Gary Vonck

Gary Vonck

KeyImpact Sales & Systems

Naperville, IL

Ex-Officio

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Patricia Montague, CAE

School Nutrition Association

National Harbor, MD

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