Lunch sales plunge as district food director deems Michelle O’s menu ‘unsuccessful’

by Rottdawg | October 2, 2013 5:38 am

CATAWISSA, Pa. — Michelle Obama’s school lunch overhaul is causing more heartburn for school employees, this time in Pennsylvania’s Southern Columbia Area School District.

District leaders are trying to deal with a whopping 19 percent drop in lunch sales since “healthier” foods were introduced last year. Students have not been responding well to the menu changes and smaller portions, according to Kathy Holleran, the district’s food service director says in the News Item.

The changes have proven “unsuccessful,” she told the newspaper. “We’ve had more waste than in all the years I’ve been here,” she added.

The paper reports the district has increased its lunch prices to compensate for declining participation and may drop out of the program altogether. That’s not a “dead issue,” according to Superintendent Paul Caputo.

But despite the new problems, the program is not yet in deficit and as such, Holleran would not recommend opting out of the federal lunch program.

Despite the increasing number of districts opting out or otherwise grumbling about the new “healthy” mandates, federal bureaucrats insist they’re “proving to be popular.”

The USDA released a video touting the changes earlier this month.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture is celebrating good news for America’s schools,” the video said, according to the: Washington Free Beacon[1]. “New guidelines for healthier school meals introduced last year are proving to be popular, as nearly 80 percent of school districts have adopted the changes.”

The video also features an Iowa high school senior saying, “It makes you feel better. When you eat good foods you feel a lot better about yourself, you feel a lot better just in general.”

Tell that to the students in Pennsylvania.

This post was used with the permission of Joe For America[2].

Endnotes:
  1. Washington Free Beacon: http://freebeacon.com/usda-claims-lunch-standards-are-proving-popular/?print=1
  2. Joe For America: http://joeforamerica.com/

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/education/lunch-sales-plunge-as-district-food-director-deems-michelle-os-menu-unsuccessful/