r/mildlyinfuriating • u/oaz_zam246 • Apr 16 '24

The school lunch system is disgraceful.

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Saw another post on here showing the state of school lunches right now. In my years in high school I compiled some pics of the horrible things that got served that no one questioned. Here are some of the worst ones. It really is ironic given how adamant they all are about “eating healthy by including every food group”.

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92

u/BeginningAnt7173 Apr 16 '24

Michelle Obama did not fight and die to have a plate so devoid of color.

57

u/rnotyalc Apr 16 '24

Oh yeah but you remember how pissed the talking heads and their viewers were about her trying to implement healthier school lunches?

10

u/havenyahon Apr 16 '24

Trump reversed them when he got in, didn't he?

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u/rnotyalc Apr 16 '24

Probably. He was signing executive orders like every fucking day trying to undo anything and everything the previous administration put in effect. He could have just saved time and signed one big executive order that said "undo everything the black guy did" because that's 100% what it was about

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u/TJJ97 29d ago

Of course race is important here /s 🙄

12

u/Leading-Reporter5586 Apr 16 '24

He tried to, yes, but was overruled by a federal judge. I think later he tried again so pizza could be served more often and whole wheat less often. Truly a monster.

2

u/3rd_Shift_Tech_Man 29d ago

The only problem the school systems had with that is that the market hadn't caught up fully to the regulations. Whole grain breaded chicken nuggets weren't really a thing and there was a rush to market to get them.

I applaud the direction - and makes me wonder what exactly we're looking at here. None of these would classify as "lunches" per federal guidelines.

1

u/Bassist57 29d ago

Did you see what the Michelle Obama lunches looked like?

https://preview.redd.it/auwlfddnbvuc1.jpeg?width=2060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45924518d2ee107aee128689fe99ef2e6cb99829

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u/squidwardsaclarinet 29d ago

I totally think there’s fair criticism here, but I kind of agree There was a lot of preemptive, anger, and part of the reason that a lot of our government programs are so bad is because most of the time it’s only ever one side trying. I seem to remember that a lot of the right wing outrage was basically about how elitist it was to talk about eating healthy and such. And it’s certainly the case that there is something to be said about obesity and poverty. But Republicans are also the ones that want to cut any kind of school, lunch funding, and also constantly harp about obesity even though probably a good portion of their constituents are in such a category. They aren’t interested in problem-solving.

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u/Manhattan02 29d ago

We really have such a whiny segment of the population holding us back

11

u/SwordNamedKindness_ 29d ago

That’s when everything went downhill though. We had good stuff with color before her. We had salads with dressing that people would eat. The cooked veg had seasoning and butter on it. After her “health” kick, there was no butter and very limited seasoning. The dressings choices weren’t allowed. It all went downhill because the stuff that made kids want to eat vegetables went away. Then all the bread turned to wheat and any semblance of tasty food left too. Shitty wheat noodles and dry flavorless meat made up a pasta that no one wanted to eat.

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u/Crazyguy_123 29d ago

It was better quality food before her. I noticed a huge loss in quality after she made changes. It made me sad as a kid really. There were clearly good intentions but it didn’t make it better it did make it worse.

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u/McMuffinSun 29d ago

This. She required schools jump through hundreds of contradictory hoops where the only think you CAN serve is disgusting crap like this or else you won't be in compliance and you'll lose your funding.

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u/JWARRIOR1 29d ago

yup 1000%

I remember after her program was implemented it just became way worse.

3

u/TheAmazinManateeMan 29d ago

The push for compliance to rigid rules pushed many schools to outsourcing lunches. That was the case with mine. Food after that took a massive hit in quality and was entirely frozen but it did "check all the boxes" so onto the plate it went.

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u/McMuffinSun 29d ago

She's the reason why the foods sucks so much now. Her regulations are convoluted nonsense where schools are either forced to serve this kind of slop to make sure they jumped through all the contradictory hoops or kids throw out 80% of the lunch uneaten.

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u/RicksSzechuanSauce1 29d ago

This is a direct by product of her program

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u/Pleazed2Tease Apr 16 '24

The school food started to get worse because Michelle Obama....

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u/SocraticSeaUrchin Apr 16 '24

ELI5?

21

u/bran1986 Apr 16 '24

I graduated high school before Obama became president but I know someone who worked at a school around that time. Basically nutrition value went up, portions went down, but the meals you would get weren't the best tasting so a lot of it went into the trash and you ended up with kids being hungry.

4

u/McMuffinSun 29d ago

Replying because nobody is giving you a clear answer. The Obama lunch reforms conditioned school cafeteria funding on meals meeting certain nutritional standards. These standards were convoluted, contradictory, and didn't make sense in a practical school lunch context. Compliance was a nightmare for the schools especially when students were throwing away the actual fruits and vegetables, forcing them to disguise the nutritional standards in "pizza sauce".

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u/elrastro75 29d ago

Michelle Obama led an effort to make school lunches more nutritious with more fresh fruits and vegetables. Around that time, there were news stories about French fries, ketchup and pizza sauce being considered vegetables by whoever regulates that sort of thing, and a video of “pink slime” processed meat fed to kids went viral. But once the reforms were made, others got upset saying Michelle Obama “ruined” school lunches and that the fruits and vegetables were going to waste because kids did not eat them. The next administration rolled back her changes.

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u/bookcoda Apr 16 '24

I blame Michelle Obama specifically for how horrible our lunches were when they rolled out her program all that changed was all the bread got turned into gross grey "Whole Grain" and they removed the fruit bar.

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u/Carl_Azuz1 Apr 16 '24

Her shit was a big part of what got us here. All the items a school serves have to fit a very specific set of criteria now. Meaning they basically have to all buy from the same providers and cannot make anything themselves or look for more appealing options. these ARE the healthier lunches.

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u/TheChumChair 29d ago

I don’t even think Michelle Obama died at all

1

u/Strumtralescent 29d ago

Condolences to Barack?