By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Many people believe First Lady Michelle Obama is making America sick with her new school lunch regulations.

Since the new federal standards were implemented this year, public school students from across the nation have revolted against the low-calorie diet, reportedly throwing away massive amounts of uneaten veggies and other foods each day.

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Media reports show student athletes are struggling through school practices on an empty stomach, while others are heading home or to the corner store to binge on snacks after trashing their lackluster lunches.

EAGnews’ recent coverage of the issue prompted feedback from parents and citizens from across the country who are concerned with how the new menu is impacting student learning and the ability of youngsters to make smart dietary decisions.

One parent in particular, Valerie Royse – a mother of four and registered nurse from Huntsville, Alabama – provides an interesting look at how her children and their classmates are coping with the changes.

“I really think they are trying to come in and tell students ‘this is how it’s going to be,’ but they’re not teaching them anything,” Royse told EAGnews. “It needs to start at home – educating the parents. Kids are not getting fat eating school food.

“I just don’t think they are taking everything into consideration. They need to look at the whole picture.”

Royse believes the federal lunch standards are creating more problems than they’re solving.

“They’re smuggling in sodas,” she said. “The Lunchables that have the piece of candy inside, kids will sell it to the highest bidder.

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“I’ve gone to lunch with my children several times, and there’s no flavor, the meat is dry. There are so many kids just throwing away their trays of food.”

Problems in the Royse household

Royse said her four children have repeatedly run into problems with the new policies and school district officials seem unwilling to break with the rigid federal dietary rules.

Royse’s kindergarten son has a cleft pallet and cannot bite into an apple, which are commonly served with his school lunch. But district officials won’t allow him or school staff to cut the fruit into more manageable pieces, despite her requests. They also don’t offer any other foods to replace what he can’t eat.

“How many kindergarten kids can actually bite into an apple?” Royse asked. “They put it on their tray and they have to eat it and there are no substitutes.”

Royse said her son is forced to have lunch at 10 a.m., leaving him famished by the time he gets home from school.

Royse’s daughters, who attend East Limestone middle and high schools on the same campus, have also had their own share of problems, she said.

The girls are on a reduced lunch plan that provides a 750 to 850 calorie meal of bland, low-fat foods, including low-fat milk, each day. Many kids avoid the main entrée, and might pick at their vegetables or fruits, but the majority of the meals are thrown in the garbage, she said.

“My daughter took a picture of her tray the other day and it was very unappealing,” Royse said. “They gave them a small hot dog, a bag of chips and a milk. My daughter didn’t eat the fruit because it gets stuck in her braces.

“The problem is they are trying to cook low-fat food and the government isn’t helping to buy the things to help the low-fat food taste better.”

Many students in her daughters’ school can’t stomach their lunches and opt to go without, and that’s leading to some serious unintended consequences, Royse said.

Her oldest daughter “wound up vomiting at basketball practice because she didn’t have anything in her stomach,” she said.

Others kids head straight to the fridge when they get home, according to Royse.

“When they get home they will overstuff themselves and consume extra calories because they’re so hungry from lunch,” Royse said.

Double standards and mixed messages

Royse believes that the new standards send mixed messages to students about healthy eating, and create a double standard based on what students can afford.

When one of her daughters opts for water instead of milk, for instance, she must pay extra, and often gets heckled by school staff who question how she can afford the expense as a reduced lunch student.

“She has to have other kids buy her water for her,” Royse said.

If student athletes want extra portions of the healthy stuff, such as meat or a trip to the salad bar, it’s an extra $2. And students with money are much more apt to belly up to the snack bar in the cafeteria where they can purchase ice cream, gummies, and other junk food to their heart’s content.

“For kids that want to get gummies or ice cream, they’re not limiting that, so it defeats the purpose” of creating low-calorie lunch standards, she said. “They are not teaching these kids moderation or teaching them how to eat healthy.

“They’re just trying to fix the problem without a good solution. It’s basically if you have money you can get anything you want, but if you don’t, you’re screwed.”

Some students with blood-sugar issues are also arguably more prone to health problems with the new menu, Royse said.

“A lot of low-fat foods also have a high sugar content,” she said, which causes issues for some of her daughters’ classmates.

“I don’t think the government is taking into consideration the whole aspect of what they’re trying to do.”