Fritos and Twinkies on the black market...
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The revamped school lunches at Los Angeles Unified School District have won awards, commending them for improving the menu at the second largest school district in the nation. Too bad the students don’t agree.
Rejecting healthful alternatives like vegetarian curries and tamales, quinoa salads and pad Thai noodles, students are throwing them in the trash by the thousands, bringing junk food from home and buying instant noodles and other decidedly unhealthy fare from the “black markets” that have begun to thrive at campuses across the district, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The wholesale rejection to its healthy menu comes about a year after a very public food fight with TV chef Jamie Oliver. Oliver filmed a few weeks of his ABC series “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” at one LAUSD campus, but the permit was terminated abruptly.
The series’ first season featured Oliver trying to revolutionize the eating habits and food policies of Huntington, W. Va.
The district said they welcomed Oliver, but not his cameras, in an effort to avoid gimmicks, like filling a school bus with 57 tons of white sand to represent the amount of sugar LAUSD students consume weekly in flavored milk.
The kerfluffle led to LAUSD’s decision to change the menu in favor of healthier options. The district decided to do away with chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk.
Now, the Times reports cartons of plain milk are being thrown away en masse, unopened, along with uneaten entrees. Participation in the school lunch program has dropped by thousands of students, who are ditching lunch and are suffering from hunger-related ailments.
The complaints have been heard and LAUSD is planning changes to the menu, the Times reports. Burgers and (healthy) pizza are coming back, and dishes like quinoa salads and brown rice cutlets are out.
L.A. Unified serves 650,000 meals daily.
(End of story, my comments follow.)
Gee, who couldn't see this one coming? A black market for junk food? Who'd a thunk it?
14 comments:
Besides the point you made, where else in the world is there so much food that kids can throw it away?!
This is freaking insane all the way around.
Sounds to me like LAUSD confused "healthful" with "vegetarian/vegan". I didn't even know there was such a critter as a quinoa salad; now, after looking at different pictures of it, I'm not sure I wouldn't throw it away untasted. At the end of the day, parents have to be the ones to teach kids how to eat right; if they're eating a lot of crap foods by the time they hit elementary school, there's not much the school system can do to change that.
Glad to find you, Subvet. Nuke MM1 (SS) here.
Any time the government tries to control what we do with our own person, a Black Market develops. Whether it is alcohol and tobacco or junk food. Even if they are able to "ban" the manufacture, people will figure out a way. We're resourceful like that.
I can see it now, a guy in a trenchcoat hissing: Hey kid, wanna buy a Big Mac, with a side order of fries? ROTFL!
Hey man... you wanna buy a nice watch,......opps I mean you wanna buy some Twinkies? I got plenty they just fell off the truck man and I just happened to be standing there. I sell them to you cheap man, you know, real cheep!
Pops @Conservative Outrage, the blog
And I did not copy from Dalton!
lol well junk food may not be good for ya but it sure is good!
"I can see it now, a guy in a trenchcoat hissing: Hey kid, wanna buy a Big Mac, with a side order of fries? ROTFL!"
That's the best mental image I've had all week, thank you!
"I didn't even know there was such a critter as a quinoa salad; now, after looking at different pictures of it, I'm not sure I wouldn't throw it away untasted."
You've never tried quinoa? It's good stuff, I cook with it quite often. It's a popular food in France, my French housemate got me into it. Versatile, decent protein, and the carbs make it good breakfast food. One of my favourite breakfasts is poached egg with quinoa. (Winter purslane isn't common in supermarkets here, so I just use some rocket.) Seriously, if you do any sort of serious exercise in the morning, you will descend on this like a pack of hyenas taking out a zebra.
It's not just for veggies either. It goes great with tuna steak, my French housemate enjoyed it with a bleeding slab of beef, and the blogger whose recipe I linked to is thoroughly carnviorous. If you're not a picky eater, find a good recipe and try some—you might surprise yourself. I promise you it's not a gateway drug to Pilates and veganism! :)
Old Bob, amen. We have no idea how good it is in this country.
Anthony, the role of parents has been bypassed and minimized to the point of absurdity. Although my wife and I have yet to experience it, we have friends who have to check on what sort of indoctrination their little darlings are receiving from the schools.
Deekaman, good to hear from you. You're spot on about the resourcefullness of the average man on the street.
Scotju, funny thing but I've been checking out the latest in trenchcoat fashion.
Pops, sounds like something from my old neighborhood in New York.
WHT, why is it that all the good/enjoyable things are actually bad for people?
Jordan, now I've got to try that recipe.
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