Obama Announces Plan For Lunchroom Reform
In a special interview with an intrepid 11-year-old, Obama explained how he was going to make school lunches both tastier and healthier. Damon Weaver comes from a low-income school district in Pahokee, Florida, and has previously scored interviews with Dwayne Wade, a basketball star, and then-senator Joe Biden. Weaver asks what many parents want to know, when will school lunches be tasty and healthy:
Weaver: Do you have the power to make the school lunches better?
President Obama: I remember when I used to get school lunches sometimes they didn’t taste so good, I gotta admit. We are actually seeing if we can work to at least make school lunches healthier, because a lot of school lunches, uh, y’know, there’s a lot of French fries, pizza, tater tots, all kinds of stuff that, uh, isn’t a well balanced meal, and so what we want to do is make sure that there are more fruits and more vegetables in the schools now. Kids may not end up liking that, but it’s actually better for ‘em. It’ll be healthier for them and those are some of the changes we’re trying to make.
Weaver: I suggest we have French fries and mangoes every day for lunch.
President Obama: See? That–and–you know–And if you were planning the lunch program it would probably taste good to you, but it might not make you big and strong like you need to be. And so we want to make sure that food tastes good in school lunches, but that they’re also healthy for you, too.
Weaver: I looove mangoes.
President Obama: You love mangoes? I love mangoes too, but I’m not sure we can get mangoes in every school, ‘cuz they only grow in hot temperatures. You know, there are a lot of schools up North where they don’t have mango trees.
[The rest of the transcript can be found here.]
The President’s sentiments about upcoming food changes jive well the First Lady’s philosophy on producing real healthcare reform and curbing the obesity epidemic, especially among children. She has said, basically, that to get America eating right, our children have to eat right. Reworking the nation’s school lunch program is a big part of that plan, and what Weaver’s interview shows is that the POTUS is actively working on the same platform for change.
He and Michelle will have plenty of help; Across the nation, parents and concerned citizens are joining the lunchroom revolution. Marion Nestle, the nation’s food policy guru, tells us how to get involved:
The national model [for the lunchroom revolution], of course, is Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley. If your dream is to have your school connect food production to eating, take a look at Berkeley’s Center for Ecoliteracy’s how-to guide, “Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment.”
Let’s not wait around for Congress to pass a bill. Let’s work on changing what our kids eat *today*.
August 19, 2009
Tags: Barack Obama, change, food, Health, heroes, nutrition, policy Posted in: Uncategorized
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