The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act supported by first lady Michelle Obama has ended up creating a black market for condiments such as salt, pepper, and sugar because the food tastes so bland, a congressional committee was told on Wednesday.
In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, John S. Payne, the president of Blackford County School Board of Trustees in Hartford City, Indiana, related how children have resorted to drastic measures to make their food taste better,
The Washington Free Beacon reports.
"Perhaps the most colorful example in my district is that students have been caught bringing — and even selling — salt, pepper and sugar in school to add taste to perceived bland and tasteless cafeteria food,"
Payne told the committee. "This 'contraband' economy is just one example of many that reinforce the call for flexibility."
In other cases, students have avoided cafeteria food altogether by either bringing their own lunch from home or by having a parent check them out of school and take them to a fast food restaurant or back home to eat.
Bake sales and other food-related fundraisers have been canceled because they don't comply with the rules, Payne said. And of the students who are served the cafeteria lunches, "whole-grain items and most of the broccoli end up in the trash."
With students nationwide leaving the school lunch program since the rules went into effect, Republicans have been pushing for flexibility.
"The clear solution to these problems is local leadership and flexibility," Payne testified. "When local school districts have the authority and flexibility to make adjustments honoring the spirit and intent of the law they can provide students with healthy, nutritious, and appetizing meals."
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