The real cost of a free lunch

The rules say that schools taking federal money to provide free or low-cost lunches have to meet standards for each meal.

There can’t be too many calories, or too few. There are limits on sugar, salt, and fat.

Like it or not, each child must put at least a half cup of fruit or vegetables on the tray.

This has actually caused morale problems among cafeteria workers who prepare the fresh fruits and vegetables and then watch them go into the trash.

Some schools say it’s costing them so much, it’s cheaper for them not to take the federal subsidy.

CBS’s Chip Reid says this is now a big political debate, “Some Republicans say the standards are too strict and kids are just throwing the food away, and there ought to be some flexibility for schools that are losing money. Democrats say this is just an excuse to help the agri-business industry.”

But what’s beyond debate is that the government has had to issue at least 90 memos explaining how to prepare a healthy lunch. And reading through the rules, I found myself asking – if feeding a kid is this complicated, how did the species survive this long?

I don’t remember a single obese kid growing up, possibly because back then schools weren’t trying to make everything look and taste irresistible, they were serving canned corn and government surplus cheese and we ate it because we were starved from barely surviving dodge ball.

When it takes 90 memos to explain lunch – it’s time to just manufacture federally-approved Child Chow, so if nothing else, the kids are at least as healthy as their pets.