In the wake of high school demonstrations against a U.S. law that for the first time sets calorie caps on meals served in public schools, some politicians have embraced the student movement. U.S. Representative Steve King (R-IA) introduced the “No Hungry Kids Act” with original co-sponsor Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) after visiting students following the release of a YouTube parody of school meals.
The “No Hungry Kids Act” repeals the USDA rule that created the new standards, prohibits the USDA upper caloric limits, and will protect rights of parents to send their children to school with the foods of their choice, Rep. King said in a press release. The cap on school lunch calories served to 32 million American school children each day is being derided as an example of the type of federal government encroachment that would be curbed by presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
At Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kansas, students filmed a “We Are Hungry” music video that shows students mocking the new diet by pretending to collapse from starvation. View the video here.
At St Mark’s school in Kansas, about 170 students–more than half at the school–brought sack lunches in opposition and wrote letters to elected officials. Rep. King started a Facebook page “Nutrition Nannies,” where irate parents sound off and where updates are posted about student cafeteria boycotts. King is in a fierce re-election bid against Christie Vilsack, wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
While there have been nutritional standards since the school lunch program was created by President Harry S. Truman in 1946, the quality and quantity of those meals have varied by school district. The caps that went into effect at the start of this school year limit calories at lunch to 650 for kindergarten through fifth grade, 700 for sixth through eighth grade, and 850 for those in high school.
The No Hungry Kids Act is in direct response to new USDA guidelines that for the first time in 15 years update the standards for the National School Lunch Program. The updated guidelines were part of the 2010 Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act, which had high profile backing from First Lady Michelle Obama and her campaign to combat childhood obesity. The changes added more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat options to school menus. The Obama administration have argued that the lunches students had grown accustomed to were not as healthy as they could be, especially with more than one-third of U.S. children and adolescents overweight or obese. The changes have led to lunch boycotts, Twitter campaigns, and YouTube parodies that include students burning a copy of the federal school-lunch policy.
