New York Schools Stall Free Breakfast Program Over Fears That Poor Kids Have Too Much To Eat

[makemerun]

Triggers: Fat hate

It is an innovative, intuitive and increasingly common way to ensure that food reaches the mouths of hungry children from low-income families: give out free breakfast in the classroom at the start of each school day.

The results, seen at urban districts across the country, are striking. Without the stigma of a trip to the

Comments

[chaya]

[oceandezignz]

My patron deity. Yes. A+ usage.

[metropolis22786]

What is this from? It's epic.

[chaya]

From one of the very early episodes of True Blood, a tv show on... HBO, I think. It started off very well but imo has dropped in quality recently.

[yamamanama]

It smells like they're trying to penalize being poor and reducing social mobility at the same time.

[archanglrobriel]

But THE FATTIES with eat TWO BREAKFAAAAASTS! Lets cut the whole program.

It does seem to me that they should've thought first about serving other things besides muffins and juice to the kids if they're actually concerned about THA OBESE (rather than fake concerned). Turkey ham rolls with lowfat cheese. Cottage cheese and unsweetened fruit. Grapefruit slices. Mulitgrain cereals and lowfat milk. I'm no dietician but UM hello? Juice? Muffins? Really? Glycemic load wise, you're better off serving birthday cake a lot of the time.
But it's the families own faults if their kids are fat, right?

[fenris_lorsrai]

I've worked schools that served breakfast and they generally do rotate what's available. The article mentions also serving bagels, graham crackers, and yogurt. Milk is also subsidized by national program, so its probably on there a lot as well. Most places generally have a two week menu rotation

[ceilidh]

yes, exactly. They're probably doing this with a bare minimum of staff and I bet there isn't much refrigeration.

[fenris_lorsrai]

Some of the pushback I suspect might actually be due to understaffing so things are arriving really late or they don't have staff to clean up properly afterward.

Or depending on structure, they might have had teachers fetching the meals for their classroom. Most teachers are probably happy to have kids eat and be more focused for rest of morning, but there will always be some loud complainers about 'this isn't in my job description" or what a mess it makes.

Imagine a kindergarten classroom where the breakfast that morning involved jam... or oatmeal... GOOD GOD.

[effervescent]

Wait. So because ~20% of kids might get two breakfasts, nobody should have anything? x.x

Sounds like they're just trying to save money and bleating about obesity is a good way to do it, tbh.

[tigerdreams]

"Two breakfasts" here defined in some cases as "the kid had a piece of candy on the bus."

[kaowolfie]

If I have learned nothing else from RuPaul's Drag Race, it's that two tic tacs is totally a meal.

[chaya]

Yeah. "Some kids even have a SNACK before breakfast!" doesn't exactly seem like a reason to suspect future obesity, like, ever.

[mutive]

I seriously doubt that most kids are going to eat two healthy breakfasts (or even an unhealthy one and a healthy one) as people do tend to fill up. (Which is why people who eat breakfast tend to be thinner than those who abstain. Being hungry often makes people gorge on unhealthy stuff.) So arguably, a healthy breakfast at school not only makes kids better able to focus (and reduces malnutrition), but also makes kids less likely to become overweight.

Then again, logic from politicians? What am I thinking!