Obama disses school lunch menus

Not a bad week for sustainable farming/food and public nutrition. The President called for less junk and more fresh (local) fruits and veggies in federally subsidized school lunches and surprised everyone by announcing plans for a Farmer’s Market at the White House (perhaps harvesting from the First Lady’s kitchen garden?). And two administration secretaries visiting North Carolina dissed the federal school lunch program for wasting tax money on unhealthy food that comes from far away.

Can this mean federal support for creating distribution systems for local farmers to stock public school cafeterias? Now that would be change we could believe in.

Here’s what they had to say:

“Your resources are going to food that was processed thousands of miles away. Wouldn’t it be better if that went to your local farmers?”   (Ya’ think?) That was US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in North Carolina Aug. 17.

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan chimed in:  “(For) many of our students these [federal lunches] are the only meals they get,” …They’re not nutritious. They’re not healthy. We’re wasting money.” (No kidding.)

Meanwhile, back in the nation’s capital after explaining why it was important for kids to have access to fresh local produce at school, Obama said:  “One of the things that we’re trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmer’s market outside of the White House …It gives suddenly DC more access to good, fresh food, but it also is this enormous potential revenue maker for local farmers in the area. And those kinds of connections can be made all throughout the country and [that] has to be part of how we think about health.”

For more delicious details see Obama Foodorama.