How are Obama's kids fed by a chef while other kids eat school stuff?

So someone tweets something and you take it as truth?
Come up with solid evidence to your rant and I’ll consider it.

And if President Obama’s children are fed differently it is because of threat of poisoning a high official’s child.

I tend not to believe things where there’s lots of bashing of certain political parties in the comments.

I doubt this is true. Plus, Obama’s girls go to private school. Probably a fairly expensive school. Most of those kids probably have parents who can afford a fancy lunch. Or, there is always the bizarre idea that their parents could make them a very nice lunch.

Do private schools even follow the same lunch rules as public? If a parent wants to supply their children with gourmet food have at it.

If this is true I don’t care. If it is true I am very shocked, because I doubt the Obamas, or the Obama kids want to be singled out in school. Most children want to fit in.

I doubt this is true, too, but even if it is, they’re the U.S. President’s kids, for heaven’s sake, and deserve extraordinary protection. Give Mr. Obama and his family a break!!!

Obama’s girls eat the same as the other students at the school they attend and what is wrong with that.

This criticism has originated from school kids who want to eat junk food and object to the healthier option now being presented to them in American schools. I wouldn’t trust all the pictures that are being posted. Even in my day kids pretended to hate their school meals.

Her kids go to a private school with other wealthy and politicians children. I forget the name of the school but last week on the radio I heard the actual menu that those kids eat at school lunch. All I have to say is “what a bunch of suckers the American public is”. Their menu read like a resort menu.
what the hell, some of your responses got me so angry I looked it up.
http://www.sidwell.edu/

Here is another tidbit for the suckers.

http://www.sidwell.edu/admissions/tuition-and-fees/index.aspx

@BeenThereSaidThat Thanks for the link! Quinoa and South Beach salad. Gotta love it! I need that chef in my house.

Michelle Obama did no such thing. She doesn’t have the power to (nor does her husband for that matter).

And personally speaking, when I was in school our school lunches were shit, just absolute shit. I wouldn’t feed my worst enemy the crap that my school offered up.

@BeenThereSaidThat Here is Sidwell’s menu for tomorrow taken from the school’s website:

Minestrone Soup
Mediterranean Tuna Nicoise Salad
Strawberries, Goat Cheese & Spinach Salad
Cheese Tortellini
Garden Fresh Marinara
Fresh Pesto Cream Sauce
Steamed Asparagus
Garlic Bread Sticks
Melon

Good healthy nutritional food. The Obama’s aren’t elitist. Michelle Obama wanted all American children to have a healthy meal at school. That’s what all the fuss is about. The difference is the Obama kids will eat it.

The difference is people don’t want to pay for their kids to eat healthy meals. Or, they don’t want to pay for other peoples kids to eat healthy meals. There is plenty on the internet if you google for school lunches around the world.

And this makes it look like we are doing better now than when I was a kid.

After thinking about this further, I am now revisiting this and I see @BeenThereSaidThat said what I was thinking. In a private school, they don’t have to comply with the federal requirements for school lunches, as they can do whatever they want. Someone paying $75k a year to send their kid to private school is likely going to expect that the lunch served is of the highest quality. The photo of the lunch in the link is not going to meet the expectation of a parent at that school. So the idiot who wrote the blog in the link is just looking to get a rise out of people.

I think the average kid wouldn’t like half of what is on that menu. Their taste buds probably are not accustom to that food. Not that I am making an excuse for serving deep fried chicken nuggets and tator tots. Although, when I went to public school in the 70’s and 80’s we ate pizza, tacos, hamburgers, tator tots, corn, etc. Most of us were thin, but I’m not going to try to say we were as healthy as we could be eating that food.

My point is, if a child is given crap food at home I think it is an uphill battle for the school to overcome poor eating habits. It can’t hurt to try though.

I won’t grace the question with a thoughtful answer.

Reminds me of all the hullabaloo about the Obama children having security guards at their school following Sandy Hook. Like the 2 daughters of the leader of the free world are pack a sack lunch to an inner city school in Washington.

I don’t like the Obamas’ politics, but that doesn’t mean I’m irrational on the entire subject. If a chef was preparing their meals at their private school, I would just guess that there had been a scare similar to the other Secret Service screw-ups.

I don’t have to like the Obamas to understand that keeping the family safe is a monumental task. I’m sure the Obamas don’t receive any better treatment than the Bush family did. Of course, the Bush clan were known as being fat-cat, silver-spoon Republicans.

Okay, maybe a little thought.

“Michelle Obama cut way back on the caloric intake of our kids’ lunches…”

What?

@livelaughlove21 I heard that kids are not eating enough at school and blame was given to the new menus. I don’t know how true it is. I don’t know if it was because Michelle lowered the calories in meals or if it was because the kids weren’t eating, because they didn’t like the food.

I have a daughter in grade school. Changes were made to their menu two years ago. More fruits and veggies and less fat and salt. All grains must be whole grain. According to my daughter the food is disgusting and many of the children throw away much of the food. These were the same complaints before the menu changes, but the amount of trash has increased.

“About 32 million children participate in school meal programs each day. The new rules are a major component of Mrs. Obama’s campaign to reduce the number of overweight children through exercise and better nutrition. The rules are the first changes in 15 years to the $11 billion school lunch program. They will double the amount of fruits and vegetables children are served in school and will require that all grains served are whole grains. All milk served must be low fat, and for the first time the rules set limits on levels of salt and trans fats. They also set a minimum and maximum calorie intake per day based on student age.” source

I’m not criticizing, I’m just sharing what I know.

@jonsblond Interesting. So, it is that kids are throwing the food out. Maybe the change is too extreme. All whole grains sounds extreme to me. Low salt might mean the food is bland and terrible. Low fat milk is likely 2%, which sounds ok to me. I hated that the only drink choice we had was milk. The only saving grace was chocolate milk. Do they still get the choice of chocolate milk?

@JLeslie I think the change was extreme. Their pizzas and all pasta and breads are whole grain, as well as their treats like brownies and cookies. I think it’s good to introduce whole grains to children because many children may not get the choice at home, but changing from an all white bread menu to only whole grain is a bit much imo.

They do still get a choice of chocolate milk.

M. Obama’s campaign for healthier, average weight children seems to me PR only.

Her campaign should have started with challenging school-food manufacturers to provide good-tasting, healthy foods. Having taste-testing seminars.

In the Republican era this was known as the “Catchup as a Vegetable” scandal.

Sorry, that based on my experience as a vegetarian seeking decent alternative foods for about 20+ years

If the kids are tossing food in the trash they are not hungry. You only make that mistake a few times.

I wouldn’t have liked all the healthy shit either when I was in the fifth grade and would have probably tossed it. But I also would have swiped some Twinkies from the cupboard in the middle of the night and put them in my backpack for the next day.

This is fine for me. The poor kids will eat the healthy shit since that is their only option, the middle class kids will bring their own garbage, and I don’t have to pay taxes for shit food that is mostly corn syrup and chicken-paste that is breaded.

The thread is a tl;dr for me as I don’t care that much, but it makes total sense for them to have a private chef, and if it’s not true, I’d be flabbergasted. They’re the POTUS children, and they need special protection from the Secret Service. (And I realize that the Secret Service has had a bad stretch the past month, but it’s irrelevant)

I’m still shaking my head over the link, the photo in the link and the comments in the link, and as always, the fact that people actually believe that bullshit.

All I see in that tweet is a pic of a fairly bland looking (supposed) public school lunch on a plastic tray.

It could have just as easily been a concocted photo for all we know.

And WHERE in that tweet (or anywhere else) is there any statement or proof that the Obama Kids have a private chef.

Maybe they brown bag a lunch or maybe they eat what all the other kids at their private school do.

It makes no sense to me (logistically) that they have a private chef on standby at the school.

This whole thing reeks of someone trying to stir the pot and create a controversy out of nothing.

What a load of crap !

I seriously doubt any of these kids are starving to death because of the changes in the school menus. If they’re hungry enough, they’ll eat it. Kids around here are still plump as ever, so I think the junk they eat at home is more than making up for the evil whole grains and vegetables they’re “forced” to eat at lunch. If it’s so awful, they always have the option of bringing lunch from home, or is the Obama administration outlawing bag lunches as well?~

Sometimes, people make complete arseholes of themselves due to their political allegiance, embarrassing really.

As a child I wouldn’t eat food that tasted bad to me. I don’t think whole grain bread would taste bad enough to push that food away, but I can assure you I would definitely leave fresh tomatoes, blueberries, and some other foods that were totally disgusting to me, and some made me gag. I would have gone through the school day hungry and stuffed my face after school. Luckily, I had food to eat at home, some kids don’t.

I think the kids that don’t have food to eat at home know the value of eating what’s given to them, regardless of how much they like it.

But, I did have food at home. So, in my circumstance I would have been hungry while trying to learn. Plus, people underestimate how badly good tastes to children when they don’t like it. They forget what it was like being a child or were lucky enough to not taste things so strongly as a child. Children have more taste buds and heightened taste.

My mom did cook dinner every night and I did have exposure to many foods so I probably would do ok with most of the healthier menu. Although, things like salad, I hated salad as a child. All dressing were too strong. I didn’t like lettuce. My mom ate salad all the time, so it wasn’t that I wasn’t exposed.

@flutherother In your wildest dreams do you think kids in the average public school get anything near that menu you posted? I think not.

@johnpowell from that link I can understand why I read more and more children are either throwing away their school lunch or going home hungry.

@ibstubro what a contradiction! your last sentence just blew that whole theory. You really believe the obama children have not been around great wealth? stop kidding yourself.

@JLeslie I was, and still am, a very picky eater. I’m definitely not forgetting what it was like to be given foods I didn’t like as a kid. I was also lucky enough to have food at home when I was going to school. However, you can’t tell me these kids need greasy pizza and chicken nuggets in order to not go hungry. You also can’t tell me that salad is the only option these kids have on any given day. The kids that have food at home can bring some of it to school if the whole grains are so horrible, and the ones that don’t have food at home are probably happy to have just about anything on the plate in front of them. Parents complaining that their children are “going hungry” because they refuse to eat perfectly edible food is a load of crap. School lunches have never been gourmet cuisine, and the kids aren’t going to die from eating healthier foods. If parents, mine included, were better about feeding their kids more nutritious foods instead of filling them up with burgers and fries “because it’s all they’ll eat,” then there wouldn’t be such a huge issue with them eating foods that aren’t filled with grease and salt. If the kids simply cannot stomach the food, refuse to bring something from home, and have to learn on an empty stomach, the last person to blame is Michelle Obama (or the government in general).

It’s as if people think they’re feeding the kids concentration camp soup complete with with old socks and rotten meat. The food in that picture doesn’t look all that revolting. In fact, it looks like a pretty normal meal.

A misguided campaign by Michelle Obama.

It’s not going to do anything to fix obesity levels. Poor nutrition, obesity, and all other diet related issues are related to wealth inequality, and to poverty. The better off one is, the healthier one eats. Junk food is for poor families.

There’s a vast industry of food and drink production that profits from marketing and selling unhealthy processed foods and drinks. Many children’s and adults’ palates have become so accustomed to these salt laden, HFCS containing foods, that healthy alternative won’t taste edible.

And “Marxist Moochelle” has so little credibility with about half the American population, that anything she advocates—they’ll probably want to do the opposite.

If Michelle Obama were serious about tackling the obesity epidemic, then she would really be the Marxist that her right-wing detractors accuse her of being, because this is a problem with capitalism itself and the culture that emerges from it.

@livelaughlove21 I’m not trying to tell you the kids are going to hate all healthy options. I’m all for some healthier choices. My guess is no one is pushing for a vegan menu in school lunches. I don’t see why pizza is so bad if it has not so much cheese and some veggies on top. Pizza once a week sounds ok to me. Salad as a choice sounds good to me too.

How healthy does it need to be? I think vegan whole foods are the ideal, but I don’t see the American diet going that way so fast among the many.

The Chinese and Japanese eat white rice as a staple and they aren’t fat.

I just think America tends to get an idea in it’s head and go to extremes.

We were obsessed with the Mediterranean diet and olive oil. Now studies are showing olive oil is not magic. Americans just substitute using olive oil, but still using as much fat level and so the switch to olive oil didn’t help. The Mediterranean diet is better because there is less meat and more vegetables.

I want to add there are a lot of foods I think kids like that I consider to be healthy. Soft tacos made with beans. Baked new potatoes. Lentil rice. Pasta primavera. In my opinion nothing needs to be deep fried, but I won’t freak out if once a week the kids are served French fries. Most kids will eat green beans and corn and I am fine if they are from a can or frozen if the nutritional value is still good. We need to make sure we aren’t so snobby about food that it makes it difficult to feed the masses for a reasonable price.

There’s no contradiction, @BeenThereSaidThat. I’m guessing that you’re referring to:
”Of course, the Bush clan were known as being fat-cat, silver-spoon Republicans” and therefore weren’t subjected to this kind of claptrap.

The wealth of either family has no bearing on what is spent to provide security for the First Family. I’m sure the Bushes had an easier transition, having already been under Secret Service protection and been privately protecting their families for decades.

@JLeslie I’m definitely not going to disagree that many of us go to extremes when it comes to “healthy” eating. I firmly believe that everything is fine in moderation. I think the idea that there are “good” vs. “bad” foods is ludicrous. I’m fit, healthy, and very conscious of getting in adequate nutrition and exercising on a more-than-regular basis. However, I still eat pizza, burgers, fried foods, etc. – and perhaps more often than some might think after discovering just how health- and fitness-conscious I am. When I was in high school, we had a hot meal line and a salad bar. We had a nutritional law come in while I was in school, too, though I’m not sure if it was federal or state. I have to assume the rules are stricter now, because we still had pizza and fries and all that. And not “healthier” alternatives – I mean greasy, delicious individual Tony’s pizzas that contained over 500 calories each. The fries were baked, but now significantly lower in calories than the ones they fried. I asked my niece, who is currently in elementary school, and she listed pizza and corn dogs as regular menu items at her public school. So…I’m not sure what the big problem here is.

But let’s say some schools have completely banned foods like pizza and burgers and are only serving bland, low-calorie foods. Most kids eat one meal at school – lunch. I don’t see any harm in schools making sure those lunches include plenty of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, etc. It certainly isn’t going to harm them to eat it. Will it solve the obesity problem? No. That problem is created at home. However, perhaps it’s a tiny step in the right direction. Kids whose parents let them eat whatever they want may not even be exposed to certain vegetables or anything other than white rice/bread. There’s nothing wrong with white rice or white bread if you ask me, and I regularly eat both, but whole grains bring something to the table as well. We do often go to extremes when determining what is healthy, but there’s no reason for parents to be throwing a fit because the schools are now serving lower calorie, lower fat foods (though, someone should tell them that fat in foods does not make you fat). If parents want to feed kids pizza and burgers at home, that’s their right. And, as I’ve said, there’s always the option to bring what they like to school.

Kids don’t know everything that’s why they go to school. They don’t know what they should be eating and they will eat all sorts of horrible junk given the chance. Schools have a duty of care to their pupils and should ensure they are given proper food. This shouldn’t be controversial.

@livelaughlove21 I think we mostly agree. If we had to make the menu I think we could agree on most of it pretty easily. As far as pizza, the pizza I ate in school was not overly greasy. It was a fairly dry crust made in a large square pan with tomato sauce and some cheese. They cut out rectangular pieces for us. Coming from NY the pizza was definitely subpar to me, but in NY I didn’t have any pizza in school so it was an amazing treat even if it was crappy pizza.

I also couldn’t agree more that kids can always bring lunch (assuming the family isn’t so poor they can’t afford it). I know when we moved to Maryland my mom was happy my new school had a cafeteria and she quickly gave up making my lunch. In NY there wasn’t a cafeteria in school.

Some places it is common for children to eat breakfast and lunch and sometimes even an after school snack at school. However, assuming most kids only eat lunch at school that is likely 5 meals a week out of 28. I’m going to assume most kids eat breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. A drop in the bucket. Let alone all summer they aren’t in school. I think everything counts, so I like the idea they don’t get total garbage all the time in school, but the biggest problem is at home, which is basically what you are saying also I think.

I apologize for my lack of understanding of the article I read regarding Obama’s daughters’ lunches. What I now understand is that all the students at their school eat lunches cooked by one or more professional chefs. Or, maybe the article was full of lies. But I now understand so I’m sorry.

@Aster: It’s a school for very rich kids. They’re not eating sloppy joes and tater tots. Don’t be sorry. You just misunderstood. That is all.

Mmm, sloppy joes and tater tots sound pretty damn good right now.

Just be a little more careful of your sources and understanding before you post a question, @Aster. The more it freaks you out, the less likely it’s valid. Seek independent confirmation.

@Aster No need to apologize. It was an interesting discussion anyway. When I lived in the south, I think that’s where you are, a lot of my friends were Republicans and would pass around emails, and post in Facebook, right wing garbage. Garbage is passed around on the liberal side too, but nothing like the right wing. Maybe because a Democrat is President the right wing is more active with rumors. Anyway, take all that extreme hateful gossip with a grain of salt, question it, before just accepting it as truth. Or, as here, like you did, and jellies usually will do some digging and help find what is most likely the truth.

And anybody who posted the truth on that site would be jumped on and called names like “Commie.” So nobody who disagrees is going to bother there, and the hate and the lies continue.

One more thing I try to do. When I hear negative news about a politician I don’t like, I try to pause for a second and imagine that news being said about a politician I do like. If I would blow it off or think it was false about my favorite politician then I have to do the same for the ones I don’t like.

The Bush family was raised with silver spoons in their mouths from oil money. Many of them went to private schools and expensive private universities. The right wingers criticizing the Obamas and who are still in love with the Bush family need to get some facts straight. George Bush went to a private boarding school in New England at least part of high school, I don’t know about his entire education k-12.

^^
Talk about partisan…....

^^

Anyone else see the irony in one of the most partisan hacks on this forum calling someone else “partisan”?

@BeenThereSaidThat Partisan how? I don’t understand? I stated facts. I don’t care that the Bush family is rich. I care that some Republicans think Bush is an average Joe from Texas and don’t seem to know he grew up with lots of money and went to Harvard and then they go around saying Democrats are horrible because they went to Harvard and have money. Remember how the right wing talked about Kerry and his money? I defended Mitt Romney when the liberals were jumping all over him for only paying 13% (more or less) income tax.

Ever go to Kennebunkport? Once you see that incredible piece of property that the Bush family owns (a peninsula with a nice house on it- they own the whole thing), you realize that the Bush family are not poor scrubby Texans.

^^

Talk about partisan….

:-)~~~

I’ve always been amused to hear Bush supporters talk about Clinton, Kerry, Obama, etc as “New England/Ivy League elites”.

@Darth_Algar Exactly my point.

@JLeslie Yup.

What has this thread got to do with cheese?
“Talk about partisan” meh

I just read that ‪#‎ThanksMichelleObama‬ is trending. Teens hate their new school lunches and they are posting pics of the disgusting food with this hash tag.

#Thanks MichelleObama

I’m not arguing. I just remembered this question when I noticed the article on facebook and I thought I’d share

When I was in middle school and high school, I would either buy just milk and ice cream or pizza. I was an extremely picky eater and still am today. That being said, if I was going to my son’s middle school, lunch would not be an issue at all. Here is a link to his school’s cafeteria menus. I would have posted just the menu, but if you check out the link, you’ll see they have a lot of different options. They can choose between five different areas for different meal options every day. Plus they have add ons as well. We also are able to look online and see what our kids are buying. My son and I have talked about what he should be eating and why. He also knows I will check to make sure he is buying the right things. He is in 7th grade now and we do not have issues with lunch.

All through high school I just got stuff out of the vending machines rather than eat the not-fit-for-dog-food crap the school served up.

That’s impressive, @Mare_Nubium.

I recognize the dinner roll on that tray as a school cafeteria icon since about 1955. LOL

I can’t add to anything here that hasn’t already been said, believe nothing that you hear and only half of what you read. Who said that anyway? haha
Does anyone remember those ice cream scoop balls of white rice with the brown gravy?
Ick!

In 7th grade my lunch every day for months was a bag of Cheese Doritos and a pre-made frozen chocolate shake from the cafeteria. I’m still around 40+ years later. I do eat much healthier than I did as a kid. In the 60’s everyone ate tons of fat, red meat, bacon, gravy, Gag!

Bologna and Velveeta on white, @Coloma. Return home with the brown bag.
Barf!