Michelle O’s lunch rules sour first day of school for many students

FLORENCE, S.C. – Students arrived on the first day of school and realized a lot had changed over the summer.

The lunch line they used to visit to pick up pizza and french fries now had “same school lunch food as the others with more salad.”

SCnow.com reports:

Sophomore Madeline Taylor noticed that hardly anyone was eating.

“The entire rest of the day all I heard about was how hungry everyone was,” she said. “I then became very concerned about what would happen if this continued everyday throughout the school year.”

In response, students launched a petition on Change.org to bring back their favorites. It’s titled, “Bring Back The Choice of Pizza and French Fries” and to date has over 400 signatures.

“My petition wasn’t just to bring back the pizza and french fries. It was to say that FSD1 can do better in providing a lunch that is appealing and healthy that students don’t mind eating,” Taylor tells the paper. “No one has ever explained to the students exactly why our favorite lunch choices have been taken away.”

“About 30 min to eat lunch and that leaves you with 23.5 hrs to get fat at home. The problem is not the school lunch it’s the food in the houses. People are still gonna get fat no matter how much misses obama wants to change a 30 min lunch break. Don’t punish the healthy people and the school’s revenue because they’re not getting that money with that food service,” Bryan Peterson wrote on the petition

“I haven’t eaten anything all week and I am slowly deteriorating,” Olivia Holland wrote.

But students quickly realized the changes weren’t the result of an oppressive school administration, but rather the USDA in Washington, D.C.

“Basically it’s federal regulations,” Donnie Chavis, Florence 1 food services director, tells the Morning News. “That’s where the whole thing came from is the federal government. It’s actually an interim rule, meaning it is not finalized yet. So there could be changes and if a lot of parents want to contact their congressmen, I’m not advocating that, but that’s how it would change. There’s nothing we can do.”

Taylor tells the paper many students have begun bringing home-packed lunches because the new school lunches are unappetizing.

“Some students don’t have a choice but to eat the food given to them in the school lunch line and if it’s the only meal they receive all day, they deserve something better than what is being supplied right now,” she said.

http://eagnews.org/michelle-os-lunch-rules-sour-first-day-of-school-for-many-students/