This year in Michigan, all public school children are offered free breakfast and lunch while at school regardless of their ability to pay. Wait until you see what the kids are being served! This article will discuss the Michigan school free food program and share a few little-known facts about other food programs.
Did you know that the Michigan Department of Education administers food programs that are federally funded by the USDA? At the county level, food boxes given to seniors through a program called Feeding America of West Michigan, are provided by the USDA, distributed through the Michigan Department of Education, and delivered by Door Dash. The Director of Community Action Agency, Jennifer Brozowski, talked about the senior food program during the September 19, 2023, Ottawa County Health and Human Services meeting. (44:30) She noted that approximately 350 boxes are provided to seniors in Ottawa County each month. Commissioner Lucy Ebel asked about how the program accommodates seniors on special diets. The answer: each box contains a certain number of fruits/vegetables, grains, meats, etc. The 350 boxes are all packed exactly the same way, no matter the needs of the customer.
Most people realize government is involved in food programs for seniors, students from low-income families, and welfare, but have no idea how ubiquitous these food programs have become. Whole families are now being fed with few questions asked. For example, during the COVID pandemic, federal funding for food was provided for all community residents, and in Grand Haven the program was coordinated through Grand Haven Area Public Schools (GHAPS).
When the 2020 school year ended, the COVID food program was extended into the summer months.
In the past, parents were required to fill out a form if they wanted free or reduced lunch for their child. During COVID, all students were required to complete the form as schools received meal funding based on the number of students. Even students attending virtual school were required to complete the form for free and reduced lunch even though the virtual school program did not provide lunch. Because the federal government based the grant funding on the number of students that submitted the form, schools were eager to maximize this number, even if the lunches didn’t need to be provided. No verification was needed on the number of lunches provided.
This year it was not necessary to fill out a form, as all students qualify for free lunch regardless of income. That is because this school year (2023-2024), the Michigan Department of Education set aside $160 million to provide school children with free breakfast and lunch. What’s more, lawmakers are considering making the program permanent. Regardless of whether or not you support government funding of food for all students, it is interesting to see the food selections being provided to children using the free breakfast and lunch programs.
The menu along with photos and nutritional information is available online. Breakfast features a main entrée, alternate entrée, and sides.
The main menu entrees such as Breakfast Turkey Sausage Pizza, Mini Maple Waffles, and Chocolate Chip French Toast do not sound too bad, until you click on the pictures.
Alternative entrees include sugary cereals like Froot Loops and Lucky Charms, and Nutrigrain bars. The sides include yogurt, string cheese and fruit.
For lunch, kids are offered things like diced chicken and a cheese lasagna rollup.
According to one Lakeshore Middle School student, “Breakfast is just a food grab; cereal, pop tarts, muffins. I haven’t seen anything warm like French toast. If you get something, they make you grab the fruit which is usually sliced apples or maybe cuties. Most of the kids throw away the apples.”
One parent stopped into the school recently during breakfast and had this to say: “White Pines “free” breakfast offers pop tarts, packaged muffins, chocolate milk, etc. every morning. I stopped in the other day and the cafeteria was BUMPIN’. I didn’t see one child eating a piece of fruit. The kids were literally bouncing around the halls. One group had bright green drinks. Seriously, they should add a strobe light and dance music. It was crazy in there.”
For parents trying hard to keep their kids healthy it is frustrating that it is free. A few years ago, the kids could not get breakfast without parental approval. Parents had control of their choices online. For kids whose parents do not purchase this type of food at home because they understand there are healthier options, this is their chance to eat the junk without their parent’s permission. How can parents stop their children from grabbing a pop tart on their way to class?
Here are some more parent comments.
“I feed my kids before school. Always. My youngest LOVES to get lunch at school - I let her choose one day a week, I prepare the rest. My oldest thinks the food at GHAPS is disgusting and won’t touch it, but she had more time in our previous school district where the food was locally grown (mostly) and prepared on site. I didn’t know how good we had it.”
“No wonder the military is having difficulty finding candidates. Two-thirds of young people cannot pass military fitness tests. Well look at what they are eating. This food does not make a body strong.”
“We prepare good food at home and the public schools give them addictive trash without our permission. I had this issue when my daughter was in first grade. She told me she could eat breakfast at school. I told her that I was her mother and it was my responsibility to feed her, not the schools. She ate before she went to school.”
“My son at Lakeshore gets breakfast on Wednesdays. He said he gets Lucky Charms.”
“My kids eat eggs every day, and sometimes a banana bomb oatmeal smoothie with raw milk. Sometimes I make them whole grain French toast, but I make my bread with fresh milled grains and I use maple syrup from the Amish....then my kids go to school and get crap! Very frustrating because they have acne that clears up when school is not in session that comes back when it is.”
“They are handing this crap out for free. Every day. It’s very frustrating.”
“I think if they need a permission slip to medicate your kids with sunscreen or Tylenol, they certainly need permission before they give your kids toxic food.”
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been on a mission to improve the health of school lunches. This video shows him visiting an elementary school and asking the kids to identify vegetables. Shockingly, the kids cannot even identify tomatoes.
In the first two minutes of this clip, nutritionist Ruth Ash discussed school lunches with Jamie Oliver. Referring to the lack of vitamin C in school food she explained, “Children are more likely to pick up infections and take time off school.” She then discussed other health risks. “Lack of iron will affect their concentration in school. They will achieve less in school. [] If you achieve a reasonable amount of fruit and vegetable in your diet, you halve your risk of cancer. You cut your risk of coronary heart disease, of diabetes, of osteoporosis; all the problems that we as a nation, are paying for through the National Health Service, they come back to what we’re feeding our children.”
It is human nature to select the option with the most sugar. Given the choice between a carrot and a banana, most people pick a banana. Given a choice between an apple and a brownie, most people select the brownie. No one is actually cooking food in our schools. They just serve it. In 2023 in Michigan, school kids are grabbing convenient breakfast items that are filled with food coloring, preservatives, sugars, and packaged in plastic. While big food is winning in the present, eventually big pharma will win too as these kids are engaging in nutrition habits that are likely to wind up giving them diabetes by age 30.
The free food agenda is just another small part of the overall progressive impulse to make the American population dependent on big government. People are made to believe it is not ‘safe’ if it is not pre-packaged. It needs to come from an approved food handling facility, so that the credentialed experts in food can get their cut. Use regulations and poor economic policies to raise the prices of goods and services so it is difficult, if not impossible, for typical families to survive on the income of only one working parent. Remove as many parents as possible from the home by incentivizing single parent households. Then offer parents services to “help” them out, like doctors’ offices and mental clinics inside school buildings, ultimately marginalizing them and making them obsolete.
The state is turning our kids into dependent socialists, as well as diabetics with all the sugar. I had a friend who was a recent immigrant to America tell me, “all of the free meals the kids get at school creates a mentality; accept or reject the ‘help’.”
Why aren’t our schools getting food from our local farmers?