I kind of have mixed feelings on this. It's wonderful that more kids will be able to eat possibly all three meals throughout the day as there are so many children in this nation that go home from school and do not eat again until lunch is served the next day at school!

I do not like the level of control they are allowed though. I really don't.

I remember the school lunches we had. They were far healthier than what I hear of in schools today. Pizza, French fries and such were served perhaps once a month. I recall meatloaf that actually tasted good (better than home, even) mashed potatoes, hash browns (sometimes) sliced carrots, peas, beans, corn, baked chicken. There were no such things as vending machines either. I am not sure why they are in schools to start with. It seems to me that the school should be regulating that, not the government. If the schools are providing all the meals for a child, it is unlikely they need snacks.

This is another reason that our representatives need to take a hard look at where our tax dollars are being sent. I was taught to pay yourself first.

I remember when parents had to provide food for their own kids. Of course a very high percentage of parents are now victims (of one thing or another) so somebody else has to be taxed to feed their kids. And pay their rent. And pay for their health care. Etc.

BTW - are votes being bought here?

This is classic congressional crap. First, they are taking one more step to take over raising children. Now their mama doesn't have to worry at all about feeding them and can use more of the welfare money for Night Train or other recreationals. Second, they apparently learned the public did not raise too much of a cry while they were siphoning most of the cash out of the Social Security fund, so they are now going to take money from a future food giveaway program. It will be interesting to see what happens when the food stamp denizens start getting ious.

The article is not reporting that the kids can take home a daily food bag for the family in addition to the three free squares every weekday at school. Its a wonderful world is it not.

This is just wrong.

Why aren't the parents responsible for feeding their own kids?

I have 2 kids in school and am appalled at the choices for lunches at school. I pay about $175 a month for their lunches that are unhealthy. Unfortunately, I do not always have time to fix their lunch. If my son wants to take his lunch he has to carry it around all day class to class because the school does not have lockers. The food that is available everyday is junkfood. Every Friday is pizza and the other lunches tend to be hotdogs, hamburger, breaded chicken patties, nuggets etc. About once a month is there a lunch that one would consider a good lunch. The kicker was when I asked about why they served so much ketchup and found out it was considered a vegatable, (it has since been changed) I have talked to the cafeteria manager about the choices and her response was "All of the items offered for lunch are specially made so that they fit the nutrition guidelines" When my daughter was in kindergarten her school offered Chef salad about 3 times a week as an entree choice. They did so because it was the most popular thing that they served. Now the schools say that no one will eat it.

Here is my take on it. If we show the kids that it is acceptable to eat this junk everyday for every meal then that is what they will see as an acceptable choice for the food they eat. Remember when the lunch ladies COOKED. I loved school lunches when I was a kid. Those ladies could cook anything. Now most schools do not cook the food. it is trucked in from a central school that heats it up in the morning. Meanwhile, if I go to my kids school in the morning the lunch ladies are sitting around eating breakfast and waiting for lunch to start. When I was a kid the cafeteria in the morning smelled great from all the food being really cooked and you never saw a lunch lady sitting. Maybe we could go back to cooking the food, not just heating it up. I make healthy nutritous food for my family everyday and my kids love it. Healthy does not have to be bland and boring. This legislation is needed to guide the schools in what they should be serving and define what that is. This program will help both the kids that do and do not get free lunches. I personally would like to have my Friday pizza and a movie night back for the family.

Although this looks like a great bill on the surface, it is far from a good one for children or impoverished families. The funding for the extra oversight comes from the REDUCTION in the food stamp program so each family will actually get LESS food in the home as the reduction funds the nutrition oversight. It seems self defeating. Funding could have come from elsewhere- like the required replacement of computers in the House and Senate every two years whether they are needed or not (rather then just update the software) or reduction in the productions of the two engines for the ONE plane that Sec. Gates and others deem unnecessary but Congress voted it in (one of those job creating situations earmarked I am guessing) SO while this looks great, look closer. It actually reduced the amount of food stamps a family is eligible for.

Kathy -

I have to disagree with you. Just because there is a
reduction in Food Stamps doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad thing. With the
severe lack of control of what items can be bought with Food Stamps (i.e. Soda,
candy, high-fat low nutrition chips, etc) the trade off for healthier food for
the children seems not only fair but a smart idea.

And as a taxpayer, I too, am sure that my taxes will
ultimately fund this. BUT because anyone of these children who are being given
a chance at a balanced, nutritional meal could conceivably become a teacher,
physician or the next Nobel Prize winner, it seems rather trite for me to squabble
over a few extra dollars each month.

For once the Government is getting it right and actually legislating "sanity" in mandating healthy options in school lunch and vending programs.

Childhood obesity is an epidemic in this country which is being allowed by special interests that support fast food and soft drink companies and their market share in the U.S.

It's about personal responsibility but unfortunately the costs of obesity and diabetes and their impact on health care costs far exceed the cost of this bill for generations to come.

People in this country need to wake up to fresh healthy options for their kids and stop the madness of obesity that imperils the future of our children.

It has been projected by multiple medical experts that our kids are the first generation that will live shorter lives than their parents. Shame on us all!

God forbid we should feed our kids.

Oh the evils of socialism, preventing us from having hungry children! It's our right!

Socialism prevents hunger? hmm me thinks you are not a student of history. try checking out Stalin's Russia, Mao's China. Castro's Cuba. I think that if you really look at what happened in those places, you might see what happens when the government controls every aspect of your life.

I understand the need for "progress", but I have to ask what are we "progressing" to? I have a hunch I don't like the answer.

When I was a kid in school, I came home for lunch, my mother made my lunch. When I came home after school, my mother made my dinner. There was no government involvement.

Why is it that parents today cannot do something so simple, without the government?

This is crazy.

   I find it quite ironic that this whole expanding waistline epidemic was caused by our own government and schools. Yes I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory but it isn't. If you wish to read an excellent source on the matter read Joel Spring's book The American School from Puritans to the Obama era (2010).

   Our own government worked with schools to form an "American diet" this diet was somewhat bland in flavor and all processed foods. The reason? It was thought that the quicker the food digested in your stomach the better and if women were not in the kitchen cooking from scratch they would put more emphasis on schooling. Thus the American diet become an influx of processed foods.

 Secondly school lunches began as a way of de-culturalizing the many of the immigrants coming into this country. The U.S. did not want any remnant of their former culture to exist and this included food. A way they saw fit do this was to have school lunches with foods that fit the "Americanized diet". 

   Now the fools we are we are trying to undo the past wrongs of the government and educational system. Maybe if we were to take an actual look at our past history we would realize the government should just keep its filthy paws off of everything!

I'm glad someone is finally paying attention to this issue. Our school lunch program is horrendous. How can we expect children to learn properly when they aren't fed properly? Try going to work and concentrating for eight hours after eating some of the stuff they serve for breakfast and lunch. It's pathetic how little money and attention we invest in the education of the kids in this country. Education is the way for us to stay on top in an innovation economy. Shorting our children nutritionally is simply putting them on a road to health problems and less-than-optimal jobs in the end. The food kids eat in this country is generally pretty horrendous. Let's support bills like this and start making a meaningful, positive difference in the health and education of our children.

Rational, effective nutrition for fat loss and long-term health: http://www.NutritionPerfected.com/np-blog.html

how about handing our MRE's at school.....see how "hungry" the kids really are?

Its the parents responsibility to feed their kids, not the school, not the government.

How hard is it to pack a lunch the night before for your kid?

Same for you people who live out of fast food joints and take out foods. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and making you eat Big Macs and fries. YOU and YOU alone control what you eat and don't eat. Nobody forces you to eat more calories in one setting than most folks eat in a week.

Its a sad day indeed when people are so stupid that they need the government to step in and play fat camp with them.

Michelle Obama's campaign,,,?

Who is she to have a campaign?

Another $4.5 million? Spend..... Spend!!! SPEND!!!!

After school snacks and food? Why aren't they eating at home? Where is CPS when you need them?

How many of these millions are illegals?

On the one hand, I think it's great that we're encouraging children to eat healthy and helping them do so.

On the other, I'm not sure we can afford to add $4.5 Billion/year of spending in a recession. Also, I'm not sure it's within the scope of the interstate commerce clause to regulate school bake sales.

I think this is really an area where parents and administrators should be trying to make a difference. If a school planted a garden in the front lawn, it would give kids something to do after school and might also help defray costs.

If we would just let all these unemployed people starve to death things would be so much better for the rest of us.

This bill and crap like this bill is why we are going broke. Fed regs for friggin bake sales? Are you kidding me? Veto this or I will switch partys this is insane.

The real you can make it on your own easy in America- cut off welfare mentality:

Kevin-2763438
That is what you call a fat cat. I look at Oprah they pay her all that money to sit on a couch and talk with people.

!#309.7 - Tue Dec 7, 2010 1:24 AM EST.

Found at MSNBC story
'Framework for a bipartisan agreement' on tax cuts'

For all the people whining about how bad school lunches are, and that the
Federal Government needs to regulate every aspect of our lives to protect the children...School lunches are already controlled by the government! The public school system is the government! If you object to the food our children are recieving in the schools, become involved in the schools where you live! Run for the School Board if you have to! I am so tired of people whining about how schools are run, but never get off their lazy butts and go to school board meetings. All schools in this country are begging for community involvment. You don't have to be a parent to participate in your local schools. All you have to do is show up and help. Parent/Community groups have a voice in schools IF they speak up. The problem in this country is that people want to complain from their couches about how everything is run, but they never show up in person when decisions are being made. All public school documents, budgets, and regulations are PUBLIC INFORMATION. If you want to know how/why decisions are made for your local schools, you have to go to the district and ask, and keep asking until you get the answers.

School lunches should not be regulated by types of bread/crust or anything else for that matter. Both of my kids, as well as myself, have a whole wheat allergy. We get severe stomach cramps and constipation, something that does not happen as severely when we eat white flour. I understand that the whole wheat flour is better but what do we do with kids who are allergic? This bill is not just because children aren't eating at home; this bill is because there is a large number of overweight and obese children. My children happen thin and athletic, due to all the activities and sports they play. While I don't advocate having junk food and sodas in the school, not everything on the menu needs to be removed/altered. Children who watch what they eat and those who have allergies should not be punished because parents don't teach their children to eat properly, in terms of type of food and serving size. The government was not created to be surrogate parents for our children. When we have children, it is our responsibility to care for, food, and protect those children, not the governments. I find it funny that the government wants more control over what our kids eat yet won't do anything about the parents who don't care properly for their children. I know a woman whose 6 year old daughter had such a severe yeast infection (yes, yeast infection) that she needed to be hospitalized. Do you know what CPS did? Nothing!!! Yet, now the government wants more control over what food goes into my kids stomach. This is just out of hand. Control the patents who abuse/neglect their children and let the rest of us alone.