Nicholas Confessore, the author of ”How School Lunch Became the Latest Political Battleground”, displays the challenges of transitioning from the old rules to the new rules as part of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign. It is clear to all parties that childhood obesity is rising at a dangerous rate in America and school lunches are believed to be the necessary first change. Unfortunately, the multiple different parties that are involved in making the changes do not see eye-to-eye. The School Nutrition Association is one of the groups pushing back against the new government policies. Since the SNA is comprised mostly of lunch ladies, they believe the current meals are the healthiest meal most students receive in a given day.
It was first thought that the nutrition program for young Americans needed to be altered due to the military in 1945. Nearly half of recruits were turned away due to being overweight based on following a poor diet. The military believed that young americans needed to be prepared for war at all times and that by being overweight or obese would hurt them during battle. The article goes on to say, “(they were) too fat to fight” which represents the first shift in the battle to fight childhood obesity.
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During President Nixon’s term he strengthened the school lunch subsidy program up to 25 million children. Subsidies were given to school districts to make sure that every child was fed at lunch time. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan both made cuts into the National School Lunch Act that led to school districts having less money to spend on lunches. This was in line with their party’s political stance which was to lessen the central government. The lower amount of money led to a decrease in nutritious food and an increase in processed food meaning higher caloric and sodium intake for children across the