Baylen Linnekin on the Continuing Embarrassment of the School Lunch Program
School lunches still stink. But now unprecedented numbers of students are refusing to eat them. Last month Baylen Linnekin noted that a GAO report had found that last school year's disastrous rollout of the updated USDA National School Lunch Program helped drive 1.6 million paying students from the lunch rolls. The new rules led some schools to abandon the program, as Linnekin reported in 2012. What's more, the new rules, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, have also resulted in unprecedented mountains of food waste.
In response, the federal government has decided that these abject failures are evidence of a need to double down on the school lunch program. Why scrap a failing program when you can expand it instead?
