Perusing our church's bulletin for this coming Sunday, I noted the announcement of a special collection to benefit the food pantry at a local elementary school. Here's the list of the most needed items:
- canned fruit
- applesauce
- pasta sauce
- macaroni and cheese
- Pop-tarts
- cereal bars
- pudding
RFK Jr. can't take charge of our government's health priorities soon enough for me!
But you don't want the federal government to control your local food pantry, do you?
Not a private food pantry, certainly. But the federal and state governments already have tremendous influence over what children are fed in schools, and what nutritional standards are promoted. We can do better than Pop-Tarts. What I'm looking for from Kennedy is not dictatorship, but leadership.
I'm curious to see what he might implement in this case. The most nutritious foods are perishable, so to provide that requires much more than a simple donation drive.
You inspire me to try to find out just what kind of a situation this is. From the list, and from the samples displayed at our church of what they want, it sounds as if most of these are snacks available for kids to choose from. But I don't know that. In any case, all students are served both breakfast and lunch at the school, completely free of charge, so why would they want to encourage them to snack on Pop-Tarts? Why would they encourage them to snack at all?
On the other hand, if this is a regular food pantry that happens to work out of the school, why the snack-y junk food? Where are the staples, like tortillas, rice, beans, flour, boxes of pasta to go with the sauce, canned vegetables, boxed milk, peanut butter, soups, canned entrées like chili and stew, oatmeal, unsweetened cereals?
Do you remember observing, with dismay, people bringing boxes of hyper-sweetened cereals in for a food drive at your school? I thought you would be the first to agree that schools should be setting the bar higher.
