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Hey kids, your government-subsidized summer job is over and now it’s time to go back to school. Bummer, huh? Well, thanks to Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, that one good thing about school—lunch—just got worse. A lot worse.
Cheh fooled the D.C. Council a couple of months ago into supporting a $6.5 million a year Healthy Schools Act that includes money to make school lunches healthier and use more locally grown food. Which does not, actually, seem like good news: Remember how Thursdays meant “BBQ Beef Riblet” day? Well, now they mean “veggie burger on a whole wheat bun with romaine, local tomato and ancho chili sauce.”
Your pizza options got worse, too. So long meat lover’s, BBQ chicken, and stuffed crust pizzas; hello Roma tomato and cheese, grilled chicken Florentine, and Italian veggie.
Hey elementary school kids, say goodbye to “beef fiestada pizza” (which sounds friggin delicious) and say hello to “Roma tomato and cheese whole wheat flatbread.” (Seriously, what’s up with all the Roma tomatoes? Are they supposed to be healthier than ketchup?)
Also, remember how you loved pouring syrup all over your pancakes at breakfast? Well, those days are over. Now you get “warm blueberry topping” for your “whole grain” pancakes.
Anyways, LL is sure Cheh’s proud of herself for making kids lives’ a little bit worse. (If, most likely, a little bit longer.) If you want to complain, Cheh is holding a hearing on the implementation of the Healthy Schools Act in October.
Check out the new menus here, here, and here. The old ones are here, here and here.
Photo by merelymel via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0