Healthy school lunches should be appreciated

School lunch, instituted in the last century to ensure that students of all socio-economic groups were well-enough fed to learn, is technically a taxpayer-subsidized entitlement program. We taxpayers help feed kids. I'm willing, and it's a good thing.

When the recipient of my largesse, however, turns up his or her nose and says this is “icky,” (English teacher sigh) and throws food away, my response is the same as is it was with my own child: “Make your own or go hungry.”

For those who reap the benefits of this “entitlement,” the taxpayers are not responsible for serving you what you like, and they are not responsible for making sure that you aren't hungry during after-school activities. Eat what's in front of you, don't waste food, and bring yourself a snack. Afterschool snacks are traditional; ownership of a smartphone costs a lot more than a granola bar. Most can afford one.

With childhood obesity and diabetes on the increase, it is absurd for a nation to care so little about the future health of its children that it views attempts to improve their diet as a “communist plot.” If even one vote in this country turns on the immortal, adolescent issue of school lunch, we have bigger problems than “icky” (sigh) food.

Deborah Vaughan

Newhall