Schools warned on free-meal obesity risk

[The Straight Story]

Schools warned on free-meal obesity risk

(NY)
A top Department of Health official has criticized a free breakfast program in city schools, saying it makes poor kids fat.

Obesity czar Gretchen Van Wye (pictured) says in-class meals result in a whopping 21.2 percent of kids gobbling up two breakfasts, arguing that “further evaluations” are needed to weigh caloric consumption in schools with the program versus schools without.

“Special care should be taken to ensure that children are not inadvertently taking in excess calories by eating in multiple locations,” she writes in a research paper recently presented to her agency co-workers, sources told The Post.

...

The city has quietly petitioned the US Department of Agriculture to do away with federally mandated minimum-calorie requirements, according to documents obtained by this paper.

“They are so extreme on their focus on obesity [that] they want to serve fewer calories than the federal minimum,” a source familiar with the waiver request said.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/break_fat_club_7xMyZkfkR8Pd0ncKAIzKkL

[MADem]

1. One in five are double-dipping.

Seems like an easier answer would be to send out a note to the parents saying "If your kid gets breakfast at school, you aren't doing him/her any favors by overfeeding him/her in the morning."

Or something on those lines....

Way better than saying "Four of five will be shortchanged because one isn't following the rules."

The other approach is to talk to the kids about morning nutrition, and how eating two breakfasts can make them fat. That might curb the issue, too, and it would also help if the kids who get the odd meal at home are able to skip the school meal on that day without jeopardizing their placement in the program.

[shraby]

2. Did it ever occur to the person that maybe the child didn't have much in the

way of dinner the night before and is probably pretty hungry?