Veg School Lunch Ad Targets Obama’s Girls

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by Luke Warner August 10, 2009
Categories: Causes, Eats, People
Tags: .

school-lunch-ad

Washington D.C.’s Union Station has some new ads posted around promoting the Child Nutrition Act, a piece of legislation which would provide more vegetarian options in school lunches. We recently covered Tobey Maguire’s recent trip to The Hill to speak to lawmakers about this important issue.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s campaign features Jasmine, the 8 year old vegetarian daughter of a University of Miami pediatric epidemiologist.

The White House is refusing to comment on the ads. What do you think about calling the President out, via his children, in this sort of campaign, even if it is for something as worthy as more fruits and veg for kids?


Categories: Causes, Eats, People
Tags: .
  • David

    I don’t feel like the President’s children are being “called out” or targeted as some reporters have suggested. No one is blaming the young girls for having healthy foods in their school, they are just suggesting that this shouldn’t be a luxury. Access to healthy foods should be a right. Similar arguments are made for universal healthcare.

    If one looks at the school lunch program now, there are many flaws with it.

    For one, the schools are reimbursed for serving foods like cheeseburgers, tater tots, and fried fish sandwiches at a higher rate than for fresh fruit and veggies.

    Second, the program currently requires that all students be offered milk.

    This is extremely problematic when you consider that most people of color are lactose intolerant and that the school lunch program is largely populated by students of color. Furthermore, milk is filled with fat, cholesterol, hormones (that have been linked to early onset puberty in young girls), and more.

    Children born in the United States today are expected to be the first generation to have a shorter life span than their parents, largely because of diet-related illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and strokes.

    The Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine is fighting for our children to be given a chance at a better life by having healthier food in schools. Access to healthy food in schools has been shown to improve learning and healthy social development and reduce misbehavior, fighting, and depression.

    I support the campaign wholeheartedly

  • Stephanie

    I strongly support the campaign! I do not have children but I would not want them to be fed the crap that they serve in schools. I’m a vegan and would want my hypothetical children to have healthy, vegan food. Other children don’t deserve to be fed that disgusting processed food either.

  • Luke Warner

    Great comments, lots of info, thanks!

  • http://blog.miamivegan.info Inga Ambrosia

    It’s great!

  • VeggieTart

    This is just like the health care debate in a sense–shouldn’t ordinary citizens and their children get what elected officials and their families get? She’s not calling out Obama’s kids, but pointing out a grave inequity in what kids get to eat for school lunches.

    And the school lunch program requiring students be given cows’ milk or jump through hoops to replace it with fortified soy milk or fortified orange juice is just racist. No doubt the dairy industry influences that regulation.

  • http://www.veganjapan.net herwin

    thats so cool they use that little cute vegetarian kid for the add,instead of a “real” model.

  • Barbara

    WOAWWW!!! THIS IS SUPERB!!!

    LET’S TURN THE WHOLE WORLD VEGGIE!!!

    (at least on Thursdays, well done Tobias!!!)

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