$11 Mil for Equipment to Make Healthier School Meals for Poor Kids

To meet the requirements of Michelle Obama’s multi-billion-dollar childhood obesity law, her husband’s administration is dedicating $11 million so public schools can buy kitchen equipment to prepare healthier meals for low-income students.

It’s simply the latest of many generous allocations to help attain the Obama family goal of conquering childhood obesity, especially in minority and inner-city neighborhoods. Just a few weeks ago the administration awarded a $1.2 million government grant to help middle school students create fitness video games known as “exergames.” The administration has also spent hundreds of millions of dollars, according to its own records, to study obesity and justify the creation of restrictive policies to control what Americans eat.

American taxpayers even financed the nation’s first-ever obesity map to support the president’s ongoing effort to single out health disparities between ethnic minorities and Caucasians. And, of course, there’s the First Lady’s scandal-plagued “Let’s Move” initiative. Last month Judicial Watch obtained government documents that show a marketing firm with close ties to the president got a plum no-bid contract of $100,000 to design the “Let’s Move” logo for Michelle Obama’s infamous childhood obesity campaign.

The taxpayer cash has flowed so freely for this cause that $25 million went to tackle child obesity in “hard-to-reach, limited English proficiency and minority communities.” The feds even blew $2 million to monitor what minority public school children eat for lunch in one Texas district. That brilliant project included installing high-tech cameras that calculate how many lunchtime calories poor and minority kids consume at five elementary schools.

Though the official results of that particular experiment have not been released to the public, the Obama administration jumped ahead to make sure schools that serve low-income students have the proper equipment to prepare healthy foods. This month’s $11 million allocation will improve the quality of meals in public schools with a “high percentage of low-income children,” according to an announcement released by the agency that distributes the money, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Outdated equipment can pose a barrier to preparing healthy meals on a large scale, the USDA says, so updated kitchen equipment is a must. “Schools are successfully serving healthier meals to America’s students, but the right equipment and training can further their efforts to improve the health of our next generation,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. The money will help schools upgrade equipment, which in turn, will support nutritious meals, better ensure food safety and even improve energy efficiency in the cafeteria, according to Vilsack.

The USDA announcement brags about the Obama administration’s dedication to conquering childhood obesity and all the money it has poured into various initiatives associated with the First Lady’s 2010 law. For instance, last month the USDA issued an additional $5 million to increase the amount of healthy, local food in schools and the agency has doled out $5.6 million this year to “provide training and technical assistance for child nutrition foodservice professionals and support stronger school nutrition education programs and plans to award additional grants” in 2014.