Michelle Obama is taking aim at Donald Trump.
On Friday, May 12, the former FLOTUS spoke at the Partnership for a Healthier America conference in Washington, where she slammed Trump’s school lunch policy, arguing that preparing healthy meals for children isn’t “politics, it’s parenting.”
Without actually dropping Trump’s name, Obama took aim at changes the administration recently announced, that will weaken many of the school nutrition standards she tirelessly advocated for. “Think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap,” she told the crowd at the public health summit.
“You have to stop and think, why don’t you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you? And why is that a partisan issue? Why would that be political? What is going on?”
She added: “Take me out of the equation — like me or don’t like me. But think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap.
Why would you celebrate that? Why would you sit idly and be OK with that? Because here’s the secret: If someone is doing that, they don’t care about your kid.”
Last week, Trump’s agriculture secretary, Sonny Purdue, announced changes to the school lunch program during a visit to a school cafeteria in Leesburg, Virginia, noting that he’s taken into consideration complaints from both students and school food administrators. “We all know that kids are pretty outspoken about what they want to eat and what they don’t,” Purdue said.
“[School] meals can’t be nutritious if they’re … put in the trash. We’ve got to balance the nutritional aspect — the sodium content, the whole grain content — with the palatability,” Purdue said at the time.
Meanwhile, the changes delay a mandate for further sodium reductions in school lunches. Purdue’s plan also eases requirements on whole grains, reintroduces sweetened flavored milk, and creates a lot of gray area surrounding calorie counting.
In 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act made federal grants for school meals conditional on reductions in calories, sodium, trans fat and increased requirements in fruit, veggies and whole grains.
Obama made it clear she’s in full support of the mandate on reductions “We gotta make sure we don’t let anybody take us back,” continued Obama. “Every elected official on this planet should understand: Don’t play with our children. Don’t do it.”
While first lady, Obama created the “Let’s Move” campaign, with the hope of encouraging both exercise and healthy eating among young people.
