Michelle Obama fights for healthy school lunches

First lady Michelle Obama is fighting Congress to maintain the progress that has been made in the nutritional value of school lunches.

In 2010, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed, providing healthier lunches in schools as part of an anti-childhood obesity campaign. Now, the School Nutrition Association claims that the act has been financially detrimental to school districts because kids aren’t buying the newly nutritious options, according to the Associated Press. For several Congress members, the solution to this problem is to make the now mandatory standards optional.

But Obama insists that we not “play politics with our kids’ health,” that money loss is not reason enough to take two steps backward on the road to resolving childhood obesity.

“Our children deserve so much better than this,” Obama writes in her New York Times column.

And, though schools may be losing money, Obama cites that the United States spends about $190 billion a year on healthcare for obesity-related conditions.

“The bottom line is very simple: As parents, we always put our children’s interests first,” she writes. “Our leaders in Washington should do the same.”

Image courtesy of Michele Eve Sandberg/INFphoto.com