One of Michelle Obama’s biggest accomplishments as the first lady was to transform the way schoolchildren eat their lunches. With the support of Michelle Obama, standards were passed during the Barack Obama administration that tried to improve nutrition for school meals, and even though not everybody loved the idea—especially the students who had to eat them—research showed that lunches provided by the nation’s schools were getting healthier.
But the Donald Trump administration has weakened some of the Obama school-lunch policies, and on Friday, Michelle Obama let loose, wondering why the administration thinks it’s OK for kids “to eat crap.”
At a public health summit in Washington, Obama blasted the idea that Sonny Perdue, the secretary of agriculture, would loosen the regulations of school lunches.
“We gotta make sure we don’t let anybody take us back,” Obama said. “This is where you really have to look at motives, you know. 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?”
More from Obama: “Take me out of the equation—like me or don’t like me. But think about why someone is okay with your kids eating crap. Why would you celebrate that? Why would you sit idly and be okay with that? Because here’s the secret: If someone is doing that, they don’t care about your kid.”
Michelle Obama criticizes Trump administration's decision on school lunch rules: “Think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap.” pic.twitter.com/Yac03GaSfi
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 12, 2017
One reason Perdue said the administration wants to roll back some of the Obama administration’s school lunch regulations is because students don’t like the meals they are receiving. Michelle Obama had an answer for that as well.
“That to me is one of the most ridiculous things that we talk about in this movement— ‘The kids aren’t happy,’” she said. “Well you know what? Kids don’t like math either. What are we gonna do, stop teaching math?”
H/T Washington Post