Two piglets in a croaker sack

When I tried on a pair of pants last night to see if I could wear them today, I looked over my shoulder to see how the back of them looked. Frankly, when I moved, my behind looked like two piglets in a croaker sack fighting to get out. The pants were too tight and were not flattering at all. For those of you who are not from the south a croaker sack is a burlap bag. When carrying piglets in one, the movement is significant.

I am a woman of substance. A friend told me that I didn’t have the slick smooth look of a politician. Thank goodness. I enjoy food and only exercise if someone is chasing me with a board. My body has definitely kept up with my character and both have grown over the years. Although I have developed some size in the last fifteen years, I wasn’t always this big. When I was young, I was thin and had firm muscles from dancing, swimming, walking and playing. I ate healthy foods as well.

When I went to school, children with weight problems were the exception. That isn’t true today. Go into any school and it is evident that even very young children have obesity issues. This bothers me. I feel strongly that we are neglecting our children.

A popular school lunch at the school where I work is chili cheese fries with a roll. It makes my arteries clog just thinking about it. I don’t even have to eat it to gain ten pounds. One student at a school I used to work at asked the curriculum director if they had a nugget machine in the back. The school served beef nuggets, chicken nuggets, and hot dog nuggets (ugh) with fries daily. Why do we think it is okay to feed our children junk food at school?

Recent studies have found that children in this new generation frequently have diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol problems as a result of their unhealthy diet and their lack of exercise. It is estimated that our children (or grandchildren in my case) will have shorter life spans than we do. This is sad and in a country where we produce plenty of food, I believe it is wrong to provide low quality school meals.

Our school nutrition program is far from nutritious. I want to know how we can morally continue to provide students with meals that have few vitamins, are high in fat and high in carbohydrates. When I ate in the cafeteria on a regular basis, I would gain at least ten pounds in a school year. We seriously need to revisit the school nutrition program nationwide and change the regulations that allow highly processed, low nutrition foods to be served. French fries with cheese sauce and chili and other meals like these must go.
There is an obligation on our part to prevent health issues where they are preventable. Providing healthy meals will prevent health issues that we will have to pay for through lost productivity, increased medical costs, and disability benefits as these children move into the adult world. We will also have to bury our children before we die if the research is true.