High school students from all over the United States have joined together in letting their plights known as the quality of the food served to them as school lunches has been steadily deteriorating allegedly due to the 'Let's Move!' program of Michelle Obama. These students took to Twitter their complaints by posting photos of their unappetizing, and sometimes unidentifiable, canteen lunches under the hashtag #thanksMichelleObama.
The First Lady's campaign, which was created in collaboration with the United State Department of Agriculture, stemmed from her desire eradicate the issue of obesity among the country's children. To achieve this goal, Mrs. Obama initiated a healthier take on the food served at school cafeterias by cutting down on simple sugars, fat, and salt.
This shift in the school cafeteria's diet, however, seem to be causing an outrage among the high school students who have been actively sending out photos of their unpalatable-looking meals via Twitter. Some teenagers from various high schools have labelled their canteen food as "mystery mush", which showed a plate filled with unrecognizable glop. Others claim that the change in menu is the reason for their distaste in school food. One of the high school students even bemoaned the cost of such low quality cafeteria lunches.
However, other high school students contradicted the complaints against the First Lady by posting the school lunches served in their cafeterias after the implementation of the 'Let's Move!' program. A student from Hartford, who posted a photograph of well-organized and packaged fruits, even invited the complaining students to visit their campus. Another Twitter user posted a scrumptious-looking lunch and also invited the First Lady's program critics to try their cafeteria meals in Nashville.
Sam Kass, the executive director of the campaign and the Nutrition senior policy advisor, explained that the children should not blame Mrs. Obama as she is not the one making the decisions with respect to the food served in their cafeterias. Kass clarified that the high school students should direct their complaints to the school districts since these officials are the ones in charge of the selection. The local school district authorities are said to be responsible in ensuring that quality food would still be served despite the change brought about by the 'Let's Move!' program.
Within a week, the hashtag #thanksMichelleObama has gathered roughly 28,000 tweets at about 40 posts under it every minute.
