This is the photo that accompanied a social media site of a student of West Virginia’s Philippi Middle School. Yet another illustration of how the “food pyramid” is put to use in our schools. What you are seeing is a burned burrito covered in melted cheese and plastic. Yummy, right?

“I am aware of the situation that happened in Philippi Middle School regarding lunch and on behalf of the Board of Education and myself I extend an apology to the students and families that were involved with that and we are doing training to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,”– Barbour County Schools Superintendent Joe Super

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 requires lunch programs that receive federal dollars to provide healthier meals. The new standards began to go into effect in 2012. Childhood obesity has spiraled in recent decades, and the initiative has become the pet project of First Lady, Michelle Obama. Whom, I somehow doubt, would feed her daughters an overly-processed burrito, never mind a burrito covered in molten plastic wrap….or packaged apple slices contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, recalled from Sun Rich Fresh Foods, Inc. that were found in the Wa-Nee school district in Indiana last week. These apples were “packaged in accordance with federal, school food service guidelines” and the recall has been extended to 10 different states since Friday.

Some students this past year have boycotted school lunches in protest:

“We’re looking at that kid going through high school and then entering college with a whole new set of habits and taste buds,” Obama said. “These kids will be acclimated to different tastes, and then they’ll go into college with that set of information and those skills and those norms. And hopefully they’ll become the voices of their generation for how to eat and live and build a quality life. We’re looking at those kids, and when they start to raise their own kids and they start passing on those habits to the next generation.”–Michelle Obama in an interview with Cooking Light magazine this past February.

Students continue the crusade against the school lunch guidelines and have taken to the Internet with numerous photos of their meals.

Some schools and districts have since opted out of the school lunch program.  Others are still fighting to make the guidelines work.  While kids are still crying out to bring back the fish sticks, chicken nuggets and french fries, our government continues to attempt to police what our children eat because we are clearly not competent enough to do that ourselves. We are not even competent to sell snacks as fundraisers because of the caloric content of the snacks in question.  Popcorn, which is fiber-rich, is not allowed in some schools, but, you can sell soy nuts!

…..Because kids will be lining up all recess long to buy a bag of soy nuts. Because (Listeria-laden) apples are on the food pyramid and so are burritos oozing with a mixture of melted cheese and plastic. They are good for you because FLOTUS tells you they are good for you.

And the “queen” has spoken.  Let them eat plastic!