Washington – In hopes of reaching common ground, ultra-Orthodox activists continue to work with federal officials over kosher-related issues that have arisen in Haredi-run schools since the implementation of new USDA laws aimed at addressing childhood obesity.
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The Jewish Daily Forward (http://bit.ly/WmyiJN) is reporting that ultra-Orthodox school administrators are finding it increasingly difficult to stay within the guidelines set in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, especially when it comes to leafy green vegetables such as broccoli, lettuce, collard greens, spinach, and kale.
The law, aimed at fighting childhood obesity by making school lunches healthier, and which went into effect this year, allocated $4.5 billion for school lunch programs for the next five years, but it requires public and private schools receiving federal lunch assistance to adhere to a new set of nutritional guidelines.
Two issues initially arose. The first, a guideline limiting the amount of grain-based food served at schools, was resolved in a February meeting between USDA officials and representatives of Agudath Israel and the Jewish Education Project (formerly known as the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York).
“It was a good result,” said Rabbi Martin Schloss, director of day schools and yeshivas at the Jewish Education Project. “We maintained the calorie cap but resolved the religious problem.”
But the still unresolved issue remains the ‘leafy greens’ and continued ‘confirmed’ reports that insect infestation might be putting ultra-Orthodox children at risk of eating food contradictory to their dietary laws.
“The problem of insect infestation has been confirmed by numerous rabbinical authorities and kosher certification agencies, and many schools have raised this problem,” said Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel’s Washington director.
At an October meeting with USDA and Department of Education officials, Cohen and his colleagues explained that neither purchasing certified insect-free greens, nor hiring in-school inspectors, were cost-effective alternatives.
Furthermore, Cohen told officials that if forced to serve non-certified greens, parents would simply instruct children no to eat them—thus defeating the purpose of the new law.
I hope they actually serve lunch to the kids in the yeshiva with that money not like when I was a kid. If you are old enough you remember the lunch program scams
Given how crazy some Jews are over bugs, you’d think that our ancestors never ate greens at all. After all, they didn’t have bug lights and microscopes, not to mention pesticides.
I don’t understand….with all the thousands of unemployed or under-employed kollel yungerleit with little or no job skills, having them work in the yeshivot and beis yaakovs for a few hours each morning inspecting lettuce and spinach leaves would seem to be a win/win situation. The yinglach would get healthy lunches that satisfy hashgacha concerns (albeit most of these insect fears are unfounded) and the “inspectors” (aka unemployed kollele yungerleit) would earn a few dollars and make some contribution to the tzibur. Of course, this is a logical solution so the chances of it being adopted by the Chareidi yeshivot are virtually nil.
Ever since the “ban” on leafy greens, we are seeing an epidemic of diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, skin problems, cardiovascular disease, vision disorders, alzheimers and osteoporosis.
We can manage to afford to feed our children meat despite the many and intricate laws of shechita, soaking and salting, etc. The laws of cleaning vegetables for insects are simple in comparison.
What about bodek brand or the equivalent?
Can someone please tell me if bugs in vegetables are still a problem, why are there so many brands of kosher lemehadrin bug free vegetables on the market? Cant they use these? Are we now saying that these really arent bug free?! #3, if they adopted your suggestion, they wouldn’t be able to try to shake down the govt. for more funds to do the inspections. Better yet, someone will come out soon with ‘Bodek Mehadrin min Hamehadrin’ (of course even more expensive than the standard) that will now be good enough for the hailiger kinderlech/tenoikos shel bais raban.
Beggars can’t be choosy. You want a free lunch, pay for the cost of serving it. There are so many other issues to worry about, this has a simple solution.
I am so confused. There is a ban on green leafy vegetables and ones with a floret? Why can’t they just be washed?
Sorry but I eat green leafy veggies. I do not want to get diabetes!!
What all this about checking vegetables for bugs. This is just another chumra! Can’t we all just get along? Don’t we have other “more important” issues to worry about? What about mixed seating on airplanes? Is that another issue? Can’t we sit mixed at 35000 ft? After-all the bible is not in heaven!
The irony is that there’s a good chance the kids won’t eat the vegetables regardless of how thoroughly they’re inspected.
those seeking scholarship can set aside a few hours to check the greens (and maybe bring home a little salad for their effort) so that their children can eat healthier. Way to go! Kids can also have a hands on halacha class on checking vegtables every so often…
Enough trying to act like the goyim. Forget the greens, serve cholent and kugel for lunch every day, and roll them down the ramp at recess.
The new lunch rules affect all schools in the U.S. All schools are required to change their menu plans to exclude white bread and replace it with whole wheat. All schools are required to include green vegetables. For your information, not all green vegetables are leafy. Regarding our dietary considerations, there are means to request exemptions and to use work-arounds. Vegetables cost about 50 cents per child per serving. Chronic health problems cost about 1500 dollars per year. Funerals are a one time cost of 6 – 10 thousand dollars. Do the math, it is much cheaper to bury you than it is to argue with you and commiserate with you over your disinterest in your own health and the public needs. As a victim of the food industry and now having a chronic health issue, I wish that the government had used its seichel earlier and demanded that food be served and not sugary snacks. Alas, food is a drug, sugary food is a depressant, and keeping us drugged was more effective than dealing with our excessive child energy.
The rambam writes that most sicknessess come due to not eating healthy…
Aside from the problem of unhealthy foods being sold in all of the western world, us heimisha jews have an additional problem, and that is that all of our foods are full of extra sugar…
You cannot even get chopped liver or chic peas without sugar in them!
And the truth is that splanda and stevia are also unhealthy…
Here is a tip, for all of you who wish to follow the custom of eating traditional shabbos meals without breaking mesorah, or compromising on taste…
Prepare for fri night delicious morrocan salmon, broiled salmon, let go of sugars, or unhealthy starches and you will be amazed of how much you will improve your quality of life…
People don’t think of how much food effects the body and phsycological mood, when the truth is that a human is basically what he eats, as it says in the gemara…
Fill up your shabbos tables with salads, dressed with olive oil and healthy spices. Start exploring other healthy options, like tumeric, curry, corriander, cumin, etc…
Do your own Grilled eggplant, avoid or reduce consumption of store bought maonaise…
Grill veggies its EZ…
Subsitute potato kugal for veg kugel or sweet potato kugal…
Fill up on soup, add some dill or cilantro to your chicken soup, subsitute cut up boneless chicken instead of the old fashioned chicken legs with bone in them…then soup itself will become a meal…
Be creative without compromising on tradition or health….
Gut shabbos gut yom tov