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Done right, pizza can be extremely nutritious: with carbohydrates, protein, dairy, and vegetables to fuel the body.

Despite the Democratic National Committee sinking to a new low in partisan politics, Congress voted to keep the FDA’s current school lunch guidelines in place. The DNC sent out the letter below in hopes that Congress would adopt First Lady Michelle Obama’s food standards.

Fortunately House Republicans recognize that the Federal Government has no business playing parent to our nation’s children.

Any parent who has had lunch with their child will probably tell you that there’s a great deal of room for improvement in both the quality and the nutritional value of school lunches. That being said, it is up to parents to educate their children about eating the right foods not the government.

As we’ve seen, Michelle Obama and her hubby eat more than their fair share of junk food so why should they tell anyone else what their kids should eat?

If parents want to change the quality of the food served in their school districts they simply need to gather a coalition and engage the school district much like world renowned chef Jamie Oliver is doing with his Food Revolution. Our illustrious leaders have enough on their plates trying to pull America out of the second Great Depression without heaping on something as trivial as school lunches.

Todd –

House Republicans are ramming through legislation this week to classify pizza as a “vegetable” for the purpose of school lunches.

Why? Because a massive lobbying effort of Republican lawmakers by the frozen pizza industry, among other corporate interests, is underway to get around Obama Administration guidelines to make school lunches contain healthier options.

In this Republican Congress, almost anything is up for sale to the highest bidder and most powerful lobbyists — including the literal definition of the word “vegetable” — and this time, it’s coming at the expense of our kids’ health.

This is business as usual for some in Washington, but shining a spotlight on it can stop it.

Sign this petition and spread the word: Pizza isn’t a vegetable.

Look, we could have a lot of fun with this one. But the fact is that there is a very real bottom line: Childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades. And for some kids, school lunches are some of the best nutrition options they have during the day.

School lunches are hard to change — and it doesn’t take a doozy like “pizza is a vegetable” to know that the corporate interests have more money and more Washington lobbyists than kids do. That’s why pizza was classified as a vegetable during the Bush years. The Obama administration made that common-sense change, but the Republican Congress wants to take us back to the money-for-influence status quo.

If you think this is as ridiculous as we do, tell the GOP that it’s time they started picking real people over corporations (and real vegetables over slices of pizza, for that matter):

http://my.democrats.org/Pizza

Thanks,

Brad

Brad Woodhouse
Communications Director
Democratic National Committee