School lunch shaming: Inside America's hidden debt crisis

He's learned two key truths: Just about every kid loves pizza, and an alarming number of American youngsters still can't afford a $2.35 lunch, despite the dramatic expansion of free and reduced lunch programs.

More >> School lunch shaming: Inside America's hidden debt crisis

How Flint traded safe drinking water for cost-cutting plan that didn't work

How Flint traded safe drinking water for cost-cutting plan that didn't work

The decision to switch the city of Flint’s drinking water source to the Flint River was pegged as a cost-cutting maneuver aimed at saving $5m over a two-year period. But almost two years and a massive lead contamination crisis later, that move and subsequent decisions not to treat the water supply already carry a financial price tag of $45m and climbing.

• Virginia Tech researchers fought for Flint in water crisis
• As they wait for blood testing, worried Flint residents share water horror stories

Snyder's Flint apology 'an insult,' state workers say

Snyder's Flint apology 'an insult,' state workers say

Several state workers watching Gov. Rick Snyder's apology for the Flint water crisis on Tuesday called his contrition hollow and felt the governor was trying to shift the blame off on them.

• 5 things to know about Flint's water crisis

Idaho lunch lady gets fired for giving hungry child with no money a free meal

Idaho lunch lady gets fired for giving hungry child with no money a free meal

School food service workers come and go, often unnoticed by the students they serve and the community-at-large. But the Idaho State Journal reported that a petition is circulating in Pocatello, Idaho, to rehire a middle school lunch lady who was fired for giving a free meal to 12-year-old girl who didn't have any money but said she was hungry.

Kids Are Tossing Their Government-Mandated Fruit Straight In The Trash

Kids Are Tossing Their Government-Mandated Fruit Straight In The Trash

Ever since the introduction of mandatory fruits and vegetables for schoolchildren, kids have eaten less of them than before. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, introduced in 2010 and in effect from last year, forces schoolchildren to take a piece of fruit or a vegetable and put it on their lunch tray. What it does’t do is force them to eat it. A new study shows that kids toss their apples into the trash before they even take a place at a table.

Note: See?  The Government doesn't know best!

Oregon DHS Investigates the Starving of Foster Children

Oregon DHS Investigates the Starving of Foster Children

Last December relatives of foster parents, John and Danielle Yates, were shocked when they saw the frail condition of their two foster children. The children are five years old and four years old. The relatives took the children to the hospital where examiners found they were malnourished and had lost weight in the four years that they were in the care of the Yates family.

New KFC advert ruffles feathers

New KFC advert ruffles feathers

Foster carers and adoptive families who took exception to the new KFC TV advert took to social media to express their views as it hit their screens this week. The ad shows a boy with his social worker, arriving in a foster/adoptive family for the first time to a KFC dinner, and then whizzes through the highlights of his growing up in that family, playing football, getting a girlfriend, graduating... and then returning as an adult to visit his family for another KFC bargain bucket.

State DCF employee cafeteria ordered to close

State DCF employee cafeteria ordered to close

Hundreds of employees work inside DCF's Tampa office on North Florida Avenue, and every day many of those employees enjoy breakfast or lunch from the agency's in-house restaurant.

Poor moms fear loss of subsidized infant formula if government shutdown drags on

Poor moms fear loss of subsidized infant formula if government shutdown drags on

Jacob Quick is a fat and happy 4-month-old with a big and expensive appetite. Like millions of other poor women, Jacob’s mother relies on the federal Women, Infants and Children program to pay for infant formula — aid that is now jeopardized by the government shutdown.

This Photo Might Make You Reconsider Heading Out For A Nice, Cold Wendy’s Frosty

This Photo Might Make You Reconsider Heading Out For A Nice, Cold Wendy’s Frosty

Listen. We understand. Wendy’s makes a delicious Frosty. And if I had my very own machine at home spewing out globs of soft serve, I’d totally slurp it down right from the nozzle. But using the machine at your place of employment — that place being Wendy’s — as your personal, direct-to-mouth Frosty dispenser is gross.

And remember, on Fathers Day Dave Thomas will give .50 Cents from the sale of every Frosty to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, to help the child protective industry sell your kids.

9-year-old girl asks McDonald's CEO to stop 'tricking kids into eating your food'

9-year-old girl asks McDonald's CEO to stop 'tricking kids into eating your food'

McDonald's once again faced criticism that it's a purveyor of junk food that markets to children at its annual shareholder meeting Thursday.

Why Flamin' Hot Cheetos are sending kids to ER

Why Flamin' Hot Cheetos are sending kids to ER


It's not only the schools: Some doctors are taking issue with Flamin' Hot Cheetos because they are leading to unnecessary emergency room visits.

Ryanomics Assault on Poor and Hungry Children

Ryanomics Assault on Poor and Hungry Children


Hungry child,
I didn't make this world for you.
You didn't buy any stock in my railroad.
You didn't invest in my corporation.
Where are your shares in standard oil?
I made the world for the rich
And the will-be-rich
And the have-always-been-rich.
Not for you,
Hungry child.
-- Langston Hughes, “God to Hungry Child”

Lunch Lady Fined $600 For Feeding Needy Kids? Township Explains The Reasoning

Lunch Lady Fined $600 For Feeding Needy Kids? Township Explains The Reasoning


The lunch lady fined $600 per day in her township in Pennsylvania has been garnering a lot of attention this week — we reported on the issue two days ago — and while a fine hasn’t kicked in yet for Angela Prattis, it seems the township is determined to shake her down one way or the other if she continues feeding needy kids.

NYC mayor now working to ban baby formula?

Beginning on Labor Day, 27 out of 40 New York City hospitals will keep infant formula under lock and key -- under a new pilot program that makes formula the newest in a string of the NYC mayor's "health initiatives."

CPS removes 12 principals, accuses them of abusing free or reduced lunch program for own kids

CPS removes 12 principals, accuses them of abusing free or reduced lunch program for own kids

Twelve Chicago Public Schools principals and assistant principals are accused of falsifying documents to get free or reduced lunches for their own children.

Arizona tied as worst state for child hunger

A study finds more than 460,000 Arizona children don't eat regularly at home

Couple from Reading tried to shoplift baby formula in Exeter, police say

Couple from Reading tried to shoplift baby formula in Exeter, police say


A Reading couple were arrested after they tried to shoplift 10 cans of baby formula from the Walmart store in Exeter Township, police said Wednesday.

A dangerous attack on school breakfast

A dangerous attack on school breakfast


Today, there are 474,000 New York City children whose families struggle to put enough food on the table . These kids are more likely to have health problems and are more likely to stumble in school. In-classroom breakfast is a practical way to ensure that as many kids as possible benefit from the most important meal of the day.

Mom says DCFS showed up at her door because of breastfeeding

Mom says DCFS showed up at her door because of breastfeeding

For weeks, doctors told Paula Loe she wasn't doing enough to feed her baby, despite her attempts to breastfeed and give her daughter formula.