Unintended Consequences (The "Oh. Rats!" Edition)

.

"Let's Move!" But, um, like, where will we all go?
.
Well, if I WERE personally going somewhere, I would NOT be going to the San Francisco, CA area - especially if I still had school-age kids.   Those people have been through so much, and now they're being over-run yet more unintended consequences of Michelle Obama's overhaul of school lunch programs nationwide.  
.
"Say Hello to my little friend..."
.

       
.
CBS News - San Francisco, CA, December 1, 2014:  Rats Part Of Growing Pains For Fresh Food Program At San Francisco Schools
.SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — San Francisco Unified School District serves more fresh food and a greater number of meals to their students since switching food providers last year, but the fresh-food program has led to some infrastructure challenges of its own including one problem with four legs and a very bad reputation for carrying disease: rats.
.
Students have enjoyed healthier breakfasts and lunches prepared and cooked locally by East Bay food provider, Revolution Foods. However, the success of the program — and the increase in fresh food on site – is highlighting a lack of refrigerators at schools as well as excess food waste, which may be factors in the increased presence of rodents at schools.

.

Students have enjoyed healthier breakfasts and lunches!

.SFUSD has purchased new refrigerators for about 20 school sites since this past summer, but there’s still the need for more.  [MoosNote:  So food cost is up, waste produced is up, AND they have to buy more refrigerators in schools to store the stuff no one wants to eat?  That's a Win/Win/Win!!!  Just not sure for who(m) these major school lunch improvements benefit - it doesn't appear to be the children.  Perhaps the nice folks at General Electric?]
.
“We have enough equipment to meet our current needs. Where we would like to see more equipment is actually as we grow our own food program. We’re hoping to increase the number of students who are eating meals at schools. In order to be able to do that, we need to grow our infrastructure,” said school district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe.
.
One of the challenges related to feeding students is rodents. A San Francisco Examiner review of health inspection data shows many rodent issues began in 2013, the same time more fresh food was introduced into schools as part of the food lunch reform popularized by First Lady Michelle Obama. The results of lunch reform are now being criticized by opponents using the hashtag #ThankYouMichelleObama.
.

"San Francisco, YOU have a pest-control problem..."

.
“We have an ongoing challenge with pest management as do all the restaurants in the city,” she said.
.
Blythe said the program has been most successful during breakfast.
.

"This is where school lunches end up, just like your husband's promises"

.

“That’s really important for kids to not come and sit in class hungry and have to wait for lunch. Our lunches are being served with several options a day and all of those options exceed the federal requirements for student nutrition programs,” she said.
.

.
So, well-meaning education-centric bureaucrats find that the kids don't WANT the food (even though it's literally being 'given away') and the answer is to not change the program to give the kids more nutritious AND palatable food, but instead, to buy more refrigerators to store the stuff (the kids don't eat) and increase the number of trash collection times per week to keep the rat population down to all the excess 'waste'?  
.
How can you argue with this logic?
.
In summary, a Federally-sponsored program pushed down to the states by the wife of a President, seems to be driving up costs, taking funds AWAY from educating the children, reducing the number of kids actually EAT at these schools, creating a 'contraband market' for unhealthy foods, AND increasing the amount of trash being collected at schools because students don't want an Arugula salad, an orange wedge and a single, naked turkey frank rolling around listlessly on a tray (without ketchup).
.
Fortunately for us most, of the rodents who are eating better than they 'used to' cannot vote in the 2016 elections.  CLARIFICATION:  They cannot vote outside of NY, NJ, IL, CA, and WI currently.  But keep a happy thought, as I'm sure there's another Executive Order coming shortly to grant them citizenship soon enough.  
.
Get ready to swallow hard because when the Rats are running the show, you know, it's all about taking care of the other rats - regardless of species...