'Let's Move' Chief Ignores Students' Complaints About School Food, Portions

"The hype of the animosity is more than it really is."

The executive director for Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign, Deb Eschmeyer, told Yahoo Food that she is unfazed by the complaints about school lunches and said all of the negativity is just "hype."

One recent complaint Eschmeyer addressed was from a seven-year-old student who wrote a letter to Mrs. Obama stating she "ruined Taco Tuesday" by changing the taco shell to whole wheat. Other products on the school's menu were changed to whole wheat as well and according to the boy, "the pizza is terrible."

Of this and other complaints about the food and portion sizes from public school students around the country, Eschmeyer said:

I really don’t let that faze me because I have been doing this on the ground for so long. I think sometimes the hype of the animosity is more than it really is, because farmers, the food service infrastructure, and teachers all want to do this right.

Eschmeyer, who grew up on a dairy farm, added, "It's not like there's a 'we versus them.' We're really all in this together."

Eschmeyer said the taco story made headlines because it was a "sexier story" than what is actually going on. "No one is against our children's future," she said.

Another question from Yahoo asked if the small-portion complaints were valid and if there were any plans to address those concerns. Eschmeyer quickly deflected to the George W. Bush administration:

This is the first time the nutrition standards have been updated in 15 years. It was drastic. We were finally matching the national school lunch program with the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations, which, by the way, were made in 2007, prior to this administration.

Eschmeyer brushed the entire matter off as everyone needing "time to adjust." She added:

I’m seeing actually that there’s no difference in acceptance from the kids between the whole-wheat pizza and the white flour pizza. They’re so used to it now. You can’t taste the difference. It’s finding out which food products you may need a little bit more time to work with … We’ll get there. It’s worth working it out.

Eschmeyer promised to use the time she has left in the Obama administration to enact changes in policy and with corporations to "move the needle" forward to create a "healthier America."

"And the other part of it is looking at what we’ve already accomplished and make sure we don’t go backwards," Eschmeyer said. "We have to make sure that everything we put so much work into, that everything that has happened in last five years, we continue to make progress and measure our progress. We cannot lose that momentum."

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