School lunch protest video: “We are Hungry” parodies new menus (+video)
School lunch calorie limits leave bitter taste with some Kansas students: "We are Hungry" video is a protest of new federal menu guidelines.
WICHITA, Kan
Hungry kids.
“Here we are in the Wheat State … and I’ve heard some very sad stories recently about school lunches,” said Kansas state Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler.
RELATED: 5 bullying myths – what you don't know
One was from Wallace County High School in Sharon Springs, Kan., where students and teachers created a YouTube parody, “We Are Hungry,” that blasts the new calorie guidelines:
Give me some seconds, I,
I need to get some food today
My friends are at the corner store
Getting junk so they don’t waste away?…
The video, based on the hit by the band "Fun." – “We Are Young” – shows students staring woefully at lunch trays, stuffing lockers with junk food, collapsing during volleyball practice and crawling on the ground in exhaustion.
“There’s just not enough” food, said 16-year-old Callahan Grund, a football player and star of the video. By Friday it had garnered 48,000 views – more than 62 times the population of Sharon Springs, a farming town not far from the Colorado border.
“When you have chores in the morning and football practice after school, you need energy. … This doesn’t cut it,” Grund said.
The major sticking point: a new federal rule that sets calorie maximums for school lunches — 650 calories for elementary-schoolers, 700 for middle-schoolers and 850 for high-schoolers.
Protesters in Kansas and elsewhere say 850 calories isn’t enough for some high-schoolers, particularly athletes who can burn calories by the thousands.
Page 1 of 4
