Italian American Democrats Say "We Love Pizza, but it isn't a Vegetable!"
When asked if pizza should be classified as a vegetable, Italian American Democrats told House Republicans, "nice try." Italian American Democratic Leadership Council (IADLC) President and Maryland State Legislator Hon. Jim Rosapepe said, "It's disingenuous at best. It's a food we love, but not one that school children should consider a vegetable for the purposes of a balanced lunch." 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. "We hope the next thing isn't that House Republicans try to classify cappuccino as a dairy," said IADLC Chairman Bob Blancato.
For almost twenty years, the Italian American Democratic Leadership Council has been the national voice of Italian Americans in the Democratic Party -- the national political action committee, supporting our candidates for Congress and major statewide offices, recruiting Italian American support for Democratic presidential candidates, and promoting the appointment of Italian Americans in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
The IADLC is urging its members to sign the petition at http://my.democrats.org/Pizza to send the message to House Republicans that even pizza lovers know it isn't a vegetable.