Bye, Hostess
I remember I was in Kindergarten when my mom sent me to the store up the block to buy a loaf of bread. The first time I was ever on my own with money in my pocket. I was all grown up when I picked out a loaf of Hostess bread with the little balloons on it and proudly held out my little handful of change and let the checkout lady count out whatever it cost. Then there was the time I thought I could win the Twinkie eating contest at our school’s Winter Fest and I ate so many Twinkies that I quit eating them for years.
But now they’re gone.
[Hostess] had warned employees that it would file a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to unwind its business and sell assets if plant operations didn’t return to normal levels by Thursday evening. The privately held company filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than a decade.
Thanks, unions. That’s what happens when you try to get blood from a stone.
Tman sent us the bad news.
November 16th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
The guy who runs the office coffee mess ran out to the local grocery store and got a few boxes of Twinkies and Zingers. Guess we’re gonna find out if those things really do have enough preservatives in them to last 40 years.
RIP Hostess, 1930-2012. Good while it lasted.
November 16th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Many a fat poser are down and out today…(Round Marine comes to mind as well as “Toughman” Bill Blake)
November 16th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Those evil, nasty old corporations are going to take the blame while those paragons of virtue, the union bosses will come out smelling like a rose.
Sadly, I expect this is the first domino of many.
Frankly I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of extra hinderance to companies folding up shop. Granted, Obama doesn’t have to worry about re-election anymore, but he owes some folks who are going to have a hard time saying “The Unions care about the little guy” while watching more companies fold.
I hope I’m wrong. I really do. But I don’t see Hostess being the last company to fold, and certainly isn’t the last one to be damaged by Obamacare.
November 16th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Between the unions and gubmint interferance in everything they can manage to impede, life is becoming more miserable each day. A buddy just sent me an article where the same clowns are also going after private pensions. Dang! Is there no end to their greed?
November 16th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Thanks to the unions, another American company — an institution! — bites the dust.
What’s Archie Bunker gonna do now? He won’t be getting his tomorrow’s lunch Twinkie ever again.
R.I.P. Twinkies.
November 16th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Queue Tallahassee suicide watch in three…two…one
November 16th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
OWB, can you find a way to post that article or a link to it?
November 16th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
The geniuses at DU have a few things to say about this…
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021830337
November 16th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Reading the DU comments, it’s easy to see who wants sugar declared a drug and put under the control of the FDA.
November 16th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
I went to the DU link.
Their collective denseness is an intellectual black hole that threatens to drain the IQ out of all humanity.
Seriously, they get in there and I can see how each is trying to out-crazy the last. It’s like some paranoid schizophrenic game of oneupsmanship that is truly tragic to behold.
November 16th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Yeah, it’s a real head scratcher for the DUmbasses…they hate big companies and they’d love to see another sugar peddler taken out, but there’s about 15,000 employees (most of which are union members) now looking for a place to land.
November 16th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Nik: bingo. Although union idiocy/intransigence was the proximate cause, one of the root causes was indeed employee healthcare costs. This left Hostess financially unable to weather a protracted strike; hence the decision to close shop.
November 16th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Twinkies are extinct, but marijuana is legal. So, when stoners get high, there are no Twinkies.
Liberalism has so many bitter ironies.
November 16th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
@ #7: Need to research it – so far I cannot find exactly when it was poublished. Will deinitely look into it after taking care of a few issues here today.
November 16th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
I read this book. Didn’t turn out to well for the masses. What was the name of it again…Oh yea Atlas Shrugged.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Lol #13!
November 16th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Now I will have to go to the gas station and stock up on foods that will never die: Twinkies, Snowballs and those god-awful choco cupcakes with the cream filling. I will make a large pot of hot tea, get a good book and proceed, with a moment of silence for a vanishing breed of classic junk food.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Relax people, you’ll still be able to get your damned Twinkies. Hostess is going to sell the rights and recipes to all their top brands, then someone else will make them. I’m more of a Ho-Ho man myself, but I’m not worried.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
@18
Yah, someone will likely buy the rights and recipies. Dirt cheap is my estimation. But, they may very well not produce them. If a competitor to Hostess buys them, they may be doing so in order to ensure their bitter rival, such as the Twinkie, never sees the light of day again.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Damn Obama and his union flunkies. Of all the insults inflicted upon this great nation, this one takes the, well, cake!
November 16th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Warner Todd Huston just wrote; Congratulations Obama. al Qaeda is alive and Twinkies are dead.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Unless they make their own brand of Twinkie knockoffs that would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. Twinkies are a food icon, no way someone else is going to pass up the chance to make money from them. Ho Hos on the other hand already have so many knockoff that I’ll just have to go with Liytle Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls. Mmmmmm excuse me for a minute…
November 16th, 2012 at 2:43 pm
They were talking on Fox Business that the companies who buy the rights and recipes would be able to only afford that part. They don’t want to re-open the plants Hostess closes because the unions will think they are part of that package.
As for that DU thread…I read four post into it and could feel my IQ rapidlly decreasing.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
What ever happened to half a loaf is better than none? Merry Christmas, kids! That unemplotment check is probably a wee bit smaller than the payroll check was.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Yeah, who sez Twinkie workers deserve to make a liveable wage and have afordable health care, those presumptious communists!
November 16th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
An old buddy of mine is a USAF (Ret.) PA guy and he gave me the inside scoop on this. Apparently, Little Debby and Dolly Madison were having an affair with General Mills. Standby for salacious emails… and more squirrels.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
@25
Blood from a turnip, Joe.
Hostess already filed bankruptcy once. Then they were able to start to climb their way out. Now, with the single union of Bakers in their plants, they couldn’t afford to stay afloat.
They were warned. They chose to strike. Now they reap the consequences.
November 16th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Up here in the People’s Republic of Maine, Hostess has shutdown and about 1500 folks are out of work, just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
As for Twinkies, you can actually make your own if you need to. The “canoe” pans for forming the sponge cake are readily available, and the filling is dirt simple to make (as is the cake. A little labor intensive, but pretty simple nonetheless. One really good recipe is here:
http://www.simplemathbakery.com/blog/2010/02/05/homemade-twinkies
November 16th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Joe, you pompous ass, don’t you have the pee stains of the first-graders to mop up or something?
They were talking about an 8 percent reduction next year, followed by increases in 2015 and 2016. In return, the union got a 25 percent ownership of the company and 25 percent control of the Board of Directors. That apparently wasn’t enough for them.
So now, they don’t get shit. Way to cut your nose to spite your face there, dumbass.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Eras come and go, Twinkies didn’t evolve and adapt thus ending their species.
When the CEO states in an article for “Baking Business”: “You’ve got to be profitable. You’ve got to make your own money. You’ve got to fund your own livelihood, and you’ve got to fund enough to make up for years of lack of investment.” it is clear there is an issue beyond labor costs that has existed for years if not decades.
Sales and profits were off in the years prior to the 2004 first bankruptcy claim by IBC, it took 5 years and wage and benefit concessions to get out of that bankruptcy. There was a continued, systemic failure by management to focus and direct this company towards profitability. Union inefficiency did not help this situation but certainly is not the root cause of the business failure either.
People/investors that are using their companies to line their pockets with no thought to sustaining the business through reinvesting profits are certainly entitled to do so, but it is more than a little disingenuous to later claim that failing to invest profits into the company is the full fault of a striking workforce representing a third of your employees.
As an aside, the Teamsters make the federal government look lean and efficient ($420 per benefit recipient administrative cost versus $11 by the Social Security Administration–2011 report by Association of Certified Fraud Examiners).
November 16th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
I just read that Richard Trumka blames Bain for this. Hahahaha best piece of humor I read all day.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
@22
There’s always been Twinkie knock-offs, Little Debbie’s Cloud Cakes, for example. Weight Watchers even has a whole line of Hostess knock-offs.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
You are of course aware that at least four top executives gave themselves pay increases in the neighborhood of 80% while asking labor to accept that pay cut? You are also aware the Hostess was probably not going to be around in 2015 for the union to get their “good” part of the bargain, right?
November 16th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
As long as Drake’s remains in the black … I don’t care about Hostess. I love my Devil Dogs!
November 16th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
@33
I do know that it has been alleged (though not proven as yet) that what they did was convert performance based bonuses to salaries.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:23 pm
VOV: I think you’ve been in the PRM (People’s Republic of Mass) long enough to have been affected by osmosis, amigo.
Yes, Hostess was in bad shape. Probably past management was to blame.
However, they’d managed to figure out a way to keep operating from 2004 on. And firms operating in bankruptcy often don’t have a helluva lot of “profits” to “reinvest”. Payments to creditors often take precedence.
However, the economic downturn of the last 4 years obviously hurt. And they were forced into a 2nd bankruptcy.
This time the choices were stark, but still allowed a path to survival. And about 2/3 of their workforce saw that.
Unfortunately, 1/3 of their workforce wanted “to have their cake and eat it, too”. (Yes, the pun was intentional.)
The net result is that 1/3 of the workforce killed the company. Hostess didn’t have the resources to weather a strike, and told them that up front. Why is a discussion best left to academics.
Unfortunately, their former workers are left to deal with the what – unemployment.
I hope the members of the baker’s union have a good time explaining to the teamsters why they all now are out of work.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
@36
“I hope the members of the baker’s union have a good time explaining to the teamsters why they all now are out of work.”
That narrative has already begun. “It’s management’s fault.” “It’s the bosses’ fault.” “It’s the 1%er’s fault.”
November 16th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
@MCPO #34 – according to my wife Drakes is a Hostess brand.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
@38
According to Wikipedia too:
“Drake’s is a baking company in Wayne, New Jersey, United States, owned by Hostess Brands,[1] which makes snack cakes such as Ring Dings, Yodels, Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles, Sunny Doodles, Funny Bones, and coffee cake.”
November 16th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
@ 38 and 39 …. NO, NO, NO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
November 16th, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Hondo, osmosis is like Karma a harsh mistress….I’ve been involved in enough struggling companies to know the path out of bankruptcy tends to get ugly…I’ve manage two companies through a structured 11 and made them solvent again. In both cases, and I suspect based on my reading Hostess falls into this, that the 3 years since leaving bankruptcy had reduced or eliminated some debt but did nothing to change the efficiencies or lack thereof in production or the direction management was taking the company. Most companies in structured 11s with success or not don’t eliminate the senior managers that brought them into 11 in the first place. I always find it interesting that investors don’t demand a complete replacement of managers/directors tasked with guiding procedures and policies towards leaner, efficient production. So the same inefficient, relatively incapable management teams are now given a company with less debt, structured repayments and those companies again fail.
Having walked through it personally twice, peripherally a couple more it probably colors my experience more than these commie b4stards in massachusetts although that might be part of it. When management sucks and isn’t replaced the eventual outcome is inevitable, if the union had conceded based on what I read Hostess would have failed 2-4 years down the road anyway because nothing in the way of capital investments was going to or could be changed to increase efficiency of each worker through greater output. The only way American manufacturing competes with nation’s that pay $4 hour is to increase the output of the workers and decrease the number of workers.
Since I don’t know the average hourly baking wage after the first round of cuts, I am not certain what an 8% cut would do this time…it would probably affect the bakers differently than the teamsters who are around $22 an hour on average. Figure the bakers to be at around $18 which means dropping the wage to $16.56 which is not bad but the impact might have been an average of 8% with some units taking a larger hit…$16.56 is better than nothing, but it doesn’t take too far down from there to make an unemployment check with no income tax taken out to be almost as good….
In the PRM unemployment tops out around $500/wk with additional outlays for dependents so your $16.56 is $662 gross for 40 with maybe $120 taken for dues, state, federal taxes….leaving you $542…or if you have a couple of kids more like $550 on unemployment here in the PRM….folks get sh1t on enough and the move is lateral enough maybe they decide f#ck it I lose, they lose, everybody loses…I’m not saying I agree, but I can certainly understand it.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Oh well, I will resort to my second favorite snack … Dolly Madison Chocolate Zingers … Ice cold milk and Zingers.
November 16th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Not sure about that, Nik. Might be more like this:
“Hey, what the f**k were you guys in the baker’s union thinking? We signed off on that deal!”
“Yeah, well, we don’t care. It wasn’t a good enough deal for us.”
“Huh? What was that you said.”
“It wasn’t a good enough deal.”
“What? Hey, what part of Teamsters don’t you get? We tell you it’s a good enough deal, it’s a good enough deal.”
“No.”
“What did you say?”
“We said, No.”
“Thought so. I think we all need to go have a little talk about that. Last time a guy told us something like that, I think, was 1976. Name was Hoffa, as I recall.”
November 16th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
@38/39, You guys know that you just crushed MCPO right?
November 16th, 2012 at 4:03 pm
@43
Sadly, that’s a distinct possibility. Was the 8% cut a blanket offer for all the unions, or did the Teamsters get a different deal?
Either way, whether it’s your scenario or mine, the sad reality is…the Union Bosses are going to have great Christmas and Thanksgivings. The line worker that’s now out a job, probably not so much.
November 16th, 2012 at 4:04 pm
@44
I like to think of it as warning him about an unpleasant future. It’s…kinda like a public service.
But crushing him works too.
November 16th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
VOV: I think your calculations are a bit off, amigo. And it doesn’t work for the rest of the nation, either.
MA has the highest UC rates in the nation; the rest of the country doesn’t reach those levels. However, everywhere UC is tied to earnings; even in MA, if I recall correctly only high wage earners get anywhere close to $500/wk. The lower wage guys/gals get substantially less.
$17/hour ain’t big bucks. It’s a bit less than $36k a year.
Bottom line: a job paying $17/hour or more is probably quite a bit better deal than UC, even in MA. And there’s no “hit” on future SS and pension benefits if one continues working like there is in being unemployed – assuming, of course, that either SS or pension plans survive the next few years.
November 16th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Hondo, sometimes folks just say f#ck it because they can and if that hurts them short term they don’t much think about it. My thought was that maybe in this case after years of no raises and no change in management with no new equipment those performing the actual production might have well had enough and decided to “stick it back” to the company…figuring instead of waiting a couple more years to lose their jobs anyway they could kill the company and everyone loses, not just the employees.
I don’t believe a management team that puts a company into bankruptcy deserves to stay on, and certainly doesn’t deserve to receive continued bonuses when the company is in the crapper…”gestures” of good faith after years of mismanagement are often not well received by the hourly employees. Hostess was managed poorly as their CEO stated clearly in his statements to the Baking Business article. Consequently, when your own CEO says your management team failed to what was required to prevent the first bankruptcy, thinking the union is the problem is not entirely accurate.
November 16th, 2012 at 4:56 pm
VOV: true, the behavior is human. But it’s also irrational and illogical.
And it doesn’t justify the argument that, “Management screwed up, so we’re justified in screwing over the whole organization to get even.” By the same logic, Benjamin Arnold had justification for his treason.
I ain’t buying that.
November 16th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
I have been to the gas station. There Zingers, Suzy Qs, Choco and Orange Cupcakes, Donettes, and Snowballs, but no Twinkies. The guy behind the cash register did not believe me when I told him that they will all be gone before long.
I took home two Snowballs and two Choco Cupcakes (packages), ate one of each, and am holding the others until after supper. I will take a memorial photo before I munch them up. Then I will play a sad song. Then I will munch them up.
November 16th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
It never justifies the argument. However it’s how some employees think. And based on the posts here it’s how some vets think too when the government says we don’t have the money we thought we did to pay your benefits, you will need to cover more of the costs. Vets feel that the government is not honoring their commitment to a mutual agreement regarding compensation for years of service.
Hostess employees felt the company was not acting in good faith based on previous agreements, the difference is that vets aren’t going to shut down the government while the Hostess employees could make Hostess shut down by driving it out of business…two situations where people feel they are being mistreated, two different outcomes because vets don’t have the power to make the government honor its’ commitments or the power to shut it down.
That attitude would not be unique to Hostess, I received a cease and desist order from a union case I was involved in when I discussed some simple math with employees. I explained there was no magic in the monetary math, the printing company they were trying to unionize had a net profit of about 3% against gross revenues. The union was promising 10% increases across the board in wages, and more in benefits. I explained that the budgeted labor based on estimates was 5 million dollars, there was not enough profit in the company to increase the labor budget to 5.5 million dollars. That meant that the company would most likely eliminate $500k worth of salary or about 12 employees to accommodate the other employees increases. I was accused of threatening their livelihoods and told that I could no longer discuss budgets with employees.
A most interesting moment I assure you. I’m not saying I agree, I am saying I understand. And I can respect their decision to kill their employer and take their chances elsewhere, perhaps finding work with an employer who honors its contracts and agreements instead of using bankruptcy as tool to renegotiate financial obligations it can’t meet due to the p1ss poor management.
November 16th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
@50 You’re twisted, Ex-PH2. Twisted. I can almost hear you laughing maniacially as you take the first bite.
November 16th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
John, with all your well-reasoned arguments on issues important to Vets, why is it you jump to the conclusion that it’s the union’s fault?
Granted, they were on strike, but after two bankruptcies in 8 years at a company where the executives took raises and the employees were sacrificed, on a business model that kept buying, consolidating, then laying off to cut costs to finance the purchase, and where today’s announcement came from the hedge funds (holding the notes on IBC’s cash flow line of credit right now) deciding to cash out and exit at the expense of 18,000 families… blaming it on the unions is intellectually dishonest for not understanding the whole picture.
November 16th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
@ 51, I had a similar experience discussing math to, of all things, employees of a printing plant. The company is now closed.
@ 53, I did notice one of the costs was 100 million in pension and healthcare costs for retiree’s.
also the teamsters were working with the company. the executives that got the “raises”, were also long gone when this happened.
November 16th, 2012 at 6:31 pm
Raise your hands if you’d love to see Mitt Romney buy the hostess assets and turn them around.
November 16th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
>>And I can respect their decision to kill their employer and take their chances elsewhere, perhaps finding work with an employer who honors its contracts and agreements instead of using bankruptcy as tool to renegotiate financial obligations it can’t meet due to the p1ss poor management.
Yeah except they killed jobs for 18,000 people and only 5,000 of them were union workers. So screw the other 13,000 people’s job-right. Unions and liberals talk crap about taking care of the little people, but this union just screwed 13,000 little people out of their jobs for a pissing contest.
November 16th, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Online frenzy: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/16/sugar-rush-hostess-demise-sparks-twinkie-online-frenzy/
November 16th, 2012 at 7:42 pm
@Drama, my hand is held up high, holding a choco cupcake.
@PintoNag, I couldn’t last until suppertime. I ate the snowballs, while cackling in an evil tone of voice. I still have one pack of Choco cupcakes left for dessert after supper. I did not take the funeral portrait. Maybe another time.
November 16th, 2012 at 9:02 pm
Thanks a lot Petraeus!!
November 16th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Maybe the unions should buy the brand name, and show the rest of us how profitable a business can be when it’s run as a Worker’s Paradise.
Yeah, I know, FltMedic kind of obliquely suggested this back in @15, but this is a bakery, not a car company!
November 16th, 2012 at 11:24 pm
I never did like any of the Hostess snacks. Too, too sweet, and the filling made my teeth ache.
As for the bread. You know why it was called “Wonder” Bread? It had so much air whipped into the dough to make it soft, light and airy, that it was a WONDER that it was bread.
Yes, that makes me a heretic. So be it. To each their own.
November 16th, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Well I for one will be hightailing it to the Hostess store to stock up on Twinkies!! Everyone should have a Twinkie Strawberry shortcake once in their life!!!! And Twinkies do last forver.
First Bama Pie and now twinkies!! It’s just not right.
November 16th, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Bama Pies are gone? Ya know, no matter what the hole story is, about 100 union leaders and reps made the decision for 6000 union members, to end the jobs of 12,000 no union members. It is never about what is good for the union workers it is about who has the power. More to follow. When the military contractors get hit the jobs lost will be in the 100k range. Please contact the electoral college voters and ask them to vote Romney.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:07 am
On a more serious note has anyone heard about the Obama Lunches? Now being served in a Public school near you. Apparently FLOTUS has changed the USDA lunch requirements. Her reasoning is that too many children are overweight and instead of recess or physical education classes the Federally Funded School Lunch Program should lower the number of calories not to exceed 350 calories per child under the age 12 and 550 calories for teenagers.
Ok so this pisses me off why? Because there are some children in this country that the school lunch meal was one dependable meals they recieved. I am furious about this and want to scream NO Mrs. Obama WE WILL NOT BE DOING LUNCH!
Look at the USDA guidelines and google your local public school menu and then google the Sidwell Friends School Lunch menu where the politicans and POTUS’s children go to school and look at the differnce in the menus. Now I understand that Sidwell Friends school is a private school. But denying children in Public Schools good meals because their parents can not afford private schools is wrong. NO CHILD IN THE USA SHOULD BE HUNGRY!
In addition some districts are removing all snack machines because of the fear that they could lose federal funding. So if FLOTUS has her way these kids will never know Twinkies anyway. Her celebrity chef wants these kids to eat tofu and carrots instead of a old school favorite Twinkies!
Example of school lunch yesterday in my district!
Black Beans
Yogurt
Banana
skim Milk
This was the third grade lunch option.
Sorry for the rant.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:18 am
Kent I should have been more specific the BAMA Pecan Pie is no longer made!! I swear my brother with 26 years in the Corps cried when we found out BAMA no longer made the Pecan Pie.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:40 am
marinewm86
I just shake my head anymore about the stupidity of people regarding obesity. When I was a kid (and I’m not that old, I grew up in the 1980s), we ate all the same crap. We had McDonald’s after every Little League victory, we ate sugary cereals, we had cookies and chips and hot dogs and hamburgers, etc. We didn’t have all these stupid diets and such. We stayed healthy the old fashioned way: being active.
When I was a kid, I was outside pretty much all day. I was up at around 7am, watched cartoons for a little bit and then I was outside playing until my mom called me in for lunch, dinner and then to go to bed. Basketball, baseball, throwing the football around, running bases, hide and seek, riding bikes, riding skateboards, walking 6 blocks to the park to play in the park and playground. Always active. Then there was organized Little League, basketball in grammar school, intramural sports in high school, etc etc etc.
The difference nowadays is the advent of the computer, computer games, the internet, cable TV, and all the different gaming systems. Kids are MUCH less active now than they ever were. And THAT is the cause of obesity.
Granted, that is if we even have an obesity problem. I still remember looking at the chart in the doctor’s office in college when I went for a physical. It stated that at my height (5’9″), I should weigh a max. of 175lbs. Anything over would be considered “obese”. Well, at that time I was in THE best shape of my life. 30″ waist, 6-pack abs, lean and solid muscle. And I weighed 190lbs. So I would be considered “obese”. I learned then (this was 1998) that the “obesity” standards were ridiculous.
But, of course, the food nazis have built an entire movement of banning food around it…
You can diet and starve yourself all you want, if you don’t exercise along with it, you won’t get in shape.
There’s no need to ban foods. Everything in moderation. And children need to eat to grow when young. But they ALSO need to be ACTIVE. There is no need to change children’s diets. Change their activity level and there will be no “obesity problem”.
/off my soapbox, rant over
November 17th, 2012 at 12:43 am
There are free breakfast and lunch programs for all kids in my school district, regardless of ability to pay, because there is a large enough population of children in families below the poverty line to warrant getting the funding.
I cannot imagine how on earth, in the richest country in the world, children can go home on the weekends and have nothing to eat all weekend, and the reason they come to school is that it’s the only place they can get even one meal a day.
And any pediatrician will tell you that a macrobiotic diet (meaning strictly vegetarian) is not proper nutrition for any child. Beans, yogurt and skim milk will not give you strong bones or proper muscle development, never mind brain development. This is the same idiocy that says potatoes are junk food, when in fact, they are not.
This (from memory, mind you) was a typical school lunch when I went to grade school:
Fish or beef casserole with tomatoes and onions
parsleyed potatoes
green beans, spinach, or stewed tomatoes
fresh fruit salad (apples, bananas, pears)
bread and butter (not margarine)
oatmeal or peanut butter cookie
1/2 pint white or chocolate milk
Nobody went hungry. Anyone could have seconds if they wanted them. There were no snack machines in the schools that I went to because the kids got decent food at lunchtime.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:46 am
Marinewm86, yuck, no discerning 3rd grader will eat that dreck. Here’s the menu for the elementary schools in our district, for the same day:
Tuna Salad
Slice of bread(1)
Mashed Sweet Potatoes, or
Chopped Romaine Lettuce
November 17th, 2012 at 1:08 am
How are your children not starving to death on that crap?
November 17th, 2012 at 1:11 am
Standard GVT nutritional menu.
Just finished an interesting case study from several years back.
November 17th, 2012 at 1:25 am
@66, 67 and 68
Most of the schools no longer have PE for high schoolers and I was shocked that the grade schoolers only have one recess. They have replaced these classes with Computer Science. I really think kids need physical activity. (I did not allow my children to have a XBOX or Playstation until high school and they both played sports) I think part of the problem is lazy self-centered parents who worry more about the Kartrashians and keeping up with the Jones.
The type of work I do I travel all over the US. And sadly we have areas of this country were there are children who do go to bed hungry. All I can say is spend a couple days at Pineridge. The Lunch Lady at one of the schools brings food from home to send home with some of the children in her community who are the most needy.
And your right no self respecting 3rd grader would eat that. I found out because both of his parents work and the school called me because he refused lunch. So of course when I saw the lunch (I requested to see the lunch) I took him home with me and we made lunch and he got half a day off. No worries I got his homework. And made sure he took his spelling test. But I was mad and have been mad all day.
Our Lunch in the olden days included:
Real chicken with noodles
mashed potatoes
green beans
jello
chocolate cake
white or chocolate milk
hot rolls which Ms. Mavis made everyday
November 17th, 2012 at 1:36 am
@70 Sorry I do not give a flip about GVT those experts are a bunch of tofu loving morons who generally die of a heart attack at 50. I believe in healthy food vegetables, grains and meat.
November 17th, 2012 at 1:38 am
Leaving aside the idiocy of the Bakers Union ensuring over 1800 no longer work for Hostess, I have to tell you all that some of us have NEVAAAAAH had a Twinkie, and we managed to survive just fine.;)
As for the bs Moooooshelle lunch served at #64′s school? As someone else noted, kids need more than that for bone development, muscle development and BRAIN food, if they are to learn well.
I worked in an inner city elementary school for 6 years and our lunch menus more closely resembled #67 and # 68….And yes, for some of the kids, that may well have been their only full meal of the day…
I have followed the Mooshelle dietary pronouncements and her “experts” (I presume she has consulted ‘experts) need their heads examined..
November 17th, 2012 at 1:42 am
@ 71: Yes, exercise is key…And yes, it starts with the role models in the home..but I’m going to stay off that soapbox, or we could be here all day/night…;)
November 17th, 2012 at 1:58 am
School schedule when I was in 7th grade:
Classes in the morning 8AM to noon
Lunch – one hour, including recess — everyone outside running around like mad things — on snowy and rainy days, everyone in the gym playing games of some kind
Classes in the afternoong 1PM to 4PM
Then we went home, did homework and had dinner. Out on the farm, I took the schoolbus to school, and we had recess AND gym classes. No one got out of dodgeball or softball, or chasing each other around the track. After we moved into the city, I walked to and from school every day, all the way from junior high school through high school. Some kids rode their bikes but I didn’t have one, so I walked – rain, snow or shine. In high school there was gym class every day of the week for everyone.
Here’s the thing that the “experts” miss: if you eat too much starchy food and then sit on your behind instead of moving around, you get fat. Starchy carbohydrates (bread, rice, grain-based foods) are nutritionally dense, but they are also CALORIE dense, and the starch molecule makes them stick with you longer, and take longer to digest, so you not only don’t burn off those extra calories, you get sleepy and fall asleep at your desk.
I’m beginning to understand why parents are deciding to home school their kids. No gym class, no recess, no walking to school, and classes that are either dumbed down to the lowest common denominator or so PC you wonder how kids will ever manage to learn anything about the real world.
November 17th, 2012 at 2:02 am
OH, and while I’m at it, beans do have protein but it’s an incomplete protein.
In order to make that dish work, you have to add rice to it or you do not have a complete protein, you just have mostly starch with a deficient protein.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Interestingly, some of the players are, gasp, dems. Ripplewood is run by Tim Collins, 55, who’s been at the center of other famed PE transactions. Known as a brilliant capitalist-philanthropist-networker, he’s an eclectic character: a Democrat in an industry of Republicans …
… Ripplewood’s foray into Hostess was partly enabled by Collins’s connections in the Democratic Party. He wanted to explore deals with union-involved companies and sought the help of former congressman (Dick) Gephardt, who in 2005 founded the Gephardt Group, an Atlanta consulting firm that provides “labor advisory services.” In his 2004 presidential bid, Gephardt — whose father was a Teamsters milk truck driver — was endorsed by 21 of the largest U.S. labor unions; in 2003, Collins was one of 19 “founding members” of Gephardt’s New York State leadership committee.
“Tim Collins of Ripplewood, was a prominent Democrat, a position which allowed him to get involved in the first bankruptcy process in the first place, due to his proximity with the Teamsters’ long-term heartthrob Dick Gephardt (whose consulting group just happens to also be an equity owner of Hostess)”.
Then I found out about some of the work rules, like Hostess couldn’t load Wonder Bread and Twinkies on the same delivery truck, had to be separate trucks. The driver couldn’t unload the product, for at least some of the lines, had to have a second person to unload and stack the product.
Then, there were over 40 different pension plans under the Hostess umbrella.
It’s not a wonder that Hostess went under, it’s a wonder they lasted as long as they did.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Shouldn’t post til the second cup of coffee. All of #77 came from NewsBusters.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
LOL blood from a rock. There was PLENTY of blood in that rock but the greedy capitalists did not want to share it.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/16/1203151/why-unions-dont-shoulder-the-blame-for-hostesss-downfall/
November 17th, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Gee . . . someone calling themselves “REAL conservative” quoting an article from “thinkprogress.org” written by Annie-Rose Strasser, a former “community organizer”.
How droll.
November 17th, 2012 at 12:56 pm
ThinkProgress? Surely, you jest, Shirley. Go somewhere and dig up a credible source or two.
November 17th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
And before “REAL conservative” accuses anyone here of “attacking the messenger”: the article cited in comment 79 is an obvious red herring/non sequitur/smokescreen intended to divert attention from the actual issue.
Let’s do a bit of math.
Hostess employed 18,500 employees before the Baker’s union forced them into liquidation. Roughly 6,000 were Baker’s union members; let’s assume the rest were Teamsters (the other, larger union that was actually working with Hostess to keep the company alive).
Teamsters reputedly earn an average wage of around $22/hr. Add benefits, and that’s generally somewhere about $30/hour labor cost for the company.
The Teamsters had agreed to give 8% back for a year to save the company. So let’s do the math on what that actually means.
12,500 x $30 x 2087 = $782,625,000 pre-cut Teamster payroll
8% x ($782,625,000) = $62,610,000
Assuming the Baker’s union was making a bit less (say, $18/hr), that equates to a payroll cost of around $24/hour. For 6,000 Baker’s union employees, that comes to
6,000 x $24 x 2087 = $300,528,000 pre-cut Baker’s union payroll
8% x $300,528,000 = $24,042,240
So, the total Hostes payroll was somewhat over $1B annually. They were asking for 8% back to save the company – or around $86.65M.
The CEO/senior management salary increases were indeed a bad idea, and looked awful. However, they were by no means significant financially to the company. The amounts involved were piddling by comparison.
The article documents three large increases out of 10 total – one of $1.8M, one of $400k, and one of less than $300k. I think it’s safe to assume these were by far the largest increases, as otherwise the author would have included them for additional “shock” value. So, assuming these other 7 “massive executive pay increases” averaged $150k each, we have
$1.8M + $0.4M + $0.281M + 7*($0.15M) = $3.53M
Forgoing these executive pay raises means that Hostess would have only needed $86.65M – $3.53M = $83.12M in worker concessions in order to say afloat. So that in turn means that they’d only have had to ask for a payroll concession of
$83.12M / $1,083M = 7.7%
So . . . forgoing the executive pay raises would have allowed Hostess to survive with only a payroll reduction of 7.7% instead of 8%.
At a labor cost of $30/hour, that’s a difference of less than a penny per hour.
Yeah, those CEO salary increases really were the deal-breaker, weren’t they?
November 17th, 2012 at 1:37 pm
I agree that the good news story is that Hostess kept folks employed for so long.
Key paragraph from the article:
“CEO Gregory Rayburn, who was hired as a restructuring expert, said Friday that sales volume was flat to slightly down in recent years. He said the company booked about $2.5 billion in revenue a year, with Twinkies alone generating $68 million so far this year.” (http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Twinkie-maker-Hostess-reaches-the-end-of-the-line-4043395.php#ixzz2CVC3TKat)
So:
$US 2.5Bn in income
33 factories
500 outlets
18,500 employees
in how many states?
I wonder if, years from now, business students in a free country will ask their professor if Hostess folded due to a lack of income, or an excess of spending?