Chris Christie's Beef With Michelle Obama's Healthy Eating Initiative

The New Jersey governor says "I don't care" what students eat.

ByABC News
January 18, 2016, 1:57 PM

— -- In a move sure to appeal to 11-year-old voters across the country, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie promised to do away with First Lady Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative to a boy who bemoaned that the pizza and crispitos once served at his school cafeteria have gone away under the Obama administration.

If he is elected president, Christie told 11-year-old Jacob Royal on Monday while campaigning here in Iowa, he can go back to eating “whatever you want to eat" at school.

"The first lady has no business being involved in this,” Christie told Royal during a town hall at a Village Inn, a restaurant chain that Christie said is a favorite of his to frequent when he comes to Iowa.

“Using the government to mandate her point of view on what people should be eating every day is none of her business, it just isn’t,” Christie said of Mrs. Obama. "I want people to eat healthier. I’ve been trying to eat more healthy. We all should be trying to do that. It makes us better, makes us living longer, better quality of life, all the rest of it. But in the end, it’s your choice."

In contrast to the first lady, Christie told Royal, he doesn't care what students eat at school.

"I don’t care what you’re eating for lunch every day. I really don’t. I want you to eat whatever your mother wants you to eat and your father want you to eat,” he said.

Following the town hall, Royal told reporters he was satisfied with the governor’s answer: “I think it is good that he will fix it.”

Recalling the days when crispitos were part of the regular fare at school, Royal said he thought his favorite lunch foods would “probably” come back if Christie were president.