text: This fifth-grader wants Christie to fix school lunches 
   
   Jacob Royal, left, and his brother, Josh, record a speech by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during a town hall at Village Inn restaurant on Jan. 18, 2016, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP) 
   
   COUNCIL BLUFFS — Chris Christie has a message for elementary students who miss school lunches like square pizza and crispy tacos nixed in favor of more nutritious meals. 
   
   "I don’t care what you’re eating for lunch every day. I really don’t,” the New Jersey governor and Republican presidential contender told a student during a town hall Monday. “If I’m president, back to whatever you want to eat.” 
   
   The question came from Jacob Royal, an Omaha fifth-grader and aspiring politician, who wore a navy pinstripe suit and a Republican lapel pin. 
   
   “What are you going to do about the lunches?” he asked. “They were fine when Mrs. Bush was the first lady, but now that Mrs. Obama is the first lady, they have gone down.” 
   
   Michelle Obama has been a vocal proponent of more nutritious school lunches as a way to curb childhood obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control, childhood obesity has more than doubled in the past 30 years. 
   
   New standards adopted in 2012 mandated fruits and vegetables on lunch trays and set limits on sugar, salt and fat. The reviews have been mixed. Some states have reported students getting better nutrition, but other studies have found students are throwing out much of their fruits and vegetables. 
   
   Royal said he misses pizza and “crispitos,” a kind of crispy taco, and doesn’t like all “the gluten-free stuff.” Now, he packs his own lunch. 
   
   Christie said parents should decide what their children eat, not the federal government. 
   
   “The first lady has no business being involved in this,” he said. “I think that this intervention into our school system is just another example of how the Obamas believe that they’ve got a better answer for everything than you do.” 
   
   Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1RwtfXG ||||| 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. 
   
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   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. ||||| COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa - If Chris Christie becomes the next president schools probably won't be required or even encouraged to serve lunches filled with fruits and vegetables. 
   
   That's because Christie said he doesn't believe the president should have a say in school lunches. Those, he told voters in Council Bluffs, Iowa should be up to the parents. 
   
   "Doesn't the president of the United States have anything better to do than to worry about what you are having for lunch? Let me tell you this, I don't care," Christie said Monday when 11-year-old Jacob Royal, who traveled from Nebraska to hear Christie speak, asked the New Jersey governor what he would do to make the lunches better. 
   
   "They were fine when Mrs. Bush was the First Lady but now that Mrs. Obama is the First Lady they have gone down," Royal said when he asked Christie how he was going to fix school lunches. 
   
   In particular, Royal said, he does not like the "gluten-free stuff." 
   
   Michelle Obama has made healthy eating and exercise a central part of her work as first lady. She lobbied for passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010, which provides funding for school where the meals follow federal nutritional standards, passed in 2010. 
   
   CBS News/Kylie Atwood 
   
   After complaints from school nutrition directors, who said the standards were costly and restrictive, and kids, who just didn't like the meals, Congress voted to ease the standards at the end of 2014. 
   
   Christie said Michelle Obama has "no business" trying to determine what kids should be eating at school. 
   
   "If she wants to give her opinions about what people should have for breakfast or lunch or dinner, she is like any other American, she can give her opinion. But using the government to mandate her point of view on what people should be eating everyday is none of her business," Christie said. 
   
   "I think that this intervention into our school system is just another example of how the Obamas believe that they've got a better answer for everything than you do," he added. 
   
   Christie gave a short anecdote about how his own children who used to take the healthy lunch that his wife made them but then buy the lunch at school, too. 
   
   "You will throw it out and eat what you want to eat," Christie said. "I know what you kids are up to." 
   
   But 2011, the governor was quoted by The Telegraph as saying he supported the First Lady's initiative to get kids to eat healthier. 
   
   Christie said it is "a really good goal to get kids to eat better." He added, "I've struggled with my weight for 30 years. And it's a struggle. And if a kid can avoid that in his adult years or her adult years, more power to them. And I think the first lady is speaking out well." 
   
   Royal was pleased with Christie's answer. 
   
   "I think it is good," he told reporters. "He said he can probably change it." 
   
   He especially wants back the "crispitos" that he used to have at lunch, because the new version is not up to his standards. 
   
   "Now, their version of crispito the tiniest tortilla shell they can find. They cook it for two minutes. Literally, two minutes. And then they put two pinches of beef in it and then they give it to us. And then they call that food," Royal said. 
   
   Others in the room agreed with Royal and Christie that the government should stay out of school lunches. 
   
   "I think he is right on the mark. We pay for the food and then they do not like what is being served," said Lynn Lyons of Council Bluffs who had come to the event with her 17-year-old son. 
   
   She doesn't believe the government should press for particular nutrition requirements. 
   
   "I think they can put the information out there but the parents make those decisions," she said.
target: – Chris Christie may have just become the Republican frontrunner among kids, though he likely irked Michelle Obama in the process. While campaigning in Iowa on Monday, the New Jersey governor fielded a complaint from an 11-year-old boy who said pizza and crispitos, a kind of crispy taco, have vanished from his school cafeteria in recent years, reports USA Today. If Christie is elected president, kids can eat "whatever you want to eat" at school, the governor responded, per ABC News. "I want people to eat healthier … but in the end, it's your choice," he added. "I don't care what you're eating for lunch every day. I really don't." "The first lady has no business being involved in this," he added. "Using the government to mandate her point of view on what people should be eating every day is none of her business." However, CBS News uncovered a quote from a 2011 interview in which Christie said he supported Obama's clean eating initiative. "I think it's a really good goal to encourage kids to eat better," Christie told the Telegraph. "I don't want the government deciding what you can and what you can't eat," but "Mrs. Obama being out there encouraging people in a positive way to eat well and to exercise and to be healthy, I don't have a problem with that."