Changing The School Food System

Not one parent wants to see their child go hungry. Several students do not eat during their lunch period because they cannot afford it, or unable to bring food from home for many reasons. Most schools offer free and reduced lunch programs. Not every family may be eligible for these programs. In today’s economy, even middle-class families sometimes cannot provide their children with money for school lunches. A child missing a meal, and going hungry is one too many. Funding to provide all students with two meals per day during school is imperative. Free lunch in public school should be available to all students, despite the level of income.

School lunches are often unsung heroes of many modern American households. Frequently overlooked and disregarded because of their stigma, school lunches are a key ingredient that may help make the world a better place. Unknowingly, great numbers of individuals in our communities deal with food insecurities every day of their lives. It baffles me that in an advanced society many people do not have the resources to provide food for themselves or their families. Until it affected me personally, I was unaware nor passionate about the struggles of food insecurity. My passion for solving food insecurity in my local community has led me to gain both experience and leadership through understanding and advocating for those around me.

Now, for the final, and more of a less known issue is how our schools have the order of lunch every week. For most people, it gets boring and repetitive when we have to eat the same food over and over again. The only thing they change is the fruits and maybe the chips, but that is it! Chicken sandwich, steak nuggets, tacos, nachos, pizza, repeat. It is not even the good kind of pizza or nachos, it is just some weird, fake, manufactured food. Since we eat the same food every week, it the same uncooked, cold chunks in the food that we bite into all of the time. The worst part is that sometimes on mondays, they give us leftovers, and look brand new! That is how you know they are

This article by Great Schools is addressed to parents considered about the current school lunches provided to the children in their district. Unlike any other source, this one focuses solely on 3 organizations that advocate. The diversity of the listed projects gives an opportunity to expand on different approaches to solve the various problems of the lunch program. However, there is no attempt to address the current issues of our system, requiring a previous understanding of how the school lunch system currently operates.

Have you ever thought why you’re school lunch looks so disgusting? Have you ever thought what it’s actually made of? Or why doesn’t this look like the way I ate it at home? For some schools, lunches lack in many different categories from visual pleasure to taste. If the school lunches taste so bad, why don’t we try another way to make them better. For a school in Greeley, Colorado, they’re doing just that. They’re firing up their stoves and are ready to get the ball rolling. There are many reasons on why the school is taking such a huge step backwards. Like, the routine of buying reheated foods and serving them without hesitation. The schools budget cuts or the kitchen being too old and small for the process of preparing such foods. As well as, the list of ingredients that do not need to be in the foods and the risks of diseases/bacteria in the reheated lunches.

Nationwide students waist over 70% of fruits and vegetables,while others are sitting around without food at all in other places(Public brief). Some students only get the 2 meals they are provided with at school ,but they often are not provided with enough to eat. Its import for low income and less fortunate families to be provided enough time to eat to make sure they are receiving there energy and daily nutrients(Godoy& Allison). Increasing the school lunch time will also save the schools a great amount of money(Public brief). School lunch food wasted to cost $1.2 billion dollars each year,which is enough for a person to buy a new car everyday of there life(Public brief). A simple increase in time could save schools a bunch of money needed to improve the school building and faculty. Many cafeteria staff and teachers have reported complaints about how students aren't eating all their food and they have to throw it away(EHHI). Most of the time in high schools foods are sold à la carte instead of a full meal to avoid having to throw away or make more food(EHHI). As a result of the food waste cafeterias started using foods with more fats and less nutritious items to get students to eat( EHHI). Cafeteria are selling french fries and not the healthy food to make there money because students aren't eating enough of the

High school food options raise problems for students. School lunches may not be the cheapest option for the students or the district. According to "Duluth high school principals want to stick with open campuses," Duluth’s principal, Tonya Sconiers, opposes a closed campus because of the financial burden. This program change would cost the school approximately $239,000 to supply what would be needed for the new food policy. In addition, the lunches provided by the school lack quality. Students report the food as bland, and portion size is not enough to fuel for the entire school day. Numerous students involved in after-school activities cannot perform their best without a sufficient amount food in their stomachs. The food should provide energy for the students throughout the day. For low-income students, this lunch might be the only reliable daily meal.

A solution to have better school lunches is to increase the budget of school spending for children, this mean having more better quality food which children will enjoy more and have more nutrients. Nutrients and low fatty content is what is being aimed for here, since we are trying to prevent children from eating harmful foods to there bodies. Also if not able to get better quality food at public schools, they should implement a law where children have to physical activities like exercising inside or

The lunches served in Frederick County Schools, and Urbana High School in particular lack nutritional value and are unappetizing. When interviewing Casey Ballow (a student who buys lunch everyday) about whether the school lunches are nutrional she said “The majority of students walk out [of the lunch line] without the most nutritional part of their lunch”. FCPS has made snacks whole grain, which usually makes them less tasty. Packing a lunch is a hassle because it is both time consuming and expensive, not to mention you cannot bring any warm foods. When asked why Casey chooses to buy a lunch, despite getting “soggy chicken patties and burnt french fries” she said “Buying a lunch saves me time in morning”. There is not a wide enough selection of lunch foods for students.

ways that school lunches can be improved, but the most effective ideas are by improving the

People live in a complex world where things are never as simple as they seem. Officials agree that in order for students to perform well in school, their basic needs have to be met (in conjunction with the ideas of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). While schools may not be able to provide a safe place to sleep or warm clothing during the winter, they can provide a healthy, nutritious meal. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, the number of children under 18 years of age living below the federal poverty level of $23,550 for a family of four represent 21.1% of the population (“Child Poverty,” n.d.). The National Lunch Act and its subsequent revisions have sought to mitigate the effects of hunger. Unfortunately, there are other circumstances that affect the desired outcomes of serving a balanced meal to students in need.

The National School Lunch Program is a great resource for schools to use, to help provide children whom may not be able to afford their own lunches. The problem with the program though is that the recent changes to the requirements schools must follow make it difficult to provide lunches that are appealing and fulfilling to students. Schools also find that it is costing them more to try and follow these requirements and there is a lot more waste because students are not happy. The NSLP needs to change some of its requirements so schools can have some freedom in how lunches are prepared so students will be more likely to eat them. They also need to take in consideration that not every student should follow the same calorie count and how not have enough can affect a student, and too much creates waste. With certain changes the NSLP can be successful once again.

When the school changes the way the food is cooked then the cost of how much money goes into the kitchen can be looked over again and relive they can afford to use less than what they normally do. Schreiber says “ That getting people to help like volunteers in the kitchen will cut spending money on labor”(Unhealthy lunches, Schreiber). In the beginning the schools spend money on overpriced food that is unhealthy, but if we get help it will cut the costs and the helpers will fix how healthy and how expensive the food will be. To change who and what will be spent it is easier if the school does not have to worry on if they have to pay the staff and save the money for more food or other important

Kids have a right to eat nutritious food that is healthy and fresh. For example, due to the lack of fresh and flavorful food many students choose to buy cheap junk food. The lack of freshness in foods result to kid’s health deteriorating. For instance, twenty-two children became ill Thursday after having lunch at a San Diego elementary school cafeteria, officials confirmed (Garske, Powell). Now, what is this? Kids getting sick from school food? We can’t have kids’ health being endangered just because schools can’t afford fresh food. The school is who takes care of kids and they are

On behalf of the students of Clackamas High School we would like to discuss the problem of feeding in our cafeteria. We noticed that lots of high schoolers consume unhealthy lunches everyday only because they don’t have a different option. That leads to weight issues and skin problems. Lots of students just don’t realize how many junk food they are eating during those four years of studying here. I believe that everyone is able to make their own choice but when you are hungry, you don’t really care about what to eat.