National School Lunch Program Research Paper

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP), originally initiated in 1946 under the name the National School Lunch Act, has served in excess of 224 billion school lunches to children throughout the United States since its inception (National School Lunch Program). The goals of the program include serving a school lunch that meets certain nutritional requirements and is available at low or no cost to eligible students (National School Lunch Program). While the program has undergone many changes over the decades, the core tenants of the program have remained intact. Changes should be made to the way the National School Lunch Program operates to ensure that all students have access to a lunch that is nutritious and affordable for all income levels, while accommodating the palate of each child.

The National School Lunch Program helps schools provide students who can not always afford their lunches, with healthy well balanced meals. The way it works is the school follows the requirements that the NSLP lays out and then the government reimburses the schools for the lunches of the students who qualify for the program. This program is very beneficial for everyone involved, there is only one problem. In recent years the requirements for lunches have become more strict and harder for the schools to follow. Students

About one in three american students who eat school lunches daily are in some way obese or overweight as of 2015. People in general have been experiencing a new problem in the last decade; obesity rates have been drastically increasing. School lunches may be a big contributor to these increasing percentages in overweight and obesity. The percentages have increased about 18% from tests in 1973 to 1974, to tests in 2003 to 2004. Many schools in other countries have a lower obesity rate because they server non processed foods. If schools were to change their lunches to non

In many schools around the country, high school lunch is off-putting to students. The government has set many laws in place, to improve nutrition where it is lacking in many schools across America. Where the meal adjustment lowered the calories of the meals, it has created deficiencies in important nutrients that are necessary for students of all ages to learn to the best of their ability. Often, many students also find the lunch unpleasant, and unsatisfying. Many researchers, and authors have all gathered a wide collection of evidence that all supports problems with lunches found in American schools throughout the country.

Calories, obesity, epidemic―these words flash through daily conversion like wildfire. The American public today is severely concerned with the nation’s growing health problem, as they should be. Recently, the nation’s school lunches have had major renovations due to the alarming increase in childhood obesity. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has set out to fix the problems concerning nutrition in school lunches. Because the National School Lunch Program is required to follow the most current version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), school lunches are undergoing massive reform at the cost of students.

Buddha once said, “ To keep the body in good health is a duty...otherwise we shall not be able to keep our minds strong and clear.” A trend started across the United States several years ago towards improving the quality of food provided for students eating school lunch. “School lunch has evolved quite a bite over the last century”(Avey). In spite of this evolution, there are many reasons why the public school system should further improve their daily lunch program. These changes would still include the daily recommended balance of fruits, vegetables, proteins, and carbohydrates. The top three reasons to improve school lunches include: obesity rate, overall grades, and lifelong habits.

Schools started serving lunches in 1894. It started in a couple of Boston high schools. The issue of school lunches being healthier started with Michelle Obama taking an act towards it in 2010. She tried the Health, Hunger-Free act. This allows any school in the country to be supported by the national government to help serve healthier food.This is optional of the school though. If the school decides to serve healthier food they can choose this route. Many schools have taken this option. Research conducted showed that these schools have has the average gpa increase.

School lunches from my perspective only transport negative nutrients in our bodies.Theoretically,school lunches in the U.S.resemble a fast food portion of food. It is comparable as if one was eating any type of food serve in a fast food place, equivalenting the same amount of calories. My critique is I consider school lunches to be poor in quality when it comes to the nourishment of our bodies,leaving behind the vitamins and nutrients one needs in a meal.

School lunch programs need to change, and in order to implement this, “In 2004, Congress required every single school in the district to develop local wellness policies regarding food available in school, nutrition programs, and physical activity programs”(Haugen & Musser,2012). The government was trying to put in place programs to help children be healthy in their food choices as well as ways to get healthy if they were already overweight by incorporating physical healthy programs. Schools need to limit the amount of fatty choices and put more healthy products in their school cafeterias. Nutrition education programs can help students to learn the dangers of obesity and show them that their health is something that needs to be taken seriously

Schools lunches are not healthy as it causes childhood obesity. Obesity is an unrelenting health problem nationally. Obesity is a problem among adults and children. Research shows that 30 percent of adults are obese and 16 percent of children ages 6-19 years old are obese. One contributing factor to childhood obesity is that children spend majority of the day at school and consume more than half of their daily calorie intake there. All public schools are funded by the National School Lunch Program which annually provides $6.1 billion in total cash payments to local schools^ and an additional $4.7 billion in in-kind surplus food commodities Such as fruit juices and peanut butter(Schanzenbach 685). Obesity can lead to diabetes cancer and other health problems. Schools don’t want to make changes by replacing the bad food with healthier options because they will lose revenue and they don’t want that.

While studies have and will always continue to be conducted all over the world regarding school lunch programs and their effect on children’s health, one study in the Michigan area concluded some alarming statistics. Children who ate school lunch compared to children who did not eat school lunch were more likely to be overweight, and have higher levels of cholesterol

The National School Lunch Program is one policy solution to improve access to health foods for school aged children from low-income families. On June 4, 1946, the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act was signed into federal law by President Harry S. Truman (DiSiena, 2015). This act established the first official school lunch program in the United States. In Section 2 of the act the purpose is defines as a measure to secure the health and well-being of U.S. students by providing grants and other resources that ensure the proper amount of food, operational staff and maintenance is available for school lunch programs.

Obesity is one of the most serious health issues facing American schoolchildren today. Moreover, exactly how to deal with childhood obesity is a question that vexes parents, politicians, educators, and nutritionists. Students spend a significant part of their day in school and therefore consume a significant proportion of their caloric intake at school. In addition, the school lunch program is important in providing food children from disadvantaged backgrounds (the subsidized National School Lunch program serves over 28 million schoolchildren a day). Thus, the role of schools in shaping the eating habits its of students as well as the potential for school-cafeteria dining to affect students' purchasing patterns is important to consider. Due to changes in school cafeteria practices, a student's food choices are poorer today than they were years ago. Snelling, Korba and Burkley (2007) discuss a Center for Disease control report that observed that in 2003 only 22% of students surveyed admitted to eating five or more servings of fruit and only 17% drank three or more glasses of milk during the seven days prior to being surveyed. Moreover, the intake of sugary drinks containing no significant fruit juices has doubled since the 1990s. Thus, school cafeterias may have a contributing influence on the change in diets observed in school age children and may

Although the National School Lunch Program intentions were good when it came to feeding children in school, it played a major role in the childhood obesity. In result of the improper food that the children are consuming in school, childhood obesity is at its all-time high. “67% of middle school students who eat school lunches are classified medically as either overweight or obese.” (Brandongaille, 2017) Diseases are becoming more prevalent in children at such a young age now. Unhealthy school lunches play a major part is childhood obesity. School meals are usually processed foods high in fat, sugar, and sodium that are unhealthy for children. In result of obesity, children are more than likely not to participate in physical school activities, sports, or even exercise.

As this tendency increases so do the waistlines of children. With budget cuts in place, many schools cannot afford to feed their students healthy nutritious food. “The current nutritional standards the U.S.D.A requires for the National School Lunch Program along with the School Breakfast Program are inconsistent with the 2005 dietary guidelines” (Federal Register). This is a main contributor to the affects children are being sceen after eating years of school meals. “Currently the rule of thumb for dietary guidelines include the food may not have more than 30 % of its calories as fat, and it must contain less than 10% as saturated fat. Regulations also establish a standard for school meals to provide one-third of the Dietary Reference Intakes of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium and calories” ( Zoumbaris). As many meals in schools do not meet these standards, children are not consuming the required nutrients to live a healthy life.