Overview of the Healthy Food for Healthy School Act Essay

Obesity can often be the consequence of living in a household that instill unhealthy eating habits. Schools can be a positive influence on teens early in life so that obese teens can lead into their adult lives with healthier habits. With these healthier habits, they may likely have more energy to become positive influences in others lives to be healthy and be able to do more. If schools can make such an impact on students’ lives, they should try, even if they needed to sacrifice extra money or instructional time. In 2007, there was a study that only one fifth of high school students had eaten fruits and vegetables at least five times a day in a week (Wexler, 2010). While it is unreasonable to force someone to eat these foods, if they are regularly offered as part of school lunches, students may eat them if they have finished the rest of their lunch and are hungry. Schools should be encouraged to even add fruits and vegetables to vending machines for healthier options.

One of the most controversial issues today is the question of how to address childhood obesity. Because of the large proportion of meals that children, particularly low-income children, consume in schools, cafeteria food has been targeted by dietary reformers as in need of a major overhaul. However, while many different types of new school menus have been proposed, the extent to which healthier foods can be offered remains controversial. Opponents to reform state that children will not eat healthier lunches, and that changing the food that children eat will have minimal impact, since the children will either bring food from home or eat food at home that is more 'kid friendly.'

If school lunch prices do rise in cost, then one out of three people in Hebron would probably be struggling to provide food for their kids and family. While some people may be able to afford this change of cost for school lunches, many people who qualify for ALICE were already struggling and making the lunch prices go up by even as little as 10-20 cents could make things a lot worse for these people. Although the lunches are healthier, it’s not worth making them healthier if students can’t afford them and therefore bring unhealthy lunches. Aside from that, students could just buy the unhealthy option from, for example, vending machines opposed to the healthier school lunch just because it costs less which would make the whole change overall,

problems of our nation’s youth. School needs to realize that the decisions that they make can

School cafeterias have been notoriously known for having unhealthy, unappealing food. Students at schools are being forced to eat these foods, when parents cannot provide regular lunches for their children. These lunches usually include the following: pizza, soda, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, and others, all filled with artificial ingredients and preservatives. To address this problem, there should be a switch between the foods and drinks being served, and I have just the ideas that will be delicious and healthy. Authors Alice Waters, Katrina Heron, and Mark Bittman all agree that some initiative needs to be taken to fix this unhealthy food problem, and so do I. Together, the student body and parents will address the school board with healthier food options that are better tasting and better for the body.

Brand name fast-food items now account for almost 50% of schools sales (Brockett). As one can see, the financial benefits of the brand names in lunches can help boost a school’s declining profit. If fast-food was taken away from menus, many schools would fail to break even and have to cut their staff (Brockett). “Financially, it’s better for us if we go up to 400 meals” said Amy Hedrick, a food service supervisor in California (Lehmann). If she tries to sell off brand pizzas, her profit declines dramatically as she only sells 250 to 300 pizzas. If kids are being forced to eat healthy through their school lunch, they will leave the school over their lunch hour and go find a fast food restaurant. Even if they don’t leave, will taking away their brand name foods really solve the problem? The solution is not to frighten kids away with putting bans on school lunches. Rather, teach them about nutritional values of the healthier options and leaving them the choice, as it talks about in “The State Has No Place In The Lunch Bags Of A Nation”. If students know the benefits of eating healthy, they will start to turn away from fast

The purpose of schools has always been, at the very least, to train and educate children into having strong work ethics, goals, neat work habits and prepare them for the workforce. Most schools are funded in some way by the education department and raising money by selling sugary soft drinks and sweet snacks to students contradicts the fundamental meaning of what a school stands for. Childhood obesity, unhealthy lifestyles and the lack of educational awareness of healthy choices in our schools are all contributing factors that relate to the alarming statics of Australia’s poor health.

Every weekday in America millions of kids and teens line up in their schools to buy a lunch. Many of those students buying lunch typically do not even enjoy what they are given. The article “Why Students Hate School Lunch” by Kate Murphy argues about why students are wasting much if their meals due to recent health changes whereas the article “Why Some Schools Are Saying ‘No Thanks’ to the School-Lunch Program” by Alexandra Sifferlin argues on why schools are dropping the new health programs because students are wasting food or not buying at all. Looking at both articles they both question and argue why schools and students are not satisfied with the Healthy Hunger-Free Act of 2012. This act is causing students to not eat school lunches and money to be wasted. Both articles argue against the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act but the difference between the two articles explain is that one argues a student’s opinion versus the other that explains the economic effect it takes on schools.

Therefore, modifying the Healthy Hungry-Free Kids Act of 2010 is a great start to meeting the needs of a more diverse student body. In deciding to keep the program the same, active and athletic students leave school undernourished everyday. Consequently, students not receiving their nutritional needs could also quench their hunger with unhealthy alternatives. For example, they could choose to visit a gas station before a sport practice to get through the practice. A healthy lunch program is ineffective if, in effect, it causes students to consume more unhealthy alternatives. Overall, this either causes undernourished students or students indulging in unhealthy alternatives. Neither of these is a good outcome for the students health, it would more effective to offer a second serving of healthier food during

Obesity is crucial in this country, in order for there to be a change we need to start serving healthy foods at schools. The First Lady Michelle Obama brought this healthy lunch concern to the educational system. California’s Department of Education Nutrition Services provides fresh fruit and vegetables to students as a supplement throughout the day. California’s schools have moved ahead to support Hunger-Free Kids policy. The local government regulates school districts including Los Angeles Unified School District to serve whole grains, fruits and vegetables versus foods high in calories. The Hunger-Free Kids policy allowed public schools to serve healthy lunches preventing obesity.

Some view the act as a being capable of increasing food waste because kids will not want the extra food. However, the act instead has increased the conception of fruits and vegetables and has decreased overall plate waste. Consumption of fruit increased by 12%, entrees by 13%, and vegetable waste decreased by 20% (Schwartz et al.). Therefore, the new lunches became more popular, resulting in students throwing away less of the food they get at lunch. Moreover, they started choosing healthier options during lunch, which is proven in the increase in fruit consumption. The suspected waste of food claim has been strongly discouraged given the two years of data collected. Instead, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act has increased the amount of healthy foods consumed, directly affected students’ overall health in a positive

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch

Of all of the problems that dishearten children today, the one that bothers them the most is being unhealthy. Five out of six students from the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School agree that there should be a change in the schools' cafeteria foods; they came up with a solution to help kids be healthy. Unhealthy foods should be eliminated in schools for many reasons. First of all, kids concentrate better when they are healthy. Being healthy helps children to concentrate better because if they are healthy in the inside and the outside, they will not have to worry about their health or how they look. Secondly, having only healthy foods in school help parents to take good care of their kids. For instance, imagine a mom that is a seventh

Should changes be made to the regulations for the foods that are served in public schools? This can be a very controversial question to most people; children with obesity, parents who do not care and for who does care about the health of the children and teachers who only wants what is best for the benefit of the children. This paper will attempt to explain and convince the unknown of why it is very important for our public schools to have a healthy eating curriculum for the children that attends there. If society can find a way to come together for the children of the community to fight to have healthier foods in the community, come together and provide counsel to the children of what healthy eating is all about. This paper will

Junk food, junk food, junk food is around all corners of schools. Chocolate, cookies, soda, potato chips, and Sour Strings may sound delectable to some people, but are they nutritious? Some people wonder if there should be a change. Encouraging exceptional nutrition in schools is essential by reasons of students will consume foods that are better for them, schools will pay less for meals, and fewer students would go hungry.