Throughout these recent years, fast food has become more prevalent in our everyday lives. Hundreds of pounds of unhealthy foods are being consumed by Americans each day due to their cheap prices and accessibility. More kids today are being exposed to unhealthy diets which only lead to more health problems in the future. Not only are they being exposed to bad eating habits, schools are also encouraging bad diets due to it being more affordable to feed hundreds of children fast food rather than healthy meals. Although it is more costly for schools to provide healthier meals, the health of their students should have more priority than money; therefore, school lunches should be able to have more fundings to afford healthier options. One way to improve the American diet is by changing the lunch systems that schools currently have. In the article “No Lunch Left Behind”, the writers, Alice Waters and Katrina Heron, call for a change in the National School Lunch Program to improve lunch programs in schools. Along with their call for change they also provide explanations on how the lunch program works and the different previous attempts to fix it. Waters and Heron states that feeding children healthier meals “...could be done for about $5 per child, or roughly $27 billion a year, plus a one-time investment in real kitchens.” (Heron & Waters par. 7). This shows that it is possible for schools to provide their students with healthier lunches, even though it may seem pricey. By investing in real kitchens and healthier foods, schools can promote better diets to the students that they are supposed to be educating and reduces the risk of foodborne illnesses that may continue to affect the learning experiences of students. This also reduces the presence of junk foods and exposes students to healthier alternatives, allowing them to understand what is good for them and what may cause health issues over time. Along with health improvements on campus, this could also reduce the amount of food being wasted as students would be more prone to finishing their lunches after knowing that it will benefit their health. One problem that is prominent is America is the increasing rate of obesity. In the article “Attacking the Obesity
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.
Many of us have attended school once in our life. And many of us have tasted the dreadful school lunches that are served. Various people believe that schools need to provide more food in a meal. Society has been conversing about the nutrious value in a school meal and they wonder if the meat in the lunches are real or completely fake “beef”. School lunches have become even more unacceptable and need to be re-thought for the health of the younger generations.
One in six children in the United States do not know when they will get their next meal. Children who are facing hunger struggle in school, are more likely to repeat a grade, have developmental concerns and have behavioral problems. The National School Lunch Program has brought meals to millions of children from food insecure families for free or reduced rates.
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.
The author’s intention is to inform the reader that the healthy lunch programs are failing. The author provides plentiful information and research on the failing school lunch programs in the U.S. “In the war to get America’s children to eat healthier, things are not going well.” Kids are not eating their vegetables. This has become a big problem in America and steps need to be taken to stop unhealthy eating. Like The Agriculture Department mandating that students in the federal lunch program choose a fruit or vegetable with their meals. This solution didn’t work and actually worsened the problem. “Their consumption of fruits and vegetables actually went down 13 percent after the mandate took effect.”
Many state public high schools in Michigan are progressing towards possibly allowing an open campus lunch policy for its students. The trend would allow students to depart from school to a distinct location of considerable distance by the school. Recent studies have shown that providing high school students the choice to a better quality of healthy food during lunch could lead to higher test scores. (Michael, Justin, & Elizabeth. “How the quality of school lunch affects students’ academic performance.” www. brookings.edu). Changing school meals to accommodate healthier options is a cost effective way to fix other issues like students who struggle with obesity. Revising eating habits could help fight high health risks in students to improve
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.
Over the years, school lunches have become a very large issue in our country. Not only are they disgusting, they are unhealthy and should not be served to anybody let alone kids. In the video, “What’s wrong with school lunches,” led by Ann Cooper, she held several very strong arguments regarding school lunches. Ann cooper made several important points on what is wrong with school lunches. She mainly spoke about how it is very necessary to expose kids to healthy foods, and that we have to teach them why it is so important to consume healthy foods rather than foods that are processed. She explained that the way that all of these unhealthy/processed foods are advertised, play a very large role on not only children’s lives, but also everybody’s
Open Campus lunches something I’m sure that would be able to offer many benefits to all of us, students as well as teachers and staff alike. This would broaden THS meal choices, give some THS staff a more relaxed lunch, and lastly provide a chance to improve the responsibility of students.
During an average school day, most schools will provide a lunch for their students. After concern that school lunches were helping contribute to the obesity epidemic, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) began to regulate school lunches. “The Obama administration’s new Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, signed into law last December, sets aside $4.5 billion over 10 years to fund school lunches and child nutrition programs; it requires school lunch programs to double the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in each meal, reduce calories and expand access to drinking water during meal time. With 31 million children receiving school lunches and 20% of all U.S. children suffering from obesity, the measure should help to improve the food
Therefore we need to change the school lunch system even if we would spend a bit more money on school lunches.As a result, we would offer healthier and satisfying school lunches. It would only cost about $5 per child and annually about $27 billion dollars,it may sound to be a costly price. In response to that,there would be an immense outcome of benefits,such as lessening obesity and kids would be able to focus more in school because they would be obtaining healthier school lunches. Proven by researchers' children can process and learn more accurately by eating nutritious meals,unfortunately current lunch meals can not help improve that. Also,several kids are only able to get their meals at school because of financial circumstances.So if it was possible to have nutritious lunches they would get healthier vitamins and
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.
It is a monumental challenge that is worsening every year which is why we must act quickly. Children in the United States in the 1950’s were fed unhealthy school lunches of high fat, high cholesterol foods, consisting of ice cream, whole milk, mashed potatoes, and pot roast, with 1,000 calories, 33 grams of fat, 1,300 mg of sodium. Today sixty years later, school lunches throughout the nation are lacking vegetables, still loaded with carbohydrates and fats, two percent milk, canned fruits, processed meats, with 45 grams of fat, 1,200 calories, and almost twice as much sodium. Lunches that are healthier of our kids consist of
School lunch: Do we eat what we pay for? Lunch is a very important time for students all over the world. It is the time when all the students talk about what has been going on in their lives as well as what they plan to do in the future. It is also the time when they complain about how bad the quality of the cafeteria food is and how expensive it is.
Nevertheless, the National School Lunch Program provides unique ideas for improving the program in the future. By improving the guidelines into modern needs it helps to think about what can be changed to make it better in the future. Talk From Earth wrote in "Cafeteria Food - Improving School Lunches - How to Make Cafeteria Food Better for Kids and the Environment," that by banning sugary food and food from school lunches, it causes the administrators and many parents to want to have healthy lunches and be more green. This got me thinking how urban schools can achieve this same success in developing a more nutritious lunch in different ways. By schools teaching better eating habits it can affect the future for students. As Elisabeth Leamy