School Lunches And School Lunch Program

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.

In the United States many citizens face hunger, starvation and malnutrition on a daily basis. This food insecurity affects millions of Americans. Food insecurity is caused when Americans don’t have enough money to purchase food for themselves and their family. When children experience hunger if affects them both physically and psychologically. “Children who are denied an adequate diet are at a greater risk of not reaching their full potential as individuals. Undernourished youngsters have trouble concentrating and bonding with other children and are more likely to suffer illnesses resulting in school absences.” (Karger, p 371) It is important for children to meet their full potential in order for society to continue thriving into the future. If children are not receiving an adequate education because they have an empty stomach, then they will not continue to higher education or they will do poorly. In order to combat hunger in children the federal government responded with several major programs. Two of the programs the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) are targeted towards school age children. These programs provide students with breakfast and lunch while they are at school.

What is does every kid look forward to during their school day? Lunch and recess. What kids eat at lunch reflects on the rest of their day. That includes energy levels, academic performance, and how much they engage. Meaning a poor lunch that is high in fats and lacking nutrition results in a sluggish child and some claim is a factor of the childhood obesity epidemic. School lunches should be reevaluated to provide students with a nutrient balance diet to help supply children with healthy brain functions to increase productivity in school, promotes beneficial future eating habits which can prevent further obesity issues in children, and it promotes an increase of attendance. To change what the schools here in the United States serve children food we have to take a deeper look into who is in charge, analyze the current standards and policies, and compare it to what a proper diet should be for children.

Everyone loves the idea of a government that truly cares about him or her. Especially a government that would go so far as to layout a healthy diet plan to insure the health of your children and to battle childhood obesity. It is great that the government is concerned about adolescent obesity and the nutrition students receive at school. However, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Food and Nutrition Guidelines provide more problems for schools and they need to be eradicated, as well as repealing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

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.

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

Children in America are faced with different choices every day. Some of these choices can be either good or bad for them. But these children don't really know the consequences of their actions, but the school does. Schools are serving unhealthy and un properly cooked meals to children every single day. These food companies make big money from these schools because the schools just buy the lunches so the kids will eat something. The schools don't really care what goes into the students stomachs, but as long as the school meets the requirements it's okay. Then the students just eat it because it looks and taste good, but they don't have an idea of what their eating is made out of or where it has been before. The government needs to start making school lunches more healthy for these students, if not then then unfortunately the number of obese children will rise.

The health of students should be considered one of the most important issues in education. However, as of 2012, the Center for Disease Control calculated that over one third of children and adolescents were either overweight or obese. Not only does obesity cause physical health problems, but can also affect the academic performance of students. Over the past few years, Americans have been working together to find solutions for this problem.

The National School Lunch Program is a federally funded meal program operating in over 100,000 public. It provides nutritionally balanced, low‐cost or free lunches to more than 31 million children each school day in 2012 based on the child's household income (USDA). The program is managed by the Food and Nutrition Service at the Federal level and by a State education agency at the state level. We will be looking at the statistics of the National Lunch Program for five local schools, and compare the number of students enrolled in the districts and the percentage that are receiving free or discounted meals at school. Additionally, the requirements to be eligible to participate in the program, as well as the reimbursement the school

The most essential part to the future success of America is the children of America, and

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.

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is one of the largest food and nutrition assistance programs in the United States. (Moore, Gothro, Conway, Kyler, 2014). The NSLP provides nutritionally balanced lunches free or reduced- prices meals to income-eligible children each school day. The program is federally funded but administered through State and individual school districts. Federal government establishes the program rules and guidelines. States monitor funding and compliance of the federal guidelines.

About 600 students of the 1,364 students who were presented fruit ate it on that same day. The average intake for those who consumed fruit was above half a cup, which is higher than the necessary portion quantity in one day for those in grades kindergarten through 8th grade. Conversely, out of 850 students offered vegetables, 51 students ate it. This research shows that food service workers may need to think about how to make the fruits and vegetables more aesthetically pleasing. It also suggests children may not know what they are due to being used to fast food every day when not at school.

68 percent of students say they buy food from the cafeteria every day. Proper nutrition is tied to better academic performance. This means that kids will not do their best in school if they are fed unhealthy lunches (Black). The unhealthy lunches kids are given at school are the main contribution to childhood obesity. According to scientists, children who eat too much fat, sugar, sodium or processed food and too few vitamins and minerals are likely to develop a higher risk over time for several chronic health problems (Angela). These health problems include heart disease, and diabetes. At this time, more than ever, 55 percent of Americans are obese and 20 percent of Americans are overweight (Three Facts About School Lunches). Many schools offer healthy choices, but they did not decrease the calories in them, and they typically still offer unhealthy snack items (Three Facts About School Lunches). In a school cafeteria with both healthy and unhealthy choices offered to kids, most kids are not willing to choose the healthier choices over the unhealthy ones. So where an apple is avoided and a bag of potato chips is selected as a child’s first choice for a snack

encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food, by assisting the States in providing an adequate supply of foods and other facilities for the establishment, maintenance, operation, and expansion of nonprofit school lunch programs”.1