School Lunches In America

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.'

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.

One in three Americans kids are obese or over weight which is a staggering and alarming rate at the same time. So looking 20 years into the future that number could double if nothing is said and done about what we are eating. The public school food in school lunches are unhealthy for many alarming reasons, but not much can be done immediately due to strict guidelines and budgets that schools must follow. A lot of it goes to kids not exercising, and more time watching TV, or playing on the computer. And now days more families have less time to make nutritious home made meals. So they tend to eat School cafeteria lunches that have minimal nutrition’s and harmful calories. To prevent your kid from being over weight mean adapting what you eat, and having to exercise at least 60 minutes a day. If the changes are made to change school lunches, it can help them from being obese, children can improve their lifestyle choices, and lastly it prevents them from getting harmful diseases.

The target users of our database are persons working for a school district cafeteria. These employees create the menus for several local elementary through high school campuses, and need to create menus for those schools based on many various factors. Due to the way public school cafeterias function, employees need to be wary of several obstacles when creating menus such as; cost, allergens, waste reduction, and calorie/nutrient status. We have indexed ingredients, allergens, cost, and calories for various sandwiches that have been approved by the school district. This index helps cafeteria staff search for the perfect sandwich combo based around the specific campus criteria.

All of the sweets and treats you remember from school lunches are now gone. The government now controls school lunches through The National School Lunch Act. This legislation provides school lunches, attributes to healthy lifestyles, puts strict boundaries on what is served, but ends up costing more money in the end.

Because children tend to choose foods that taste great but are not so healthy for their bodies, the problem of child obesity has been brought up. But despite this, many school districts deny the requests to lower serving portions and to add in more vegetables and fruits, because it would be too costly. (Reinburg) It’s true that improving school lunches won’t solve the problem but it has long been a part of the problem and taking a step forward is an improvement. (Reinburg)

What is this food doing to our children? The childhood obesity epidemic has increased because of the contribution of junk food that is being served in public schools. It has been found that children who eat fatty school foods are more likely to become obese than those who brought lunch from home. Why is this we may ask has a lot to do with the above student that I stated brought their lunch from home daily. You can count the intake of calories that is in your lunchbox but you have no idea what is in the food from you school, half of the time you will not even know what the food is. Also, the specials that are provided for students on special food days increases their calorie intake as well such as; pizza day or wing day. On these days children have shown to intake more food because these are the days that they provide greasy foods that taste swell and the children like them so they will gravitate to them because they do not have the proper knowledge to know what this food can do to your body.

Every year at Cooper the lunches change the school tries to make it more healthy. That’s great but they make it look worse and taste worse. Students either like it or they don’t like it. Most people don’t like it. They have 4 options to pick from that are healthy. The White or chocolate milk ,veggies they give with the meal,the sandwich bar and Finally the fruits and veggies you can pick.

Do students eat healthy lunches when they are school? Statistics show that public schools are given students frozen and processed food such as frozen burgers, nuggets, even the salad is even frozen and processed. Not to mention that school lunch doesn’t offer water, instead students drink milk with more than 150 calories along with tons of hormones or juice with 100 calories per serving and more sugar than 5 donuts. Schools not only offer frozen food they also have bending machines around their campuses full with junk food and sugars. School trashcans are 40% full of hot cheetos bags, this means that almost every student eat a bag of chips every day. Eating unhealthy not only can cause you diseases, but also can affect the student emotions and academic performance. “If students aren’t eating sufficient amounts of food in schools, they may leave school hungry and then over consume less nutritious foods. This may place them at increased risk for unhealthy weight gain and mood changes” –Juliana Cohen This is clearly the lunch that will lead student’s to type one diabetes or obesity.

“What the heck is on my plate,” all around the nation, kids are saying exactly that, when the cooks of schools are plopping down blobs of food on their plate. The USDA has made new regulations to what the schools can serve their kids. This is a problem that schools don’t realize, they are causing. These so called healthy meals are just being wasted, put down the garbage shoot by kids, who refuse to eat the muck they give us. Therefore, these new regulations they gave to schools is causing problems, the food the USDA is supplying to the school is being thrown down the drain, and this problem is not helping obesity.

For my article it talked about why the happy meals are not so happy. In other words why we shouldn't eat school lunches so often. ‘Its unacceptable to not just as the first lady but also as a mother’ said michelle obama.The USDA said that 90% of schools are already meeting the standards of giving good school lunches including, vegetables, fruits and no more soda at school vending machines.

Children now in days are being provided foods that are horrible and disgusting for their health. They are seeing foods that are not healthy and causing them to become obese. In which the leading cause of the unhealthy source comes from schools everywhere. It is wrong for children. In which it should help them understand and become questionable to their eating habits.

On February 1, 2013, the U.S Government released its proposed standards for the foods that are not part of regular school meals. These standards that were released set limits on fat, calories, sugar, and sodium. The proposals also say that snack items can not contain more than 200 calories per portion. However, they do not affect school sporting events, after-school fundraisers, or any other after-school events. I, like many other Americans, thought this plan was a great idea. We all thought the proposals were astonishing, but it only took a matter of months for us to realize what these changes truly meant.

Casey gazed up and with a broad smile said, “Elijah, sweet kid, you’ll love him!” Without context, she simply stood up and began walking towards the classrooms in which I promptly followed. The collages that littered the hallway walls and the mildly offensive odor of school lunches soon brought a wave of nostalgia and emotions that was abruptly halted when Casey introduced myself to Elijah. Met with only blank stares, all he could say was, “hello.”

My experience with school lunch isn’t horrible, but it isn’t good either. The lunch in my school isn’t healthy. The pizzas are always so greasy, in fact they’re greaser than the regular pizzas outside of school. And the cheese bread has some sort of liquid inside, making it look soggy. I don’t think that’s normal. Here’s a surprising fact for you, the lowest type of meat (that means meat from old animals and expired meat) is what’s used in school lunches. Gross, right? Who would want to eat expired beef? Do you think expired meat is healthy, and a good source of food? If so, then all you have to do is go to a public school! The lunch at my school doesn’t meet federal standards.