The Impact Of Poor Nutrition On The Student'S Achievements.

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.

To get things started off, school lunches are provided at a very low cost, even free to the families with low income. I guess you can say these lunches are blessings in disguise, they feed many children who unfortunately have no meals to eat at home. Food is what

In order to maximize our program’s ability to provide nutritious meals and snacks, we participate in the federal school nutrition programs, which includes the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. According to the Department of Agriculture, the National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program for public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions (2015). It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. On the same note, our program participates in School Breakfast Program. The department of Agriculture specifies that this program provides cash assistance to states to operate nonprofit breakfast programs in schools and residential childcare institutions. Both the National School Lunch Program, and the School Breakfast Program, ensures that the children receive the adequate nutrition while the our

People live in a complex world where things are never as simple as they seem. Officials agree that in order for students to perform well in school, their basic needs have to be met (in conjunction with the ideas of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs). While schools may not be able to provide a safe place to sleep or warm clothing during the winter, they can provide a healthy, nutritious meal. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, the number of children under 18 years of age living below the federal poverty level of $23,550 for a family of four represent 21.1% of the population (“Child Poverty,” n.d.). The National Lunch Act and its subsequent revisions have sought to mitigate the effects of hunger. Unfortunately, there are other circumstances that affect the desired outcomes of serving a balanced meal to students in need.

In numerous incidences around the country schools have reportedly denied their students school lunches because their lunch accounts are overdrawn in some cases by only a couple dollars (Green). Also, traditional packed lunches are under fire, in part, because some administrators who feel that the lunches are not nutritious enough for students have banned them (Eng, Hood). Because some school children are going hungry and have no other means of obtaining a meal during the school day, the school lunch program needs to take additional measures to ensure that the needs of all US students are being met.

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.

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

Starting at the beginning, the National School Lunch Program was created in 1946 to ensure that each and every American child could receive needed nutrients from their school lunches (Stallings). At the time, we as a nation had just come out of World War II and resources at home were low. The National School Lunch Program provided kids at least one nutritious meal per day. This help from the federal government meant that parents would no longer have the burden of preparing a school lunch for their children each and every day. Then, in 1975, The School Breakfast Program (SBP) was added so that children

Today, college students are not getting enough nutrition in their foods to lead a healthy life. For example, in a paper written by,

Lunch is one of the most anticipated thirty minutes of most students day. They get to converse with their friends and finish neglected homework, but what the students look forward to is the food they get to eat. In special classes(Health, Nutrition) we learn about healthy eating and dieting; unless you pack your own lunch, we must suffer and endure the unhealthy and sometimes disgusting school lunches. Schools should improve the nutritional value in our foods for many reasons; mainly for the fact that childhood obesity is a rising problem in the U.S.

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

Consuming certain foods can alter behavior and mood because they trigger chemical and psychological changes in the brain (Ricketts). Eating healthy and consuming enough of the proper nutrients helps to avoid these negative changes that impact one’s mood. Providing students with healthy lunches on a regular basis can help improve their mood or behavior. Furthermore, according to the American Psychological Association, eating healthy on a regular basis helps one “avoid feelings of low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression” ("Mental and Behavioral Benefits of Good Nutrition”). The healthier school lunches can improve students’ moods temporarily, it can impact them longterm and help them avoid larger problems like mental illness. More specifically related to school, students tend to behave better in the classroom and at school after eating a healthy lunch. They are better able to cope with stress and regulate their emotions when they have a healthy diet ("Mental and Behavioral Benefits of Good Nutrition”). The pressure put on them by school and other factors are dealt with easier. Younger students are less likely to have emotional outbreaks, get cranky or upset, or be disobedient in class when they have proper nutrition. This creates a healthier and more productive learning environment for students and teachers. Though the program has brought on a lot of positive impact on the health of children, some

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

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

Better nutrition in schools is critical being students will eat food that is better for them. Research shows students that eat school meals are more likely to obtain a healthier weight than students that bring a lunch if the school abide National School lunch program (NSLP). This shows that school lunch is healthier by