The recent changes in the school lunch and program Essay

Established in 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act revised the National School Lunch Program’s policies ensuring that children receive a nutritious lunch in school. These changes included offering fruits and vegetables, whole-grain foods, low-fat dairy products and limit calories, saturated fat and sodium (Fisk). Studies show that many children benefit greatly from well-balanced meals during the day.

Have you ever wondered what are the major causes of obesity? The CDC (2017) states that one out of every five children in the U.S. are overweight or obese, and this number is continuing to rise. Wilson (2016) states that many children who are obese develop health complications, such as joint, gallbladder, and sleeping problems. The majority of children who are obese as kids tend to be obese as adults. Reason being, many children develop bad eating habits by learning from their surroundings. When it comes to such an important topic as obesity there 's not only one cause, but several causes of why obesity is such a huge problem in America. Childhood obesity has greatly increased over the years and there are three main causes that have caused

The lunch provided to students who are eligible for reduced or free lunch is their only lunch option, since they cannot necessarily bring a packed lunch from home. Because of this the USDA and the FNS have created guidelines that each school must follow when creating these lunch programs. According to the USDA 2011, “School lunches must meet the applicable recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommend that no more than 30 percent of an individual's calories come from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat.” (USDA "National school lunch," 2011) These guidelines directly follow the standards set by the USDA for everyday nutrition and must be followed by the school. The USDA has also created guidelines for other dietary allowances. The USDA in 2011 reported “Regulations also establish a standard

The National School Lunch Program enforced a rule, which “sought to improve school meals” (United 4088). The rule includes many different parts to it, which requires state agencies to acquire and check many different pieces of data. The first thing the state agencies are required to do, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, is to “Conduct a nutritional review of school lunches and breakfasts as part of the administrative review process” (4088). By having these checks, the USDA can ensure that schools are following the dietary restrictions as well as meeting the FDA nutritional standards. The second step for state agencies is to “Determine compliance with the meal patterns and dietary specifications based on a review of menu and production records for a two-week period” (4088-4089). This guarantees that schools will follow the FDA regulations because the state agencies force schools to follow and be compliant. To conclude the first rule, the third and final action that state agencies must take is to “Review school lunches and breakfasts every three years, consistent with the HHFKA (Healthy Hungry-Free Kids Act)” (4089). This assures that schools are adhering to the FDA guidelines over the long run. The agencies check the school menu over the past three years, to make

to provide students with a healthy diet. Even though schools must meet the national requirement

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 passage of Healthy, Hunger, Free, Kids Act of 2010, mandated all educational entities who are participating in the National School Lunch Program and/or the School Breakfast Program to meet expanded local school wellness policy requirements provided in section 204 in HHFKA of 2010 (Federal Register, 2014). Provisions included in HHFKA of 2010 established new content for school wellness policies, ensuring stakeholder participation in development of new policies, requiring assessment, compliance, and reporting on the progress of local school wellness policies. Additionally, new rules would require Local Educational Agencies (LEA) to implement and provide new polices for marketing

Currently, school lunches must meet the applicable recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. According to these recommendations and based on individual meals, no more than 30 percent of calories can come from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat. Regulations also establish a standard for school lunches to provide one‐third of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories (National School Lunch Program, 2011). School lunches must meet Federal nutrition requirements, but decisions about what specific foods to serve and how they are prepared are made by local school food authorities.

About 220 billion lunches have been served since President Truman’s signing of the National School Lunch Act in 1946. However, according to the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine study, about 36% of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight and 20% are obese. The rate of obesity has risen since the 1940’s, but school lunch has made revisions to create meals to be healthier and more nutritionally dense for the child. Research has shown overweight people are only becoming more overweight and normal weight people are staying the same or developing healthier lifestyle

Many kids throughout the United States (U.S.) attending public schools are continuously being labeled as overweight. A reason for this is because schools are not providing healthy lunches. School lunches are full of saturated fats and refined sugars, which contribute to problems like obesity. Despite this connection, there are some states that are deciding to drop out of the healthier lunch programs, because the cost is too high and the districts cannot afford to participate. Healthy food leads to improvements all over ones body system. For example Vitamin K, which is found in yellow and orange fruit and vegetables or whole wheat, gives more energy than fats and sugar. Improving the healthier lunches nutrition have the potential to benefit

School lunches, the fight to provide healthy food for kids at school, is a battle that has been going on for years with little progress. Here at SVMS, precautions have been made to help kids make healthy choices, sugary sodas aren’t sold, candy isn’t available for kids to purchase, and there is a health program that teaches kids about nutrition, but kids can still be found with lunches made completely up of chips and other unnatural food products. I think there is a different approach to helping kids get the proper nutrition, by focusing not so much on the calories and percent of sugar in each food item, but the context of where the food came from, and how the kids attain it.

The improved nutritional standards of public school lunches benefit one’s individual health by providing them with the necessary nutrients to human

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed in 2012, in order to counteract rising childhood obesity rates. Creators of these requirements specifically targeted schools. There are several specific examples of the way schools struggle to meet these demands from a variety of sources. In the article, “Why Some Schools Serve Local Foods And Others Can’t (Or Won’t),” Katherine Ralston, a USDA economist is cited as stating“[t]he biggest barriers to going local --- [...] lie in the details; contract requirements, paperwork and a difference in the scale of need at the school and production on the farm” (McMillan). Another article written by Alexandra Sifferlin, published in TIME and titled “Why Some Schools Are Saying ‘No Thanks’ to the School-Lunch Program” explains that “[...] schools are dropping out of the healthier school-lunch program because they [… can not] afford to participate [...Because] Kids […are not] buying the better-for-them options in the cafeteria”. With all the legislation passed and community efforts, it would seem that school lunches would be serving the optimum amount of healthy nutritional foods; however, in countless cafeterias across the country that is not the case. Long before all the controversy surrounding school lunchrooms, the National School Lunch Act of 1964 was passed for one simple purpose, to feed hungry children. According to Emelyn Rude, a graduate of Harvard majoring in Social Studies and a writer for Time, a

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

In 2010, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which works with Food & Nutrition Services to develop guidelines for the NSLP, proposed new regulations for school lunches in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA). The rules included calorie guidelines according to age group and also outlined requirements for vegetable, fruit, protein, and starch components of the meals. While the USDA guidelines for meals were