School Lunch Program Research Paper

Ring. Ring. Ring. The twelve o’clock bell sounds for lunch. Hundreds of thousands of students around the United States of America rush from their classes to the school cafeteria. Children and teenagers ranging from grades K-12 grab a lunch tray and jump in line. The food that these students get to choose from has changed over the past years because of the new National School Lunch Program regulations, which limit the different foods that can be offered in schools. The passing of the National School Lunch Program has led to the implementation of new nutritional standards when deciding what foods can be served, changed the type of foods that are required to be served, established new rules on how the regulations are monitored, and

This value often fluctuates more than 60% from day to day, illustrating that a majority of individuals are not dependent on cafeteria food for lunches, but instead purchase them because they enjoy the food being served. Because they are often not recipients of free or reduced price meals these individuals are important to the cafeteria’s bottom line. If crowd-pleasing, sugary foods are displaced by healthier, less popular alternatives, lunch purchases will fall significantly, further increasing the cafeteria’s overall operating expenses. Requiring school meals to comply with sugar limiting standards would only exacerbate current budgetary conflicts, causing smaller proportions of the district’s already contracted funding to be available for spending on actual education. While some individuals may insist that increased spending on meals can be justified by its positive effects on the health of adolescents, once again in practice, these benefits are not as pronounced as one might

The NSLP is “a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946” (National). It was created after a study was conducted by congress into why so many young men did not meet the requirements of the WWII draft. It was found that there was a connection between physical deficiencies and malnutrition during adolescence. After the study was published, the government took it upon itself to regulate what children ate. Its focus has now been shifted from battling malnutrition to battling childhood obesity, yet there are plenty of statistics that denote childhood obesity is not caused entirely by poor food choices.

We have school lunches because some children at home are not provided school lunches. Some children look forward to school lunches, because that’s all they have. Over 13 million live in insecure households with little food. Also we have school lunches because it improves academic performance. Keeping kids healthy and in shape can help them focus and learn more.

Students have become more restricted than ever when it comes to picking the food they want to eat in the cafeteria, most of the food is healthy and has the essential vitamins and calories a student would need. The healthy hunger free kids act was implemented in 2012 and took away the use of grease, high sodium products and more. This aimed to yes take away all the tastier foods but also to try to opt for a more balanced and healthy lunch. When a student purchases a lunch, they are encouraged to take at least one fruit or vegetable and a low-fat milk. However, most of these “required foods” end up in the trash. Most of the time it’s a hit or miss with school lunches because not all school operate the same.

Do you know that school lunch is bad for children? Have you ever packed lunch because the food looks fattening or gross? Do you want healthier food? Has school lunch ever made your tummy hurt? I believe school lunch is bad for children because they serve food that is fattening which causes obesity, food that causes stomach viruses that will cause students to get sick and does not feed children enough.

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the second largest federally assisted food program in the United States and operates in over 100,000 public and nonprofit schools and residential childcare institutions (USDA, 2014). Schools that participate in the NSLP must serve lunches that meet the nutrition standards defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and are required to serve free or reduced priced lunches to eligible students. In return, participating schools receive cash subsidies and commodities from the USDA for each meal they serve. Over 5 billion lunches were served in 2012 by schools adhering to the NSLP (USDA, 2014). The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) regulates the NSLP at the federal level and educational

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 National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program that operates in over 100,000 schools and child care facilities. Those who participate in this program get cash subsidies as well as food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Participants are also required to followed dietary guidelines. Meals provided to the students must meet certain nutritional standards and free and reduced priced lunches must be made available to those who need it. By regulating what the schools can serve and

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.

provides healthy snack options. There has been a growing support for the National School Lunch

Essentially,mainly everyone wants or seeks to be healthy. What is concerned to be healthy? Being healthy is being physically and mentally in well-being and not possessing any health dieases.In order to achieve healthiness one doesn’t have to change their lifestyles dramatically,one can start out with baby steps and then way their way up. Even the most miniature changes make a significant difference in the human body.

During the Great Depression, schools began to provide lunch programs for school students, since many homes could not afford to feed their children a full, well-balanced meal (Hinman 16). Throughout the past eighty years the budgets, regulations, and policies have been changed multiple times. Whether or not these changes are helpful, are up for debate, and are topics many school boards and legislative bodies are forced to discuss. Some of the most controversial topics being discussed are the cost students pay, the quality of the food, the amount of food going to waste, and the obesity rate of students. The lunches that are served in schools are typically over priced, made of poor quality, thrown away, and is one of the leading causes to the increasing obesity rates.

Researchers say they have identified yet another risk factor for childhood obesity: school lunch. Usually, lunchtime is a kid’s favorite time of day at school because they receive a chance to socialize with their friends. However, the cafeteria, where children enjoy spending most of their time, is also a place that exposes them to harmful eating habits, such as the unhealthy foods the cafeteria offers which can influence them to continue wanting to eat these foods and may change the way these kids live their lifestyle in the future. The government should impose restrictions on foods in schools cafeterias to comply with food safety standards. It has been quite popular the last decade to take parental responsibility out of the school and leave

Federally-funded school meal programs, including the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), serve an average of 31.3 million lunches and 11.1 million breakfasts per day at a cost to the country of $11.1 billion in 2011 (Food & Nutrition Services, 2012). These federally-funded meals are an excellent opportunity for regulation of nutrition as well as education regarding healthy choices. Obesity is clearly a great threat to the health of our nation, and the federal government must step in to defend its citizens against this growing threat. Children are at the mercy of their families, their social conditions, and their schools, predisposing them to obesity through poor nutritional options and a lack of education; the federal government must intervene through regulation of school meals and snacks to protect children from the abundance of unhealthy options while also educating them and reducing childhood obesity.