School Lunches Analysis

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.'

Is school lunch actually feeding America’s children? (1. Rhetorical Question) Today, many students are reporting that they are unsatisfied with their school’s lunch. Strict guidelines set for America’s schools control what exactly is going through cafeterias in order to maintain healthy and happy students. However, students are disappointed in these guidelines and disagree that they are of any benefit. School lunches still lack nutrition, limit food choices and proportions, and neglect appeal. (2. Parallelism)

Being the petty teenager I am, I decided to research the weaknesses revolving around America's current public school lunch program after getting into an argument regarding the healthfulness of school meals. I was called a picky eater for virtually refraining school meals from entering my diet for the past few years, whereas I concluded that a majority of my peers would agree that our school lunch program is far from desirable. To support my claim, I began to research school lunches and its correlation to child obesity. I also went into detail on the impact of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and how governmental mandates have shaped our system. However, I also discussed the unhealthy and wasteful mindset about food our children obtain and carry from their experiences as a student. Finally, I critiqued the school meal programs of other modern countries to help point out possible approaches to fixing the system.

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

The harsh stereotypes of cafeteria food and negative connotations of assumedly horrible lunch ladies are as old and traditional as the American school system itself. Interestingly, the concept of the school lunch is one that has been revolutionized over and over to fit the needs of American youth. The overarching program that oversees and occasionally refurbishes the American schooltime meal is the National School Lunch Program, put on through the United States Department of Agriculture. In 2012 this program provided over 30 million children meals that were nutritionally sensible as well as fiscally responsible (United States Department of Agriculture, 2013), frequently offering these meals at reduced or no cost to children otherwise unable to afford them. In addition to keeping costs low to accommodate low-income students, the National School Lunch program has found that it must also balance an increase in highly-nutritious foods to battle childhood obesity, with the task of appeasing the increasingly picky eaters that comprise American youth. It is within the realm of trying to strike this precarious and delicate balance that the National School Lunch Program has created the problem of children refusing the nutrients they are being provided, therefore wasting insurmountable amounts of food and learning incredibly unhealthy nutritional habits along the way.

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.

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

Childhood obesity is when a child is well overweight for his or her age. One of the main causes are dietary patterns. According to the Center of Disease and Control Prevention, almost half of the United States middle and high schools advertise foods with high sugars, fats and salts. In addition to that, they also have a high calorie count. This makes it very difficult for students to make healthy choices. The first large school lunch project began in Boston high schools in 1894. Ever since then the government has claimed that they have been providing nutritious lunches for students. Between 1894 and 1977….. but in 1977 according to food timeline, America’s school lunches are the reflection of student’s food habits. The general accounting officer argues that, “The government subsidized school lunch served to 25 million American School Students may be harmful to their health”. This means that the unhealthy meals that are served to our students are not nutritious. He also argues that it creates sustenance for some of our children but it may lead to obesity in others due to the large portion sizes and the decrease amount of supplemental nutrients. Because America has cut spending on school lunches, they have only been able to provide a limited amount of healthy options to schools. Over time the quality of nutrition has went down and now we are at the point where we have no choice but to take action on

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.

A public school in Washington DC require 1,25 dollar per meal for the student, but the prize would increase significantly if the government would have delivered the food. Even though the buy and deliver thousand of tons of food around the coutriy the meal choices reflect federal nutritional recommendations, regional culinary preferences, and local district economics. What's a "good school lunch" consist of, still remains a hot debate.

Elementary through high school students complain about how poorly made the food is and how they are still hungry after lunch. “Kids get seconds if they are still hungry, but they choose unhealthy selections”(citation) Schools are basically starving students by not giving them enough protein and nutrition. Schools in America need to step up their game. They all need more fruits and vegetables in their school lunch lines. They should gradually add more and more healthy foods, so the

About one in three american students who eat school lunches daily are in some way obese or overweight as of 2015. People in general have been experiencing a new problem in the last decade; obesity rates have been drastically increasing. School lunches may be a big contributor to these increasing percentages in overweight and obesity. The percentages have increased about 18% from tests in 1973 to 1974, to tests in 2003 to 2004. Many schools in other countries have a lower obesity rate because they server non processed foods. If schools were to change their lunches to non

School lunch: Do we eat what we pay for? Lunch is a very important time for students all over the world. It is the time when all the students talk about what has been going on in their lives as well as what they plan to do in the future. It is also the time when they complain about how bad the quality of the cafeteria food is and how expensive it is.

How are students supposed to be content and satisfied with school lunches? (Rhetorical Question) Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act is one of the main causes why students are not happy with lunches. This act was supposed to make kids healthier while keeping them full but instead it did the exact opposite. In protest to school lunches, and Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act students, administrators, and school officials need to get involved to help change school lunches. School administration needs to start paying attention and change school lunches because the lines are too long and students do not have enough time to eat, school lunches are too expensive and the kids can barely afford their lunch, and the lunches are

In the article Chefs make tasty lunches in schools cafeterias by Lenny Bernstein, it states,” The chefs went to some of the schools to make healthy lunches. They used low-fat, low-sart recipes. In some of the schools, they also experimented with how the food was displayed in the lunch line”(1). The lunch ladies make good food and students think that the healthier food that they make taste good, kids will eat healthy food if it looks good. In the article Chefs make tasty lunches in schools cafeterias by Lenny Bernstein, it states,” Yet after seven months students did take more. They also chose more fruit when it was placed in the lunch line where it could easily be seen . When the fruits and vegetables tasted and looks better, students ate more”(1). If there is healthy foods that looks good then the students will get more of the healthy food. In conclusion, the students will eat healthy food if it looks good and they will eat healthy when the cheifs cooks the food.