Wilson Lunch Menu Research Paper

How many people here sometimes look at the school lunch and say to yourselves, "What is it?" Most of us would agree or that if not most of us would. After getting lunch, do you just throw the food away after getting the lunch right away? You might just bring your own lunch because the school lunches have changed? Also you might have a problem with the lunch menu being messed up? The cooks with the lunch should be able to make better food than what is currently being served.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which took effect in 2012, are supposed to make sure that school lunches are healthier. Greasy pizza and salty French fries are supposed to be things of the past. But are kids eating what’s being served? Can school lunch both taste very well and be healthy. More than 30 million children form through school cafeteria lines every day in the U.S and thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, there no greasy food or salty french fries. Some food must be low calorie, fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

When thinking of the word “nutritious” what is the first thing that comes to mind? Everything nowadays has labels saying they have 65% less fat. Is that actually good or is it just empty calories? School lunches do not encourage proper nutrition because improper meals lead to behavioral problems, children eat minimal nutritious foods from vending machines, and school lunches serve foods that can cause obesity and health problems. The brain needs certain omega 3 fatty acids to flourish throughout the school day, not all fats are necessarily bad. The public has been wrongly informed about proper nutrition.

In Schools all over the state, students complain about the quality of school lunches. As a result, many schools have decided to let fast food restaurants like Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Pizza hut into their school's cafeteria. This was an extremely bad idea. We all know teenagers love fast food. Whether it’s the crispy salty french fries from McDonalds or the Cheesy pizza from Pizza hut, but is this food healthy? I would disagree.

Lunch menus are getting makeover across the country of America. They have started a cooking boot camp to train cafeteria workers to prepare food and they are taught by trained chefs. Cooking boot camps are now in demand, as school leaders are interested to send their cafeteria workers for training. The first lady, Michelle Obama was one of the supporter of healthiers cafeteria and in June 2010, she startd a new program called "Chefs Move to Schools". The 24 states of America has already began making changes in cafeteria and stoped using processed and canned foods. Now, they are using fresh food. Chopping vegetables in funky shapes are for getting kids interest and satisfy kids picky taste. Boot camps are successful and cafeteria workers like

Teachers also might say, well this is very unhealthy for you. Sure, it's not very healthy, but that's why we should also have a salad bar. My school has a salad bar anyways, so we could just keep that, and that would be our healthy food for the day. When I go to lunch at school, I always get croutons, because that is the only thing that I will eat. It's not good for my health, but it’s much better than eating food that is going to make me sick. Eating school lunch is kind of like getting food poisoning. Nasty, and makes you throw up.

One way to improve the American diet is by changing the lunch systems that schools currently have. In the article “No Lunch Left Behind”, the writers, Alice Waters and Katrina Heron, call for a change in the National School Lunch Program to improve lunch programs in schools. Along with their call for change they also provide explanations on how the lunch program works and the different previous attempts to fix it. Waters and Heron states that feeding children healthier meals “...could be done for about $5 per child, or roughly $27 billion a year, plus a one-time investment in real kitchens.” (Heron & Waters par. 7). This shows that it is possible for schools to provide their students with healthier lunches, even though it may seem pricey. By investing in real kitchens and healthier foods, schools can promote better diets to the students that they are supposed to be educating and reduces the risk of foodborne illnesses that may continue to affect the learning experiences of students. This also reduces the presence of junk foods and exposes students to healthier alternatives, allowing them to understand what is good for them and what may cause health issues over time. Along with health improvements on campus, this could also reduce the amount of food being wasted as students would be more prone to finishing their lunches after knowing that it will benefit their health.

Most the time the foods that make a school lunch healthy the students don't eat them. A article reports that “23% are throwing away the half cup of fruit or vegetables they are forced to take”. Imagine all the food that is going to waste because of this. Money is also brought into this issue. The same article claims that $25,834 U.S dollars are being wasted on those cups.That money could be used to make better lunches if schools do not want to serve

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.

Many students nowadays think of lunch as a bag of chips, candy or some sort of junk food. Reason being our schools food is disgusting or the line is too long. It's hard to say no to junk food when the food being served at school isn't appetizing. We the student body need to speak up about these problems and find solutions. We can start being making the school lunches healthier and more nutritious. We can target this problems in many ways.

Nobody enjoys having to eat the same traditional meals daily. If schools changed the menu, we could have the opportunity to try foods from all around the world that some may not have not even heard of. Ever since our school switched to a newer menu, I tried many foods actually healthy for me. I tried a veggie burgers, rice, salads, fruits, vegetables, and fish, which can help fight heart disease and improve brain function.

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.

Finally, many school lunches offer a little amount a variety of foods to choose from. If you are like me and are a picky eater then you don’t like most of the foods, they provide you. For example, I dislike various foods like macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, and corn dogs. When I would usually get those foods in school I would give it away to one of my friends or just not get lunch at all. Not all schools have vending machines so not everyone has the option to at least get a snack. Schools usually just make one food and prepare thousands of that one food. By lunch time they don’t have the time to make different varieties. If you don’t like it, you don’t eat until you get home. Although, if you pack your food at home, you decide what goes into

Have you ever asked yourself, “is this school serving me actually healthy food?.” Well let me tell you, you wouldn’t be the first to ask. Our schools get us our lunch with the help of an organisation call The National School Lunch Program (NSLP). All schools lunches must meet meal patterns and nutrition standards based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans in order to receive the help from this organisation (As said in the NSLP website). What that means is that depending on the meal pattern, the availability of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain in the school menu. The meal patterns dietary specifications also set specific calorie limits to ensure age-appropriate meals for all grades from K-12, and other enhancements include gradual reductions in the sodium content of the meals. What I'm trying to say is that the NSLP only tells the school to reach the required a necessary amount of nutrients, and calories, etc., but it's the school are the ones that decide from where they get the food we eat.

Healthy lunches at school might be the way to go but reality are our kids really going to enjoy lunch? Being a healthy kid is an amazing thing to do but taking away junk food at school isn't going to push them to be healthier it my push them away. By doing that we're just encouraging our home habits to increase. Giving them liberty to eat what they want with a limit can help the temptations. Junk food isn't the healthiest but it's amazing to eat once in awhile.