What are our kids eating while at school? This topic is important to me due to my kids starting kindergarten this year. After my daughter came home from school and informed me that her lunch served to her in the cafeteria made her “tummy” hurt, I decided to ask around about the food they serve. After talking to a few moms, who by the way are on the school board insisted that I pack her lunch every day because the food is absolutely disgusting and far from healthy. One mom told me she refuses to allow her children to eat anything that school serves. This bothers me and frustrates me to no end. As parents we trust that our children 's teachers care for their students and want what is best for them, we assume the school board wants what is best …show more content…
Due to the amount of options kids have for lunch, most are going to choose a cheeseburger over a salad, brownies or ice cream over oranges or apples, even soda over milk or water. We must set regulations on what our kids take in in a day. Most parents do not have to time or money to pack a lunch every day or even every other day, and they rely on the school lunches. There should be one item on the menu for the main dish, and more helpings of fruits and vegetables. More than breakfast or dinner, kids have a lot of control over what they eat for lunch at school because they decide, they pick from a menu and that’s what they get. A kid can choose to eat the salad, eat the carrots or simply throw them out without getting in trouble. A kid also can choose to eat an apple instead of an ice cream sandwich. If you look at the pictures of school lunches from other countries you will notice the vast difference in the lunches. In Brazil there was a picture of the lunch typically served, pork with mixed veggies, black beans and rice, salad, bread and baked plantains. In Italy they typically serve local fish on a bed of arugula, pasta with tomato sauce, caprese salad, baguette and some grapes. The location seems to make a huge difference in quality and quantity of the food. I highly suggest everyone taking a look at this website. (Photos Of School Lunches From Around The World Will Make …show more content…
An idea is to hire professional chefs to come to the schools to cook for our kids. Also the schools needs to get their fruit and vegetables from local flea markets to ensure their freshness. The cafeteria workers may not have a background in nutrition or know how to prepare food. We must teach our school cafeteria workers how to make fresh, home cooked meals instead of hitting up some chicken nuggets or pizza from the freezer. Knowledge is power and we are holding our kids back from having proper nutrition. The advantages to hiring a chef to come teach our cooks to make fresh meals is the calories we are saving our children from. The advantage of getting fruits and vegetables is that they are locally grown, no preservatives to keep them
I don't think our school lunch is healthy because it has fat and too much sodium. Although it is good it is fattening it is the reason for much of the obesity in the U.S. Many kids have no other option to eat the unhealthy school lunches or they will be hungry.
Parent should explain to their children that choosing a healthier, more nutritious lunch will give them enough energy to have a productive school day and after school activities. Parents can look over the school menu with their kids and can explain which foods are the best and why. Parents can also pack healthy lunches for their children, at least occasionally. Kids should be encouraged to choose meals that include fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains, accompanied by either milk, juice, or water. Something as simple as cutting food up will make children actually want to it. Cubing food such as chicken, cheese, veggies, and fruits can give them an appealing look and can make kids actually enjoy their food. Some other things to keep in mind when packing school lunch are replacing some of the unhealthy foods. Instead of high fat lunch meats, lower fat deli meats are better and white bread replaced with wheat should be considered. Instead of snacking on cookies, replacing that with maybe trail mix or yogurt is a good option. Anything with less fat and sugar, and more fiber and vegetables is good. Packing children’s school lunch is about the healthiest, most nutritious filled lunch they can receive at
“Our Schools need to start teaching kids how to be healthy.”- Unknown. School lunches have created a chronic problem in a school setting, and since it hasn't been fixed, 6-11 year olds have had a 17% increased chance of becoming obese (Centers for Disease control and Prevention). Most school districts don't even bother changing the food restrictions just so they can please their students. Unhealthy school lunches are a huge problem among children in the United States, it can cause obesity, stress, and many other problems.
Thirty one million kids nationwide eat school sponsored meals twice a day for a hundred eighty days and on average for twelve years. In this sense school lunches are an important and critical component of childhood nutrition and development. Yet these meals are highly processed and filled with chemicals and preservatives. School lunch rooms are essentially fast food restaurants; they unload shipments of frozen food then heat it up in glorified microwaves and serve it hot and ready. This is the same basic principle of fast food restaurants and people all know how terribly unhealthy fast food is for them. Still America feeds this toxic material to kids every day. This has been a tremendous issue for years but it is more devastating now than ever before.
Soda’s are leaving vending machines and being be substituted with less-sugary drinks, bread is being substituted for whole wheat and milk is being substituted to fat free milk. First Lady Michelle Obama took it into her own hands to provide the United states children with food that meets nutritional standards. “Through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by the First Lady and signed by President Obama, USDA made the first major changes in school meals in 15 years, which will help us raise a healthier generation of children.” (Leonard). Healthy Hunger- Free Act went into effect in 2012 some of the changes were that meals needed 5 components: grain, meat, fruit, vegetable, and milk. Students MUST take at least 1/2 cup of fruit OR vegetable for a meal.
States could require schools to serve healthier and more affordable meals than they currently are. They could have meals that all had the recommended amounts of grains, fruits, vegetables and protein for children. They could also ensure that it would be cheap for students to eat wh...
How could I Improve the Food at the School? Kids hardly eat at school, yet when they do it is unhealthy. Parents don’t have time to prepare a lunch for their kids since they have a million things to juggle around with. However, they do believe that their kids will eat at school and not skip lunch and starve especially if they are constantly working and getting exhausted for 8 hours a day. On the contrary, the food they offer at school campuses and the food they offer at jobs are not the same.
The government has supported the school lunches and have it be in portions that the plate will be healthy. On most school lunches, even breakfast, have some healthy food choices but not that much. So, the government will say the cafeterias have the same menus. School lunches should have the menu with healthier options. On school lunch menus, they do not have the calorie count right by it or tells them what we are eating.
Lunch is one of the most important meals of the day and is consumed mostly in school cafeterias for children and adolescence. Wholesome lunches are vital in maintaining a healthy metabolism and give children energy for the rest of the school day. Children are advised to eat healthily but do not always do so because the choices of tastier, fatty foods offered in school cafeterias. The National School Lunch Program, NSLP, which is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools set nutritious guidelines for lunches served in school cafeterias (USDA). However, school campuses still offer foods high in fat as well as selling candy, chips, and soda in their vending machines, as well as their school shops. In order
I am not saying that all school lunches given are horrible. There are days were lunch includes fresh food like salads and fruits. But, I believe that there should always be enough freshly made food to serve for students. For the lunch ladies not to separate the school lunch and include the regular day food accompanied by the fresh salad and fruits daily. Every student has the right to be served something that is both tasteful and includes any type of healthy food item.
To conclude, unhealthy foods in the cafeteria and the vending machines are the worst examples for the kids to maintain the healthy eating habits. Us Parents have to step in to make changes for our kids because in doing so would determine what kind of foods our kids are consuming. We do know for facts they are not getting the proper nutrients while in school, although they do spend in average of eight to 12 hours in schools. We, the parents, can start to make a difference, by attending the school meetings and being active in our kids functions in schools.
With the implementation of the “Healthy Kids Hunger-Free Act” schools are not serving as many lunches and participation is decreasing. According to the Government Accountability Office (GOA), “Nationwide, student participation declined by 1.2 million students(or 3.7 percent) from school year 2010-2011 through school year 2012-2013, after having increased steadily for many years”(sec. 1). The school lunches became more distasteful and bland; the combinations of foods did not make sense, and the portion sizes decreased significantly. In order to support the cafeteria
In other words, the food is not delicious and there are not many choices. Also, when children don’t get proper nutrition, they have trouble focusing on school. Most students do not buy lunch because they feel it is unappealing and do not like the food served. Many students go to other kids and ask for food. In addition, many students do not eat breakfast, so they rely on lunch to fuel them for the day.
In America itself only about two percent of kids eat a healthy diet. The topic I
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH) about one–third of children and adolescents ages 6 to 9 are considered to be overweight or obese. That means that 1 in 6 children and adolescents ages 9 to 19 are considered to be obese. That is a large number if you ask me and as a student between that age category, I ask myself what can be done to decrease those numbers. School is the place where we students spend most of our time; teachers do not only teach us Math, English, Science, and History, they teach us valuable lessons about life. But the only thing that schools seem to be forgetting to teach us is how to eat healthy and how to take care of our bodies.