School is the main source of food for children along with education. Nutrition is an important fact to consider among food since it helps body and brain develop into the way they are suppose to. Two of the main meals of the day, breakfast and lunch, are eaten at schools where breakfast provides energy for the start of the day and helps maintain healthy weight, likewise lunch provides children with good metabolism. Most parents don’t show any concern over the food that is being served at schools because they believe children should be given the right to choose what they want to eat or children can digest any type of food so there is no need to worry. Children tend to build their eating habits in young ages, so is it worth allowing them to eat …show more content…
Lunch programs are often run by the selling money, so “messing with the menu can mean losing money” (Hirsch). In the article “Schools Struggle to Offer Healthy Lunches” J.M Hirsch, who is the Food Editor at The Associated Press, presents a quote from a parent when he writes, “‘Are you kidding? Pizza is our biggest seller. I'm surprised we're not selling it more,’ Gates said a USDA consultant told her and other parents in a meeting two years ago” (Hirsch). This shows that schools are not concerned about their students health as much as they are concerned with the money they make off selling their cafeteria …show more content…
From 1998 to 2007 there has been “more than 470 outbreaks at schools” which “sickened at least 23,000 children, and food responsible are lunchroom staples” (Morrision, Eisler). Most schools have very little information about where the food comes from or how it is processed. There was a situation at Starbuck Middle School where almost 70 kids got sick because of the food they ate at their school that came from Del Rey’s- a warehouse that produced the produced the school food that was served to these students. When the school was asked about the food, officials had no information about the company they were getting their food from, and after some investigation it turned out that the company that was supplying food to the schools had been in trouble for many times. While investigating this issue the FDA inspection reported “both live and dead insects, including roaches, in Del Rey’s warehouse and production area” and “storm sewer” was also found on the floor which leads “sewage water backs up into the warehouse” including the fact that “the floor was never washed and sanitized after such sewage backup” (Morrision, Eisler). In the article “Schools in the Dark About Tainted Lunches” Blake Morrision and Peter Eisler, both investigative reporter at USA Today, reported “ More than 80% of lunch items served to schoolchildren, including the tainted Del Rey tortillas, are purchased by school districts,
The shocking truth about our school lunches is that they are not health for young kids. The meat most schools use K.F.C and Campbell soup refuse to buy such meat. This shows that school lunch is not very health for kids if fast food won’t even use it. Schools are also
Janet Poppendieck is a professor of sociology at Hunter College in New York, and additionally she is the author of several books including her most recent Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. This book centers on America’s recent interest in whether or not our school lunches are healthy. This issue has been put into the spotlight recently through shows such as Jamie Oliver’s School Food Revolution and in the news because recent changes in the Nation School Lunch Program’s dietary guidelines. Poppendieck’s book looks at the in depth reasons into why school lunches have turned into what they are today, what challenges need to be faced in order to fix school lunches, and ultimately how our the system should be fixed. She accomplishes this by interviewing her current college students about their previous school lunch experiences, working in a school cafeteria, interviewing current school employees, and looking at the history and policies of the National School Lunch Program.
They started off by hiring professionally trained chefs, redesigning the dining area, and expanding the menu, including regional and organic foods. It focused on vegetables, whole grains, and good proteins instead of meat. The program was successful, but there was one question. Could this lunch program take place in public schools? It was answered soon after. A similar program started in a public school shortly after at Berkeley Unified School District in California. Chef Alice Waters had already brought nutrition awareness to Berkeley’s Public Schools, but momentum carried when a salad bar was added in and the schools started cooking from 95 percent scratch instead of using processed foods. “Surveys have shown that most students actually like the new health changes, or at least enough to not complain to school administrators to change school lunches. according to a study backed up by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, around 70 percent of elementary students “generally liked” the new lunches. Middle and high schools were not much different ranging from 63 percent to 70 percent “generally like” new school lunches”
Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.
“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.
Allowing healthier school lunches will decrease obesity in children because it will give them the proper nutrition to reduce the risk of health issues. Since obesity causes many health issues, maintaining a proper nutrition will reduce the risk of health issues. According to Star- Telegram, a daily newspaper that serves Fort Worth and areas of North Texas states, “[School lunches that have] a meal of pizza sticks, a banana, raisins and whole milk has given way to whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce, a whole wheat roll green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi and low-fat milk … This change will help more than 2.4 million Texas students who receive a free or reduced- price school lunch to lead healthier, more active lives—in and out of the classroom”(Par. 2 and 4). School lunches are supposed to guarantee students a well balance meal, so they can have the energy to proceed with their classes throughout the day. Meanwhile, students who receive a f...
President Harry Truman initiated The School Lunch Program (NSLP) in 1946, it was established under the National School Lunch Act. The program provides nutritionally balanced, low‐cost lunches to more than 32 million boys and girls each school day.The NSLP ensures the nutrition,portion, and safety of our children food, over the years do to the rise of childhood obesity the The USDA School Lunch Program is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our youth. Many concerned citizens, such as Eric schlosser author of Fast Food Nation believes that the USDA is not providing our children with the right nourishment. Many parents are taking it into their own hand and creating and joining advocacy groups. It is crucial that our youth receive nutrient
Cafeterias nationwide are a main staple to providing children and teens everywhere millions of meals each year; it is important that what they are serving is nutritious, as well as food that students enjoy eating. Ensuring that a cafeteria runs smoothly is no small feat, especially with more government regulation than ever before. Budget constraints, lack of choices, and the amount of regulations make it difficult for schools to follow guidelines since Michelle Obama’s Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act went into effect in 2010.
The most recent, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill) provides necessary guidelines for our government 's involvement in school lunches. The Kids Act improves the choice of foods the State distribution agencies purchase for their school districts and allows for stricter food choices; however, this act leaves the decision to the state government. Though the Kids Act has not ensured healthier food it is, as Rebecca Edwalds said, “ By becoming the first piece of legislation to impose a federal nutritional education requirement, the Kids Act is a big step in the right direction” (Edwalds 1061). Edwalds then proposes an amendment to the Kids Act, including substantial guidelines rather than broad, open-ended recommendations. “The proposed amendment seeks to strike a balance between the need for more concrete guidelines and the nuances of different school districts” (Edwalds
Wu, Sarah. Fed up with Lunch: How One Anonymous Teacher Revealed the Truth about School Lunches--and How to Change Them! San Francisco, CA: Chronicle, 2011. E
On January 18, 2012 the Obama administration announced a new set of changes to pile on top of the older rules that had already been set in action. Older constraints on the lunches had been put in earlier, but the new ones cut down the so deemed ‘unhealthy’ food even more and was replace with more ‘wholesome’ choices. The last set of rules supplemented more fruits and vegetables to the school meals and decreased the amount of fat and salt (Nixon, 1). As mentioned earlier, the new rules were a considerable amount of Mrs. Obama’s fight to lower the number of overweight children in America through better nutrition and exercise (Nixon, 5). The goal was to force the students to be healthier by providing only...
Williamson, D. A., Han, H., Johnson, W. D., Martin, C. K., & Newton, R. L. (2013). Modification of the school cafeteria environment can impact childhood nutrition. Results from the Wise Mind and LA Health studies. Appetite, 61, 77–84. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2012.11.002
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.