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Essay about National School Lunch Program
Essay about National School Lunch Program
Nutrition at schools
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There needs to be some sort of regulation imposed on school lunches, in order to fight the growing obesity epidemic. Many people disagree with this statement, and have their own thoughts on the matter. The National School Lunch Act was passed in 1946 by President Harry Truman. All over the country, school districts joined lunch programs designed to feed children at free or reduced prices. In doing so, school districts had to follow specific guidelines that these programs required. Over the years, these standards have changed increasingly in order to provide children optimal nutrition. While many districts have fully taken advantage and successfully made the turn for the better, others struggle or are taking a little more time in implementing successful changes. Due to the inconsistencies amongst lunch programs in the United States, many point their fingers at the government. Not only did the National School Lunch Program provide lunch at free or reduced cost, it also provided enough food supply, maintenance and operation all over the country. It took a long time for the Act to pass because of the cost to run such a new program. Though it took a long time, Congress found the need to establish a lunch program with a set legislative foundation. Without such a foundation, school districts would be operating their own school lunch programs on a year to year basis. Some of the requirements and guidelines programs entailed not only meant feeding children at free or reduced cost, but also following minimum nutritional requirements, operate on a non-profit basis, and maintain proper records of all receipts and forward them to the State Agency.
Throughout the years, nutritional requirements have changed. The Hunger-Free Kids Act is an...
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Yuck: A 4th Grader's Short Documentary About School Lunch. Dir. Zachary Maxwell. Perf. Zachary Maxwell and Lucas Maxwell. Yuckmovie.com. Zachary Maxwell. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
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Janet Poppendieck is a professor of sociology at Hunter College in New York, and 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 of recent changes in the Nation School Lunch Program’s dietary guidelines. Poppendieck’s book looks at the in depth reasons 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 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.
Lehmann, Deborah. "Why School Cafeterias Are Dishing Out Fast Food (page 2)." Education.com. Education, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Woldow, D. (2012, March 28). How Do School Meal Policies Affect JoJo? . beyondchron.org. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php
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.
“More than 76 percent of schools sell soft drinks and sweetened fruit drinks, but fewer than half offered bottles water. Fewer than 15 percent sell low-fat or nonfat yogurt, and fewer than one third order skim milk. Only 25 percent of schools say they've reduced fats and oils in recipes.”(Spake, 2). Choices at lunch range from greasy to unidentifiable. Most students eat school lunches five days a week. So most of the food they eat throughout the week comes from the school cafeteria. Although, the schools do tend to offer healthy choices such as salads, subs, skim milk, and unlimited fruits and vegetables. “Each week Phoenix students are served a variety of fruits and vegetables from guava to grapes and jicima to red peppers. School officials hope that by exposing children to fruits and vegetable they may develop a taste for them and request their parents to buy them.”(Bailey, 1). Real meat is becoming an issue in schools. “According to reports issued by the Physicians Committee for responsible Medicine (PCRM) the USDA dumps hundreds of millions of pounds of surplus beef, chicken, cheese, and pork on the National School lunch Program.”(Lord, 42). Chicken isn't whole white meat; some of it doesn't even taste like meat! Let’s move on to unhealthy foods. There are unlimited amounts of un...
Food To Students." Points Of View: Junk Food In Schools (2013): 2. Points of View
Thirty years ago, overweight children were barely one in ten, but now, in 2015, one in three American children are not only overweight but obese. This problem has reached epidemic proportions and has made established writers write what they think is the source and offer solutions to the problem. Radley Balko is a self-proclaimed libertarian that writes about civil liberties and the criminal justice system to promote limited government and individual freedom. He writes “What You Eat Is Your Business” because the government has been pushing for more federal control of health care and passed a new law that makes people pay for others healthcare. He repeats several times that people should be responsible for themselves, not other people, not the companies, and definitely not the government. On the other hand, Michael Moss is an established writer on the topic of healthy eating habits and fighting for the consumer. He won the 2010 Pulitzer prize for this article “That burger that shattered her life” This article that is
Nixon, Ron. “New Rules for School Meals Aim at Reducing Obesity”. The New York Times. 25. Jan. 2012. 14. Oct. 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/us/politics/new-school-lunch-rules-aimed-at-reducing-obesity.html?_r=0
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
RAMÍREZ, R. (2013). PASS THE CHANGE, PLEASE: STYMIEING AMERICA'S CHILDHOOD HEALTH CRISIS WITH LOCAL FOODS IN SCHOOLS. Duke Forum For Law & Social Change (DFLSC), 5129-147.
As discussed throughout this paper there has been controversy about Michelle Obama’s school lunch guidelines. The reader has heard multiple arguments developed from this topic from each viewpoint expressed in this dispute. Now it is up to them to take a side.This paper is about Michelle Obama’s school lunch guidelines and how they are affecting schools and students across the nation. To help reduce the number of overweight children in America, Michelle Obama made lunch regulations schools had to follow and sparked a widespread conflict.
Pink slime, gray burgers, enough preservatives to mummify a small dog: all examples of what a child attending a public school could be eating in school day. Although awareness concerning childhood obesity has been spread, the food being consumed in schools is still unsatisfactory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in teenagers since 1980, leading to type two diabetes and other health concerns (Yeoman). This is no doubt due to the new fatty foods being produced and served in the lunch room. The National School Lunch Program has set standards on what school lunch should be like, but these standards are rarely met by schools (Curtis). Furthermore, this only applies to the school lunch being prepared, and not for everything being sold; cookies, candy, and chips don't have any requirements. The food that is served has been preserved with large amounts of sodium and frozen in order for it to be stored for months before use, which is very unhealthy. The meat being imported doesn't even meet popular fast food companies' standards, and because of this, it's been concluded that school lunches are actually less healthy than fast food.
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
Ramirez, R. (2013). Pass the Change, Please: Stymieing America’s Childhood Health Crisis With Local Foods in Schools. Duke Forum For Law & Social Change (DFLSC), 5129-147.