Persuasive Essay On School Lunch Programs

1163 Words3 Pages

Do you remember your favorite “School Lunch”? I do, I essentially had two favorites; pizza and hamburgers with fries. Think back, wasn’t there at least one school lunch that the lunch ladies made that everyone was so excited to eat. Kids that habitually brought their super hero lunch box with thermos would leave it at home and be in line for pizza or burgers and fries. We could also go back for “seconds”, it was the best meal of the week including what was served at home. The federal government has been involved in the NSLP (National School Lunch Program) since 1946 with the implementation of the National School Lunch Act. These initial programs developed the commodity distribution program for schools, institutions, needy households, summer …show more content…

The impact that these changes have had on school lunch programs have not been progressive or improved the school lunch program.
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 …show more content…

Active teens require 2000-5000 calories a day(Kids Health). The healthy choices may be available but, are kids really eating the food? According to the statistics on waste, the answer to this question is”No”. The Healthy Kids Hunger-Free Act originated in 2010, new updated guidelines implemented in 2012 include the following: increase amounts of fruits and vegetables, calorie limits according to age group, reduction in fats and sodium. All schools were required to implement the changes in 2012-2013. One of the changes implemented because of the enormous amount of waste was “offer versus serve”. In the updated guidelines, this was another requirement. The term “offer versus serve” was coined to reduce waste: students can decline some of the food offered that they do not intend to eat (USDA Food and Nutrition Service n.p.). This confirms the fact that students were not eating the healthy choices that were being served. As a result the calorie intake for a student was now a health risk since they are not getting enough to support their growing bodies. Another point to be seen with the caloric guidelines and putting a cap on the caloric intake of a child is that these figures do not consider and athlete; who needs double or triple the caloric intake to support 2 hours of training in the morning and 2-3 hours after school, or the

Show More
Related

  • Review of Free For All: Fixing School Food in America by Janet Poppendieck

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Schools are spending too much money with this program that could be spent on other benefits for schools. Rather than using the money to get students new technology or property it 's wasted on a lunch program that students do not enjoy nor want to purchase. In the Article, “School Lunch Food is Not Fresh, Students Say” Journalist Audrey Levine interviews high school students about they feel about their school lunches. “It’s way too expensive now, but I’m still buying,” said senior Stephanie Huang. “And I don’t think more people are bringing lunch because

    Read More

  • School Lunches In Ted Talk: Changing School Lunches

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    has to spend more money on changing school lunch system from eliminating unnecessary spending portion of system and create farming class. As reported by Cooper, “ The National School Lunch Program needs 8 billion dollars to feed 30 million children a year to serve high quality foods.” However, this price of amount has to be double to serve healthy foods to students because our next generation has to grow up with high quality foods not with low quality foods. Moreover, according to Cooper, the U.S. spends more than 100 million dollars on fast foods portion which the U.S. suppose to spend less amount of money on fast foods to improve the entire food system of the country. If the U.S. government lower the expense of fast food system and raises the amount of money for school lunches, entire schools of the U.S. would get positive results. For example, students could brainstorm very fast as Albert Einstein, and gain more energy to work out on their gym classes. Furthermore, school have to create agriculture class for students to have strong knowledges in foods. Students can literally be ware of what they eat at their lunch times; they will know vegetables grow in the ground and how foods are really fresh. Therefore, schools must provide farming class as in Berkeley; students have rights to know how foods are important to them. As a result, students could get a lot of benefits for changing school

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Unhealthy School Lunches

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bringing awareness to unhealthy lunches are not helping school lunches get healthy says chef ann cooper an author, educator, and chef. But the government is not completely ignoring it the issue. The federal government has a variety of rules and regulations

    Read More

  • Government Run School Lunches Essay

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    We all remember that day when President Obama took office, and our school lunches changed forever. First Lady Michelle Obama, felt that too many American kids are overweight, so she thought she needed to make our school lunches healthier, with more fruits and vegetables. One of the major changes she made was how many calories the school cooks were able to give the kids. The new requirements are as follows: up to 650 for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, 700 for sixth through eighth graders and 850 for high scholars. These numbers are consistent with the Mayo Clinic’s recommendations ( Kuczynski-Brown). The main goal of cutting calories and taking away junk food, was to insure that kids are getting served a healthy lunch. At each lunch, schools must still provide a cup of fruit, a cup of vegetables, two servings of grains, two ounces of dairy, and a cup of fluid milk, so that students can get their needed vitamins and nutrients (Anonymous) . They are also wanting more local farmers to be involved, and give more of the food they grow to the school. At the high school I went to, we built a green house, and planted a garden to give us some local grown food. It was part of our Ag Science class. More and more schools are starting to do the same thing. The stats of overweight kids is really high. The guidelines are as follows:

    Read More

  • Nutritional Status of Adults in the United States

    1990 Words  | 4 Pages

    This is not the first time the U.S. has faced problems with the health of the nation. In 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act. This legislation came in response to claims that many American men were rejected for military service due to diet related health issues. School lunch was established as “a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities and other food (Gunderson, 2013).”

    Read More

  • The School Lunch Program

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is still a troubling growing paradox in hungry children and childhood obesity. Children are either getting too many or too little calories. NSLP is still criticized to this day, nonetheless they made a tremendous improvement to the program since publication of Fast Food Nation in 2001. The NSLP only provides student with 1 to 2 meals out of the day. It is up to the parents to teach and provide their children with nutritional food,“HEALTHY eating and physical activity habits are key to your child 's well-being. Eating too much and exercising too little can lead to overweight and related health problems that can follow children into their adult years. You can take an active role in helping your child--and your whole family--learn healthy eating and physical activity habits that can last for a lifetime.”(National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases). By teaching and encouraging healthy eating habits, Offer healthy food options at home and Limiting fast food and junk food. It is also important to Limit your child’s time using a TV, computer, cell phone, or game station and encourage them to participate in physical activity. A great way to do this is to sign your children up for sports. Fast Food Nation started the discussion of America’s Food epidemic, yet sadly fifteen years has later

    Read More

  • Kids Across America Forced to Eat School Lunch

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    ​Many parents of the students at these schools were outraged to find out that their healthy, homemade lunches were being replaced by the schools gluten-filled meals. According to James Joyner of Outside The Beltway a preschooler had gotten her bagged lunch taken away because an official at her school labeled it as “unhealthy”. The young girls lunch consisted of a turkey & cheese sandwich, a banana, chips, and an apple juice pouch. Her lunch was said to not have “met the USDA guidelines”. USDA guidelines state that lunches (whether they’re brought from home or supplied by the school) must include one serving of the following: grain, milk(dairy), meat(protein), and either a fruit or vegetable. Also, if the child is missing one of the food items a childcare provider is supposed to equip them with that missing item. Instead of providing her with the missing food item, the bagged lunch official took her whole lunchbox, and made the girl eat the school lunch (which was chicken nuggets). The reason for this action is still unclear to the child’s mother. The USDA reports that less than one-third of schools in the United States stay below the recommended standard for fat content in their meals. It seems as though multiple schools across th...

    Read More

  • Improving Nutrition in School Lunches

    2005 Words  | 5 Pages

    "National School Lunch Act." Poverty and the Government in America: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 21 January 2014.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On School Lunches

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Nutrition Education

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    Food is the essential vitality of life and the essence of survival. It nourishes one’s physical body to enable pursuit of passion. However, in overwhelming aspects of American society, food is viewed as an enemy. It is seen as the root cause of obesity which carries heavy condemnations of ugliness and weakness. Countless people have become obsessed with food as a means of exerting strength, displaying will-power, and achieving alleged beauty. The way society views nutrition has become misconstrued and disordered, resulting in unhealthy relationships with food, and thus emotional and physical harm. The most effective way to change society’s relationship with food is to target the presentation, practices, content, and intentions of nutrition

    Read More

  • School Cafeterias and School Vending Machines

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    Moreover, the controversy over cafeteria food is whether or not it is healthy for all students from elementary schools to colleges. Numerous factors lead to unhealthy eating in schools and on campuses. Sometimes options with better nutrition are offered, but when there are, they tend to be less appealing than the unhealthy foods which turns to obesity. Many schools are undergoing budget cuts and changes, and healthy food tends to take a back burner when deciding where the limited amounts of money should go (Gupta). Unfortunately, when schools do have healthy ingredients, the food is usually prep...

    Read More

  • School Lunch Research Paper

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    One reason our school should get a new lunch menu is many students do not like the food served. For example, a survey was taken and of the 31 students 100% said they disliked the food. As student Bryan Huang said, “The lunches are horrible, they need better choices and more choices.” 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 in 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. But, if they do not like the food served they won’t eat so they starve for the rest of the school day, which can

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On School Food

    1830 Words  | 4 Pages

    served at schools (Ralston, k.r (2008) the national lunch program). The main issue is if

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Feed The Hungry

    1477 Words  | 3 Pages

    Feed the hungry Keep granola bars in your car to pass out to people in need at stoplights- it's easy to picture the scene: the average escape to Chicago interrupted on an exit ramp by some downtrodden looking figure holding a cardboard sign. Situations like these have increasing difficult because money given could lead to drug or alcohol purchase, though you feel like you have a moral obligation to provide something. Therefore, the best method of giving would be sustenance in food to get them through the cold, lonely winter nights. Take a friend out to lunch, your treat- one of the laughable qualms about having a day off from school or half day is scrambling to make the plans the day before. A great place to start any plan is to involve food, and surprising your friends by offering to cover the bill brightens everyone's day.

    Read More

More about Persuasive Essay On School Lunch Programs

Open Document