School Lunches are Preposterous Schools worldwide try to make changes for the better when it comes to the nutritional values of things served at school lunches, or do they? In 2010, Michelle Obama came in to better the school lunches by increasing its nutritional value. Many parents below the middle class line get help from the government to pay for their child’s lunch. Even middle class are having a difficult time paying for lunches. Many students are even coming home hungry because what was being served at school isn’t worth the little money some of them have. Nathaniel Johnson states, “In 2012, diabetes cost U.S. residents $245 billion, and the cost of obesity was estimated at $168 billion in 2010” (web). That means the change for better food got worse from 2010 to 2012. The quality, the amount, and the less amount of access to freshness are the problems with our nation’s diet …show more content…
Before 2010, students were allowed to choose from whatever hot foods line they wanted and the food wasn’t as regulated. Then the government came in to change the school lunches for the better, to make them healthier. But not many students wanted to acclimate to what they are being served. The snack lines became longer and hot lunches unwanted. Shanthy Bowman says, “Adolescence represents a time of increasing autonomy, and teenagers purchase more fast food with their own money” (web). More and more children are buying the food they want rather than what they should be eating and parents are allowing it. Unfortunately, it is creating the problem of spending more for junk food and less on healthy nutritious lunch. Nestle says, “Schools are perfectly capable of producing nutritionally sound foods that taste good and are enthusiastically consumed by students as well as teachers” (256). They can make a change but why would they want to. They choose to believe that school lunches are better for
Lunch time is a time to take a break from the day and recharge for the rest of the day. In elementary schools it is also a time to meet up with your friends and socialize. Lunch time is not only time to eat. It is important for the mental, social, and emotional health of the children as well. Children need them chance to unwind and destress, which is promoted by socializing with friends. “Lunch should be an enjoyable part of the school day for students, offering a break from classroom work and a place to relax, socialize, and become nourished.”("The Cafeteria: Creating a Positive Mealtime Experience", 2013) Lunch time should be done in a setting where
Since the beginning of time, schools were always a place we could trust. A place where we could send our kid(s) off to without worry of what they may be learning, doing, or eating, but perhaps we should be. As the craving of fast food is growing, so is the demand for it. Some schools have taken advantage of this and brought fast food into their schools, providing it for lunch. A high school in California serves McDonald’s, Subway, and even Quiznos to their students for lunch (Lehmann). The school claims the kids are more likely to buy school food when they see brand foods (n.p.). Schools get money from the National School Lunch Program for every meal they serve, but that money from the government only covers so much (n.p.). To pay the rest of the lunch staff, facilities costs, and food, schools turn to the money they make by selling lunches and breakfast to their students (n.p.). Another school in California has even tried to mimic Round Table, a brand name pizza in their area, with healthier ingredients, but was only able to sell 250-300; when they sold Round T...
Unhealthy foods are what make the money for schools and that is why they serve them for students. (Schlafy) Schools feel like they need the extra money in the budget, even though it is at the student’s expense. Data shows that nearly 60% of all middle schools in the US serve soda from vending machines. (Schlafy) Soda is very high in sugar and is not at all good for children, but it is still sold in school vending machines. The ways food in schools is now are way too high in fats and sugars. This is not good for the children and very bad in the long run. Elementary schoolchildren have an estimated $15 billion of their own money that they can use to buy whatever they want in schools, and parents have almost another $160 billion to give students for food money. (Schlafy) Big businesses see this as a big source of profit and therefore encourage children to buy their products, and want them to be offered in school because of th4e likelihood of children buying the business’s product. All in all, obesity in the US is greatly influenced by the foods offered in schools
“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.
“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...
Are your children getting all the right nutrition in their school lunches? Do they know what their lunch options are and whether or not they contribute to obesity? David Zinczenko in his essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater,” tries to persuade readers that consumers are obese because of the lack of food options, and how innutritious foods at fast food restaurants is harmful to the human body. He claims that when only unhealthy meals are available, there are many different health problems that result such as obesity and diabetes. While I both agree and disagree with Zinczenko that eaters aren’t to blame, I will assert that school lunches have an impact on childhood obesity (like fast food restaurants) and also how it is a young eater’s responsibility whether or not to eat the healthy nutritional foods.
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...
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch Program changed its focus to help these students. This program, however, decreased schools’ lunch budgets, and schools had a hard time keeping up with the amount of free meals they had to provide, so they came up with some extra ways to increase revenue. However, in a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day, and proves that hiring a trained chef to cook real, healthy meals can increase profit. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most schools across the nation. The quality of health of the food being served in school lunches is extremely poor and was allowed to decline even more with a new set of rule changes. However, there are some improvements currently being made to increase the quality of health of the food being served to students, including teaching them all about food and its nutritional information, both good and bad. In order for students to eat healthier lunches at school, the USDA needs to implement healthier ...
Schools with enormous food courts where students can buy meals and drinks from commonly known franchises, such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola, are the schools with the most health problems. Fast-food franchises are showing up everywhere, but do these businesses belong in high schools? No! Schools are here to enlighten students for life after school. If high schools promote bad eating habits by placing fast-food franchises in their cafeterias, then how can students eat right and healthy beyond high school.
Many cafeteria workers and staff members in 49 states have said many students do not want the governments new school lunches. Almost 7 out of 17 schools with have been seen with students throwing away some or all their fruits or vegetables, even the cafeteria workers are suffering under these new standards. About 60.3 percent of school districts want flexibility to be given to all schools to improve their ability to provide and give good nutrition without harm to any instructions and school district operations. Schools should know by now what is good for students and what is not, but they should not go overboard with the wheat and whole grain items. Another example that shows that schools should be responsible for providing a nutritious lunch is knowing that there are a variety of ways to make healthy foods taste good for school students. Healthy tasty food that will risk diabetes and obesity .One of the biggest reasons people do not eat healthy foods is because they feel it as if it will not taste good. The problem is, if your health food does not taste good, you are eating the wrong health food. Just because something is good for you does not mean it has to taste nasty, boring, or completely gross. There are plenty of ideas out there for eating healthy without making sacrifices on taste. “It is silly that people are worried about kids throwing things out. There are many ways to make
To begin, school meals do not set a solid foundation for children regarding the diet habits they will have for the rest of their lives. For example, they are teaching kids that greasy pizza and corn dogs are a part of a healthy, nutritious diet. One student says, “We think school lunches are healthy because they have all these posters in the cafeteria telling us to eat healthy food and be active; we think the school is doing their part by serving us healthy food too, but they are not” (Jimenez). Not only do children think that this cheap food is a good choice, but schools also think they are benefiting because of how much money they conserve.
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
Although there is a risk of upsetting people who are not worried about the health and wellbeing of today’s youth with selfish reasoning for wanting to keep junk food, ridding schools of junk foods will prove itself to be very beneficial. Children can choose healthier options without being ridiculed by others, wondering if what they are eating is good for them, and/or worrying about negative effects. One’s health cannot be overlooked as it is the livelihood of that person and much more. It is not a subject that can be taken lightly. Action to change the current conditions of America’s population’s
Have you ever tasted school cafeteria food? I don’t think you would want to. In school story books, do you have characters saying that the food tasted good at school cafeterias? Nope. Why is this? Cafeteria food is often cheap, bought in bulk, high in calories, malnutritious, and microwaved. Student polls and opinions prove this. Therefore, this leads to a suggestion: Healthier, tastier foods and a better, advanced lunch system should be implemented.
According to some of my friends, their parents buy more unprocessed and local foods rather than the usual processed foods (Mei, Murray). There could also be children, or teens, whose parents simply don’t allow them to eat at a fast-food restaurant quite often. Unfortunately, according to the table below McDonald’s seems to be the fast-food chain restaurant that is targeting the youth the most (see table 1). Nowadays, many parents tend to take their kids to a fast-food restaurant simply because it’s easier and faster to order food then it is to cook an entire meal (Murray). Not only is eating out, or at least take out, efficient, but it’s also less stressful on the parents. Children can tend to be very picky eaters, well most of them at least. My younger cousin for one refuses to eat anything green, unless it’s a cucumber. As we progress more and more into our culture of industrialized eating, we need to consider what we are risking in the long run. There’s actually many different things that not only college students but the entire population could do to help reduce our risks in the long run. For one, it would be to stop eating so frequently at these fast-food restaurants. I know many of my peers, who I went to high school with, would often go to McDonald’s for breakfast before school started. Fortunately, at Denison, it’s not that common for us to go to McDonald’s for breakfast; probably because the closest one is in the next town