School Lunch Reform: Is it Really a Change For The Better?
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 Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act was passed in 2010 by Barack Obama, with support from Michelle Obama. This bill changed the way many cafeterias are running on a daily basis, both in budget and what (as well as how much) they are serving. To understand why some schools are struggling to fully thrive under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, it is important to know some basic statistics of this act and what they mean for schools. Amanda Paulson informs us about funding statistics of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, stating that the Federal Government endorsed “[a]n additional $4.5 billion over 10 years to child nutrition programs–the first time the federal government has increased funding for them in 30 years.” Paulson continues on by stating that schools receive a higher reimbursement rate than prior to this act being passed; in particular, schools now receive “[a] 6-cent increase to the $2.68 reimbursement rate that schools get from the federal government for free school meals.” Furthermore, Julie Kelly and Jeff Stier inform us that “[t]he Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act funds a number of child-nutrition programs including the National Schoo...
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...petizing new items says Cincinnati’s Shelly. For instance, two vendors offer hamburgers that include mushrooms in the beef, ‘adding flavor and juiciness’ while reducing sodium to the appropriate level” (qtd. In Jackson 26) Sourcing foods from vendors while maintaining a balanced budget is difficult, but it is especially important so that young minds are able to develop.
The regulations passed by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act make it harder than ever for schools to provide adequate nutrition to students by having such rigorous guidelines. While some schools have had no issue following guidelines, not every school is able to source viable food while staying in budget. It is vital that cafeterias are able to successfully meet guidelines, but it is also important that they provide food that students will eagerly consume as well as help them become better students.
The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act has taken over schools nationwide and needs to be stopped. There are more negatives than positives that go along with this act and there needs to be an end. Schools should not have to waste money on expensive food to have it not be eaten. Students should be able to enjoy what the lunchroom has to offer. The students do not buy these lunches so the food goes to waste. In 2012, when the Healthy Hunger Free-Kids Act was made students stopped eating their school lunches and schools began to lose great amounts money. It 's beneficial to encourage healthy eating habits with schools but this act needs to be reformed.
Today, La Mirada High School has a “closed campus” lunch policy. A closed campus lunch policy means that students can not leave campus to eat and are forced to eat food provided by the district at a price rate which the school chooses. Each year La Mirada and other High Schools alike sell hundreds of lunches a day totalling in thousands of dollars in sales. Money is most likely a major factor in why most schools don’t have an “open campus” lunch policy. Is it right that schools only provide one alternative to bringing a sack of lunch to school when it comes to feeding students at school? To me, a policy such as closed campus lunch is unjust and needs to be revised.
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:
Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this is working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government has now recognized it and provided a definition for it. The United States government has defined food insecurity as “a household level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA.gov). Food banks and anti-hunger advocates agree that some of the causes of food insecurity are stagnant wages, increase in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation of the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance. Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, it was almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be only ones affected by it, but all of America. Studies have shown that there is a link between food security, performance in the classroom, and obesity. If this issue is not faced head on, America will have a generation of children not fully prepared for the workforce and high health insurance rates due to obesity health issues.
Fruits and vegetables are now considered two separate groups, with increased servings. Since Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act went into effect School districts have been struggled to executing the program, the backlash from students was almost immediate children began throwing away most of their lunch.”The School Nutrition Association said that 70 percent of school meal programs had taken a significant financial hit since the new mandates went into effect. Cafeteria operators from Los Angeles to New York report discouraging amounts of food waste and declining
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
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 ...
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...
Health problems for children in America are already bad enough, and they are getting worse (almost tripled obesity in children since the 70’s), but these problems aren’t mainly caused by the schools providing junk food as options to eat at lunch. The school should still be able to provide junk food for the students to eat at lunch. Yes the food may cause health problems, but removing the junk food could also cause other problems. Like how the students may not want to eat the healthier food which would cause more problems to the students and their parents, that the school may not provide what the kids need to eat at lunch, and that the school could lose money if it switches to the healthier food. First of all, the children may not be willing to eat the healthier food that is supplied versus the other alternatives.
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...
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
The Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) takes places every five years that authorizes and funds the National School Lunch Program and other federal nutrition programs. As part of the last reauthorization in 2010, the Obama administration and first Lady Michelle Obama pushed Congress to mandate new food standards in an effort to fight childhood obesity by drastically limiting calories, reduce sodium, increase fruits and vegetables. On the surface the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) was a misguided attempt by the Federal government to expand its reach in the lives of average Americans.
Students learn and do their best when they are hungry, and uncomfortable! That makes perfect sense right? If you’re like most Americans, this may be one of the most ridiculous statements you have ever heard. I know I have never done anything better hungry. Many students sit through their lunch time at school because they have no food to eat because they don’t have the money to afford it, or they are not able to bring food from home for various reasons. This is why many schools have free and reduced lunch programs. But not everybody can apply for these programs; even middle class families in today’s economy sometimes can’t give their child cash every day. Times are tough, and every family is different. These are good programs, but they are not good enough. One child missing a meal, and going hungry is too many in my book. That’s why I think it should be at least a state law in North Carolina, if not a federal law, that offers free lunch in all public schools for all students, regardless of income. This way it’s simple, cost effective and easy, and nobody will be singled out, or go hungry if they do not bring their lunch from home.
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.
The cafeteria is not merely a place for small children; now that I am in college, I spend more time in the cafeteria than ever. Living in the dorms, I have no kitchen or any other place to cook. Instead, I have a meal plan that offers me fourteen meals each week at the Stanford/Hecht cafeteria. I eat lunch and dinner there as my two meals on most days. But, I do not and cannot go to the cafeteria and just get food. I get much more.