Improving Nutrition in School Lunches - 1990 Words

According to the Centers for Disease Control, â€Å"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†¦show more content†¦In most states, if a child’s family uses food stamps, they qualify for free school meals (Christie 341). In 2007, almost 49 percent [of students] received free lunches, and another 9 pe rcent paid a reduced price (National). This new direction created big dents in the schools’ meal budgets. Even though schools did not have as much money for lunches, they were still required to provide every student with school lunch, including those who could not afford to buy it. Therefore, schools began serving poor quality lunches because they had to start buying cheaper food in order to keep providing food for everyone (Levine 151). 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. Schools began to overlook nutrition, health, and education in favor of money (152). Schools contracted with private fast food chains in order to increase revenue, causing many students to eat unhealthy lunches at school (Christie 341-42). However, schools still did not have enough money to provide lunch. Therefore, in order to bring in extra income, schools contracted with soda companies as well (341). Case Study In a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day. Chef Paul is the head of her schools lunch program. She makes healthy, fresh food every day and the studentsShow MoreRelatedDeveloping Eating Habits During School Lunches1671 Words   |  7 Pageswhile in elementary school, has often led to obesity and serious medical conditions. In a child’s early stages, it’s important for them to be taught about healthy decisions in order to avoid any future health complications that can have a dramatic effect on their lives. Moreover, while improving better school lunches, students in school will more likely be able to acquire the necessary amount of energy to get through the day. With the nutrition and energy from healthy lunches, students will increaseRead MoreShould School Lunch Be Nutritious? Essay862 Words   |  4 Pagestime in high school, I often struggled finding something to eat at lunch. I’m not a particularly picky person, but I spent copious amounts of time wandering around the cafeteria looking for an appetizing lunch and coming up short. I felt like I was hopelessly searching for scrumptious food. Not only did I have trouble finding palatable food, I couldn’t find any healthy options either. Everyday I ended up buying a lunch that was unfilling, unhealthy and sometimes downright inedible. School cafeteria’sRead MoreThe National School Lunch Program760 Words   |  4 PagesThe National School Lunch Program is a federally funded meal program operating in over 100,000 public. It provides nutritionally balanced, low†cost or free lunches to more than 31 million children each school day in 2012 based on the childs household income (USDA). The program is managed by the Food and Nutrition Service at the Federal level and by a State education agency at the state level. We will be looking at the statistics of the National Lunch Program for five local schools , and compareRead MoreBenefits Of Healthy School Lunches And The Growing Dietary899 Words   |  4 PagesSchools take control of students every move from the amount of homework they get to the exact time they get out, which is a right they do have. In this eye opening TED talk, Chef Ann Cooper discusses the importance of healthy school lunches and the growing dietary problems of our nation’s youth. School needs to realize that the decisions that they make can impact students in a positive or negative way. Many schools believe if they try to serve healthy foods to students they will not eatRead MoreAre Nutritionists And Healthy Lunches?1421 Words   |  6 PagesNutritionists and Healthy Lunches Nowadays, more children in the United States are struggling with obesity. According to the State of Obesity (2012), â€Å"5 percent of 6-to-11-years-olds were severely obese† (para. 2). Since we discovered such information, we decided to follow big idea number ten which states, â€Å"Primary education (six to eight years) must be designed to meet the unique development of children this age† (Couchenour Chrisman, 2011, p. 276). We created an advocacy action plan called NutritionistsRead MoreObesity And The Rate Of Children Obesity1585 Words   |  7 Pagesdissatisfaction (Mustillo et al.; Hesketh et al.,). In order to solve a problem, it is necessary to discover the reasons of the issue. In a recent study by a nonprofit youth program Dosomething.org, students were asked to send in pictures of their school lunches, and the pictures being received are terrifying. Each state present a plate with varieties of food, with the main courses running from mac and cheese, to chicken nuggets, burgers, French fries. The meal usually come with fruit cup, milk, cannedRead MoreAn Advocacy Action Plan Called Nutritionists And Healthy Lunches1439 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Primary education (six to eight years) must be designed to meet the unique development of children this age† (Couchenour Chrisman, 2011, p. 276). We created an advocacy action plan called Nutritionists and Healthy Lunches (N.H.L). In this action plan, we advocate that elementary schools should hire at least two nutritionists. The nutritionists would go into each classroom at least once a week for about twenty minutes. Through out these twenty minutes, they would inform the students of healthy and unhealthyRead MoreObesity And School Lunch Program997 Words   |  4 Pageswho ate school lunches had more 29 percent probability to be obese than those who ate their own home-made lunches. From that research, we can foresee the relation between obesity and school lunch program(approaches) as school lunch program usually offers low-nutritious food for its cheaper price. Therefore, in my paper, I would like to argue about the current American school lunch approaches which indirectly cause the childhood obesity should be re-evaluated through the comparison of school lunch systemsRead MoreChildhood Obesity : A Serious Problem1221 Words   |  5 Pagesproblems in school. Childhood obesity can lead to many health problems for children including diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and problems in the future. Childhood obesity is a very serious problem that many of our children face in this country. According to the center of disease control the percentage of school aged children aged 6–11 years old are obese in the United States (CDC, 2015). Our school system is one of the major factors because kids spend most of their time in school. FocusingRead MoreThe Taste Test – Pass Or Fail?. Introduction. It Is Amazing1636 Words   |  7 PagesTrump administration. One specific legislation that is in danger is the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA). Under the Trump administration, the lobbying group, School Nutrition Association, had announced recommendations in early March to reduce federal nutrition standards for which Michelle Obama campaigned (CNN, 2017). The School Nutrition Association suggested that the meals prepared should be healthy, appealing meals and specifically recommended that the USDA allow saltier meals and the cutting