National Breakfast and Lunch Program
The problem was that every more and more children were failing classes in school. It is not always due to the child having issues or that they have a mental disease. A lot of what we eat as humans, especially children will have an effect on our moods and behavior. The breakfasts and lunches that in the past have been served at schools are packed full of fat and sugar. This can cause children to become tired in classes, fall asleep, or it can puts the child into a sugar-dosed coma where they lose all focus in the class. Every morning in schools across the United States, millions of children are participating in the School Breakfast Program. Then at lunch, the children are using the National Lunch Program
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One of the additions was smoothies. Made with fruit, vegetables, milk, and yogurt, smoothies are a common item in the Child Nutrition Programs (School Meals). The Food and Nutrition Service has added and modified the allowance on smoothies. It now permits vegetable with yogurt and fruit with yogurt smoothies at lunch. This memorandum replaced older guidelines on smoothies. Another change that came was reducing the saturated fat in school meals. This allowed only fat-free and low-fat milk and established maximum calorie limits. The USDA’s assistance will continue to push the need for preparing foods in ways that reduce the fat level in school meals. This rule, however, does not make schools meet a total fat standard under current regulations. The expectation is that new meal requirements will make it for schools to offer meals that are lower in total fat (“School Meals”, 2012). As the years go on more changes are to be made. Schools now provide a variety fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat milk to keep the children healthy and happy. All the unhealthy items like soda and sugar filled beverages have been seized and vending machines have been permanently replaced with healthier snack options (Sifferlin, …show more content…
Childhood obesity has increased dramatically in the U.S. over the last several decades. With children being more obese at younger ages, this could cause longer term health issues and academic issues (“School Meals”, 2012). With these programs, students can improve their food choices, body weight, and school performance. Also with these programs, lower income families can get free or discounted meals from schools. Children from families with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty line are eligible for reduced lunches, meaning that they cannot be charged more than 40 cents for a meal (“School Meals”, 2012). Children from families with incomes under 130 percent of the poverty line are eligible for free lunches from schools. Children from families with incomes greater than 185 percent of the poverty line pay full price for their meals, but their meals are still subsidized to some extent. Local schools set their own prices for a full-price meal but must operate their meal services as non-profit programs. Afterschool snacks are provided to children on the same income basis as lunches, but programs that are in areas where at least 50 percent of students get free or reduce lunches, can serve all snacks free (“School Meals”, 2012). An added benefit is that of 2014 school lunches are proved to be healthier than lunches brought from home. This research was done by professor of
Government date shows that in the past thirty years, rate of being overweight in six to eleven year olds is up 19% and 6% in age 12 to 19. Without support, school lunches remain high in fat. (Finkelstien) According to the CDCP, obesity is double what it was in children and triple in adolescents since 1980. Many reforms were attempted to help this problem, but many inadvertently caused more problems. (Finkelstien) A 730 calorie lunch should have no more than 24 grams of fat and no more than 8 grams of it saturated yet the average USDA lunch has 31 grams of fat and 14 rams of it is saturated. (Yeoman) These very high levels of fat are why obesity is becoming worse in children. It can be concluded that school food is still extremely high in fat and this can be directly linked to the high rates of obesity in young children and
I don't think our school lunch is healthy because it has fat and too much sodium. Although it is good it is fattening it is the reason for much of the obesity in the U.S. Many kids have no other option to eat the unhealthy school lunches or they will be hungry.
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
First of all, an increasing amount of kids are becoming overweight because their schools pressure them to eat sugary, fatty, and high-calorie foods. Not only do many schools promote consumption of harmful foods, many schools also actively serve them in school lunches. In 1963, 4% of kids were obese; currently, approximately 17% of kids are obese. Some might argue that kids themselves are the reason for the increase, because school lunches also provide healthier foods. Unfortunately, most kids do not have much of a choice - healthier foods are priced much higher than their unhealthy counterpart, consequently many parents do not want their kids to buy the more expensive, yet healthier product. In my 3½ years ...
“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...
Does every student have the exact same nutritional needs? According to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, all students have similar, if not identical, nutritional needs. This act focuses on the amount of calories in the daily school lunches. Most often, they achieve lower calorie meals by regulating the amounts of fat, sodium, and sugar distributed in daily school lunches. The primary purpose this, regulating the calorie intake of students eating school lunch, is to reduce child obesity in the United States. This act requires lunches contain between seven hundred and eight hundred and fifty calories. Typically, these lunches include one cup of vegetables, one cup of fruit, two ounces of grain, two ounces of protein, and one cup of milk. These lunches fit the needs of several students, however society assumes every student fits the same nutritional needs. However, this is not a true fact. Many students require more calories due to a variety of factors. We cannot have a school lunch reform where the needs of all students are not met. If only some, or less than the majority, of students are receiving the nutritional values they need, we need to adapt the reform
Childhood obesity epidemic, one of the most detrimental disorders, has maximized social and economical challenges faced by Americans in the 21st century. The United States of America has been always placed in the top-10 most obese countries, a list not be so proud about. Poor dietary habits at school due to consumption of competitive, unhealthy foods have resulted in escalating obesity thereby influencing a student’s performance in and outside school. As a major problem’s solution lies within finding its root, schools with the aid of governmental organizations, non-profit organizations, and institutions, have started to provide valid solutions in an attempt to reverse this epidemic. For instance one major attempt, by the Center of Disease Control (CDC) and the State Board of Education, to alleviate this problem in schools was the introduction of ‘sin-tax’. Schools’ taxed students on purchasing sugar-sweetened beverages but that was not quite successful, as it did not stop the affluent students to purchase high calorific beverages and only targeted students with a low socio-economic background. Thus, the most influential solution implemented by these governmental organizations’ that is responsible for decreasing childhood obesity by quite a large factor is improving school meals by increasing the nutrition standard. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken mandatory mediation steps that involve eliminating the sales of competitive fast food and increasing the supply of high organic nutritious food that meets the USDA requirement thereby improving the nutrition standard. I believe schools, with the intervention of governmental agencies like the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment (SND...
Soda’s are leaving vending machines and being be substituted with less-sugary drinks, bread is being substituted for whole wheat and milk is being substituted to fat free milk. First Lady Michelle Obama took it into her own hands to provide the United states children with food that meets nutritional standards. “Through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by the First Lady and signed by President Obama, USDA made the first major changes in school meals in 15 years, which will help us raise a healthier generation of children.” (Leonard). Healthy Hunger- Free Act went into effect in 2012 some of the changes were that meals needed 5 components: grain, meat, fruit, vegetable, and milk. Students MUST take at least 1/2 cup of fruit OR vegetable for a meal.
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
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 ...
School lunch is an obvious problem that has yet to be fixed. Mark Samuelsson once said, “We struggle with eating healthily, obesity, and access to good nutrition for everyone. But we have a great opportunity to get on the right side of this battle by beginning to think differently about the way that we eat and the way that we approach food.” A well know fact to almost all students and their parents is that there are many problems with school lunches and it needs to change. Not only is school lunch unhealthy, but it also does not taste good most of the time. Some people feel that school lunch is not that big of a deal so it should be very cheaply processed in factories and preserved, but that is not the case. In order to solve the lingering
While the snacks available in school vending machines may be rich in flavor, they also are rich in fats and calories. Regulation of competitive foods in schools around the globe continues to be a highly contested debate. With an endless amount of information to consider, solutions to implementing healthier foods in school vending machines and lunch lines vary enormously. Analyzing multiple studies worldwide, discussing the issue from multiple perspectives, and examining the demographics of those impacted by food showcase the importance of nutrition in schools. By providing several studies with different ways to implement healthier foods into schools, one may view the issue with a broader scope.
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
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...
It’s unfortunate to say that as time goes and problems are given resolutions, school lunches are left in the same frozen state. School lunches should should not only be fulfilling but also a nutritious and healthy meal. This is not the case however and what is left is nothing more than a low nutritious meal, that is served to students everyday. Whether or not the situation can be solved easily; I feel as though school lunches can be improved by adding a variety of soups to our menus.