School Lunches & Government Regulations are Unhealthy for Kids and Schools

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In LAUSD, students throw away over $100,000 in food every day. That adds up to a loss of around $18,000,000 annually, which is 10% of their food, wasted (Watanabe). Our nation's schools are losing billions of dollars annually, and our weak economy is paying for school meals that many students refuse to eat, despite the efforts of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.The government is making attempts to reduce childhood obesity by regulating school meals, PE, and health education, but it has all been to no avail. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is actually harming both the kids and their schools because the meals are more expensive, the yen up unappetizing, and many kids are left with empty bellies.

The obesity epidemic is a very severe problem that is especially serious in our nation’s children, and the government is taking several steps with the aim to fix that. 2010’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act aims to allow kids to get balanced, nutritious, yummy school meals as well as exercise that will reduce childhood obesity and other related health issues (Watanabe). While these new laws were set with nothing but good intentions, there is still quite a lot that doesn’t exactly match the lawmakers’ original intentions for the laws’ outcomes. Regulation adjustments called for many changes to the menu offerings along with other alterations, none of which came without a cost to the schools and students.

These new rules created by the government, try to make life, and the school environment, better for kids, but they might even make the situation worse by regulating the wrong things in the wrong ways.

“The 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act . . . imposed a dizzying array of requirements on calories, portion sizes, even the color of fr...

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Unmacht, Jacob. “@MichelleObama Thanks for the ‘healthy’ lunch. This is definitely enough for a growing 16 year old boy. #not.” 7 Apr. 2014. Tweet. 20 Apr. 2014.

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