...School Lunches Remember those school lunches that they used to provide for us throughout elementary all the way up to high school, and if they did not they were about $2.50 a meal. Some kids hated them, others liked them and others just didn’t care as long as they had something to eat in between classes. The importance of school lunches is very high. Many kids always complain about the food, but for some it’s a blessing to them because that’s often their only meal due to their parent’s income. The lunches usually contained a milk, a juice of your choice and a small meal. Breakfast meals varied from cinnamon rolls, to French toast, to burritos, to pizza bagels. Lunch consisted of burritos again, salads, chicken, burgers, macaroni and cheese, chili cheese and beans with crackers or tostadas. And again, any of those meals along with a carton of milk and a juice were only $2.50, of...
Words: 878 - Pages: 4
...Hargraves, Huxford, Kirby, Meneely, Mikel Professor Michael Begnal ENG 104 March 16, 2016 Kids These Days Childhood obesity plagues more children in America than ever before, and it continues to grow in number year by year. In order to avoid letting childhood obesity numbers continue to grow, there needs to be changes in certain aspects of children’s lifestyles. This increase over the years can be attributed to many factors including unhealthy, calorie-filled school lunches and children not receiving enough exercise. Childhood obesity poses a very real threat to the health of younger generations and can lead to dangerous, life-threatening health issues later in life. In the rise of child obesity, children are at more risk of diabetes and other heart diseases that could not only affect them in the short and long term. In response to this issue, child obesity should be combated by offering healthier choices for school lunches, and allowing a full hour for recess. All of these could be accomplished by allowing more funding from the Department of Education, and this would allow more funding to state educational funds. Decreasing child obesity would be important for children in the long run because it would decrease their chance of developing type-two diabetes and early heart diseases. Obesity is the root cause of countless diseases, conditions, and illnesses, some of which are even life-threatening. Adulthood obesity has been linked to many deadly diseases. Some examples include...
Words: 2169 - Pages: 9
...Should schools be forced to serve healthier lunches? From vaccinations to doctor’s checkups, Americans do their best to promote health, especially among children. An increase in obesity cases can be observed in the last three decades; obese individuals are at higher risks for many heart and blood related illnesses. Malnourishment meaning lacking adequate nutrition is very prevalent among obese and underfed individuals. Nutrients are believed to provide many learning and cognitive benefits by stimulating receptors in the brain and releasing chemicals that help with learning. Research supporting good nutrition has been conducted, which has led to the government’s push in nutritious lunches. This push has led to a public debate on whether there...
Words: 934 - Pages: 4
...appropriately. Children spend a large portion of the year in school consuming many of their daily calories from school lunches; something must be done to make the food they eat healthier. School lunches are full of fat and calories and do not offer the right type of fruits and vegetables, no appropriate proteins and dairy items. The government has partnered with farmers to provide the food to the schools but in doing so has not offered our children the healthiest options. In addition schools do not have the budget to purchase healthier options on their own and will often subsidize the food program by selling name brand fast food in the cafeteria for a marked up price. Changing children’s eating habits in schools will be very difficult because you can’t force children to eat. It is uncertain if changing school lunches would decrease obesity or not. Though children are in school for a large portion of the day they still have time at home and if life changes are not made changing how they eat in one area may not do much of anything. Another assumption I have made is that by increasing recess time rather than decreasing it children would not be as obese. The same goes for making physical education mandatory in elementary schools and requiring physical education be taken in each semester of high school. Simply changing the lunch menu and offering more lunch time would not necessarily decrease the obesity rate among school age children. Without any type of education to go along with...
Words: 2507 - Pages: 11
...their health, especially during school lunch. Schools lunches normally consist of quick and easy options like pizza, chips, soda, etc., all foods that when eaten regularly can lead to serious health problems. Children are prone to these eating habits everywhere and have learned from school. It’s for reasons like this that obesity in children has doubled in the last 25 years. What was once known, as Adult-Onset Diabetes is now common within our youth and caused from childhood obesity. An article from USATOADAY titled “Unhealthy Risks for Kids Tip Scale” explains this, also going into detail about the debate between enforcing healthy lunches for students and keeping junk food in schools. Though fattening foods may be easily prepared, is the timing really worth the lives of our kids? Could a healthier diet at school make for a healthier lifestyle? These questions need answers. Let us begin. In order to get something accomplished, you must involve the government. An article from the Washington Post titled “Junk Food Widely Available at U.S Elementary Schools Despite Anti- Obesity Push” explains this and how federal regulation is necessary in order to enforce healthier school lunches. With childhood obesity increasing, more people are witnessing the epidemic and wanting an end to it. A study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation highlights this and describes their proposal that would set standards for nutrition and food/beverages sold in schools. To begin the process of finding...
Words: 1668 - Pages: 7
...regulate the content of school lunches? Well, some students think the government should, other students not so much. Many people dislike the thought of having a healthy school lunch, while others think having a healthy lunch will reduce obesity in America. Here’s what America had to say about this! Some people think the government should regulate school lunch, because it will be healthy and it will reduce obesity. Regulating school lunch was first challenged by Michelle Obama. .The first lady wanted to improve the nutritional content of food. Some citizens love the idea. Some people think if they regulate school lunch it will get rid of they fatty foods “The big difference is that the calories are from healthier foods....
Words: 749 - Pages: 3
...The school breakfast and lunch programs make nutritionally balanced low cost or free meals available to school children each day. School breakfast and lunches must meet the dietary guidelines for Americans and federal nutrition standards. The new school regulations have implemented adding the new fresh fruit and vegetable program to ensure that kids have healthier food choices to choose from. By adding this new program they make sure the schools can create a more conscious healthy environment and increase the consumption as well. These changes present the schools with a chance to make a difference in their diet and impact their present health and diet. This rule passed by the Food & Nutrition Service Agency requires most of the schools lunch and breakfast programs to have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free and low fat fluid milk in the meals served in schools. They must also reduce sodium levels and meet calorie requirements. These changes will help the dietary needs and help reduce the large scale of childhood obesity. The proposed rule in 2011 required these following changes to be implemented to the school menus: Offer vegetables daily at lunch including specific vegetable subgroups weekly (dark green, oranges and others as defined in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines) and a limited quantity of starchy vegetables throughout the week; • Offer whole grains: half of the grains would be the whole grain rich upon implementation of the rule and all grains...
Words: 713 - Pages: 3
...Assignment 2.1: The public needs to know- Draft Version Barbara Matos English 115 August 3, 2012 The school breakfast and lunch programs make nutritionally balanced low cost or free meals available to school children each day. School breakfast and lunches must meet the dietary guidelines for Americans and federal nutrition standards. The new school regulations have implemented adding the new fresh fruit and vegetable program to ensure that kids have healthier food choices to choose from. By adding this new program they make sure the schools can create a more conscious healthy environment and increase the consumption as well. These changes present the schools with a chance to make a difference in their diet and impact their present health and diet. This rule passed by the Food & Nutrition Service Agency requires most of the schools lunch and breakfast programs to have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free and low fat fluid milk in the meals served in schools. They must also reduce sodium levels and meet calorie requirements. These changes will help the dietary needs and help reduce the large scale of childhood obesity. The proposed rule in 2011 required these following changes to be implemented to the school menus: Offer vegetables daily at lunch including specific vegetable subgroups weekly (dark green, oranges and others as defined in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines) and a limited quantity of starchy vegetables throughout the week; • Offer whole grains:...
Words: 728 - Pages: 3
...English 100-30 Fall 2014 Unhealthy Lunch at school Lunch is an important meal of the day for kids and it is eaten at school. For kids lunch boosts the metabolism and gives energy for the rest of the day. But now unhealthy lunch is probably one of the biggest problems at every school. As kids tend to grow faster than adults it is important that they receive all the nutrition they require to grow into a healthy adult. We’re seeing sick kids get sicker and sicker this is due to deleterious food provided in lunch at schools in the ted talk Ann Cooper gives brief description of how USDA regulation allows school lunch providers to feed poison to our kids by feeding those processed foods that come frozen or in plastic bags. I concur with Ann cooper's argument and I think that we as a whole nation should take necessary steps to prevent our children from getting sick by feeding our kids healthy and fresh food which serves them nutrition and become healthy citizen down the road. In the Ted talk Anna Cooper mentions about “We now live in a country that has more prisoners than farmers.” I completely agree with the Anna’s statement that United States has more processed food than organic fresh food in local markets. We feed more frozen food than fresh, framed organic food to our children. Processed foods made with Trans fats, saturated fats, and large amounts of sodium and sugar aren't good for children. They're low in vitamins...
Words: 715 - Pages: 3
...making decisions for them—decisions they might not be too happy about. Now imagine this: their parents don’t have any control over their decision, but instead the government is telling them what they can and cannot do. This is becoming more and more of a problem recently with the regulation of children’s school lunches. The government is intervening too much, and they overstepping the boundaries in the lives of this country’s citizens. What people choose to do with their money should be their responsibility. The government needs to take a giant step back when it comes to something everyone enjoys and is a big part of everyday life: food....
Words: 1672 - Pages: 7
...children in public schools. In this informative paper I would like to describe new changes especially for parents. Number of Americans with an overweight increases due to the absence of carbohydrate and extra sodium and cholesterol in their food. Physicians and associations blame food industry. On the other hand, food industry tried to reduce the price for fast food at the expense of the quality, fast food is accessible for everybody but it’s not a healthy choice. Americans die every day due to heart issues. Around 600000 people die of heart disease in USA every year (cdc.gov). Moreover, Heart issue continue to augment number of death every year for booth gender men and women. This disease continue to affect our society’’ as every year 715000 American have a heart attack ‘’ In the same time, number of children with obesity increased from 4 to 18.8 % between 1971 and 2010. In light of the numbers, the state school board tried to change breakfast and lunch meals, in hop to improve nutrition and health. Every fiscal year, the school national breakfast program and lunch food program reimburse for meals distributed in participating school. In 2012-2013, the NSLP agrees to pay the following reimbursement: $2.86 for free lunches, $2.46 for reduced-price lunches, $0.27 for paid lunches, $0.78 for free snacks, $0.39 for reduced-price snacks, and $0.07 for paid snacks. Also, students qualify for reduced price pay only 40 cents for each meal (The National School Lunch Program...
Words: 709 - Pages: 3
...The Public Needs To Know: School Meal Programs English 115 Prof. David Makhanlall August 10, 2014 We know that food is fuel. In order for children to be successful in the classroom, they must be well nourished. For millions of American children, a school meal is the best meal they are going to eat each day. Currently 39.7% of youth in Mississippi are overweight or obese, for these students school lunches provide valuable nutrition that they may not get at home. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) are federally funded programs that provide meals to over one hundred thousand schools across America. The recent changes to the school meal programs intend to combat the growing trend of child hood obesity with the ultimate goal of providing healthy, well-balanced and nutritious school breakfast and lunches. The majority of people understand that nutrition and health directly relates to physical and mental development. In children, nutrition affects their physical health and cognitive development. The revised school lunch and breakfast program provides more nutritional options, such as whole grain instead of refined white breads, for school age children. Prior to the revision, school food programs were under a lot of scrutiny and criticism. Fewer than 30% of schools followed the nutrition guidelines, the USDA was doing a poor job at enforcing the regulations. On top of the second-rate lunches schools served, they were also allowing...
Words: 995 - Pages: 4
...activities. Whether it is at work or school, it is a variable that strongly reflects and influences the way that an individual acts in the world. As a current full-time college student and part-time worker, I have experienced many moments of multicultural communication and relationships throughout my twenty-one years of life. My first memorable moments were probably from elementary school. I went to elementary school in a more urban area of south Seattle. Therefore, the area was very multi-cultural. I was a part of a before and after-school child day care program where I met some of my best friends throughout the majority of my childhood. The day care was very diverse with many different cultures and ethnicities. I benefitted a lot from this because it’s where first really learned how to be a social person. I learned how to speak to people who I didn’t know, how to make new friends, and even how to expand relationships with people. As I got closer to the people who were becoming my best friends, I started to learn about their culture and moral values. For example, me being Asian-American, I was so accustomed to eating Vietnamese and other Asian foods. My mother packed me meals every day that I was so accustomed to eating at home already. Then, when I started sharing my lunches with my friends, I saw that they had completely different types of food from me. I vividly remember my African-American friend Aaron. He had some of the best lunches every single day. I think my first...
Words: 535 - Pages: 3
...program is to address the concerns of balancing the nutritional needs of children and concerns of childhood obesity. Often times the meals consumed at school represent the children’s majority of calorie and nutrient intake. The new food program will include specific amounts of calories, fat and nutrients needed for the age group of students. The program will result in a higher cost for meals and will be partially funded through reimbursement from the National School Lunch Program. This aspect of the program will be outweighed by the benefits seen in children's health, fresher foods, less missed days from illness and classroom behavior. The recent changes made by the school board to breakfast and lunch programs were based on the economic situation, need to improve the nutrition and health of the students, development costs and overall benefits of the program. The economic situation of the schools is a key factor in these changes. The question is will these changes fit in budget constraints and still generate revenue. School food service programs are much like a business. What needed to be constructed was a strategy to improve the food offered without losing revenue or increasing expense. The food program is made up of free federal lunches for low income children, reduced lunches, fully paid lunches and ala carte items. The schools do get reimbursements from the government as long as the meals meet certain guidelines. What needed to be considered is the loss in revenue by no...
Words: 1293 - Pages: 6
...School has changed drastically in the past few years. However, this institution has not always changed for the better. Three areas that need improvement so students feel more joy and freedom in their learning include changing lunch options, arranging different hours in school, and reducing standardized test taking. These changes would benefit the school hugely to make students enjoy being at school, Which would increase test scores, grades, and participation in class. The changes that have been made to school system has not made my experience better throughout high school. The school changed lunch to make healthier choices for high schoolers; although these changes have only caused frustration for people that actually want to enjoy their lunch. For example, my school used to have huge chocolate chip cookies for sale during lunch, but due to the push to receive funding for lunches, schools had to eliminate the delicious cookies that students enjoyed. Schools also, eliminated syrup and other sugary toppings in order to try and reduce child obesity. Quite often kids don’t even eat school lunch because of all the different changes that have been made, so I believe that eating good food in order to make school a better experience is a priority....
Words: 507 - Pages: 3
