Do you think a healthy school lunch program is a lost cause? Healthy school lunch programs should be placed in all schools free of charge. Kids go to school to learn and in this learning process they are learning about healthy eating habits and healthy foods, but they go to lunch and receive food that is not only bad for them but it’s a contradiction to what they are being taught. This is causing more and more kids to become overweight or obese at a young age.
The rate of overweight children from ages 12-19 has increased from 6.1% to 18.4%, which is quite a lot. It’s also not just about avoiding obesity, it’s also about avoiding heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer in the future. So, when kids are attending schools, this means provide them with healthy, tasteful meals that allows them to focus and boost their potential, and to keep them in school instead of home sick. Millions of kids go to school every day and for some students the meal they receive at school may be their only meal.
For the kids that may not be able to go home and get a cooked, nutritious meal, this means a lot to them and we should be able to provide them with good healthy foods. Another reason why healthy school lunches are not a lost cause, is because when the food looks nasty and is not good for them, kids tend to not want it therefore they won’t eat the whole school day and are not able to learn because they are hungry.
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It is said to be that in some cases a good healthy meal every day at school leads to higher test scores, which we all want. In one article, they allowed the students to construct and deliver a healthy school lunch. This was determined to be great for the kids, because they were able to bring in flavors and things they may like while also making it healthy for themselves.
I do believe that healthy eating habits start within the household but having healthy eating habits at school is also a big plus because is some low-income households, going to the grocery store and purchasing fruits and vegetables is way more expensive than going through the drive-thru and ordering hamburgers and fries for dinner. This has to do mainly with the economy and food production, which is why fruits and vegetables are pricy in stores.
For the parents that do feed their kids healthy foods, school lunches would be a contradiction to what kids are learning at home. Healthy school lunches are also not a lost cause because, just like when students have assemblies about not smoking and doing drugs and they go home and tell their parents not to smoke because of what was taught in school, students become supporters for eating healthy at home when they learn about and practice healthy eating at school.
Being taught healthy eating habits is like a life lesson that will not only help students, but it has a beneficial impact on their lives, families, and generations to come. School food menus are full of processed foods, the same foods that have been proven to cause sickness, as well as obesity. Eating healthfully is a life skill, but it’s not just about avoiding sickness in the future; it’s about making sure that kids are healthy now.
This topic was chosen by me because I feel as if the subject is not addressed as much as it should be, causing many people to not understand why unhealthy eating habits may cause problems in the future. When kids are hungry and don’t eat, they are more likely to get sick, to restore more slowly from illnesses, and tend to be in hospitals more frequently. Former President, Barack Obama, signed into law an Act that authorizes funding for federal school meal and child nutrition and increases access to healthy food for low-income children.
I feel that this is a great addition because it’s allowing less fortunate kids to still eat healthy at school. In some school lunch programs, students who may be classified as ‘low-income’ students are not allowed to even get a real meal at school because the meals may not be free. This Act allows for all students to eat, because being hungry is not a good way to learn.
References
- CDC – Nutrition in Schools
- Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics – School Lunch Programs and Childhood Obesity
- NC Healthy Schools – Healthy School Lunch Toolkit
- University of Dayton Dining Services Blog – A Roundtable Discussion on Healthy School Lunches
- KidsHealth – What’s a Healthy School Lunch?
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health – The Healthy Eating Plate
