School Lunch Programs

Main Question

How healthy really are our school lunches?

Are some of the lunches very unhealthy for us and could they harm us?

Introduction

Schools around the nation serve us lunch, but some lunches are really unhealthy for us kids. We, as a group, are trying to find out why school lunches are not that healthy.  We will find the reasons why school lunches are or aren't healthy for the kids and We will be using a numerous amount of resources that can help us find our answer.  We will also see what schools provide a better lunch, private schools or public scools. 

1st Paragraph 

School lunches are suppose to help out kids to get their nutrition for the day, but they don't always help the kids out.  A lot of the food served at lunch are really high in saturated fats and cholesterol.  Also, they are low in fiber, and food with fruit, vegetables, and whole grain nutrients.  Some sources say that fast food places are healthier than school lunches.  "The standards governing the preparation and food content of school lunches fall short of minimums imposed on fast food places"(Public School Review).  The meat that is consumed at school continually fail to meet the quality standards followed by fast food places. We hope you learn about how unhealthy some school lunches really are. 

2nd Paragraph 

Lunches may seem healthy with all of their choices and options, but all of those choices and options may not be all that good for you.  There might be salads there and there could also be a greasy piece of pizza there.  The majority of choices at Sheboygan Falls High School are not the healthiest for kids.  In this school, there are many of choices each day, no matter if you're in the a le carte or in you're in normal lunch there are many choices.  Shelly Juedes, the director of lunches at SFHS, said, "we just cook what the government gives us." This seems like that the government doesn't really care about the healthiness of the food, they are just making sure that the schools are gettng lunches served to the kids.  The government has a lot of money and they are using it in the wrong places. 

3rd Paragraph 

The National School Lunch Program was created in 1946, thinking that the lunches provided will benefit the children at school and make them healthy.  Since the past decades, the program has yet to provide a healthy lunch for students.  It's like the government doesn't care for the students health. The unhealthy food is really the only type of food that the NSLP can afford.  With the limited funding that they get, they are put in tough situations for the healthy food for the youth of today. Unless more government funding goes into the NSLP then school lunches will be getting keep getting more unhealthy.

4th Paragraph 

Ed Brukse the author of the article Save School Lunch from Snack-happy Government Standards wants to "save children from government standards that are destroying kids' health." In his article he explains that in schools that get their food from U.S. department of agriculture have lunches with high sugar, high fat, and cheaply processed food. He says when kids eat this low quality food it can raise their blood pressure, creates bad cholesterol and unhealthy arteries, which primes bodies for diabetes and heart failure.  He also states that the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't get the funding it needs to provide healthy food to today's students. With the difficult economy right now it may be hard to find the money to fund these organizations but no the less something should be done so that we can feed the nation's youth with healthy and nutritional food.

5th Paragraph 

There are some schools that do provide healthy lunches for their kids.  Although there's not a lot, there are some.  The more healthy lunches come mostly from private schools because they have more money in their budget to spend.  According to studies, 75% of kids drink flavored milk, 16% of kids eat fresh fruit, 6% of kids eat salads at lunch and 1% of kids eat whole grain breads.  These percents should be a lot higher than what they are.  Schools should try to get kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. Schools should provide more verity of those kind of items instead of snack food items.  If schools really wanted to have healthy lunches, they would get rid of half of the unhealthy snack food items and replace them with something that will be healthy and stop obesity. 

Conclusion 

Schools need to be a little help of making kids healthy.  Schools are suppose to give one healthy meal to their students.  The majority of schools need to change their unhealthy ways to healthier ways so the kids won't end up obese later on in life. 

Sub Questions

Do some schools have healthy lunches? Why do they?

What is the average amount of calories a kid would consume at school lunches?

What kind of meals do schools serve at lunch and are they always healthy?

Work Cited

Healthy School Lunches / a Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) Site. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/>.

"Overweight Children: Living Large - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Web. 17 Mar. 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813962,00.html>.

"Save School Lunch from Snack-happy Government Standards | Grist." Grist | Environmental News, Commentary, Advice. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. <http://www.grist.org/article/food-save-school-lunch-from-snack-happy-government-standards>.

"School Lunches — Are Kids Eating Healthfully?" Junkfood Science. Web. 17 Mar. 2011. <http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/06/school-lunches-are-kids-eating.html>.

"Underfunded School Lunch Programs Create Unhealthy Kids." Care2 - Largest Online Community for Healthy and Green Living, Human Rights and Animal Welfare. Web. 17 Mar. 2011. <http://www.care2.com/causes/politics/blog/underfunded-school-lunch-programs/>.

"Why Fast Food Is Healthier Than School Lunches: The Shocking USDA Truth - Public School Review." Public School Review - Profiles of USA Public Schools. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. <http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/182>.