School Lunch Programs

 Would healthier school lunches decrease child obesity? 

 - What is the average intake of calories, fat, protein ect. in a school lunch?

 - Does it matter if kids change their eating habits at school and they do not change their eating habits at home? 

 - What is the average school lunch? (items?)

Thesis:

Unhealthy School Lunch Programs are not the full cause of childhood obesity but a healthier school lunch would help decrease child obesity. 

Introduction:

We wanted to learn about our school lunch program and how school lunches all around the nation are causing obesity.  Unhealthy School Lunch Programs are not the full cause of childhood obesity but a healthier school lunch would help decrease child obesity.   From looking at the websites we have cited, we learned that school lunches is not the only place were childhood obesity starts.  We had assumed that most of the food that our high school and other high schools served was unhealthy.  But when we researched what kids ate and what was in the food we realized that obesity does not just come from our school lunches.  It is a majority from our home and what we eat at restaurants.  The "When School Is Out, Getting Good Food In" article says that most obesity starts when we are not in school.  In this article you will learn what the majority of kids in our grade eat and if schools are really the main source to blame. 

Body:

The way that America's schools influence everybody has a big effect on America.  "5,000 children as they passed through kindergarten and first grade, found that the biggest gains in body mass index occurred in the summer when parents had sole responsibility for their children’s diets and exercise opportunities." said Jane E. Brody.  One that is bigger than what people think.  Most people in America and around the world associate school with a healthy school lunch.  There is no way in doubt that school lunches have not gotten worse over the years but not as jurastic as they are perceived.  But what parents should take into consideration is that it might not be the schools fault.  As Jane E. Brody said earlier, home is were obesity gets set.  From the ages of 6 - 11 17% of kids in the U.S were overweight and 17.6% were overweight from the ages of 12 -19 (Rachana Bhatt, Department of Economics).  In her article she says that what you eat at home influences what you eat everywhere else.  She also says that introducing kids to a healthy eating style at a young age can also prevent kids from leaning towards bad foods outside of home.  We also believe that the obesity starts at home and that these facts are likely to be true.           

When kids are home from the summer they have to eat.  So what do the kids eat if they do not get there lunches at school?  This is what authors, journalists and many people are saying.  But now the schools are saying that they are not serving the worst food.  They are saying that restaurants and home is to blame.  It is true that some schools do serve very unhealthy food but they do serve healthy food as well.  But because the unhealthy food is so cheap at most schools it makes it easier for kids to buy.  The National School Lunch Program was created in 1946.  They thought that the lunches provided would benefit the children and give them a healthy meal.  But with this new age and new generations the risk and the chance of having obesity and Type 2 Diabetes is getting greater (Grace Covelli, Livestrong.com).  This is what we need to stop.   Most schools in the U.S do have some sort of an ala carte line where children can buy food that is not part of the normal school lunch.  Part of this reason is that on average unhealthy food costs $1.76 per 1000 calories and on average it costs $18.16 per 1000 for healthy food.  But all of the food had one thing in common.   The cooks at the schools have to cook the food the way the government tells them.  They also have to deal with the money that they get to spend on food and they know that healthy food costs a lot more.  This comes from a reason of the government giving the funding to schools for the food.               

These are the results from the 128 freshman from the 2014 class that could select more than one option while answering this survey.  The results in this survey show that many kids do get a school lunch but more kids eat from ala carte.  As you can see, more kids get ala carte pizza over a normal school lunch.  The next most selected item was ala carte chips and the next highest selected item was ala carte hamburgers.  After that the next highest was ala carte cookies/bars/donuts.  Just from reading the highest and most selected items from survey you can see that high fat content, high sugar content and high calorie content were the foods chosen the most.  They are also the cheapest in the ala carte line.  Another thing that is obvious about the food in our school and probably many others is that there is a lot more options and variety of the bad foods.  If a majority of the food in both normal school lunch lines and the ala carte line had more healthy food and less unhealthy food more kids would have to eat healthier food in our school.  There are certain measures that can be taken in our school and other schools all over the U.S that can slow down if not stop childhood obesity.     

Conclusion:

Schools are not the only ones to blame in the case of childhood obesity.  What kids eat at home has a big influence on what kids eat everywhere else.  It would help if schools did serve more healthy food and less unhealthy food but the schools obviously work with what they have.  We also have to help the big rise in childhood obesity by eating better at home and everywhere else we go.  This would mean eating the right amount of food, getting the right amount of nutritional value and drinking plenty of water and not soda.  With these steps we can slow down childhood obesity.  We the students should also eat healthy now so, when we are adults we don't have to worry about health problems. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------Works Cites----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahders, Elizabeth. "The Average Caloric Intake For Children | LIVESTRONG.COM." LIVESTRONG.COM - Lose Weight & Get Fit with Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Tools. 10 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. http://www.livestrong.com/article/353877-the-average-caloric-intake-for-children/.

Brody, Jane E. "When School Is Out, Getting Good Food In." Fitness & Nutrition. The New York Times, 12 June 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/health/nutrition/12brod.html?_r=1.

Gunderson , Gordon W. "National School Lunch Program." Home Page. 27 May 2009. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/AboutLunch/ProgramHistory_5.htm.

Parker-pope, Tara. "A High Price for Healthy Food - NYTimes.com." Health and Wellness - Well Blog - NYTimes.com. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/a-high-price-for-healthy-food/>.

United States. USDA. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer746/aer746c.PDF.

Web. <http://aysps.gsu.edu/09-07_Bhatt-SchoolLunchLengthResearch.pdf>.