Yasmin Givens
Jones-Taylor
English IS IV – A3
22 February 2018
Should American School Lunches Be Updated From Their Current Conditions?
Shapeless and dull-colored chicken nuggets, stark white mashed potatoes, a stack of green peas, an oversized and seemingly-manufactured cookie, and a small cup of fruit packaged in a sugary, preservative-filled juice. This bleak and nutritionless meal juxtaposes pictures of vibrantly colored trays stuffed with variations of beans and rice, local fish and hearty soups from countries such Brazil, South Korea, and Greece. The inferior tray is the example of the American version of a typical school lunch in an article posted on the Huffington Post’s website by Kate Bratskeir, in order to highlight the differences in school lunches around the world. This article, among many others, has sparked the interest of thousands of people with the concern of the nutritional value and healthiness of school lunches served to American children. This concern begs the question, should American school lunches be updated from their current conditions? While some argue that the current standings of these school lunches are fine as they meet current legislature and others side with schools serving fast food as it is in high-demand and serves as a source of revenue for schools, many are calling for a reform in the nutritional value and quality that American school lunches have to offer. In conjunction with the latter assertion, this paper will defend the necessity for improving upon both legislature and standards that surround school lunches in American cafeterias.
Although in recent years the topic of school lunches has been surrounded in much controversy, this has only been a recent happening. After education was deemed compulsory for children under the age of 14 in more than half of the US states, the need to provide children of all socioeconomic backgrounds with the proper nutrition in schools was deemed necessary and met. So for many decades thereafter, schools provided children with nutritional food that helped their level of achievement and activity in school. However, after “the Reagan Administration slashed Federal school lunch spending by $1.5 billion” in 1981, the nutritional value and need for healthy lunch options for children was disregarded as national standards for lunches lowered and became increasingly privatized (Rude). Attempts have been made to mitigate the effects that these nutritionless meals have on students’ health in recent years. For example, the Obama administration started the Let’s Move campaign in order to emphasize the importance of physical activity in preventing childhood obesity and also enacted the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 which focused on “upgrading nutritional standards for school meals [and]… improving the nutritional quality of all food in schools” (“Healthy”). However, even with legislation in place that is meant to improve the standards of school lunches, they continue to fall behind in terms of quality and nutritional value.
“Big businesses” should stay out of school cafeterias and be blocked from misusing legislature to their advantage. Businesses such as Coca Cola and McDonald’s have taken over some school cafeterias in order to meet the demand for fast food, without regard to nutrition. These companies have replaced previous lunch models by infiltrating school cafeterias through partnerships with the schools. This saves the schools from losing a source of income and in turn, offers these companies a constant source of revenue (“Why School Cafeterias”). In her article posted on the website of The New York Times, Kate Murphy argues that typical American lunches served at schools consist of reformulated and under-nutritional foods in comparison to those of countries like France and Spain. In cases such as these companies are able to use current legislation to their advantage by meeting the standards set out for them and simply reformulating their product in order to continue selling their foods to American schools. Companies should be thoroughly reprimanded should they abuse legislature in such a manner, and restrictions should be tighter on big businesses and their place in school cafeterias.
Thus after taking big businesses out of cafeterias, American schools should focus not only on the nutritional value of lunches, but the overall holistic health that good lunches provide. Some schools across America have been experimenting with their school lunch programs, evaluating the nutrition and healthiness of the products that they serve to their students (Park). American schools should follow the lunch models set by schools in Japan, as they focus on the holistic idea of health and food. Japanese schools have one of the lowest rates of obesity compared to that of American schools, and this is thanks to the holistic approach that is taken by Japanese schools that puts physical fitness, health education and food nutrition at its forefront (“School Lunch”). By mirroring the efforts and steps taken by Japanese schools, American schools may be able to see a positive change take place in the health of their students.
Despite the concerns of the healthiness of lunches, some argue that schools are justified in selling fast food and junk food to students as this meets the high demand of such food by the students. As some schools have transitioned away from traditional meals, “brand-name fast-food items” have quickly taken their place (“Why School Cafeterias”). People supporting this transition argue that if schools chose to not sell fast food in spite of what students want, then the school would lose a large sum of revenue for its activities as the students would seek other means of getting the food that they want. However, schools have an obligation to students to provide food that is not only healthy and nutritional which will help with their studying in class, but also delicious in order to keep student sales within the school cafeteria. Some schools have taken steps to discover which healthy foods are most well-received among students by testing out various options through trial and error (Graves). This example provides other schools with the a possible model to attempt to find out the type of lunch that students want while staying in a healthy means. By taking steps to provide both nutritional and delicious options for students, schools can maintain a source of income while providing holistically good food for their students.
Works Cited Page
Bratskeir, Kate. “Photos Of School Lunches From Around The World Will Make American Kids Want To Study Abroad.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 Feb. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/25/school-lunches-around-the-world_n_6746164.html.
Graves, Ginny. “Getting a Better School Lunch.” NRDC. 13 October 2016, www.nrdc.org/stories/getting-better-school-lunch/.
“Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.” Food and Nutrition Service, www.fns.usda.gov/tags/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act-0.
Murphy, Kate. “Why Students Hate School Lunches.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/sunday-review/why-students-hate-school-lunches.html.
Rude, Emelyn. “School Lunch in America: An Abbreviated History.” Time, Time, 19 Sept. 2016, time.com/4496771/school-lunch-history/.
“School Lunch Program in Japan.” National Institute for Educational Policy Research, www.nier.go.jp/English/educationjapan/pdf/201303SLP.pdf.
“School Meal Trends & Stats.” School Nutrition Association, www.schoolnutrition.org/AboutSchoolMeals/SchoolMealTrendsStats/.
“Why School Cafeterias are Dishing Out Fast Food.” Education.com, 21 October, 2013. www.education.com/magazine/article/fast-food-school-cafeterias/.
Park, Alice. “Here’s One Way to Improve School Lunches.” Time, 23 March 2015, www.time.com/3752931/school-lunches-nutrition/.