Picture this. A kid walks up to his lunch table at school and says, “Aw man I didn’t have time to make lunch this morning; looks like I’m going to have to buy. ” The student walks up to buy lunch and all he sees are reduced fat items and unappetizing meals. He walks back to his lunch table without anything to eat. The rest of the day he can’t focus in class and he is tired because he didn’t have lunch. The story shows that the kid has the same problem as many students in America do today, he doesn’t have any lunch choices he wants to eat.
The school lunch program is a program in which children in public schools are given low-cost nutritional foods. Currently in America many schools have joined the program and switched their previous lunch options to foods that are reduced fat, whole grain, and more nutritional. This seems like the right thing to do, but not many kids are very fond of it. In fact many students have stopped eating lunch completely. Students in Los Angeles throw away over $100,000 dollars worth of food a day according to The Atlantic.
Students don’t want to be eating healthy, but if they don’t they may end up like one third of American kids, obese. The problem for many students is either they aren’t eating lunch, or they end up with health problems that come along with eating an unhealthy lunch. It’s hard for schools to choose what to do with this problem, but they are trying to figure it out today. Lots of children have stopped eating lunch and wish the lunches would change back to their old ways.
To find out more on the new school lunch and what kids think of it, the reporter interviewed Zach Zobel a student at Bedford Middle School in Westport Connecticut who previously bought school lunch. Zach says sometimes he is tired and can’t focus when he doesn’t eat lunch. When asked about the new school lunch Zach said, “Sometimes I would rather not have lunch at all then eat the new lunch at school” One might wonder if others have the same ideas as Zach, and in fact many others do. 14/16 students from Bedford agree with Zach and say they liked the old school lunch better.
Many people may think an obvious way to get around this problem would be to make lunch in the morning, but many students don’t have time in the morning to make lunch. One of these students is Mitchell Schwab, a student who goes to Bedford. Mitchell says “I don’t have time in the morning to make lunch; if I try to wake up earlier I am tired throughout the school day. ” If students are tired in the morning they will have a hard time focusing in class which could lead to bad grades.
When asked what was more unhealthy, not eating lunch at all, or having an unhealthy lunch, health teacher at Bedford, Mr. Savage said, “At least when you eat an unhealthy lunch high in fat and sugar you are getting small amounts of energy, as opposed to not eating anything at all where you could faint because of low blood sugar. ” The testimony reinforces the idea that even if a student were to eat an unhealthy lunch like they did before the school lunch changed, it would be better than not eating at all, what many kids are doing since the school lunch changed. With all these advantages to switching back to old school lunches of course there are disadvantages.
Many kids who are eating unhealthily are ending up with health pro blems like obesity. 1/3 of American kids are obese, and this is due to the fact that they are constantly eating unhealthily. If schools were to serve the food they used to it would just lead to more kids ending up obese and other chronic health issues. Children who have poor nutrition can end up with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, depression, and obviously they can end up obese. All these things can happen because of eating an unhealthy school lunch.
Not only will eating unhealthy affect people as a kids, it can lead to many long term effects. According to Livestrong “There are long-term effects as well. According to a 2012 article written by registered dietitian Timi Gustafson, not getting enough essential nutrients at meals may lower kids’ IQ scores, memory capacities, fine motor skills, social skills and languages skills into early adulthood and beyond. ” This illustrates that just by eating an unhealthy lunch people’s futures can be jeopardized.
According to Mr. Savage “Eating a healthy lunch is very important for kids in school, it’s what gives kids the energy boost they need to finish the day. A healthy lunch can go a long way. ” You may be wondering about the implications of this information, and there is no true solution to the problem. Maybe a good idea would be to have schools bring in food from restaurants like Subway or Chipotle. These places have food healthier than the old school lunch and enough choices that everyone would be able to buy something they enjoy. If students are already buying lunch, why not have them buy something they like?
