Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act Essay

Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act: Taking Control of Students Eating at School Is the HHFKA (Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act) really improving child nutrition while saving them from hunger? Through my research I have realized that there are many different viewpoints and opinions on this issue that are taking place in schools all around us everyday. The purpose of this act is to improve child nutrition. Schools are where we see this act being implemented the most because schools are the only place where the same meals are being served to a large group of children. Schools are an easy place to change to new regulations about what is healthy to eat and what is unhealthy for children at school. The HHFKA is putting strict regulations on school lunches. Children are starting not to eat lunch at school because children do not like the change that is taking place. Coming from my own experience with school lunches, changing weird and unusual foods that were not normally served in a school lunchroom is tough on the children. I was the child that refused to eat what was being served that day at lunch. Since children are not eating the new and unusual healthy foods being served, the children are not getting what they would need to fulfill the requirements of what the HHFKA is trying to improve. More children are going hungry due to the new foods that are being served. Also, children are not getting their necessary nutrition that they need to get through a normal day at school. So I ask “Is the HHFKA helping or hurting our children in schools all over the United States?” My research on this project is dedicated to arguing that the HHFKA is hurting but yet somewhat helping schools all around us. I have come up with some things that I would like to change about the act to make it better and more effective in schools. The HHFKA, was signed into law in December 2010, were funds of a third meal in schools are being implemented, where at least half of the students qualify for free or reduced lunches. According to the Congressional Budget Office, more than 21 million students will be eating dinner at school by 2015. This has added nourishment for poorer students that might not have the funds to eat at home. Students that eat dinner at school are usually still there from being at after-school programs. After-School Programs are for students that need tutoring, working on homework, or blowing off some steam on the playground. This is why dinners in schools have grown so much in the past couple of years since the act. There are many students across the country that depend on school breakfast and school lunches and even the third meal in some places because some might not eat again until breakfast the next day at school. I think that in a school where at least half of students qualify for free or reduced lunches, funds are most definitely needed. Because if these funds are not there, some lunchrooms and cafeterias will not be able to feed those certain students the foods and nutrients that the HHFKA requires. But, since the third meal is being implemented in these areas where after-school programs are taking place, funds are also needed for those students that have to stay after school everyday. I think that it is a big deal that funds need to be supported to help these schools raise …show more content…
In a different article that ties right into what Finkel is saying, talks about the new regulations in school lunches. The act requires a wider range and amount of foods that are being served. Some parents have also put their opinion in on the issue and said that some children need to be presented with new food multiple times before they will even try it for the first time. Parents believe schools should continue doing what they are told and eventually the students will stop starving themselves and just eat what is given to them. Parents need to be aware of what nutritional program their child is learning in school so, they can follow up at home and help their child live a healthy and nutritious