Should Lunches Be Allowed In Schools

Walking around the tables of any U.S. school cafeteria, it doesn’t take much more than a glance to tell that the lunches being served to students are not the healthiest meals around. Lunch room staples such as cheesy breadsticks, hot dogs, and pizza stand as students’ main source of sustenance during the school day; these foods are not only unhealthy no matter which way you look at them, but they can also hardly be considered proper meals at all. Posters showing the food pyramid and colorful plates of fruits and colorful plates of fruits and vegetables decorate lunchrooms and health classrooms, attempting to teach children about smart life choices. However, watching as students come out of the lunch line and take their seats, their trays tell …show more content…
The parents and children are not the only ones at fault for these practices. Unhealthy food options, sugary snacks, and inadequate nutrition at schools are also to blame. If healthy practices are not taught or presented to children both at home and at school, it will affect students later in their lives. The number of children who are overweight or obese has risen significantly throughout the years. This trend cannot be stopped or reversed until healthy lifestyle changes become common practice for students. According to an article published on U.S. News written by Rachel Pomerance Berl (2012), “one third of American children are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for diseases usually more frequent in adulthood, such as type 2 diabetes” (Berl, para. 2). In recent years, children’s risks for obesity-related medical problems, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke have increased dramatically. According to the article, “The Nightmare of School Lunches” written by Ann Cooper, the director of nutrition at Boulder Valley School District (2011), “the CDC has stated that of children born in the year 2000… one out of every three Caucasians and almost one out of every two African American and Hispanics will contract diabetes in their lifetime, most before they graduate high school” (Cooper, para. 8) Today’s …show more content…
Having mandatory health classes for students while at the same time turning around and serving them only slightly less unhealthy, but still very processed foods, and offering vending machines with bags of chips and cans of pop is counterproductive and does nothing to support what the schools say they are promoting. Schools should be preparing children for healthy, productive, successful lives. As stated in an article written by Claire Suddath and published in TIME Magazine (2009) titled “School Lunches,” “less than 20% of schools cook meals from scratch; many rely on packaged reheatable foods” (Suddath, para. 7). This shows that schools don’t put much effort into making their lunches healthier or fresher for their students, because they use a large amount of processed and frozen junk