Introduction
Proper nutrition is an essential element of the correct development in children, and since they spend a considerable portion of their days at school, meals there must be well-balanced. In other words, school students must have access to quality food while in school to ensure that all of their nutritional needs are met. Nevertheless, school lunches are often criticized for failing to comply with the existing dietary requirements intended for children. For instance, research demonstrates that school lunches of middle-school students did not meet the criteria established by the Institute of Medicine (Cullen et al., 2011). It is clear that such news must raise the concern among all stakeholders of the education system, especially parents and agencies tasked with overseeing the school menus. As a result, a comprehensive program has to be introduced to reform the current approach to school lunches. The central element of the proposal to change school lunches should include the introduction of mandatory schools compliant with the recommendations of the National School Lunch Program.
Discussion Section
Background Information of the Topic
The problem of the nutritional value of school lunches has always been a topical one, but in the last two decades, it became particularly prominent. Today, there are multiple alternatives to healthy meals which provide the same amount of calories. Moreover, occasionally, foods consumed by students exceed their caloric needs by a considerable margin, especially in the case of burgers, potato chips, and chocolate bars. Such high-calorie meals, despite providing students with more than enough energy, do not satisfy their nutritional needs. For example, in 2008, researchers assessed the content of school lunches in the United States and discovered that children did not eat enough fruits and vegetables and consumed more saturated fat than recommended (Woo Baidal & Taveras, 2014). Such evidence shows that students do not have access to foods which would be both nutrient-packed and healthy.
Since the problem of poor quality of school lunches has been in existence for several decades, the government has introduced several regulations in this sphere. For instance, the government subsidizes the National School Lunch Program, which provides free meals to students from low-income families, and in 2010 it was revised to ensure that it met the national dietary guidelines (Woo Baidal & Taveras, 2014). Yet, the problem is that despite all of its advantages, the program does not cover all schools in the country, which leads to thousands of students being unable to eat properly.
The Problem/Need
The current challenge concerning school lunches is the necessity to ensure that every student eats healthy meals and does not consume goods which have low nutritional value. Essentially, each serving for students must contain fruits, vegetables, whole grains, milk, and meat since these foods have a proper balance of nutrients. Additionally, currently, even if students receive healthy lunches, they still have access to products which have high caloric content but do not provide value, such as potato chips and sugary drinks. Such a situation is possible because schools often give contracts to companies which manage vending machines. As a result, students can buy themselves any product they want using these machines, and they often contain unhealthy food options.
Schools also hire contractors to deliver lunches to students, and as a result, the power to create menus belongs to the external companies. In other words, schools often cannot influence or in any way correct the food options presented to their students. In 2017, the USDA published a report which showed that all school children’s nutrition was not consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The average Healthy Eating Index score among school students was only fifty-eight out of a hundred (Vernarelli & O’Brien, 2017). Thus, the problem exists with the lack of healthy food options for school children, which negatively affects their well-being and leads to obesity.
The Proposal Topic
Thus, the aforementioned problem can be solved with a comprehensive approach which must involve the mandatory adoption of standards outlined in the National School Lunch Program by all schools in the country. In other words, every school must ensure that the menus available to students at the cafeteria comply with the recommendations developed by the Institute of Medicine. Schools must track all the changes in the dietary guidelines for school children provided by the Institute to be able to update the menus. As mentioned earlier, currently, students do not receive enough nutrients in their lunches and consume unhealthy foods, which eventually contributes to the growing childhood obesity (Woo Baidal & Taveras, 2014). Thus, to resolve the problem, schools must introduce the National School Lunch Program, which has to become the only option for students.
Additionally, the government must increase its funding for the National School Lunch Program to cover as many students from low-income families as possible. The authorities also can provide additional subsidies to reduce the average prices of meals under the National School Lunch Program. Moreover, schools have to remove any vending machines from their premises and exercise full control over the menus offered by the contractors in order to correct them and introduce necessary changes.
Benefits of the Proposal
The National School Lunch Program has already proved its effectiveness in different schools across the country, and there are numerous studies which measured the effects of its adoption. One research showed that children eligible for low-cost who did not participate in the National School Lunch Program consumed more saturated fat, energy, sodium, and added sugars than those who did (Vernarelli & O’Brien, 2017). Such evidence indicates that the issue of poor quality of school lunches is not based on the lack of funding since the national program proves that healthy meals can also be low-cost. School lunches constitute a proper alternative to meals obtained from other sources and can ultimately contribute to the effort of reduction of childhood obesity.
Moreover, there are studies which assessed the effectiveness of mandatory standards for school lunches which demonstrated positive results in favor of the aforementioned proposal. In the United Kingdom, the results showed that children who ate school lunches had a higher intake of vitamin C, protein, energy, Zn and Fe, and folate (Pearce et al., 2013). The experiment proved that it is reasonable to introduce mandatory standards for schools in terms of the food they offer. Overall, such requirements will help to ensure that children do not consume any food detrimental to their health.
Steps to Make it Happen
The introduction of a mandatory program in all schools in the country requires active participation on the part of both the federal and local governments as well as schools. The first step necessary for implementing the proposal is the passing of the act by Congress, which would provide the legal framework for the national mandatory school lunch program. Essentially, the government must adopt a law which would force public schools to implement food-based standards for meals in their cafeteria. The government must also allocate substantial funding for the program to make school lunches affordable and even free for children from low-income families.
The next step is the enforcement of the act’s provisions by the state and local governments which have to ensure that the schools comply with the law. Local agencies have to monitor whether the schools offer menus which meet the criteria of the national program. Finally, schools themselves have to hire contractors capable of delivering lunches which have the required nutrient content. It is clear that offering one type of lunch for all students is not the right strategy; therefore, schools have to maintain a variety of foods and let children choose their favorite meals.
Conclusion/Recommendations
The problem of poor quality of nutrition among school children can be resolved with the help of the mandatory requirements for school lunches. Currently, a substantial number of students in the United States do not consume meals which could meet all their dietary needs. Existing research showed that the students enrolled in the National School Lunch Program had better diets and extracted more value from their food. Essentially, the government must pass laws which would make the National School Lunch Program and its recommendations applicable to all schools in the country. As a result, schools will have to provide meals to their students compliant with certain dietary requirements ensuring high nutritional value. Additionally, schools must remove all vending machines from their premises and allow students to choose from a variety of foods. Local governments must establish control and task certain agencies with monitoring the menus at schools to enforce the law effectively.
References
Cullen, K. W., Watson, K. B., & Dave, J. M. (2011). Middle-school students’ school lunch consumption does not meet the new Institute of Medicine’s national school lunch program recommendations. Public Health Nutrition, 14(10), 1876-1881. doi:10.1017/S1368980011000656
Pearce, J., Wood, L., & Nelson, M. (2013). Lunchtime food and nutrient intakes of secondary-school pupils; A comparison of school lunches and packed lunches following the introduction of mandatory food-based standards for school lunch. Public Health Nutrition, 16(6), 1126-31. doi:10.1017/S1368980012003928
Vernarelli, J. A., & O’Brien, B. (2017). A vote for school lunches: School lunches provide superior nutrient quality than lunches obtained from other sources in a nationally representative sample of US children. Nutrients, 9(9), 924. doi:10.3390/nu9090924
Woo Baidal, J, A., & Taveras, E. M. (2014). Protecting progress against childhood obesity — the national school lunch program. The New England Journal of Medicine, 371(20), 1862-1865. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1409353