School Lunch
If you’ve ever seen me, you’d know that lunch is one of my favorite times of day! I never miss a meal! I’m unique in that I’m not a picky eater, and I’m not someone who worries about the things that I eat all that much. I’m comfortable being this way because I’m an adult, and I can monitor what I eat, when I eat it, and manage exercise into my normal routine. School lunches lately, have been under attack for not being healthy enough, and I’m wondering if it’s because of money, or the watered down selections students have. I wish I could speak for all school lunches, but I’m going to speak just for what I know, and that is the lunch program in my school district.
According to, letsmove.gov, most students eat half of their meals at school. Breakfast and lunch programs in schools have changed considerably in the last several years. So have the family dynamics which students come to us from. I’d like to address what I meant when I said things have become watered down. When I was a student, you had two choices, hot lunch, or cold lunch. The district I currently teach in, on average, has 4 different types of hot lunches to choose from, and a salad bar if they’d like. That is crazy! When I first started teaching here, I was shocked at the variety of choices, and even more shocked at the amount of students I still had on a daily basis, bring in their own lunch. Could my district take a look at the data, slash choices down to one or two, and still allow students to bring in cold lunch? I have to imagine that would save some money. As a parent, not as a teacher, I would rather have district money spent in the classrooms, or on security, rather than giving 4, or sometimes 5 choices for lunch. Eliminate choices, and make the few choices you do give, healthier. This doesn’t necessarily mean the students are going to eat it, but at least if they’re only given a few choices equally healthy, they’ll have a well balanced meal they can choose to eat.
Eating a healthy lunch is something that everyone hopes students are able to do. Unfortunately, once that student sits down with their food, whether from school or home, it is ultimately up to them about what they eat. Teaching students healthy eating habits, and what foods do for their bodies would be a great place to start. I like to use the analogy of cars with my students during health lessons. We talk about how we wouldn’t poor a bunch of sugar and salt into our car engines, because they wouldn’t work. We need to give our bodies the right kind of fuel, carbs, sugars, and even the dreaded fats in order for us to get a well balanced meal. Education is key!
In the end, with the new standards set in place, and the research, school lunches are what they are. They can set strict rules for schools and programs all that they’d like. But, they cannot make the students eat it. School districts will just have to keep spending the money to meet the standards in hopes that students will eat healthier at school. I firmly believe that it starts at home with good, healthy habits taught, and then continued education while at school through the health programs to teach students the benefits of good choices. Without those, and the constant discussion about less recess or getting rid of physical education, teaching our students and young people healthy choices, might be the only way we battle against the ongoing concern of child obesity in America.
