Mandatory School Lunches

Mandatory School Lunches

The Principal of the Little Village Academy, a K-8th grade public school in Chicago has decided that their own district employees should be making the decisions regarding students eating habits and nutrition, rather than the student's own parents or guardians. Since when did principals become the experts on what our children should be eating? School personnel have no business deciding what a child should or should not eat. Many children have allergies or religious beliefs, which prevent them from eating certain kinds of foods. Furthermore, school districts should not be allowed to prohibit children from bringing their own lunches to school, because the lunches prepared at the schools cafeteria can be just as unhealthy, or more so, than lunches prepared at home. Parents should ultimately be making all of the decisions regarding the nutrition provided to their own children, and whether they want their children eating lunches brought from home or made in the school's cafeteria. Having three children of my own (two of which are school age), I know from experience that kids can be picky about their food choices. Very often a child will choose not to eat and skip a meal altogether just to prove the point that they are not particularly happy with the food choices provided to them.

Before the passage of the National School Lunch Act of 1946 most children ate a lunch provided by their parents or guardians every day. Since the passage of the National School Lunch Act, most public and private schools as well as institutions have been providing low-cost and free lunches to tens of millions of children everyday of the school year. Since 1946 to current, most school districts have placed an emphasis on providing low-cost lunches to their pupils without much regard for quality or nutrition, considering the reimbursement by the federal government has been far less than the cost of providing those lunches. Schools who take part in the program receive subsidies from the United States Government of up to $2.77 per free lunch served. The reimbursements change with the level of service the student receives, whether it is free or reduced lunch pricing. A school may receive more than the prescribed reimbursement levels if that school has a disproportionate number of lower income students. To receive the subsidies, participating schools must offer free or reduced fee lunch services to all students who are eligible. Eligibility for the program is based on the number of family members living in the home and the current family income. All lunches served must meet the federal standards prescribed in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, detailing limitations for fat, saturated fat, and calories, also setting minimum standards for vitamins and protein.

With all of this being said, school districts do not seem to be putting their best foot forward when it comes to our children's nutrition. Ann Cooper is the director of nutrition services for the Boulder Valley School District in Boulder Colorado and wrote an article titled The Nightmare of School Lunches. In her article Ann states "most school districts in America spend less than $150 on food to feed a child for the entire 180-day school year. Less than $1 per day to feed our children food that is supposed to nourish and care for them, and this in the setting of "education"". The California Department of Education website paints a different picture of the meals being provided. The website states, "for children, the National School Lunch Program provides a nutritious meal that contains one-third of the recommended dietary allowance of necessary nutrients. For parents, the program offers a convenient method of providing a nutritionally balanced lunch at the lowest possible price." This would lead people to believe that schools are providing a balanced nutritional meal to students, but many other studies show that childhood obesity is gaining ground in America. How can this be if schools have been providing approximately 1/3 of the daily nutrition for our children?

When the National School Lunch Act program started, its first year cost was around $70 million. In fiscal year 2010 its cost has ballooned to around $10.8 billion. The focus of the program over the years has been to provide nutrition to children whose families would otherwise not be able to afford healthy foods. Although the National School Lunch Act started out as a program with good intentions; with the student's best interests at heart; it has turned out like so many other under funded government programs. Today cash strapped school districts are trying to maximize their reimbursement dollars, by purchasing low-cost, pre-cooked meals and other a la carte items, which barely satisfy the government's nutritional guidelines. The meals are cheap and easy to prepare by underpaid cafeteria workers and understaffed cafeterias. It is easy to see why administrators are worrying about the nutrition of their students. By taking a look in a school cafeteria garbage can, a person can see that most kids are just not eating the low quality and poorly prepared foods provided by the school cafeterias for the simple fact that it doesn't taste good. I've been to a few Thanksgiving lunches at my kids' school and I can honestly say, I couldn't eat more than a few bites; the food was barely palpable. I don't blame the kids for not wanting to eat the school lunches.

Parents are better suited to make the nutrition choices for their own children, certainly not a government program bent on cutting costs and subject to budgetary constraints. What I remember about school lunches as a child is that they were bland and poorly prepared, and I certainly remember that they were not a healthy alternative to the food choices that I had at home. Ann Cooper seems to agree with me when saying, "and what we do feed children in most schools is certainly not the beautiful food of the farmer's markets. In most schools, the fare is a mix of chicken nuggets, tater tots, canned fruits and vegetables, chocolate milk (with more sugar than soda), corn dogs, pizza pockets, and more depressing stuff than I care to mention." I know that myself,