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Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

Child Nutrition within School Lunch: A Review of Literature on School Lunch


Claritsa Perez-Estrada
The University of Texas at El Paso

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

Abstract
Often times parents and specially their children are not aware of the nutrition or the harm
that school lunches can provide for them. Therefore, we must all be in care for what children in
schools are being fed and what their energy of consumption is. Children need the most healthy
and natural food that they can get in order to provide their body with the enough proteins so that
their development is just as good and efficient. The National School Lunch Program has done
everything to provide the best quality they could but they have regulations in which they must
follow as well. In the end, these issues that have been presented in the todays early generations
do not all reflect upon school lunch but as well as parents implementing physical activity and
more doing rather than kids just doing nothing. These kids are the future of our world therefore
we must take care of them especially of their health so that they don't present the health issues
later in life.

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

Introduction
Many have depended on school lunch programs within the twelve years of their
education in which they are aware of what the food consist of and its quality. Wether your twenty
years old or six years old and ate or are eating school lunch for most of those twelve years in
which you attended or attending public school, your body has been or was put in situations that
you shouldnt have consumed. As many are aware, school food does not provide students with
the healthiest most beneficial food for everyone to consume on the contrary, it just feds everyone
with what is provided and follow the guidelines given by the NSLP. The NSLP, is the National
School Lunch Program that gives schools money back when they fed each student and in return
school must just follow what their regulations are and do it so they can get funds back.
As most programs in this world, one of their main goals is to make money out of
something. Therefore School lunch programs must follow the guidelines besides that many
school wish and have tried to improve the taste of the food and meet the new federal nutrition
requirements at the same time. This puts schools in a tide end, that cant really change much but
is also the one to be blamed when a kid gets sick. Through this all, this is one topic that most are
arguing about and it has certainly become a debate because it has not only initiated bad behavior
habits for kids but has also made health issue rise up in the young generations. Through this
review I will analyze and ask the following questions so that your questions and concerned are
untangled:
1. Could the National School Lunch Program still endorse healthy food for the kids but still stay
within their regulation budget?

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

2. Whether real or fake meat is being served to kids, does this really make an impact on the
child's health?
3. People refuse to believe that it is important for kids to have the enough protein to be
consumed to their body in the early age, but in the end does all of this really manipulate the
health of the children in their future?
Could the National School Lunch Program still endorse healthy food for the kids but still
stay within their regulation budget?
As many school wished that they could have their way of feeding the kids, it is still up to
them to follow regulations and guidelines. However, they could change things up and go and see
if it would really be effective towards the kids. In the article, Schools hungry to improve taste,
nutrition of lunches mentions how although the school could change to a healthier more
beneficial way it could have its two ways (Doering,2013, pg.1). One being that not only will this
be more costly but it can also cause kids to not want to eat this food since they are used to the
one they used to get before (Doering,2013, pg.1). This can also mean that schools are not going
to want to change to the healthier food due to the fact that then they will lose money because
kids will then not like the food given.
If we take the time and look at it, before they were giving out non-healthy food their high
calorie food was not loved by most kids yet had to be eaten due to thee fact that it was their only
source of food. Now, what makes everyone think that healthier food will be so much better when
schools were taking food from cans heating it up and putting it on plates(Sifferlin,2014, pg.1).
The NSLP is their to be able to take care and see how schools are doing therefore, they should be
well aware that in some cases you must go with the side better for the costumer. In the end, the
fight between healthy or unhealthy school lunch continues, yet they should just really consider

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

the best between all cases and think about these young generations that someday will be running
this world and if they don't handle this now, everyone will then obese while working for this
world

Whether real or fake meat is being served to kids, does this really make an impact on the
child's health?
A lot of kids yet to complain about the meat source given to them yet theirs always those
who do and say that their is no way that the meat being given to them is providing any source of
protein to their body. Specially those in which are involve in sports and need as much protein so
that they preform well in their after school activities. In Beef Daily it mentioned in how parents
were mad because their kids would come home hungry and tired because they weren't able to get
through the day due to the low protein in their lunch (Radke,2015, pg.1). You see their two side
to every argument, because school want healthier so that kids don't become obese but what if
healthier doesn't provide the enough energy source for kids that are active? And those kids that
just eat but are not active, is that part of the school to take charge of too?
Overall, it comes down to both parents and the school to work as team to provide the
enough energy source for these kids. For their health is very important not only for themselves
but as well as for our future because they are our future. Children need all the protein they need
to grow healthy and had been stated in which was food was not as processed people back then
would certainly have not a higher rate in obesity compared to now. It was now stated how kids
that depend on school lunch tend to have a higher rate than those who bring their own lunch from
home (Senthilingam,2014, pg.1). School have tried their best to give those kids the best meals
yet they have stuff to meet yet the meat that they have provided is not the best for each student

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

yet its the best they could provide. Therefore, it was mentioned that parents can help to if they
provide their kids with healthy meals for the times that they would get hungry.

Figure 1. This graph shows the obesity rate within the years of 1975-through the present and the
predicted future, as well as their goal for the kids through the ages of 5 to 9 of both boys and girls.
Source: Most Schools Still Don't Meet Federal Nutrition Standards. (2014, November 17). Retrieved
March 18, 2015, from http://time.com/3588057/obesity-school-lunch/

In this chart, it has statistics in which states the obesity rate throughout the years of 19752022. It has the predicted of the futures obesity rate in child of 5 to 9 both of boys and girls.
However, this also has the goals in which they hope to accomplish in the future years due to
the very high predicted obese rate for both boys and girls. Helping us view the high rate of
obesity within the young generations that in reality should not be facing that.

People refuse to believe that it is important for kids to have the enough protein to be
consumed to their body in the early age, but in the end does all of this really manipulate the
health of the children in their future?

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

Most children do not care or take into consideration of what is being fed to them or what
they are consuming daily yet most of the time they just know what is the most appealing foods or
snacks in which they prefer. Children are now fed whatever is available and not what is better
mentioned Christine, in where she also said that child's health issues had rouse up since
2010(Vestal,2014,pg.1). The only way in which this decreasing of complaints would happen
would be by really enforcing healthier foods to all early ages. Development in one body is very
important especially in the early stages of these children and is the very initiative of how their
body is going to react later in life. Therefore starting to feed the body the correct proteins and
nutrients in their early stages of life is very important, so that the body gets used to good sources
of food and not bad eating habits.
Children are our robots since the beginning of birth and we train them and fed them what
we want but by that we are setting their ways of eating and their likes and dislikes as proved by
Calhoun writer of CNN (Calhoun,2015, pg.1). It has been seen how numbers have gone up in
different health issues within early generation and nothing else can back up these issues but the
source in which they are getting the energy and so much called protein from. Children spend
more time school then at home at times, therefore food that is given should be one-hundred
percent good for them so that their body can work at its best abilities and that later in life is not
suffered by greater issues. Like weve mentioned before these kids are the future and through all
this we can see that if everyone does not take care of their own children and care for their health
then no one else will which will then result to health issues later in their life.
Figure 1. Shows us the result from the Survey in which was done from a research and what people
answered to into whether they believe that what child consumes at an early age affects them later in life.

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

Source: Perez, C. (2015, March). School Nutrition [Survey] Retrieved from


https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6BXSQVM

Conclusion
Child Nutrition is very important for all early generations and in everything that holds the
future, however it will not have a good turn out if children are not fed the best food source that
can be provided. If done right this will then result to a better lives in which they will uphold and
certainly make a difference in their lives. To it all, this will only be affected if both schools and
parents take care of their kids input into their meals and their consumption rate. The NLSP has
done everything to create healthy meals for kids yet has a budget and other things they have to be
aware of before they can just make any drastic changes. Their effort has been done but through it
all it has to be initiated from parents as well to implement both healthy eating and daily exercise
on their kids rather than watching TV or being on their tablets.
Children really need to be fed in ways that are not harmful so that other issues don't arise
in their later times. Obesity has changed a lot and has now been a great issue not only in adults

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

but in children as well. Other health problems have been shown but this is also because of all the
processed food in which everyone is now known to consume from fast food or non-organic
meals. Back then we had the organic and good sources of plantations in which provided more
proteins than people needed yet those generations seem to now fall under the obese rate too due
to these years of processed foods. Therefore, these kids need to be fed right otherwise will fall
under that category in the blink of an eye with out society going like this. Children are loved by
many now its up to everyone who care to contribute to that and really implement on how
important it is to be fed healthy and the correct amount that will create enough energy for each
individual child.

Running Head: SCHOOL LUNCH

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References
Bureau, C. (2013, April 5). Schools hungry to improve taste, nutrition of lunches. Retrieved
March 18, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/05/school-lunchnutrition-new-standards/2053851/
Calhoun,M(2015,March19)CNNHero:Helpingschoolagechildren'see'theirfuture
CNN.com.(n.d.).RetrievedMarch26,2015,from
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/19/us/cnnheroeselliott/
Most Schools Still Don't Meet Federal Nutrition Standards. (2014, November 17). Retrieved
March 18, 2015, from http://time.com/3588057/obesity-school-lunch/
Michelle Obama's School Lunch Program Under Fire Again. (2014, June 5). Retrieved March
22, 2015, from http://beefmagazine.com/blog/michelle-obama-s-school-lunch-programunder-fire-again
Perez, C. (2015, March). School Nutrition [Survey] Retrieved from
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6BXSQVM
Senthilingam, M. (n.d.). Beating the bulge: Brazil's burgeoning obesity problem. Retrieved
March 18, 2015, from http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/09/health/beating-the-bulge-brazilobesity/
TheFutureofChildren,PrincetonBrookings:Providingresearchandanalysistopromote
effectivepoliciesandprogramsforchildren.(n.d.).RetrievedMarch26,2015,from
http://futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/article/index.xmljournalid=40&articleid=13
3ionid=873

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Vestal, C (2014, December 4)Childrens Health Program Faces Cloudy Future Under ACA.
(n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-andanalysis/blogs/stateline/2014/12/4/childrens-health-program-faces-cloudy-future-underacaGupta,R.,
Wit,M.,&McKeown,D.(n.d.).Theimpactofpovertyonthecurrentandfuturehealthstatusof
children.RetrievedMarch26,2015,from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528796/

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