Should Fast Food Be Served In School?

More than 31 million students eat school lunches every day and almost two-thirds of them get a free or reduced-price meal. For some students, this is the only meal they eat every day. Are these meals healthy? Would fast food be a better choce?

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in charge of the school lunch program across the country and they have very strict guidlines. They have set guidelines on the amount of calories, the amount of salt, the amount of whole grains and require schools to offer fruits and vegetables. School lunches have become much healthier than past years. The cost of a school lunch is less expensive than the fast food option for both the schools and parents. There have been studies done in the past that show student performance at school goes down when they eat fast food on a daily basis. Not only are school lunches healthier, but they are teaching students how to make a better food choice.

Even with the USDA's strict guidelines, school lunches are not always better. Most times, they are processed, frozen food that is reheated. They have artificial flavors and coloring and most times are not very appealing. And safety can be an issue as well. A significant percentage of meat eaten by students at some schools fails to meet quality standards imposed by fast food restaurants. Although fast food does cost more, school lunch prices have increased as well due to inflation. Not all fast food is unhealthy. A lot of fast food restaurants have heilthy choice options on their menus. Giving students a healthy fast food lunch choice could help with their acadamic performance and make for an all better day.

I think schools should offer a fast food lunch option, at a higher price, if it is available in their town.  But, I do think that the fast food choice must be a somewhat healthy one, like a subway meal or grilled chicken nuggets. I do not think that having these kinds of lunch's everyday will change my performance in school.  There are couple of days were I eat very little of my school lunch because the meals are not good. I feel my lunch period and overall day will be much better with the fast food lunch.

 

Questions:

Do you think fast food in schools is a good idea?

If you had a choice, would you eat a school lunch or a fast food lunch? Why?

 

Sites

https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/why-fast-food-is-healthier-than-school-lunches-the-shocking-usda-truth

https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2022/02/08/food-fight-usda-strengthens-school-meal-standards-ahead-of-broad-overhaul-slated-for-the-fall

https://draxe.com/health/school-lunch/

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Replies

    • I agree that having an option would be nice every once in a while.  If the fast food were healthy, it could help students to make better food choices in their everyday lives.

  • I think that having fast food at school would be somewhat redundant because the food served here is already somewhat to the level of fast food in terms of healthiness/quality. Purchasing fast food would just be an unnecessary cost that the school doesn't really need to put on their already low budget. Plus I don't wanna spend like $5 a day instead of $2

    • I agree that a lot of the food served in the school probably isn't the healthiest.   The parents could pay the extra cost for the fast food lunch if they want their children to eat it.

  • I personally believe that fast food should be served in schools but only on ever other day because if we have fast food every day then it will just increase the obysaty rates but on the other hand the school does make some pretty nasty lunches that are almost still alive.

    • I agree that school lunches are not the best tasting somedays and that fast food could be served only on certain days.  Only allowing fast food that is healthy would help with the obesity rates.

  • I personally think that fast should should be a thing for schools. schools make terrible and nasty food for kids. a lot of kids don't ever touch the school lunch so they should be able to get fast food. If I had a choice I would get fast food at school all the time.

    • I agree that the schools lunch isn't the best sometimes.  I think fast food should be an option in addition to school lunch so students can make the choice.

  • This reply was deleted.
    • I agree that the school's lunch is not very good sometimes.  Fast food is more expensive, but if parents paid the extra cost, then the school wouldn't have to.

  • I think that fast food being served in schools is not a good idea. School lunches need to be healthy and generally, fast food is not healthy. If I had a choice for lunch, I would pick neither the school lunch nor the fast food. I bring my own lunch as I enjoy it more and it is usually healthier.

    • I agree that bringing your own lunch would probably be the healthiest since you have a choice in what you are eating.  Fast food is generally not healthy, but a lot of fast food restaurants have healthy meal options.  Maybe only the healthy fast food meals could be served in schools.

This reply was deleted.
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