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
Replies
I don't think that schools should offer fast food at lunch. Eating highly processed food on a daily basis is not good for your healt or perfomance long term. Moreover, I think that school should be a good example and show healthy food options so the students can learn that for their future life.
I agree that eating processed food daily is not good for a person. But offering healthy fast food options in school can teach students how to make good food choices when they are eating at restaurants and other places. When they go to a fast food restaurant, maybe they will choose the better meal instead of the bad one.
I think that fast food should be served in schools, but only once or twice a week. If it gets to be happening too often, kids will be very unhealthy, and it won't benefit anyone. But, I think that a nice fast food lunch would sometimes be good for kids to have, and its something new to be around the school. I just think that it would make students have an unhealthy relationship with food, and it can be very pricey in the long run.
I agree that it would cost more to have the fast food lunch in school and maybe it should be served only a few days a week. I think having healthy fast food options can be good for students health.
If fast food was served in school it should only be on special days or once a week because it is not healthy. I would rather have fast food than the schools food but overtime it will be unhealthy and expensive. I think that the school should get more options like fast food for meals.
I agree that schools should have more options and that fast food could only be served on certain days. It would be more expensive and I would like to have the choice.
I think that having fast food in school could be a good . It will give students and teachers more options of food to eat and that will make them happy if they dont like the food. I think that some days I would eat school lunch and some days I would eat the fast food.
I agree with all your comments. If students could have the choice, it would make them happier and help them to have a better day.
If fast food was served I would think it would be only a couple days a week, fast food isn't the healthyist and sometimes our lunch isnt either. I would eat subway or pizza ranch over school lunch any day but it is so expensive and unhealthy.
I don't think that serving fast food in school would be a good idea because it would encourage students to eat more fast food. If I had a choice I woudl normally eat school lunch but it would be nice to have the option of having fast food once in a while.
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
-
9
of 9 Next