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?
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Replies
I agree that the US has a big obesity poblem that is affecting many childern, however, not all fast food has to be unhealthy.
I don't think that they should serve fast food in the schools. It is unhealthy and I think that if kids want to get food they can bring their own or they can get signed out to go get fast food. I don't think that it would be financially smart to sell fast food at Harlan and because there aren't enough kids that go here.
I do agree with you that students can bring a healthy lunch to school with them and not have to buy fast food or school lunches. Some people get free or reduced-price lunches and have to eat what the school serves. I think that if Harlan had fast food, the extra cost should be paid by the parent or student, not the school.
I do not think that schools should serve fast food. The US already has a obesity problem in children so if we had fast food in schools I think we would get even more obese children. I think our school does a good job giving us choices with the roll things and the fruit salads.
I agree that our school does do a good job giving us choices with fruit and vegatables. But, I do think it would be neat for some students to be able to eat fat food sometimes.
I personally do not think that it would be a smart idea for schools to begin serving fast food meals to students during lunch. I think that many of the types of food that fast food restaurants serve are not very healthy, especially since most students would be eating it every single day.
I do agree that most fast foods are unhealthy, but not all of them are unhealthy. Fast food restaurants usually have a few healthy options on their menus. Maybe schools could offer fast food lunches on certain days of the week and not everyday.
I don't think that schools should serve fast food. If they did, the obesity of children would increase rapidly. I also think that schools should serve healthier and better tasting food than it is right now. For instance our school, I don't usually enjoy our school lunch and it definetly does not look healthy 50% of the time.
I do agree that schools should try to serve more heaither and better tasting food than right now. But, I do think it would be neat if healthier fast foods were served in schools.
I think that fast food in school is a fun idea but it would be more likely to happen in large cities with a lot of students. It may help those students that don't eat or like school lunches but there is always the option of bringing food with you to school. I like this idea but I think it would be better in bigger and wealthier schools.
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