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/

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies

  • Good topic choice and well done Henry! The only issue is that all of your comments were done one one day instead of three.

  • I think it is a good idea because most people don't think school lunch is great. Sometimes school lunch isn't very good, so I think it would be amazing if we had a choice between fast food lunch or school lunch. 

  • I think fast food should be a choice at lunch, some kids dont like school lunches. I would take fast food anyday if I had a choice to choose from fast food or school lunches.

  • I think that fast foods should be a good idea becasue some kids do not like the food that they feed us. If I had a choice i would take fast food instead of anything because somethings I don't like school food becasue somethings i do not like.

    • I agree that some kids do not like school lunches.  It would be nice to have a choice.

  • I don't think it has to be fast food just something better. Most kids don't even eat lunch because it's so bad. I would choose to eat fast food if I had to choose because it tastes way better. 

    • I think that the school lunch is not always very good. Any other option would be better in most cases.

  • I feel that they should offer fast food in schools because it tastes a little better than normal school food, if I had a choice I would 500% choose the fast food option because at least they have shouldn't make your food because they have been making it for years unless they are new.

    • I agree to that at fast food would taste better than school food. Maybe if the school had new kinds of food to serve students it would be better.

  • I personally don't think that fast food should be served in schools for a couple of reasons. First of all, the US already has such a big obesity problem that affects children, so by adding fast food to school lunches it would only make the problem worse. If I had a choice if I could eat fast food or school food, I would personally eat school food because fast food is very unhealthy. 

This reply was deleted.
eXTReMe Tracker