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 do agree that having fast food will probably stop students from complaining about the school food.

  • I think it would be a huge improvement to have fast food in our school or even just have new lunches, Our lunch now is god awful it is so bad that most kids will not even try it. So yes having a fast food lunch would be awesome.

    • I do agree that having fast food would be awesome. I know a lot of my friends do not eat their school lunch because it is terrible. Maybe a new school lunch menu with better food would help too.

  • I think it would be cool if we had fast food in school give kids more chances. But at the same time I think that kids would get fatter and we already have the problem I think that if you were more active everyday it would be good but some kids don't move very much beause they are lazy.

    • I agree that fast food can make kids obese. I thnk if there are healthy fast food options and not unhealthy ones, it would help with obesity problems.  

  • I think that fast food in schools is a good idea because it allows students more of a choice than stuck to one thing, not only will it give people more of a choice but it will make people happier to have more food options.

    • I agree that students would be much happier if they had a good lunch experience. Having terrible school lunches does not make for a good afternoon.

  • I think that fast food in schools is a good idea, it will give people more opions to eat and that will make a lot of people happy. Yes it might make people gain some weight but that is what they will choice. I would eat fast food every once in a while if I did not like the school food that day.

    • I agree that having fast food gives more options for students to eat.

  • I think if we were to serve fast food it should only be once a week, or less. I think having the option of fast food every day would be very unhealthy and costly. However, serving this food would also give kids a wider range of food options during lunch. Overall, I think serving fast food would be a bad idea.

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