In 1946 Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act to provide underprivileged students a free and healthy meal at school. Students could expect meals such as grilled chicken with freshly baked bread, or sirloin steak and eggs with fresh fruit for dessert. However, in recent years school lunches have been downgraded severely due to government regulations. “Other than mandating more fruits and vegetables, the new regulations haven’t really changed anything except forcing manufacturers to re-engineer products to be healthier,” said Bertrand Weber. The only difference made to these foods is they are made with lower amounts of salt and fats. Schools and manufacturers are forced to follow guidelines, rather than provide foods that students will actually enjoy.
For a lot of students, especially in low-income areas, the only meal they will get is the meal provided by their school. “Food and nutrition directors at school districts nationwide say that their trash cans are overflowing with unwanted food” according to New York times. But why don't these students eat the school lunches? It all comes down to money. In 1946 the yearly budget for school lunches was around $50 million, in the late 1970’s most public school stopped using the budget and began charging students for their lunch. This backfired because parents did not want to pay hundreds of dollars for a meal they could make cheaper at home. This caused schools to use cheaper and less time-consuming foods to provide to students. In the early 2000’s child obesity rates began to rise, the CDC speculated this was because of unhealthy school lunches. In 2012, Michelle Obama instated the Healthy – Hunger Free Kids act. $4.6 billion dollars was implemented to raise the standard of healthy food in schools. At first the act was working extremely well, obesity rated were lowering and students were enjoying healthy, cheap lunches again.
In 2020, COVID shut down the world causing mass destruction to the economy, including schools. The government passed a bill for $10 million so schools could provide free lunches to students. Because of the raised prices of food and labor, schools were forced cut corners to follow government regulations and provide a cheap and easy meal for students. Because of the cheap alternatives for a healthy meal, parents were enraged over what their kids were being served. To this day some schools are still cutting comers to stay withing government regulations and keep students happy. But will it ever get better?
Do you enjoy school lunch?
Do you think free lunches were worth it?
Do you think that schools should spend more time/money on their meals?
Would you be willing to pay more for schools to put more time into what they serve?
Replies
Really well done Micha! You educatged people about the history of school lunches which is what I want to see. The only issue is that all of your replies were done on one day instead of three different days.
I enjoy the majority of school lunches. Free lunches also seem more worth it than having to pay for it. In my case I'll eat just about anything, so not having to pay for it was a blessing in that nothing could stop be from consuming the free food. Schools should spend a little more time on their meals yes and they should spend a little more money on it as well. I don't have the money to pay schools to do anything, that's a government issue.
School lunch is okay sometimes. But I do believe that we are pretty much the cooks testers for the food because they definitly do not eat it because they know it isnt very good. I think now that food is free the quality of the food went down.
I only sometimes enjoy the school lunches. Many of them have little to no flavor. I think that the free lunches were a win-lose situation. No matter what you do someone isn't going to be happy. I do think that school lunches could improve a lot but I also think that it's a lot of money for parents to spend.
While I know that higher prices would likely make lunches have a higher quality, I strongly believe that public services, such as education and the food provided at the school should be free. Alternatively, I think we could just better fund schools. It would be so easy to shift funding from our already overfunded military to something that actually benefits the public.
No I hate school lunch and think that they should make better lunch and things that people might like. I think that the disgusting things that they make should be free because no one would pay for the horrible things that they make. I also think that if schools want the students to eat the food they make they should buy better food and cook it better.
I do think a lot of the lunches the school serves is pretty bad. But some of them are okay and they are definetly worth it since they are free and some familys can't afford lunch especially right now. I do think they could spend a little bit more money on the meal itself to make it better without spending a fortune.
I agree that they are good sometimes the food can be good, also that they could spend a little more time and money on what they serve.
A lot of people whine about the school lunch not being 5 star chef perfect and although it sometimes isn't very good, It could just be your opinion on what type of food it is. It's not like the cooks are trying to poison you, There is no point in in complaning all the time. If you don't like the food, bring your own lunch or take one of the other options they provide.
I agree that sometimes people over react, but I think it is fair to asume that we should get good food most of the time.
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