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
I think most days school lunches are enjoyable and I think since its free it's very nice to have and it could definitely be worse.I do think free lunches are worth it for the people that are not able to eat as much as most at home. But I do think that the school could spend a little more time and money on the lunches so more people eat them.
Also it does seem that the free lunch program made lunches worse.
I agree that the lunches can be good at times, and that the free lunches are benifical to some families.
I don't eat school lunch I haven't for years but the last time I remember was in preschool and I was a preschooler you ate whatever and was happy with it and yes free lunch at school is worth it but maybe they could spend more time and money on the lunches so kids could actually like what they're eating
I agree that the schools could spend more money on the school lunches.
I enjoy most of the school lunches, but some of them aren't the best. I think having free lunches is a great idea because some families can't afford to pay for lunch money, but don't fit in the "free lunch program" that was offered before COVID.
I agree that the lunches can be good at times, and that the free lunches are benifical to some families.
I haven't ate school lunch in so many years because I go home for lunch. I think it shows respect for other who don't have much money. I don't know because I don't eat school lunch anymore.
I agree that the free lunches are benifical to some families.
I think school lunch is really bad. I think it is a great idea to have free lunch. I also think that more than spending more time/money on the meals they could make better ones with the same stuff they have. I think that they could do a better job with all the food they have. I also think that most of the time the food is disgusting.
-
6
-
7
-
8
-
9
-
10
of 11 Next