School Lunches Research Paper

Words: 1496
Pages: 6

According to Jannik Linder, a health and fitness statistic specialist, “Unhealthy school lunches contribute up to 30% of children’s daily calorie intake.” Many students get their meals from school. For some kids, this is the only source of food they will get for the day. Getting proper nutrition at any age is incredibly important, but it’s especially important in adolescence, since the brain is still developing. Most teens are not getting enough fruits and vegetables in their daily diets. Many schools' lunch menus are extremely limited and repetitive due to costs and requirements. Even with USDA requirements for school lunches, individual schools should do a better job of sourcing local, fresh ingredients to help students get the nutrients they need to be successful in and out of school. Even though it may be harder to include more options with school lunches, we should be offering healthier, non-processed food and …show more content…
These processed foods do not include the nutritional value teens need. Processed foods are more convenient for schools because they don’t take long to cook and can be bought in bulk for a lower cost. While it may be a lower cost and more convenient, we should care more about the health and education of our students. This all works together to help determine the success of students. If teens do not have a proper diet, they won’t be able to function properly at any level—mental, emotional, or physical. When students are shown what a proper diet is, they will be more likely to make better choices outside of school as well. One potential solution to this problem would be working with local farms to get fresh produce and fresh fruits. This would benefit both the farmers and the schools. The farmers would be making money and could use this as a tax right-off. Schools would be able to support their local community and provide students with fresh foods instead of processed