...School Breakfast and Lunch Programs The Positive Effects on Students and Families The topic of concern that I am going to address is how school breakfast and lunch programs impact the family in various ways. School meal programs, especially breakfast programs, have gotten a significant amount of attention in recent years due to the many studies that have shown the benefits of having these programs. These studies have shown that students who participate in school breakfast programs have better nutrition, less hunger, more food security, better performance in school, and the program could even improve the likelihood that students will eat breakfast on a regular basis (Bartfeld & Ryu, 2011). School breakfast and lunch programs are moving toward having a 100% participation rate, because when students who participated in the programs were analyzed and compared with the non-participation students, results showed significant differences in the categories listed above. (Moffitt, 1995). Being a Dietetics student, I am extremely aware of the importance of nutritious school meal programs because children spend most of their habit-forming years in school. Students need to develop positive breakfast and lunch choices in order to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle in the future. As I briefly stated before, there have been studies done to compare the students who participate in school breakfast and lunch programs with the students who choose not to. The findings indicated that...
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...School Breakfast and Lunch Programs The Positive Effects on Students and Families The topic of concern that I am going to address is how school breakfast and lunch programs impact the family in various ways. School meal programs, especially breakfast programs, have gotten a significant amount of attention in recent years due to the many studies that have shown the benefits of having these programs. These studies have shown that students who participate in school breakfast programs have better nutrition, less hunger, more food security, better performance in school, and the program could even improve the likelihood that students will eat breakfast on a regular basis (Bartfeld & Ryu, 2011). School breakfast and lunch programs are moving toward having a 100% participation rate, because when students who participated in the programs were analyzed and compared with the non-participation students, results showed significant differences in the categories listed above. (Moffitt, 1995). Being a Dietetics student, I am extremely aware of the importance of nutritious school meal programs because children spend most of their habit-forming years in school. Students need to develop positive breakfast and lunch choices in order to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle in the future. As I briefly stated before, there have been studies done to compare the students who participate in school breakfast and lunch programs with the students who choose not to. The findings indicated that...
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...The rising obesity rate amongst school aged children and the need for better quality foods, not less expensive easy-access meals, raises an important question: “Should changes be made to the regulations for foods that are served in public schools or should responsibilities lie exclusively on educating parents about making better food choices for their children?” Parents and the community have a responsibility to help prevent childhood obesity by empowering children with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in the fight. The World Health Organization presented key facts and figures on childhood obesity to include a few of the following: • “The number of overweight or obese infants and young children (aged 0 to 5 years) increased from 31 million globally in 1990 to 44 million in 2012. In the WHO African Region alone the number of overweight or obese children increased from 4 to 10 million over the same period. • The vast majority of overweight or obese children live in developing countries, where the rate of increase has been more than 30% higher than that of developed countries. • If current trends continue the number of overweight or obese infants and young children globally will increase to 70 million by 2025”. (World Health Organization, 2014). While these statistics are staggering there are numerous things not only parents but communities, doctors, farmers, schools, local and state organizations and corporations can do to assist with the fight against childhood...
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...National School Nutrition Program Eboli Knight George McGeehan English Composition 115 May 21, 2015 To be healthy or to not be healthy is the question? Today kids are not always eating a healthy meal and to make up for the loss the national school lunch and school breakfast program was established. I do believe that this is a good idea to keep our kids from being obese and teaching them healthier eating options. The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs were established to align them with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Most schools are increasing the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat free and low fat fluid milk in school meals; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in meals; and meet the nutrition needs of school children within their calorie requirements,” (Federal Register, 2012). Our kids will still be able to enjoy their breakfast and lunch, it’s just a little healthier than what it used to be. To improve lunches and breakfasts, schools are required to offer fruits and vegetables as two separate meal components. Fruit daily at breakfast and lunch, vegetable daily at lunch, including specific vegetable subgroups weekly. A daily meat/ meat alternate at breakfast, fluid milk that is fat free (unflavored and flavored) and low fat (unflavored only). Students are required to select a fruit or a vegetable as part of the reimbursable meal. “The National School Lunch Program supports student nutrition in...
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...obesity. It has been said that all over world that school lunch program are serving this healthy meals but in my school its different. Today Corcoran High School has a lunch program that is serving this reused, processed, and unknown ingredients. For this reason, I would like to propose the lunch program that their food are having us be in danger of being obese and having diabetes. For that, I propose the school board that the following changes should be made if the school intends to have a healthier school system and less students with diabetes and obesity. In the “New York Times”, by Lucy Komisar, she stated that “school lunch programs are using their food for unhealthy choices.” My essay will argue why this approach is better than what is currently taking place on our campus because issues such as homemade food, stop serving fatting foods, and unknown ingredient , will not be solved by simply serving unhealthy meals which is increasing obesity....
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...Build A Healthy Lifestyle Schools in America give fast food to students every day for a meal. How can we build a healthy lifestyle? The United States Department of Agriculture gives to public schools cash for every meal they serve. It is $2.57 and for free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced price lunch, and 24 cents for a paid lunch. In 2007, the program cost around $9 billion to cover food costs. Most people do not realize that very little of this money even goes toward food. Schools have to use it to pay for everything from custodial services to heating in the cafeteria. (Alice and Katrina 2). The national epidemic of childhood obesity is well-recognized, yet the effect of community-based programs and policies on childhood obesity prevention is...
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...many snack-like foods and beverages, eating too few nutritious foods, and not exercising enough, although children's activity levels are generally more in line with recommendations than are their diets. Currently only 1%-2% of US children meet the recommended Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the national nutrition standards for dietary intake necessary for optimal health. Children's intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains does not even come close to current recommendations. If we know what our children need to be healthy, why don't we, as adults, fix the problem? Is it lack of education about nutrition; an inadequate food supply; the power of food marketing; lack of access to healthy, affordable foods; or a failure of will? One of the most important things we can do is provide children with access to healthful foods. The proposed Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 will do that by making significant improvements to our federally funded school meal program. This act will...
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...Lunch school programs are trying to become healthier across our nation. This initiative is becoming more common at each school due to economic and student needs. In this paper, we will look at meeting the needs of the students with a planned process. There will be two charts to show progress of the effects the changes have done to the student’s food choices. These choices were derived from the guides given by the USDA (“National School Lunch Program”, 2013). Recent changes to the schools lunch and breakfast menus has helped in keeping students more healthy and driving school cost to more efficient levels (“National School Lunch Program”, 2013). Most schools give students choices to choose their lunch or breakfast choices. While this is a common practice in most schools, students do not always choose healthy meals. The goal is to give only healthy choices to students so that they may increase their nutrition level intake. The guidelines set forth by the USDA, on the student meal index, is what will be used to assess the changes in students nutrition levels (Kay & Condon, 2012 pg 9). The first major change that needs to be done is re-asses the snack machines in the schools. Each school more than likely has one or two snack machines that are accessed by the students. The contents of the snack machines need to be changed to more health conscious items. An example is replacing sodas, or high sugar drinks, with water and low sugar juices. Each school needs to replace candy...
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...concerns of balancing the nutritional needs of children and concerns of childhood obesity. Often times the meals consumed at school represent the children’s majority of calorie and nutrient intake. The new food program will include specific amounts of calories, fat and nutrients needed for the age group of students. The program will result in a higher cost for meals and will be partially funded through reimbursement from the National School Lunch Program. This aspect of the program will be outweighed by the benefits seen in children's health, fresher foods, less missed days from illness and classroom behavior. The recent changes made by the school board to breakfast and lunch programs were based on the economic situation, need to improve the nutrition and health of the students, development costs and overall benefits of the program. The economic situation of the schools is a key factor in these changes. The question is will these changes fit in budget constraints and still generate revenue. School food service programs are much like a business. What needed to be constructed was a strategy to improve the food offered without losing revenue or increasing expense. The food program is made up of free federal lunches for low income children, reduced lunches, fully paid lunches and ala carte items. The schools do get reimbursements from the government as long as the meals meet certain guidelines. What needed to be considered is the loss in revenue by no longer having ala carte...
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...regulate the content of school lunches? Well, some students think the government should, other students not so much. Many people dislike the thought of having a healthy school lunch, while others think having a healthy lunch will reduce obesity in America. Here’s what America had to say about this! Some people think the government should regulate school lunch, because it will be healthy and it will reduce obesity. Regulating school lunch was first challenged by Michelle Obama. .The first lady wanted to improve the nutritional content of food. Some citizens love the idea. Some people think if they regulate school lunch it will get rid of they fatty foods “The big difference is that the calories are from healthier foods....
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...With our school district being mostly populated my underprivileged families, it is important to provide nutritious, healthy food twice a day. Our current food industry provider gets paid for every student they service for breakfast and lunch, so it is vital to the company to feed as many of the students as possible. School lunches should be nutritious, and healthier for students. With obesity and diabetes plaguing the community, school lunches need to focus on providing the student with a balance of healthy foods that the student may not normally get at home. According to a website healthyeating.SFGate.com, 23.5 % of high school-ers eat meals from fast food restaurants. And according to the same website, high school aged girls should only consume 1800 calories per day. The administration feels “healthy lunches set children up for success,” and that is what needs to be focused on. By providing a better healthy, nutritious lunch our high school will help students be successful. The school in itself is not to blame for unhealthy eating habits....
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...Steven L. Gortmaker, a sociologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, states “The industry made it easier for people to consume more calories throughout the day” (12). Considering the availability, it didn’t take long for fast-food consumption to incline. Fast-food restaurants became a normal stop on the way home rather than a treat for special occasions. When parents appointed this kind of food as a normal dinner, they unconsciously handed down bad eating habits to their children. Fast-food attracted a large number of customers and this drove to the addition of the drive-thru feature. The drive-thru made it possible for customers to order food, pay for it, and enjoy it without leaving the car. At first it seemed like a genius...
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...Food So Popular In the old days people used to eat healthy home cooked meals together as a family. However things have changed, today we can see that people prefer to eat outside their home and order from fast food restaurants, and this is due to the huge increase in popularity of fast food restaurants. Today people try to save as much time as possible due to the necessity to cope with numerous tasks within a limited amount of time. In the majority of cases modern people have busy work schedules and don’t have enough time to cook a meal. The fast food industry is more popular than ever but is it because fast food restaurants made themselves popular? The American lifestyle has changed and these changes have caused the fast food industry to grow in popularity because of its convenience, it’s inexpensive and the need to eat healthy is not a priority. One of the main reasons why fast food restaurants happen to be so popular is the change in life-style. The American lifestyle has changed greatly over the last few decades, people have demanding work schedules with long hours, children come late from school so parents are left with very little time to think about what to make for dinner. It is difficult for them to divide their time between their job and their responsibilities at home like cooking or finding time to prepare their food. This is why they rather go outside to eat instead of spending time on preparing a meal. Now many families have two household earners, so...
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...The National School Lunch Program The most recent change to the National School Lunch program which went into effect July 1, 2012, the first change in over fifteen years, provides nutritious meals that contain one-third of the recommended dietary allowances. Tennessee’s school nutrition program is responsible for all the public schools in Tennessee, which are on the National School Lunch Program. With this change, it became required for schools to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat free milk in school meals. It also includes reducing levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in meals. On January 12, 2010 the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a purposed rule to update the nutrition standards for meals served in schools as part of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. The main focal point of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 was to improve child nutrition. The child obesity rate and the children who live in poverty that were going hungry were the economic issues that surrounded the act. “During 2007–2008, 20% of U.S. children aged 6–11 years and 18% of persons aged 12–19 years were obese, percentages that have tripled since 1980. Engaging children and adolescents in healthy eating and regular physical activity can lower their risk for obesity and related chronic diseases” (5‐Year Technical Assistance and Guidance Plan for Local School Wellness Policies, 2011). The program authorizes funding and sets the...
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...written by KM Richardson. If the childhood obesity epidemic is not reversed, our society will bear the pain and cost of high rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other obesity-related chronic diseases. The tragedy is that these consequences are preventable. We know that prevention of disease is cost-effective and ethical; treatment is costly and painful. If we know what our children need to be healthy, why don't we, as adults, fix the problem? Is it lack of education about nutrition; an inadequate food supply; the power of food marketing; lack of access to healthy, affordable foods; or a failure of will? The Obama administration announced its long-awaited changes to government-subsidized school meals, a final round of rules that adds more fruits and green vegetables to breakfasts and lunches and reduces the amount of salt and fat. Specifically, 38.8 percent of students who routinely eat school lunch were found to be overweight or obese, compared to 24.4 percent of kids who brought their own food from home. The children consuming school food were twice as likely to drink sodas, and a measly 16.3 percent reported eating fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, compared to 91.2 percent of the kids who got homemade food. To me, food is the one central thing about human experience...
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