...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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...Education’s School Nutrition Program: Overview of Recent Changes to Meal Plan Student Sample Strayer University ENG 115: English Composition Professor Gabriel Smith February 1, 2014 Children in today’s society may end up “hav[ing] a shorter lifespan than their parents” (United States Department of Agriculture, 2013, p 3) per health professionals, if the ongoing issue of childhood obesity is not addressed. It is in reaction to this type of findings that the United States Government has adapted the United States Department of Agriculture’s New Meal Pattern and passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Implementing the procedures and policies of these programs, the Georgia State Department of Education’s School Nutrition Program (“Georgia School Nutrition Program”) has made recent changes to its meal plan. The Georgia School Nutrition Program’s new meal plan is now focused on maintaining reasonably priced meal payments for parents, monitoring children’s health issues and improving students’ nutrition by providing healthy meals utilizing the United States Department of Agriculture’s New Meal Pattern guidelines. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, in 2010 there were around 17 million US households that faced the financial hardship of providing enough food for their families. Further, the Georgia Department of Education (2012) has found that if the meal program was not available at school, many students would receive no meal for lunch...
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...implementation of mid day meals in India. 2. AIM OF THE STUDY: An analytical study on the operational feasibility and challenges of providing mid day meals in India. 3. RATIONALE AND BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY: The national program for nutritional support for primary children also known as the mid day meal program is one of the largest welfare programs in India and one of the only programs aimed at reducing hunger from the age group of 6-12 and increase the attendance in the primary education system. There are two models, which is the centralized model, and the decentralized model and it has been observed that most states are shifting towards the centralized approach; The program has been active since 1995 but there are still major cases of nutrition deficiency, anaemia, lack of vitamin A and iodine among many children in the country. (Rani & Sharma) A research work carried out by the centre for equity studies Delhi states that: - The drawbacks of the centralised approach include lack of employment, increased risk of food spoilage, no community participation, and lack of transparency; hence a research will be done to determine the effectiveness and viability of this approach and its comparison with the decentralized and handmade approach to food. (Natasha, 2010) 4. OUTLINES OF THE THEORY/IES UNDERPINNING YOUR RESEARCH: In 2004 the government initiated the mid day meals program to provide meals to primary school children, the government...
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...The school’s decision to change the food program is to address the 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...
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...and lunch programs have many benefits to children's health because they positively influence their diets by balancing some of their favorite foods with healthier alternatives. Throughout this paper, my intent is to describe to you in detail the benefits of these programs and the process that is involved in implementing them within the school district, as well as to talk about some of the challenges that may be faced with the adoption of such a program. The Process and Benefits The USDA describes the national breakfast and lunch programs as federally assisted meal programs which seek to provide low-cost or free lunches to public school children across the country every single day. For taking part in these programs, our school district would receive subsidies and also food provided to us for every meal by the US Department of Agriculture. These meals would need to meet certain health standards that are determined by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which currently seeks to increase the intake of items such as fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains within these school meals. Along with the inclusion of more healthy ingredients, there are also specific caloric and sodium intake standards that we would need to adhere to as well. These limits are determined by the age of the children who are being served and would be different for each age group. Although this may seem to limit the freedom that we have within the district to choose what items we serve during meals, it does...
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...Assignment 2.2: The Public Needs to Know English 115 Professor Wylder The current status of school meals is that they are full of fat and do not contain enough nutritious value. There are changes that need to be made in order to preserve the health and wellbeing of the children in society. The changes to be made are in the school breakfast and lunch programs. In order to effectively change the program you have to understand the economic issues, the population that is being served and their needs, the process and the benefits of the program. One major economic issue is the rising ate of unemployment. This has forced society into a time filled with burden and stress. Unemployment forces struggling families to figure out how to feed their children with limited to no resources. This burden has caused a rise in the number of children participating in the breakfast and lunch program. The increase in participation has gone up by about 84% for free and reduced lunches alone. The participation is also rising because it is cheaper for a family to feed their child at school than it is to send their lunch (School Nutrition Association, 2008). The rising rate of participation shows that families are in dire need of assistance. The families are turning to the schools for assistance to ensure that their children have food to eat. Another economic issue that American families face today is being underemployed. Being underemployed is when you only a have part time job(s) or you take...
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...The school breakfast and lunch programs make nutritionally balanced low cost or free meals available to school children each day. School breakfast and lunches must meet the dietary guidelines for Americans and federal nutrition standards. The new school regulations have implemented adding the new fresh fruit and vegetable program to ensure that kids have healthier food choices to choose from. By adding this new program they make sure the schools can create a more conscious healthy environment and increase the consumption as well. These changes present the schools with a chance to make a difference in their diet and impact their present health and diet. This rule passed by the Food & Nutrition Service Agency requires most of the schools lunch and breakfast programs to have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free and low fat fluid milk in the meals served in schools. They must also reduce sodium levels and meet calorie requirements. These changes will help the dietary needs and help reduce the large scale of childhood obesity. The proposed rule in 2011 required these following changes to be implemented to the school menus: Offer vegetables daily at lunch including specific vegetable subgroups weekly (dark green, oranges and others as defined in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines) and a limited quantity of starchy vegetables throughout the week; • Offer whole grains: half of the grains would be the whole grain rich upon implementation of the rule and all grains...
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...Schools: Provide Healthy Food Awareness Program and Fine Quality Meals Growing up in a small town of New Jersey, for the preliminary academic years my parents had no alternative but to place my siblings and me in the weakly funded public school system. From what I could recall the school system when it came from a financial standpoint relied more upon the contributions made by its residents than the State Government. As a result of this the school system had no other choice but to provide meals inferior to the meals nearby public school systems served. Both distasteful and unhealthy meals were prepared for the students during their breakfast and lunch periods. Some students like myself were basically obliged to devour the provided school meals due to our emptiness in our stomach. Other students would insist that the meals provided were more abundant than meals giving at home during dinner. The majority of those students who glorified the despicable meals provided by the school system were the same students who were mainly over weight for their age. In the present day numerous of Healthy Food Advocates acknowledges through the medium of schools acquiring the responsibility of educating students on healthy eating and revolutionizing the meals being served the dilemma on obesity among the developing generation will be in decline. Although this concept of educating students on healthy food and revamping the meals being served sounds purely appealing for many, others argue the...
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...Nancy Christine Foreman ENG 115-English Composition November 25, 2012 The current status of school meals is that they are full of fat and do not contain enough nutritious value, so in order to preserve the health and well being of the children in our society, there needs to be changes in the school breakfast and lunch programs. The first section of the paper will discuss the economic issues. The middle portions will examine the needs of the population being served along with the process that is involved in implementing the program. The final part will elaborate on the benefits of the program. A major economic issue that the people of society face today is the rising rate of unemployment. The rising rate of unemployment has caused society into a time filled with burden. The burden occurs when the unemployed families have to figure out how to feed their children. This burden has caused a rise in the number of children participating in the breakfast and lunch program. The increase in participation has gone up by about 84 % for free and reduced lunches alone. The participation is also rising because it is cheaper for a family to feed their child at school than it is to send their lunch (School Nutrition Association, 2008). The rising rate of participation shows that families are in dire need of assistance. The families are turning to the schools for assistance to ensure that their children have food to eat. Another economic issue that ...
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...Assignment 2.1: The public needs to know- Draft Version Barbara Matos English 115 August 3, 2012 The school breakfast and lunch programs make nutritionally balanced low cost or free meals available to school children each day. School breakfast and lunches must meet the dietary guidelines for Americans and federal nutrition standards. The new school regulations have implemented adding the new fresh fruit and vegetable program to ensure that kids have healthier food choices to choose from. By adding this new program they make sure the schools can create a more conscious healthy environment and increase the consumption as well. These changes present the schools with a chance to make a difference in their diet and impact their present health and diet. This rule passed by the Food & Nutrition Service Agency requires most of the schools lunch and breakfast programs to have fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat free and low fat fluid milk in the meals served in schools. They must also reduce sodium levels and meet calorie requirements. These changes will help the dietary needs and help reduce the large scale of childhood obesity. The proposed rule in 2011 required these following changes to be implemented to the school menus: Offer vegetables daily at lunch including specific vegetable subgroups weekly (dark green, oranges and others as defined in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines) and a limited quantity of starchy vegetables throughout the week; • Offer whole grains:...
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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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...The Breakfast and Lunch Programs Jennifer Harvey-Mitchell Professor Storms Eng. 115: English Strayer University November 15, 2012 Overview Congress passed the National School Lunch Act in 1946 to support commodity prices after World War II by reducing farm surpluses while providing food to school children. By 1970, the program was providing 22 million lunches on an average day, about a fifth of them subsidized. Since then, the subsidized number of children has increased while paid lunches have declined, but not since 1972 have so many additional children become eligible for free lunches as in fiscal year 2010, 1.3 million. Today it is a $10.8 billion program providing 32 million lunches, 21 million of which are free or at reduced price. The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture (Dillion, 2011). The Palm Beach County School District has altered its breakfast and lunch programs to improve nutrition and health for all students. The new Federal Nutrition Standards require schools to offer students more fruit, vegetables, and whole grains and to limit the sodium, calories, saturated and trans fat in school meals according to the School Nutrition Association (SNA 2012). Most notably, cafeterias are serving fruits and vegetable in a variety of ways to appeal to students diverse...
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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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...The Public Needs To Know: School Meal Programs English 115 Prof. David Makhanlall August 10, 2014 We know that food is fuel. In order for children to be successful in the classroom, they must be well nourished. For millions of American children, a school meal is the best meal they are going to eat each day. Currently 39.7% of youth in Mississippi are overweight or obese, for these students school lunches provide valuable nutrition that they may not get at home. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) are federally funded programs that provide meals to over one hundred thousand schools across America. The recent changes to the school meal programs intend to combat the growing trend of child hood obesity with the ultimate goal of providing healthy, well-balanced and nutritious school breakfast and lunches. The majority of people understand that nutrition and health directly relates to physical and mental development. In children, nutrition affects their physical health and cognitive development. The revised school lunch and breakfast program provides more nutritional options, such as whole grain instead of refined white breads, for school age children. Prior to the revision, school food programs were under a lot of scrutiny and criticism. Fewer than 30% of schools followed the nutrition guidelines, the USDA was doing a poor job at enforcing the regulations. On top of the second-rate lunches schools served, they were also allowing...
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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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