School Lunches: Room for Improvement



Childhood Obesity and School Lunches: Room for Improvement

Frances F. Briguglio and Jamie Kruger

Ferris States University

Abstract

With childhood obesity on the rise in the United States, focus is turned to the nutritional quality of food that children are consuming. Children today are faced with unhealthy food choices at home and at school. School systems in the United States follow regulations when it comes to the type and quality of food they serve students, but many of these regulations don’t address the poor nutritional quality of lunches that are provided. Federal school lunch programs are in major need of improvements in the content and quality of food subsidized. Schools must take responsibility in the education of both children and parents while providing nutritious foods at mealtime. Students that eat nutritionally balanced meals perform better in school and are less likely to develop chronic medical conditions like type two diabetes.

Keywords: school lunches, childhood obesity, nutrition, federal lunch program

Childhood Obesity and School Lunches: Room for Improvement

School lunches are a major area of concern for the healthiness of our children. Within the United States, children are becoming increasingly obese. Serious health complications such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol can occur. Obese children often have lower self-esteem and are often teased or bullied. Unhealthy eating habits are a major contributor to this health concern. Enhancing the healthiness of school lunches is a way to prevent childhood obesity.

This paper focuses on the foods children are consuming in school. Within the school systems, there is room for improvement in school meals. First, facts regarding obesity rates of children, and the types of foods being prepared and served within schools are discussed. An overview of the National School Lunch Program is explored. Next, current beliefs about school lunches are examined. Then, the importance of healthy school lunches is explained, including concepts related to the implementation of new laws. Next, the relevance of this topic to the community is discussed. Then, benefits to children of the community will be explored, including the possible outcomes of implementing healthier lunches. Finally, the topic will be analyzed and interpretations will be made.

Facts

The obesity rate among children is increasing. Within the United States, almost 32% of children ages 6-19 years of age are overweight or obese (United States Department of Agriculture: Food and Nutritious Services, 2011). Children’s eating habits play a role in the reason they are becoming obese. Children spend most of their day at school and are often consuming unhealthy food while there. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006) reports that 32.7 percent of elementary schools, 71.3 percent of middle schools, and 89.4 percent of high schools have a vending machine, a school store, or snack bar where students can purchase food or beverages. Sports drink and soda pop are the most frequently sold beverages and salty, high fat snacks are the most common food sold.

While some schools are taking measures to make their prepared food healthier, there are still many who are serving food that is high in fat and salt. Only 45.9 percent of schools use part-skim or low fat cheese instead of regular cheese, and only 48.8 percent of schools reduce the amount of salt in their recipes or use low sodium foods (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006).

President Harry Truman established the National School Lunch Program in 1946. The program is a federally assisted meal program, which offers nutritionally balanced and low cost lunches to school children each school day. Schools that partake in the program must serve lunches that meet the federal requirements. These requirements, as listed on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) website, must meet the dietary guidelines for Americans, which recommend that no more than 30 percent of an individual’s calories come from fat with less than 10 percent from saturated fat, while providing one-third of the recommended dietary allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories (2011). Despite the USDA recommendations, specific food served and the way the food is prepared are decided upon by local school authorities (USDA: Food and Nutritious Services, 2011).

Current Beliefs

There are different viewpoints when it comes to school lunches. There has been recent media coverage, from print to television, declaring school lunches to be unhealthy. Concerned parents are becoming worried and assume they should not allow their children to purchase lunches from school. Many parents are attending school board meetings, demanding reform in the cafeteria. Some parents are starting to pack lunches for their children; however, the lunches they are packing can be even unhealthier than the ones provided by the school.

Another point of view is that of the consumer. Many children assume that healthy equals bad tasting. Typically, healthy food is associated with food that is not as tasty. A study conducted by Lazor, Chapman, & Levine, that tested the use of soy products instead of items high in cholesterol and fat, showed that children consumed just as many soy-based products compared to popular school lunch items (2010). The study also concluded that the soy products offered a nutritional advantage over their high fat counterparts.

Another assumption related to the improvement of school lunches is related to cost. Although it may be more expensive to provide healthier meals, the funding to provide these meals must come from somewhere. An article by Samuels (2011) discusses how schools are worried since the implementation of the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” (to be discussed later). Some are concerned that the funding for the new law will decrease funds to other important areas, such as those that reduce food costs for low-income families.

Most individuals feel that school lunches are unhealthy and there is room for improvement. An article by Finkelstein, Hill, & Whitaker (2008) discuss how many parents feel the food available in schools is unhealthy and further regulations should be in place. They are concerned with their children spending a great deal of time at school and consuming a significant portion of their daily intake there. Community citizens hold assumptions that stricter regulations should be mandated for school lunches, as there is a burden to the community if children develop poor eating habits at such a young age.

Importance of Healthy School Lunches and Legislation Changes

Obesity in children is a growing problem in the United States. Obesity is very difficult to treat, especially in children; therefore it is important to prevent it. One method of prevention is to alter the eating habits of children. Since children spend a great deal of time in school, it is important that they are provided with healthy meal options. Concepts that relate to this include improvement of school lunch programs, eliminating vending machines and a la carte lines (which serve only unhealthy food), and including education on healthy meal choices.

In December 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.” This law ensures that not only are kids provided with meals at school, but that those meals are healthy. This law gives the United States Department of Agriculture the authority to set nutritional standards on all foods sold in school, including vending machines, a la carte lines, and school stores. This act will also increase the frequency of monitoring of schools regarding their food programs (The White House, 2010).

In January 2011, the USDA proposed a rule to update the nutrition standards for meals served through the National School Lunch Program. Standards will be raised for the first time in 15 years. More fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free, and low fat milk will be added. Also, the levels of saturated fat, sodium, calories, and trans fat will be limited. This rule has yet to be finalized or implemented (United States Department of Agriculture: Food and Nutritious Services, 2011).

Relevance to Community and Nursing

The topic of school lunches has become a significant issue in terms of health promotion and awareness among parents and healthcare providers. With childhood obesity on the rise, it’s time to examine what types of food our children are consuming at and away from home. As mentioned previously, being obese can cause serious health complications like type two diabetes and high blood pressure, not to mention the emotional distress children go through when they are teased or bullied.

The topic of school lunches and the push to change school requirements to provide healthier fare is of great importance to nursing. Nursing has a responsibility to promote healthier lifestyle options through education, monitoring of behavior modification, and modeling healthy behaviors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that, “health education is an essential part of a coordinated school health program” (2006). By stressing the importance of both nutrition and physical activity, health education can help students adopt and maintain physically active and healthful eating lifestyles that can be practiced for a lifetime.

Making school lunch options healthier will benefit communities in both the short and long term. Children that are obese often suffer poor performance in school and have a higher number of missed days related to health related problems (Story, Kaphingst, & French, 2006). Long-term effects of obesity have financial implications that could strain an already poor community. Obese individuals often develop chronic disease conditions that require intensive medical supervision that includes medication management, increased diagnostic testing, and frequent hospital stays (Wolf, 2002). Obese adults, like their younger counterparts, often have higher absenteeism from work and suffer low self-esteem.

Benefits to Children

Improving school lunches provide many advantages to children. Young students have the opportunity to learn and recognize healthy food options as they are provided to them. Coupled with education on what constitutes a healthy diet, students will then carry these healthy food practices into adulthood. Children that avoid unhealthy foods, like those that contain high levels of saturated fats, sodium, and sugar, are less liable to become obese and develop chronic medical conditions like type two diabetes and hypertension.

As discussed before, cost is a significant issue when improving nutritional value of school lunches. If a school loses revenue from sales of “ala carte” food products, then the students and schools will suffer in financial terms. A pilot program implemented in a San Francisco school district revealed that when changes were made to take away unhealthy food options and replace them with healthier foods, revenue to the school did not change (Wojcicki & Heyman, 2006). The students were benefiting from improved lunch choices at no loss of revenue to the school.

It has been purported that school performance is bound to improve when students are making healthier food choices and participate in increased physical activity. A detailed Canadian study showed that children that ate a healthy diet that included fruits and vegetables and ate less calories from fat, did better on literacy test than their unhealthy counterparts who ate sugary snacks and calorie laden, processed food (Florence, Asbridge, & Veugelers, 2008). Children that perform better in school are more apt to pursue higher levels of education, therefore having the potential for earning a higher income as adults (Heckman, 2000).

Analysis

Schools districts today are facing many budgetary concerns and need to cut costs at every corner in order to survive. Many schools participate in the National School Lunch Program, and numerous schools participating in this program rely on the commodities that the National School Lunch Program provides, such as ground beef. As an example of the nutritional content, all ground beef is listed as having an average fat content of 15 percent and no more than 18 percent, putting it into the category of “ground round” (USDA, 2007). Ground round, while better than ground chuck, is certainly not as healthy as ground sirloin, ground turkey, or its soy alternative. Creating an overall healthy school lunch menu from the USDA commodity list would be a challenge for any financially strapped school district.

In terms of the consumer, the students themselves pose a roadblock when schools attempt to change lunch options for the better. Children will typically choose the unhealthy food, such as pizza, over a healthier option, such as grilled fish. As discussed earlier, children did not know the difference when soy base alternatives replaced their unhealthy counterparts. The answer to, “kids won’t like healthier school lunches” are programs like Revolution Foods and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. These programs are aimed at creating healthy foods available for school lunch programs at economical costs to schools, while being palatable to young children. The best part about programs like Revolution Foods, and others like them, they provide nutrition education for schools and children.

Conclusion

Raising today’s children to become healthy, active, and productive members of society starts with learning good building blocks today. One vital building block nursing can teach our children is the importance of developing healthy nutritional values through making better food choices, while knowing why. This education needs to be part of schools in the form of healthier lunch options, and a partnering educational program that is provided by healthcare individuals. In order to provide healthier lunch options, there needs to be reform at the federal and state levels and nursing can help lobby for such change. School lunch programs need to be rethought, and federal funding for these programs needs to be made a priority. Nursing, and its organizations, has the ability to promote health to children of the community in order to prevent disease and support wellness. Prevention can begin at any age and the simple act of reforming the school lunch can be a good start.

References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006). School health policies and program study. Retrieved from

Florence, M. D., Asbridge, M., & Veugelers, P. J. (2008). Diet quality and academic performance. Journal of School Health, 78(4), 209-216. Retrieved from



Heckman, J. J. (2000). Policies to foster human capital. Research in Economics, 54, 3-56. doi: 10.1006/reec.1999.0225

Lazor, K., Chapman, N., & Levine, E. (2010). Soy goes to school: Acceptance of healthful, vegetarian options in Maryland Middle School lunches. Journal of School Health, 80(4), 200-206. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2009.00487.x

Samuels, C. (2011). School groups worry revised lunch law could burden districts. Education Week, 30(15), 22. Retrieved from Document URL



Story, M., Kaphingst, K. M., & French, S. (2006). The role of child care settings in obesity prevention. The Future of Children, 16(1), 1550-1558. doi: 10.1353/foc.2006.0010

The White House. (2010). President Obama signs healthy, hunger-free kids act of 2010 into law. Retrieved from

United States Department of Agriculture: Food and Nutrition Service. (2011). School food services. Retrieved from

Wojcicki, J. M. & Heyman, M. B. (2006). Healthier choices and increased participation in a middle school lunch program: effects of nutrition policy changes in San Francisco.

American Journal of Public Health, 96(9), 1542-1547. doi: 10.2105AJPH.2005.070946

Wolf, A. (2002). Economic outcomes of the obese patient. Obesity Research, 10(1), 58s-62s.

CHECKLIST FOR SUBMITTING PAPERS

 

|CHECK |  |

|DATE, TIME, & |PROOFREAD FOR: APA ISSUES |

|INITIAL |  |

| jk & fb |1. Page Numbers: Did you number your pages using the automatic functions of your Word program? [p. 230 and example on p. |

|3/23/11 |40)] |

|  jk & fb |2. Running head: Does the Running head: have a small “h”? Is it on every page? Is it less than 50 spaces total? Is the title|

|3/23/11 |of the Running head in all caps? Is it 1” from the top of your title page? (Should be a few words from the title of your |

| |paper). [p. 229 and example on p. 40] |

|  jk & fb |3. Abstract: Make sure your abstract begins on a new page. Is there a label of Abstract and it is centered at the top of the|

|3/23/11 |page? Is it a single paragraph? Is the paragraph flush with the margin without an indentation? Is your abstract a summary|

| |of your entire paper? Remember it is not an introduction to your paper. Someone should be able to read the abstract and know|

| |what to find in your paper. [p. 25 and example on p. 41] |

|  jk & fb |4. Introduction: Did you repeat the title of your paper on your first page of content? Do not use ‘Introduction’ as a |

|3/23/11 |heading following the title. The first paragraph clearly implies the introduction and no heading is needed. [p. 27 and |

| |example on p. 42] |

|  jk & fb |5. Margins: Did you leave 1” on all sides? [p. 229] |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |6. Double-spacing: Did you double-space throughout? No triple or extra spaces between sections or paragraphs except in |

|3/23/11 |special circumstances. This includes the reference page. [p. 229 and example on p. 40-59] |

|  jk & fb |7. Line Length and Alignment: Did you use the flush-left style, and leave the right margin uneven, or ragged? [p. 229] |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |8. Paragraphs and Indentation: Did you indent the first line of every paragraph? See P. 229 for exceptions. |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |9. Spacing After Punctuation Marks: Did you space once at the end of separate parts of a reference and initials in a |

|3/23/11 |person’s name? Do not space after periods in abbreviations. Space twice after punctuation marks at the end of a sentence. |

| |[p. 87-88] |

|  jk & fb |10. Typeface: Did you use Times Roman 12-point font? [p. 228] |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |9. Abbreviation: Did you explain each abbreviation the first time you used it? [p. 106-111] |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |11. Plagiarism: Cite all sources! If you say something that is not your original idea, it must be cited. You may be citing |

|3/23/11 |many times…this is what you are supposed to be doing! [p. 170] |

|  jk & fb |12. Direct Quote: A direct quote is exact words taken from another. An example with citation would look like this: |

|3/23/11 |“The variables that impact the etiology and the human response to various disease states will be explored” (Bell-Scriber, |

| |2007, p. 1). |

| |Please note where the quotation marks are placed, where the final period is placed, no first name of author, and inclusion |

| |of page number, etc. Do all direct quotes look like this? [p. 170-172] |

|  jk & fb |13. Quotes Over 40 Words: Did you make block quotes out of any direct quotes that are 40 words or longer? [p. 170-172] |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |14. Paraphrase: A paraphrase citation would look like this: |

|3/23/11 |Patients respond to illnesses in various ways depending on a number of factors that will be explored (Bell-Scriber, 2007). |

| |Do all paraphrased citations look like this? [p. 171 and multiple examples in text on p. 40-59] |

| jk & fb |15. Headings: Did you check your headings for proper levels? [p. 62-63]. |

|3/23/11  | |

|  jk & fb |16. General Guidelines for References: |

|3/23/11 |A. Did you start the References on a new page? [p. 37] |

| |B. Did you cut and paste references on your reference page? If so, check to make sure they are in correct APA format. Often |

| |they are not and must be adapted. Make sure all fonts are the same. |

| |C. Is your reference list double spaced with hanging indents? [p. 37] |

|  |  |

| |PROOFREAD FOR GRAMMAR, SPELLING, PUNCTUATION, & STRUCTURE |

| jk & fb |13. Did you follow the assignment rubric? Did you make headings that address each major section? (Required to point out |

|3/23/11  |where you addressed each section.) |

|  jk & fb |14. Watch for run-on or long, cumbersome sentences. Read it out loud without pausing unless punctuation is present. If you |

|3/23/11 |become breathless or it doesn’t make sense, you need to rephrase or break the sentence into 2 or more smaller sentences. Did|

| |you do this? |

|  jk & fb |15. Wordiness: check for the words “that”, and “the”. If not necessary, did you omit? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |16. Conversational tone: Don’t write as if you are talking to someone in a casual way. For example, “Well so I couldn’t |

|3/23/11 |believe nurses did such things!” or “I was in total shock over that.” Did you stay in a formal/professional tone? |

|  jk & fb |17. Avoid contractions. i.e. don’t, can’t, won’t, etc. Did you spell these out? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |18. Did you check to make sure there are no hyphens and broken words in the right margin? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |19. Do not use “etc.” or "i.e." in formal writing unless in parenthesis. Did you check for improper use of etc. & i.e.? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |20. Stay in subject agreement. When referring to 1 nurse, don’t refer to the nurse as “they” or “them”. Also, in referring |

|3/23/11 |to a human, don’t refer to the person as “that”, but rather “who”. For example: The nurse that gave the injection….” Should |

| |be “The nurse who gave the injection…” Did you check for subject agreement? Likewise, don’t refer to “us”, “we”, “our”, |

| |within the paper…this is not about you and me. Be clear in identifying. For example don’t say “Our profession uses empirical|

| |data to support ….” . Instead say “The nursing profession uses empirical data….. |

|  jk & fb |21. Did you check your sentences to make sure you did not end them with a preposition? For example, “I witnessed activities |

|3/23/11 |that I was not happy with.” Instead, “I witnessed activities with which I was not happy.” |

|  jk & fb |22. Did you run a Spellcheck? Did you proofread in addition to running the Spellcheck? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |23. Did you have other people read your paper? Did they find any areas confusing? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |24. Did you include a summary or conclusion heading and section to wrap up your paper? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |25. Do not use “we” “us” “our” “you” “I” etc. in a formal paper! Did you remove these words? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |26. Does your paper have sentence fragments? Do you have complete sentences? |

|3/23/11 | |

|  jk & fb |27. Did you check apostrophes for correct possessive use. Don’t use apostrophes unless it is showing possession and then be|

|3/23/11 |sure it is in the correct location. The exception is with the word it. It’s = it is. Its is possessive. |

 

Signing below indicates you have proofread your paper for the errors in the checklist:

 

__ Frances F. Briguglio & Jamie Kruger___________DATE:__3/23/11___________

 

A peer needs to proofread your paper checking for errors in the listed areas and sign below:

 

____Amy Wirick_______________________________DATE:____3/22/11__________

 

Revised Fall 2009

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download