The School Lunch Program: Parents Relinquish Control of Kids’ Meals to the Federal Government and School Boards
“The reason kids are too fat now is, in part, because they used to be too skinny” – The School Lunch Programs
School time, including going to and from school, dominates a child’s or adolescent’s day. The control parents have at home evaporates once the school bus leaves and doesn’t return for eight or more hours. After school hours become dangerous times to eat and drink due to the fatigue and low blood sugar experienced by many children and adolescents. It is easy for the parent who is also tired and often overwhelmed to give the child one of the bad snacks he has seen on television. Whether it’s the wrong school breakfast, bad school lunches, and the school-sponsored vending machine, parents have relinquished control of children’s and teens’ food and drink not only to the school but to their 7-year-old as well.
The school lunches offered to your children may differ between school districts, areas of the country, or whether the school is public or private. Some schools only have cafeterias and provide the standardized school lunches, while other schools also have a la carte food items, fast food kiosks, or even student stores. Comparing what large groups of kids end up eating for lunch reveals twice the fat of cafeteria lunches compared to sack lunches (lunches brought from home). Total fat and calories are even higher when students purchase meals a la carte because they often choose two, three, or more items, and often the “wrong” items..
Where the school lunch programs started:
Malnourished and malnourished families and children began to become widespread in the US in the 1930s. Recruits during World War II were regularly turned away because they were malnourished. Seeing this problem, President Harry S. Truman in 1946 launched the School Lunch Program, guaranteeing a hot lunch to all schoolchildren who could not afford it. Thus began a plan that would contribute 60 years later to the obesity epidemic we see today!
Changing School Lunch Programs:
The programs have changed over the years, and free and reduced-cost breakfasts were added during the 1960s. The government is in the business of supplying school food, buying surplus produce from farmers and sending it to schools. School lunches tend to exceed the national recommendations for fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. While the quality has improved somewhat in recent years, fresh fruits and vegetables are generally lacking. A sample of 24 public middle schools in San Diego County, CA. found that nearly 50% of students at a school with a student store or a la carte service bought mostly candy, cakes, and cookies and significantly fewer servings of fruits and vegetables.
School Lunch Program Scoop:
Here is the 2005 USDA Food and Nutrition Service presentation titled “School Meal Program Performance: What Do We Know?”
o 94,622 schools (90% of public schools) participated in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) serving 49 million students
o School cafeterias served 4.8 billion lunches.
o NSLP serves more than 29 million lunches, 9 million breakfasts, and 154 million after-school snacks
o Approximately half of all lunches and 3/4 of all breakfasts are served free.
Children from low-income families can receive more than half of their daily caloric intake from these foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables are not commonplace in homes and can become a stable of school lunches. Nutrition education could provide students with the tools they need to make healthy decisions regarding food and physical activity.
Pointless school lunches vs. Packing a lunch from home:
Children, adolescents and their parents can buy their lunch at school or bring it from home. The choice should depend on what results in children getting the right foods for lunch. The typical school lunch is often much higher in calories, carbohydrates, and fat than it should be. It means parents need to take a close look at cafeteria lunch menus that in most school districts are available for a week or two ahead. Here’s what to look for in your school lunch:
- What to eat: sandwichessandwiches, wraps, vegetables, fresh fruits, yogurts
- What to drink: water, low-fat or fat-free milk, zero calories, fruit-flavored waters
- What NOT to eat: fried foods, meat, pasta, pizza, rice or potatoes
- What NOT to drink: whole milk, sugar-filled juices, soft drinks, sports drinks
On the other hand, a parent-cooked lunch is not always automatically healthier than one purchased at school. If parents pack cookies, cakes, or chips, that’s not a nutritious meal! But a packed lunch, if parents get it right, has a distinct advantage. When you pack your kids’ lunch, you know your kids and teens are eating the “right foods”—things you know they like. Remember that you are not at lunchtime, so you have to direct his food almost by remote control.
Talk to your child or teen:
Make sure what you send for lunch is what they like. Even better, take them shopping and listen to their comments. Stock up on your favorite healthy foods, you might save some money and end up with a healthy kid.
Here are some quick tips for the lunch box:
o Small easy-to-open containers that children like. It has to be done fast. Remember, lunchtime can’t last more than 15-20 minutes.
o Young children may not eat much at one time. Consider packing snacks instead of a large sandwich and a whole banana. You can also include more options if the amount of each is less.
o Small foods are not only easier for children to handle, but they are also more fun to eat. Cut sandwiches into smaller pieces, small sandwich buns, and fruits or vegetables into small bags. Don’t overwhelm the child with a large portion of anything.
o Some children are happy to eat the same thing day after day. It can often drive you crazy about the clothes they put on. Don’t worry as long as the food is healthy.
o Instead of making sandwiches, consider packing individual ingredients so your child can make their own sandwich for lunch or eat the ingredients separately.
o Cereal bars can pack a lot of nutrition into a food that children love to eat.
High-tech insulated lunch boxes and bags on the market that have food safety features built in: thermoses, a space to slide in a pre-frozen gel pack, even pockets for wet wipes
Children and adolescents must make good decisions at lunch:
Whether the best choices are made by eating food from home or by careful selections from school cafeterias doesn’t really matter. Parents need to understand that they have little control over their child’s eating from the time the school bus pulls away until 8 hours later. School menus should be constantly reviewed and parents should watch the selections. If eating a school lunch, the child needs to learn how to make the best selections from what is available.
