Lunch Time Essay

Lunch is the time where a lot of students can’t wait to see all of their friends and eat. Students come to get a good fulfilling meal in so they can continue to learn throughout the day on a full stomach. That just isn’t the case anymore; more students than ever are becoming obese and schools haven’t done anything about it till now. There is now a worldwide restriction on what and how much students can eat. Schools should improve the nutritional value of school lunches because significant increases in student’s health will lead to a host of benefits. The main reason why childhood obesity has become such a serious issue is because children now days live more sedentary lifestyles. Children now days are bombarded with television advertisements urging them to eat foods high in fat and calories while staying inside and playing video games or watching television. Childhood obesity does not only affect children in childhood but can cause a list of health issues in their adult lives also. When it comes to education regarding childhood obesity, the responsibility needs to be addressed by the parents, schools and the media. Children that are overweight are most common in developing countries. This is because they get food from other countries to try and decline the hunger rates, but all that it is doing is creating obesity rates to increase. Countries that are becoming more westernized with their food, drifting away from more traditional meals are showing the most increase in obesity rates. This causes huge controversy throughout those countries and what it is doing to the citizens. Some people may think problem solving for hunger within those countries will be solved by sending over westernized foods that are fatting, and in the long run will cause problems in those countries, causing obesity rates to increase where they never had to worry about being obese, especially children. The National School Lunch Program serves lunch to almost 30 million students – 60 percent of the total student population. Although a large fraction of school lunch participants get their lunch free (48 percent) or at a reduced price (9 percent), a substantial number (43 percent) pay full price. If school lunches are contributing to childhood overweight, making lunches healthier could possibly impact a large number of children from socio-economic Status, race, and geography boundaries. The government plays a large role in the school lunch program, providing $6. 1 billion in total cash payments to local schools. In addition, the government provides another 15. 75 cents per lunch served for fruit juices and peanut butter. The government’s bankrolling of the program might suggest that they are able to influence what is served as part of school lunches. According to Harvard School of Public Health â€Å"Globally, an estimated 43 million preschool children (under 5) were overweight or obese in 2010, a 60 percent increase since 1990. † Parents go through the struggle of finding and trying new things that might please their children’s eating habits. Some cases it is food that is totally unhealthy for the kid but they give it to them because they simply cannot say no to their child. At school you expect them to get a healthy and fulfilling lunch in to continue learning throughout the day. The article â€Å"Students, parents, educators displeased with new school lunch standards,† by Benjamin Wood talks about all of the things students are doing to get their word out there into the world and make a statement about the new â€Å"improved† lunches. â€Å"Viral Videos mocking the guidelines and reports of increased food waste have sprung up, and a bill being called the No Hungry Kids Act has been introduced in Congress in an attempt to reverse the Healthy Hunger- Free Kids Act that spawned the new guidelines. Lunch trays are going un-touched and the food is being thrown away. â€Å"Forty percent of the food in the U. S. goes uneaten, which means Americans are throwing out the equivalent of $165 billion worth of food each year. But that’s not all. Food waste, as it decays in landfills, also produces methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas† (â€Å"The Ugly Truth About Food Waste in America†). By kids wasting more and more food everyday they think it gives them an excuse to come home and eat whatever they want because lunch wasn’t satisfying. When kids are little they come home and get an afternoon snack after a long day at school, before it were ants on a log, apples and peanut butter, pretzels, fruit, and many more. Now it is fruit snacks, Cheetos, chips, candy, pizza, all things that are high in fat, sugar, cholesterol things that are factors of high obesity rates within children. Parents just don’t have the time to make their children snacks after school anymore. Either they put their kids in an after school program or they are still at work with they get home, so the children result to the next best thing junk food. If they eat badly at home what makes them not bring the unhealthy food to school and continue to eat unhealthy without anyone saying something or putting a stop to it. â€Å"A public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago’s west side students is not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria (â€Å"Chicago school bans some lunches from home†)†. This can be a good or bad thing to have within the school. In order for this to be good successful process all staff members have to be on board with it, and wanting to make an impact on the students and the school as well. Doing this, schools won’t feel the burden of needing to do more within the school and eventually will make an impact on student’s lives. Childhood obesity has decrease dramatically within Little Village Academy, and students are showing noticeable changes with academics and fitness. Eating habits are the hardest thing to change about a person. Once they like a type of food that is either high in fat, sugar, and salt it is very hard to change their opinion about that type of food. The top five signs for food addiction according to researchers at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Science & Policy are: ending up eating more than planned when first started to eat, keep eating when full, eat to the point of feeling ill, worrying about no eating certain types of food or worry about cutting down on certain types of foods, when certain foods aren’t available, and go out of way to get them. Just like any other addiction it is hard to stop once hooked on. Cooping Recess has always been that time to go out and play with friends that might not be in the same classes. Well there are many reasons that it is a good thing for kids and that it helps children learn more. According to Shape up America organization: â€Å"Studies show that taking a break after a period of concentrated instruction helps children process what they just learned and make them more attentive and productive in the classroom. Regular breaks from class work are beneficial for younger children and adolescents. † Over and under feeding is something that countries face every day because they do not have all of the resources that other countries can get so quickly. In upcoming countries such as Mexico and South Africa this is exactly what goes on within the country. While obesity hits lower and middle classes because it is affordable, upper class doesn’t have to worry about it because they can afford healthier food and don’t have to worry about the cost. In most upcoming countries is where childhood obesity is a major issue, because they get food from other countries to try and decline the hunger rates, but all that it is doing is creating obesity rates to increase because all of the food that is being shipped out to these countries are high in fat and sugar and unnatural preservatives that are really bad for you. Countries that are becoming more westernized with their food, drifting away from more traditional meals are showing the most increase in obesity rates. This causes huge controversy throughout those countries and what it is doing to the citizens. Some people may think problem solving for hunger within those countries will be solved by sending over westernized foods that are fatting, and in the long run will cause problems in those countries, causing obesity rates to increase where they never had to worry about being obese, especially children. The School Nutrition Dietary Assessment-III was sponsored by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in2005 in order to collect information regarding school meal policies and food programs, the content and quality of food o?  ered at schools, and children’s dietary habits. The survey includes ? ve groups: Children age 5 to 19 in grades 1 to 12, their parents, the principals of their schools, the food service managers at school, and the school food authority that governs their school. School food authorities (SFA) are the organizations responsible for overseeing all food related aspects-service, budget, management-of schools in a school district or county, and there are 130 SFA†™s in the SNDA-III (School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study). Approximately three schools (elementary, middle, high) in each SFA’s jurisdiction were selected to answer the principal and food service manager survey for a total of 398 schools. The principals of each school provided information about meal time policies (i. e. where children eat their meals, length of lunch period and which grades eat during each period) as well as information on the of vending machines, snack bars, and nutrition education. The food service managers are in charge of day-to-day food operations, and they provided information regarding kitchen characteristics and sta? , meal prices, participation in subsidized meal programs, and the type and quantity of a la carte items available during meals. From the 130 SFA’s and 398 schools, 94 SFA’s and 288 schools were selected to have their students receive the child and parent survey. An average of 8 students from each school were selected to participate in thesurvey, and these children and their parents provided information on the child’s eating and exercise habits at home and school like; regularly eat breakfast, times per week they buy their lunch or snacks at school, what types of food they eat at home, how often they exercise/play, and standard demographic and geographic characteristics of the child and parents. The ? nal component of the child’s survey included a 24 hour dietary diary where consumption over a random school day was recorded. In addition to these survey components, each child’s height and weight were measured by survey administrators and translated into a Body Mass Index.