School Lunches
The Truth about Cafeteria Food
Can you believe that so many children in elementary schools do not bring their lunch to school because parents feel that it’s more convenient or a time saver in the mornings, so their kids eat the school cafeteria food? This topic is fascinating because little do most parents know what kind of food their child is being fed. Everyone should be aware of the many risks that are involved when sending their children off to school with the expectation that their kids will get a healthy meal. Along with knowing that their child is getting a healthy meal, many can agree that eating the school cafeteria food is a leading cause in childhood obesity. First, when parents make their children’s lunches many will have a sandwich which will contain the nutrients of carbohydrates in the bread and protein in the meat. Along with a healthy sandwich many will also pack a fruit as well as a simple desert, such as jello or pudding. This lunch for a child is a very healthy and satisfying one because it contains food from almost all of the food groups. However on the other hand a child that eats a lunch in the school cafeteria may not be getting the same variety in their meal. According to research most of the schools surpass the limit of total and saturated fat contents of meals set by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the National School Breakfast Program (NSBP) (Carter). When I was a child I know that I did not want to bring my lunch to school because every day I saw the delicious looking food other kids were getting from the lunch lines. However, little did I know that all of the chicken nuggets, French fries, hamburgers, and chicken pot pies were so saturated with fat and grease that I was only possibly hurting myself in the long run. Nowadays more than 25 million students are on the NSLP and about 7 million are on the NSBP (Carter). Along with these horrifying facts about the content of cafeteria food, many can agree that the
Can you believe that so many children in elementary schools do not bring their lunch to school because parents feel that it’s more convenient or a time saver in the mornings, so their kids eat the school cafeteria food? This topic is fascinating because little do most parents know what kind of food their child is being fed. Everyone should be aware of the many risks that are involved when sending their children off to school with the expectation that their kids will get a healthy meal. Along with knowing that their child is getting a healthy meal, many can agree that eating the school cafeteria food is a leading cause in childhood obesity. First, when parents make their children’s lunches many will have a sandwich which will contain the nutrients of carbohydrates in the bread and protein in the meat. Along with a healthy sandwich many will also pack a fruit as well as a simple desert, such as jello or pudding. This lunch for a child is a very healthy and satisfying one because it contains food from almost all of the food groups. However on the other hand a child that eats a lunch in the school cafeteria may not be getting the same variety in their meal. According to research most of the schools surpass the limit of total and saturated fat contents of meals set by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the National School Breakfast Program (NSBP) (Carter). When I was a child I know that I did not want to bring my lunch to school because every day I saw the delicious looking food other kids were getting from the lunch lines. However, little did I know that all of the chicken nuggets, French fries, hamburgers, and chicken pot pies were so saturated with fat and grease that I was only possibly hurting myself in the long run. Nowadays more than 25 million students are on the NSLP and about 7 million are on the NSBP (Carter). Along with these horrifying facts about the content of cafeteria food, many can agree that the
Cited: Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Carter, Colin. "The Impact of Public Schools on Childhood Obesity." 2002. MetaLib. 27 Oct 2008 .