Food+Revolution

Lunch in __School__

Fast food: easy to find, easy to buy. It is a quick way for people to make/eat dinner when they are running low on time. They can make something within three minutes instead of having to take 30 to 50 minutes cooking a meal from scratch. It helps their schedule, but does it help their health? No. Most fast foods contain preservatives and a tremendous amount of __calories__. It makes people gain weight and sometimes it leads people to obesity and health issues like __diabetes__. In the United States this has become a major issue. The majority of people eat fast food some daily, and some frequently. It is found in a variety of places including __schools__. Most schools serve fast food because they say it is a quicker, easier way to feed children, but according to Jaime Oliver, a famous chef from England there are some things that can be made from scratch fast and easy as well. I __agree__ with him, but does anyone else?

Obesity has become a major issue in the United States. According to statistics it is the most obese country in the world. Many people believe that what their children eat in school contributes to the problem. Since the majority of kids in school __qualify__ for free or reduced lunch they eat in school instead of taking a lunch __from home__. However, most kids don’t like what the school serves and parents don’t either. They say that what they serve is unhealthy because most of the food is reheated and contains preservatives. According to an article in “The Wall Street Journal” they say “They’ll sell what the community wants,” and the food the community wants is not the best option for their well-being. “And you can feel the tension in the school cafeteria when Oliver suggests the cooks marinate fresh chicken and make their own salad dressing instead of serving elementary school kids a more convenient (and as it turns out, more popular ‘breakfast pizza’ and chicken fingers,” states the article. This shows in what ways the elementary school __Jamie Oliver__ visits tries to please the children, and in this case, it was by serving the kids pizza for breakfast and chicken fingers for lunch.

Jamie Oliver was shocked to see kids eating pizza for breakfast instead of something healthier and more time appropriate like low-fat yogurt or something of the sort, but he thinks the school has the ability to change and serve healthier, more appealing food to the __students__. “I had planned to work in the L.A. schools to try to figure out how school food could be better-and ideally, cooked from scratch,” says Jamie Oliver. Meals that are cooked from scratch are generally better then precooked, frozen meals because you know what ingredients are in your food and you will know whether they are healthy or not, but Jamie Oliver soon discovered that children aren’t taught what “real food” is. He asked students “Where does honey come from? A bear? A __tree__? Bees?” and the majority of the students didn’t know what the correct response was. “If a child isn’t taught what real food is, where it comes from and how to make it into a tasty yet affordable meal, how can we expect these kids-our future-to know what’s going into their bodies?” Oliver asks, and he is right. How do we expect children to know what they are putting into their body if they don’t know what the majority of their food comes from/contains. They won’t know whether they are making healthy choices or not based on ingredients if no one ever tells them. Overall, if people want children to have a healthier lifestyle, they need to have knowledge of what’s healthy and what’s not.

Since kids aren’t accustomed to having __healthy meals__, once schools made changes to their meals to be ‘healthier’, students began to complain. “ ‘It’s nasty, nasty,’ said Andre, a member of InnerCity Struggle, an East L.A. nonprofit working to improve school lunch access and quality. ‘No matter how healthy it is, if it’s not appetizing, people won’t eat it,’ ” and she is right. Although people were complaining about the schools’ unhealthy lunches, once they started changing their meals the students would not eat them because it wasn’t pizza or chicken nuggets which they were used to eating daily. No matter what the school does it can’t seem to satisfy everyone. Whether it’s the parents or the students, none are satisfied, “Some parents say it’s frustrating meals aren’t more appealing,” states an article written by Christina Hoag. It’s hard for the schools to compromise with parents and students, they all want healthy lunches that are also delicious and all they can do is put in their best effort and attempt to satisfy them.

In my opinion, schools have done a decent job of making their lunches healthier, but not more appealing. They have made minor, positive changes to their meals, like replacing white rice with brown rice. Although it may not seem like a big deal for some students, for others it is. Brown rice is much healthier then white rice because it contains less calories which is helps them make their lunches healthier, but does help them make their lunches more appealing? Not necessarily. I think the schools only focus on making their lunches healthier instead of trying to make them both healthier and more appealing at the same time. I don’t think they ask themselves what the students will think, instead they try to please parents and others by making them healthier, not taking the students into consideration and either way the parents are not satisfied either. They asked for healthier lunches and they got it, but they are still not pleased. The are now asking the school to make there lunches more appetizing. Overall, I think the school lunches are healthier than before. Sometimes they are somewhat appealing, but often times they are not. I think if schools really tried, they could help lower child obesity rates. Most students eat two meals at school: breakfast, and lunch. If they the schools gave the students healthier meals, they would consume less calories daily and prevent them from obesity and diabetes.

In conclusion, the United States has tried to lower obesity rates by making school lunches healthier. They have had Jamie Oliver’s help to find a better, healthier lunches and so far they have done a good job. The students however, are not happy, but they will soon get used to the healthier lunches and accept them. If the schools keep put effort into making there lunches healthier, I think they will succeed sooner or later.