During World War II, potential enlistees were regularly turned away because they were underweight and undernourished, and after the war the director of the Selective Service declared malnutrition to be a national emergency. One result of this statement was the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry S. Truman in 1946, guaranteeing a warm lunch for every school child who could not afford one.
Lunches in Schools Today
In addition to the National School Lunch Program standards, the school food service also sells a la carte items. Many times these foods are “junk foods” with little to no nutritional value. Then, many school food services offer a wide variety of products through sales not only to students, but also to teachers, in snack bars, in vending machines, and, many times a catering business for school events that offer food.
School lunches under the National School Lunch Program must meet the applicable recommendations of the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommended that no more than 30 percent of an individual’s calories come from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat. Regulations also establish a standard for school lunches to provide one third of the recommended dietary allowances of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories. School lunches must meet federal nutrition requirements, but the decision about what specific foods to serve and how they are prepared are made by the local school food authorities.
School meals are higher in fat, saturated fat, and sodium than is recommended-but so are the diets of most Americans. The majority of American school children need to lower their intakes of these nutrients.
Results of Poor Eating Habits in Children
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey concludes that there has been a significant increase in overweight children of all age groups from years 1971-1974 and 2003-2006. Among children aged six to 11 years, the incidence of overweight increased from 4.0% to 17.0%. Among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years, the incidence of overweight increased from 6.1% to 17.6%.
Over the past 20 years, obesity rate have tripled in children and adolescents, and only 2% of children eat a healthy diet, according to key nutrition recommendations by the USDA. Despite that, about a third of elementary schools, 71% of middle schools, and 89% of high schools sell “competitive food” items such as sugary drinks, snack cakes, candy, and chips out of vending machines, school stores, or a la carte lines in the school cafeteria.
Public concern has risen concerning the growing problem of childhood obesity. In response, there is a desire sweeping across America to update and strengthen nutritional requirements for USDA-funded school meals and regulate the nutritional content of other food and beverages sold at school-often referred to as “competitive foods.” Competitive foods often consist of high calorie, high fat and high sugar content. Much of these foods are considered to have low-nutritional value.
Concerns About the School Lunch Menu
How it is that schools can serve children fatty pizza, candy bars, salty snacks,deep-fried French fries and soda when federal law prohibits the sales of “food of minimal nutritional value?” It is because Congress wrote the definition over 30 years ago. The Carter Administration set the standards to ensure that foods sold in schools had at least 5% of an essential nutrient, like protein, vitamin C or calcium; the standards do nothing to limit fat, calories or sodium. In the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s estimation, the problem isn’t so much the processed food school lunches (which also contain many unhealthy ingredients), but the availability of junk foods that children can choose to replace or with which to supplement.
There has been a lot of concern expressed because of the junk food and soda that are available to students from the school vending machines. There is also concern about the regular menu items being served, including some items from fast food establishments. These items please the students and therefore can mean more profit for the school. There is no clear picture of what the parents think of the schools selling foods like this.
It has become apparent that The United States Government, including the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture, must re-evaluate nutritional standards for school lunches and the “competitive” foods served in schools to provide and encourage healthy eating patterns and meet the current nutritional needs of American children.
When school meal programs began, their focus was on ensuring that all children had something warm and nutritious to eat for lunch. Today, overweight and obesity have become the most common nutrition problems among American children. Children are described as “overweight and undernourished” as they consume diets high in saturated fat, added sugars, and sodium, but low in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat milk.
To read some success stories of schools that are making a change, read Success Stories of Schools Serving Healthy Meals.
Sources:
Cdc.gov, "NHANES Surveys (1976–1980 and 2003– 2006)" (Accessed October 16, 2009).
Ashaweb.org, "Nutrition Services and Foods and Beverages Available at School: Results From the School HealthPpolicies and Program Study 2006" (Accessed November 3, 2009)
Choicemagazine.org, "The Economics of a Healthy School Meal" (Accessed November 4, 2009
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