If you have not had the opportunity to visit a middle school recently, I encourage you to do so. Long gone are the days where strolling down school hallways reveals mostly fit, athletic children. What do you now see? Severely overweight and overly developed children. Unfortunately, the institution tasked with equipping them with the tools to become productive citizens, is also the one not teaching them how to properly use food to nurture their own bodies.
School lunch programs are receiving a lot of attention, and rightfully so, because people are realizing that the meals provided have very little resemblance to food. These programs are laden with highly processed, high fat, high sodium and high sugar foods, with very little (if any) nutrition. A typical menu includes: pizza with french fries, fried chicken nuggets, hot dogs, burgers, canned fruit and chocolate or regular milk. Generally, if vegetables are served, they are from a can, while fresh fruit options are extremely limited. It's not a stretch to say that this does very little in the way of teaching our children to live healthily.
Under the leadership of President Truman in 1946, The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act created the National School Lunch Program. The purpose of this program was to provide low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through subsidies to schools. Though the initial intent of this program was to help local farmers by absorbing farm surpluses, it was at least providing fresh, local food options to children.
In 1966, with the Child Nutrition Act, the government acknowledged that child nutrition is an integral part in the development of children. In the age of convenience foods, we have clearly strayed from this early concept of farm-to-table nutrition.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years, with more children at risk of developing diabetes and heart disease due to obesity. Many medical experts fear the current generation may have a shorter life span than their parents, due to this.
There is an epidemic, and fortunately, leaders have recognized that the institution tasked with providing and re-enforcing a healthy lifestyle is failing miserably. This is the core reason why the menu in school cafeterias will be different this year.
The United States Department of Agriculture has adopted a new national standard for lunch and breakfast meals offered in public schools. Under the new rules, all food offered during the school day must meet nutrient standards and all students will be required to take a fruit or vegetable with their school lunch. Students will be offered more whole-grain foods and proper portion sizes and there will be less saturated fat, trans-fats and sodium.
This is one step in the right direction, but more can and needs to be done. Schools also need to change how they are educating children about nutrition, and need to provide them with reasons a healthy lifestyle is important. Also, since these new rules adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture only apply to meals served in the schools, and not meals brought from home, certain foods will need to be banned from the school's premises. Soda machines and snack machines will need to be stocked with options that re-enforce a healthy lifestyle. And lastly (this one may create a revolt), school parties/celebrations with highly sugared "treats" will need to be redefined with guidelines of more acceptable treats. Understandably many will look at these proposed restrictions as harsh, but children dying from preventable, food related illnesses is an acceptable cause to be.
Trish Miller is a special standing student applying to Rollins CMPH from Chesapeake, Va.
Cartoon by Priyanka Pai
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