Nutritional School-Provided Lunches

Nutritional School Provided Lunches

Topic: Nutritional School-Provided Lunches

General Purpose: Convince the audience 

Purpose Statement: To convince the audience about issues surrounding nutritional school-provided lunches.

Central Idea: Children not consuming planned healthy menu lunches, affecting their learning and health; Nutritional school meals are affected by supply shortages and higher costs; Increase assistance for schools by allowing them to purchase locally and increasing federal reimbursements. 

With at least 95,000 schools across the United States engaging in school meal programs, the meals they provide are a significant opportunity to minimize food insecurity through serving our children nutritionally balanced and low-cost lunches and breakfasts (FRAC, 2019). The meals they provide benefit our low-income students as their families struggle to stretch the limited resources at home. When students partake in these meals, they benefit from improved health, fewer hospital visits, better academic performance, fewer absentee students, and fewer behavioral referrals (Fleischhacker & Campbell, 2020). Nonetheless, numerous students do not enjoy these benefits because of the barriers existing that prevent students from consuming these healthy meals (FRAC, 2019). Consequently, today I will discuss the issue of children not consuming the planned healthy menus. We are first going to explore the issue and its effects, including its impediment to learning and proper health; next, we will look at the causes of the issue, including menu or supply shortages and higher costs compared to the contracted bid, and finally, we will delve into the solution which is allowing schools to make local purchases and increasing federal reimbursements.

There are various implications when our children do not consume planned healthy menu lunches, including poor learning and health. Nutrition thus impacts the children’s thinking capacities, health, and behaviours. Because students consume about 37% of their energy during the school day, schools significantly impact how healthy our kids become (HEAS, 2022). 72% of primary school kids in South Wales, according to a poll, said they use the canteen at least once a week for drinks and food (HEAS, 2022). Research has shown that when our children consume meals with high saturated and trans fats, their memory and learning are adversely impacted (Healthy-food-choices-in-schools, 2019). When these nutritional deficiencies occur early in life, their cognitive development is impeded; hence their concentration levels also plummet (Anderson, 2017). For instance, a study found that fifth-grade students consuming non-nutritious meals performed worse on a standardized literary test (Kenđel Jovanović et al., 2021). Another found that fifth-grade students who consumed more fast foods performed worse on reading and mathematics scores (Holmes et al., 2020). Additionally, students who consume insufficient meals are more likely to repeat a grade (Holmes et al., 2020). Poor nutrition also leaves our students vulnerable to ill health. It can result in stomachaches and headaches, making the students miss school and increasing absenteeism rates. Good nutrition incorporating carbohydrates, protein, and glucose, in turn, improves the students’ cognition, energy, and concentration levels (Healthy-food-choices-in-schools, 2019). Nutritious meals, especially during breakfast, enhance the students’ psychological health, reduces aggressive behavior, decrease discipline issues, and reduce school suspensions. Now that we have explored the issue of children not consuming planned healthy menu lunches and their effects, we can explore why the situation persists. 

Nutritional school meals are adversely impacted by menu item/supply shortages and higher costs than the contracting bid. As a result, the schools in Missouri City made twice-weekly runs to stock up on hot dogs and frozen pizzas (Ngo, 2021). Our schools across the nation face shortages of cafeteria meals such as bread, chicken, apple juice, and even plastic cutlery. These supply shortages are due to a lack of truck drivers (FoodCorps, 2021). Officials claim they are struggling to provide our school children with meals, many of whom depend on school meals as a significant and sometimes the only source of their daily nutrition. Unfortunately, when the produce is available, it is of poor quality (TASB, 2020). Food costs are also rising, along with the delivery costs and staffing issues that exacerbate the issue. Where one would pay 40 dollars for delivery, one now pays 250 to 300 dollars (Ngo, 2021). Although it is free to distribute commodities to districts, the delivery to the commodity warehouse and schools is not, and the charges are to the Child Nutrition Program. The weight of the delivery also affects the cost, which has more than tripled due to a rise in labor costs and the cost of gas. In light of the causes of this issue, we can then delve into the possible solutions.

Increased consumption programs and reimbursement rules might ensure pupils take advantage of nutritious school meals. As such, if anyone might know local farmers willing to sell their products to schools at a rational price, then locally grown items can be incorporated by meal planners into menu plans. Farm-to-school programs share the common goal of giving our children a better understanding of where their food comes from via instruction and purchasing locally farmed food, which may also incorporate school farms (Christian, 2018; FAO, 2018). Additionally, buying locally grown food can promote student engagement in school lunch programs, increase kids' access to and understanding of fresh produce and vegetables, and support the local economy. As a result, schools may be significant economic movers for the neighborhood by consuming food from nearby farms while also helping to protect the environment and the resources that support life (Cohen et al., 2021). Another action that school entities may make to address the ongoing problem of worsening school lunch plans is federal payments (USDA, 2022). With the necessary yearly revision in reimbursements being made to mirror the price of food and a supplementary temporary per-meal increase, the measure will help schools struggling with growing food expenses (Christian, 2018). The revision will increase funding for national school lunch and child welfare meal initiatives. As a result, the increase in reimbursements will assist in giving schools additional aid to sustain delivering high-quality lunches to children regardless of rising food prices and ongoing supply chain issues (Fleischhacker & Campbell, 2020). Therefore, increasing assistance for schools by allowing schools to purchase locally using a farm-to-school initiative and increasing federal reimbursements via revisions to mirror food prices is vital in solving the issue of children not consuming planned healthy menu lunches. 

In a nutshell, I hope we are all informed on the issue of our children not consuming the planned healthy menus, its impact on their health, the possible causes, and the solutions. Poor nutrition leads to poor health and impedes learning in our schools. The issue is caused by menu or supply shortages and the higher costs compared to the contracting bid. However, the issue can be solved by allowing schools to source products locally and increasing federal reimbursements to help lessen the costs incurred. We should all work together to ensure our school children get proper nutrition to improve their health, academic performance, and behavior when in school. This way, the 95000 schools in the nation involved in the school meal programs will minimize food insecurity through low-cost lunches and nutritionally balanced meals. 

References

Anderson, M. J. L. G. (2017, May 3). How the quality of school lunch affects students’ academic performance. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/05/03/how-the-quality-of-school-lunch-affects-students-academic-performance/

Christian, G. (2018, March 22). 5 Overlooked steps to local food procurement in k-12 schools. Green Schools National Network. https://greenschoolsnationalnetwork.org/5-overlooked-steps-to-local-food-procurement-in-k-12-schools/

Cohen, J. F. W., Hecht, A. A., Hager, E. R., Turner, L., Burkholder, K., & Schwartz, M. B. (2021). Strategies to improve school meal consumption: A systematic review. Nutrients, 13(10), 3520. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103520

FAO. (2018). Schools – The beginning of the end of malnutrition. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/zhc/detail-events/en/c/462548/

Fleischhacker, S., & Campbell, E. (2020). Ensuring equitable access to school meals. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 120(5), 893–897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.03.006

Fleischhacker, S., & Campbell, E. (2020). Ensuring Equitable Access to School Meals. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 120(5), 893–897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.03.006

FoodCorps. (2021, May 26). How Supply Chain Challenges Are Affecting School Nutrition. FoodCorps. https://foodcorps.org/how-supply-chain-challenges-are-affecting-school-nutrition/

FRAC. (2019). Reducing Barriers to Consuming School Meals. https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/reducing-barriers-to-consuming-school-meals.pdf

Healthy-food-choices-in-schools. (2019, June 12). 3 ways nutrition influences student learning potential and school performance – healthy food choices in schools. https://healthy-food-choices-in-schools.extension.org/3-ways-nutrition-influences-student-learning-potential-and-school-performance/

HEAS. (2022). The link between food, mood and learning outcomes. Healthy Eating Advisory Service. https://heas.health.vic.gov.au/schools/classroom/food-mood-and-learning

Holmes, E. A., Campbell, M. F., James, W., & Matthews, K. (2020). “Sow, grow, know, and show”: The impact of school gardens on student self-perception in the Mississippi Delta. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 60(2), 140–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2020.1807343

Kenđel Jovanović, G., Dragaš Zubalj, N., Klobučar Majanović, S., Rahelić, D., Rahelić, V., Vučak Lončar, J., & Pavičić Žeželj, S. (2021). The outcome of COVID-19 lockdown on changes in body mass index and lifestyle among croatian schoolchildren: A cross-sectional study. Nutrients, 13(11), 3788. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13113788

Ngo. (2021, September 27). No veggies, no buns, few forks: schools scramble to feed students amid shortages. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/us/politics/schools-labor-supply-shortages.html

TASB. (2020). School lunch programs face shortages. Texas Association of School Boards. https://www.tasb.org/members/enhance-district/school-lunch-shortages/

USDA. (2022, July 22). USDA announces increased funding for school meals, child and adult care meals. USDA. https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2022/07/22/usda-announces-increased-funding-school-meals-child-and-adult-care