What exactly is school food doing to our kids?


You sit down to eat your lunch. You take a bite of your roll and nearly break your teeth. Wincing you turn look at your ravioli, it looks like somebody already ate it……… and it decided to come back up. Kind of smells like it too. Oh well only about three hours and school will be over. You watch your friends see how high they can bounce the chicken nuggets when it hits you. You’re actually paying for this junk! It’s time for a change.


A study has said that 16% of kids ages six to eleven are obese! That’s almost twice of what it was in 1980. While I’m sure that there are many causes of this dramatic increase, I’m going to focus on school food because almost 75% of children eat at least one meal at school on weekdays. As a middle school student I eat a school lunch. I’m not proud of that and I am writing this to let parents know the truth about what their kids are actually eating.


A study has shown that kids who eat a school lunch are 39% more likely to be obese. Part of this might be because “French fries account for 46 percent of vegetable servings eaten by children ages 2 to 19” -Lunch Lessons. Well if fries are vegetables I’d hate to know what fruits are. If schools say there feeding kids vegetables but are feeding them fries then when they say they’re giving us good food, what are they giving us? They’re are a few simple things you can do to help give your kids a healthy lunch.


First: You can pack lunch for your kids. I know it sounds hard and time consuming but there are only a few things you need. For starters you can make a sandwich, just a simple pb&j will do (you might want to have different sandwiches because the same things get boring day in and day out.) Next, a fruit or vegetable like carrot sticks or an apple. Then, another side, maybe chips or pretzels. Last, a drink water or juice will be good. That is an easy and quick way to pack lunch for your kids.


Second: You can send a concerned email to the principal or superintendant of your school. You don’t need to be rude or use strong language. Just say you think the food needs to change and why. You also might want to see if you can get other parents to do the same thing. You may convince them to change the school food and make it more nutritious.


Lastly: Join national groups that try to change school food. You can sign petitions and see if they their websites nutrition facts. One good thing you can join is Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Jamie Oliver also has his own TV show. There are many other good groups you can join, too. I’m sure if we all work together we can change school food.