Argumentative Essay On School Lunch

The term “school lunch,” has had a negative connotation ever since I can remember. There’s much more to school lunch than gourmet salads or mystery meat. All over the United States schools serve lunch to a variety of different students, with different backgrounds, age groups and income. Just in one school the systematic arrangement of the lunch ladies and the policies set in place are just tiny specs of a much larger picture. The fact of the matter is, as children are developing they are being programmed and prepped for the rest of their lives. Before anything else, humans need to have their basic needs met. And without the proper nutrients, a child’s ability to grow and learn is inhibited. I remember there were certain rules both the workers …show more content…
A morning edition of national public radio, titled, “Lunch Ladies Want Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act to Lighten Up” featured Jean Ronnie, president of the School Nutrition Association. I chose this because Ronnie works directly with schools, lunch ladies and makes a lot of the recipes for school lunch herself. Ronnie described one of the students favorite meals, “Fresh roasted chicken, cornbread that 's homemade, apple kohlrabi slaw and strawberries” that can no longer be served because of the sodium content. This rule among many other restricts snack and meal options for schools and students. I personally love having healthier options to choose from in the vending machines. While my brother feels like healthy eating is being shoved down his throat and sometimes resorts to bringing food from home to school. As of last year, one million students stopped buying school lunch and this number of students seems to be increasing. As food costs and labor costs rise, the schools are losing money on the cafeteria programs, and consequently have to dip into the general fund, the fund that supports classrooms. As the standards for school lunches increase, so do the costs and consequently the classroom budget. By dipping into funds for classrooms, schools are forced to put more emphasis on nutrition than in academic resources. The emphasis can be viewed both positively, and negatively. After all, proper nutrition is a basic human need and the better fulfilled it is, the stronger the foundation for other endeavors is. On the other hand, the reduction of resources from the classroom can affect the learning process itself. The only thing that is clear is that menu options are being reduced and schools have to adjust