School Lunches

School meals have become a bit of cliché with regard to poor nutrition. Countless movies and television shows poke fun at the abundance of unidentifiable foods and lack of nutrition that can show up on cafeteria trays across the nation. While school meals have changed significantly in the past few decades, they still have a long way to go before they can truly be considered nutritious and healthy meals. According to McGuire, our school meals are still too narrow and contain more sodium and fat than is recommended (pp. 116-130). While one goal in shifting school meals to a healthier model is to confront the rising childhood obesity crisis, some believe this will also result in harder working and better performing students academically. If this …show more content…
On the other hand, school lunches still do not meet up to the suggested serving sizes set by the United States Department of Agriculture (Condon, Crepinsek, & Fox, 2009).
Healthy Meals & Achievement Many studies and experiments have attempted to make a connection between healthy, nutritious breakfasts and lunches and academic achievements. Most studies have found a correlation between these two variables; however, it is always important to note that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. In all likelihood, the students’ socioeconomic status may be a better explainer of both healthiness of meals and academic performance. As a result, studies are very unreliable when it comes to this issue. A large number of experiments attempting to connect these variables focus on children below the age of 18 months because this time is the most important in the development of a child. While these experiments are extremely vital to our understanding of how nutrition and brain development are linked, they are not pertinent to school-aged children (Glewwe, Jacoby, & King, …show more content…
One such company is Revolution Foods based out of Oakland, California. Revolution Foods offers an alternative for schools to the traditional school meals. The company proclaims their mission is “to build lifelong healthy eaters by making kid-inspired, chef-crafted food accessible to all.” Revolution provided high quality ingredients to schools to create nutritious and great-tasting meals. They currently supply meals to schools in sixteen different states and Washington, D.C. While it appears that their focus is in breakfast and after-school supper meals, it could be that companies like these are the catalyst for a change in how school obtain and think about the meals they serve the children (Revolution Foods,