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WASHINGTON - Schoolchildren would have to hold the fries -- and pick up more whole grains, fruits and vegetables -- on the lunch line under proposed new federal standards for school lunches.
The Agriculture Department proposal applies to lunches subsidized by the federal government and would be the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in 15 years. The guidelines are expected to be announced Thursday.
They would require schools to cut sodium in those meals by more than half, use only whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new standards could affect more than 32 million children and are crucial because kids can consume as much as half of their daily calories in school. "If we don't contain obesity in this country it's going to eat us alive in terms of health care costs," he said.
It comes just a few weeks after President Obama signed into law a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for the healthier foods. That law also will extend similar nutrition standards to foods sold in schools that aren't subsidized by the government.
Some school groups have criticized the efforts, saying it will be hard for already-stretched schools to pay for the new requirements. Vilsack says he understands the challenges, but said the changes are necessary. He compares obesity and related diseases like diabetes to a truck barreling toward a child, and says the new guidelines are like a parent teaching a child to look both ways before he crosses the street.
He said, "You want your kid to be able to walk across the street without getting hit."
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I don't think the government should get involved. It is only one meal they are trying to make healthier for us. They cant control what we eat at home so why bother? One meal isn't going to help over weight kids loose weight. Schools should be able to serve kids whatever they want.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great idea. I mean the healthy foods are the best kind! Besides our school french fries are nasty. I mean our potato wedges are good but the french fries taste like cardboard. I would much rather have something like yogurt or something like that than french fries. All for the change in school lunches.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I think that it is a good idea. Especially people in that age need to eat healthy food and since the students eat their lunch at school during the school days it would be nice if they could eat something healthy.
ReplyDeleteBut, like the article sais, heathy food is expensive. I think they should not have to change everything, just offer more vegetables or for example a salad bar. Every student should be able to make the choice wheater to eat healthy or unhealthy. I also think that if a student has a problem with eating the school lunch he or she still has the opportunity to bring his or her own food to school.
I agree with Tyler and Larissa. America needs to start eating healthier and watch what they are eating! Our schools want us to have a healthy lunch, but some of the stuff we have doesn't seem healthy. Schools should offer more for healthy food, but the sad part is it has to be expensive. If schools are concern about what we eat, then take snack machines out or don't have junk food during lunch. I know people wouldn't like that, but when we get home most of us pig out anyways and like Larissa said, if you don't like the lunch bring your own. We have a lunch menu so people can look at that and see if they like the lunch.
ReplyDeleteI agree with sadie it is only one meal and they really cant control what people eat at home. people choose to be unhealthy and thats their choice! its just like you cant make a kid do a sport to stay in shape and you cant control what they eat at home or even in school, but I do agree with tyler and larissa and kaley cause they do have a lunch menu to see what lunch is going to be! and you could always take the snack machines out but the one in the middle school has certain hours that its on but kids buy junk after school and before school to have at lunch cause out lunches are sometimes gross! but thats where an open lunch policy would come in handy and go eat wherever you want and weather its a healthy place or a not so healthy place thats still your own decision!
ReplyDeleteI feel it’s ok for the government to intervene with our school lunches if they are helping to pay for it. For example, how healthy is it to have lots of grease in the pan with your hamburgers or your taco meat. To defend the Cook’s it hard to cook for a lot of people. I have one problem with bringing a meal from home for lunch say you bring venison steak and mash potatoes with gravy; how can we get that heated up. HUM cold mash potatoes and gravy. We need to step back and look at the end results of poor food choices. According to the research we are the first generation that will not live longer then our parents. Two wrong’s don’t make a right! We have to start some where. We need more fruit’s and vegetables and less processed food. Jillian Michales, from the Biggest Loser, has a very simple food rule; if it doesn’t have a mother or comes from the ground, don’t eat it. Maybe the school should grow some of its own food.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with sadie, your going to end up having kids not eating their school lunches, and going home and pigging out on sweets and junk.
ReplyDeletewell. i honestly think this whole thing is a complete joke. like its one meal? its not gonna make a big difference! so just get over that! you guys are all sitting here saying oh! our school lunches suck blah blah! get over it. its a school lunch. they are obviously gonna suck. and if you have a problem with it bring food from home. steak and potatoes arent even healthy so that was a stupid point. when i moved here, all there was was hot lunch. in my old school there was two lunch lines, alcarte (chicken fingers, fries, egg rolls, burgers, milk, power aid, cookies, etc.) and a sub line, and a salad line. which do you think got used the most! not the healthy lines, and even if kids ate a sub or salad they would go and get two cookies and a pop? its our choice. if we dont want to out live our parents, hey. let us do it all on our own. changing our meals arent gonna change our eating habits. easy as that.
ReplyDeleteI think kids eat what tastes good. I feel this should be pushed to discipline kids on eating healthy. If we don't act now, in the future many adults will have health problems. It's not the kids who have done the research but the adults, so the kids should have no say in matter. I think these kids are stupid for saying, "We can eat what we want." They may be able to keep up with the fats now, but in the future it will catch up to them very fast because of these bad eating habits that will be developed.
ReplyDeleteI think making the school lunch better and healthier is a really good idea. Of course that stuff we are eating almost every day in school affects our body. Why do you think the US has a lot of overweight kids? In other countries lunch doesn't consists of hamburger and french fries. Ok if you don't want to eat it you could bring your own food but don't you think it would be better for everybody to make the lunch better and healthier? Why do you need school lunch if nobody eats if because everybody brings its own lunch. And honestly I think it is really gross to eat hamburger and french fries every day. So I think it would be important to make the school lunch healthier and more delicious even if it is a little bit more expensive.
ReplyDeleteThat is defititely a good idea! School lunches should be healthy and healthy doesn't mean that it's not going to taste good. If I compare the school lunches from my school back home and the school lunches here, there is a huge difference. For instance we have a big sald bar and the food is much better. There is always something healthy on my plate and it tastes good.
ReplyDeleteFor sure healthy food is expensive, but I honestly think that there must me a possibility for the government to work on that, since it is such an important thing.
I think that the government is just going to spend more money that they don't have on this, and its not going to work. Kids eat what they want, most kids don't like low fat milk, they want chocolate milk. To me this whole thing is just plain stupid beacause kids would end up bringing their own lunches or not eating school lunch, and this would cost the school money. I think the government needs to find a different way to fix the problem of overwieght people, but they aren't going to get teenagers or anyone older to change their ways so they need to start with the kids that aren't set in their ways yet. There is no way that changing one meal a day will fix this problem. Yes I agree with the government that overweight people are a problem, but they will not get it fixed with one meal every 4 or 5 school days a week.
ReplyDeleteOne meal a day isn't going to control the obesity problem. I feel this is an issue the government cannot control. The kids will just go home and snack on whatever they want. This is a problem that needs to be attacked by the parents. They need to realize that they are hurting their kids by letting them do and eat whatever they want. Making school lunches healthier, would mean less sodium, fat, calories, and they would probably cut back on portions. This wouldn't be fair to the kids in sports, especially on game days. Kids in sports need the extra calories so they don't get seriously ill at games or practice. Here in Warroad, fresh produce is hard to buy in bulk; this is because it has to be shipped so far. Eating fresh produce everyday would drive costs way up. We also have longer school days because of the 4-day weeks, we can't go all day long on a small meal provided by the school. Also, there are many days where the our school runs out of some food..this has happened to me countless times because I am in 3rd lunch. Kids need to be educated to make healthy food choices based on their body types.
ReplyDeleteI think that the government shouldnt get involved, because its one meal a day and I think it should be up to the school and the school board to make that decision. I do want to say that we do need different selection of foods, because it is starting to become boring eating the same foods week after week after week. I think that all schools should have a food court type thing, so each student would get what they want and it would stop kids from going out to eat.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is only one meal a day and the government can't control what we eat at home, but i also think this would be a good change. Having good school lunches would be a nice change. Instead of eating greasy, nasty food all the time they could feed us something we actually want to eat. If we had good school lunches I think more kids would actually buy food from the school instead of bringing lunch from home or going out with their parents for lunch.
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ReplyDeleteIt's a wonderful idea! People in China have a particular impression of Americans, that most people in the US are overweight. We think that it's because there are too much fast food here. I was surprised when I found out that school provides chips as lunch, because chips are regarded as junk food in China. And we are not allowed to bring any chips into campus. I think the change is not only about one meal, it's about changing of people's habit. We should keep a healthy diet and healthy habit. The change of lunches in school is a good example for students. It could influence a lot of students on their view of food. The current students will be parents one day, they need to learn about healthy diet. And also teach their children. Stop the bad cycle.
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