Is school lunch a problem?
Why does school food need to be good? Students need quality food to make it through school days. If they don’t, students will have a negative day because all they will be thinking about is food. They will not be learning. Today we see that public school foods have improved but need more improvement.
Food is very important for students not only for their health but for learning because they can not work on an empty stomach or with a sick stomach. In an interview with an Oakland student, Edgar Peña, he shared his experience on how school food was awful and how it made him sick he said “I stopped eating school food because it makes me sick after seeing how bad it was for me and my health I decided I didn’t want to keep putting garbage in my body so I started bringing my own food”(Peña). This shows and proves how bad school food is and how it affects students. So in order to get less of these complaints schools should give better food.
In the past the food was not that good, there was packaged food and that was not as healthy. Yes, there have been small improvements here and there, but there is more work to be done. An Oakland lunch lady named Catherine Posey that has been working on school lunch duty for 20 years said that “I know school food is healthier than the past and there is more different options the than before”(Posey) the fact that school food has gotten healthier shows that its a good sign that it might just keep getting better with time since Ms. Posey has been working on this for 20 years she has seen a lot and she agrees that it needs more improvements but that it’s getting there. It’s good that it’s improving but it justs need to be improving faster.
As of January 2018, below is the current Menu. what students like for food and what they would like for school lunches is for example burgers, better pizza, pasta, ice cream etc. As we all know that is not the case right now. What we need is something good and healthy so we could get through the day by being the healthy and sharp day so that we could learn and get a better understanding because we wouldn’t be thinking about the bad food we would have eaten. What we also don’t like is food being wrapped in plastic this happens in a lot of schools and this just makes us think that is not fresh and just being warmed up which is not healthy or good as fresh foods.
So what options does Oakland have? Due to finances, often private schools get better school lunches than public schools. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a non-profit organization that helps schools and students have access to good and healthy food and they have lots of experience with this since they were established in 1946. This shows that these kinds of programs know what they are doing. The United States Department Of Agriculture (USDA) had this very interesting information about the national school lunch program (NSLP) it said “The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946”(USDA). The fact that the lack of experience is extraordinary shows that they know what is good for students that are in school and since they are not focusing on making money t this is a program that all of the schools should have because it also helps the students that come from low-income families they don’t pay usually for their food so this also show the equity on how low-income students get the same chances as other on getting healthy and good food to get through their academic day.
In addition, an Oakland mother and an OUSD worker named Flor Pablo said that school food is not healthy for students and causes students to gain weight and some just don’t eat because it’s not good. She said, “school food needs to improve variety wise and healthy wise”(Pablo). The fact that school food is not healthy shows that the OUSD needs to switch food programs and that it will make a change it will not only be healthy but it will also be good. This shows that in our community there are lots of struggles and inequity so if Oakland gets better food programs like the NSLP they will not only have equity in our community but have healthier and better food.
To conclude if the OUSD doesn’t change our lunch program then people will just not keep eating and others will just keep eating unhealthy food. The school food needs a whole lot more improvement and having better food programs shall do the trick for many students.
Work Cited.
Peña, Edgar. “Oakland Food Interview.” 11 Dec. 2018.
In this interview, I asked a life academy 12th grader Edgar Peña and I asked him what was his experience with school food.
Posey, Catherine. “Oakland Food Interview.” 11 Dec. 2018.
I interviewed Ms. Posey about her opinion about school food because she has been working on school duty for 20 years.
Pablo, Flor ,. “Oakland Food Interview.” 12 Dec. 2018.
An Oakland mother and an OUSD worker who works with kids.
USDA. “National School Lunch Program (NSLP).” Food and Nutrition Service, www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/national-school-lunch-program-nslp.
This shows what kind of a program the NSLP is
OUSD.”Oakland Unified School District(OUSD).”School District,
This shows the lunch menu for january of 2019
Dear Chris,
I agree with your post, “Is school lunch a problem?” because I can relate to many of the points you made. Such as how students start ro bring their own food after having a bad experience with the food taste or getting sick from it.
One sentence that stood out to me was “The fact that the lack of experience is extraordinary shows that they know what is good for students that are in school and since they are not focusing on making money t this is a program that all of the schools should have because it also helps the students that come from low-income families they don’t pay usually for their food so this also show the equity on how low-income students get the same chances as other on getting healthy and good food to get through their academic day¨ I think this is beneficial because a majority of the students here come from low income family and can not afford to buy lunch daily. Because of this this the bad tasting food causes kids to go hungry and get distracted by it during class.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because it was something I know a majority of all students can relate to it. Also because you wrote a good structured essay that flowed well.
Hi Chris,
I really enjoyed your post. I think your use of anecdotal, personal evidence in the form of interviews with students and staff added a really personal and convincing flair to your topic, because you are basing your argument off of the lived experiences of your peers.
Have you considered researching how Oakland Unified’s school menus compare to menus in the surrounding area, or even menus around the world? It might be interesting for you to see how similar or different Oakland’s lunch offerings are to different communities that have different income levels and demographics. I know that many popular news websites like Buzzfeed often have videos that compare school lunches from around the world, so maybe you could start there and see what sources they use to continue your research.
I would love to hear back from you about any information you might have found about different school lunch options around your community and around the world. Additionally, I would love to hear whether or not you are thinking about taking this research further and possibly coming up with a plan to fix Oakland Unified’s lunch situation. Keep me posted!
Best,
James
Dear Chris
I agree with this post by what it has to say about eating healthy because it’s a good thing with your letter ¨ Is School Lunch a problem¨ because it really gets to the point and because i think school meal are bad.
One sentence you wrote that stands out to me is ¨why does food need to be good?¨ I think this is Stunning because you may be opened peopleś life with this story. Because this made me feel like there is more people that know what im talking about.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next, because your a great writer. And because you know what your doing. This is one of my best one for know. And what will bring me back to this is the fact the fact that you knew how to write it.
Kevin
Dear, Kevin
I would like to thank you for reading my work. I like how you said how good my work sounded and how I proved my point. I really thought this was a good topic because school lunch is a problem is lots of places not just Oakland. But thanks again for reading my work I really appreciate you reading it.
Chris
Dear Chris,
I agree with your argument because it is well written. I especially agree with the fact that the lunch is getting better but it needs more improvements. You express this fact well by including evidence from students, the people in the cafeteria, and from articles. I also agree with your argument that if school lunches were healthier and better, students would perform better at school. This was an important idea to include because many people think having healthy food is necessary only because people get hungry. But the truth is that there’s a bigger picture which you were able to show.
Good job on your blog!