National School Lunch Program Essay

The National School Lunch Program has nutritional standards that the participating schools must follow. These standards are what make the program so effective in reducing childhood obesity. The meal patterns and nutritional standards are based off of the latest dietary guidelines for Americans which has increased the availability of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Students are required to take some of each food while obtaining their lunch from the cafeteria. Students are still given the choice of which item from the category they would like, but they are still required to take something. One study showed that the average waste of food for 6th graders was: fruit 44 percent, vegetables 30 percent, mixed dishes 24 percent, and milk 15 percent (Smith, 2014). While this is costly for the program, the amount of required fruits and vegetables actually consumed is an
The NSLP knows that many families affected by poverty struggle with providing well balanced and nutritionally rich foods. The program assists those families by providing healthy free or low cost meals to their children while they are at school, and there for reducing some financial strain. Also, the program takes into mind the different communities. Instead of just giving a strict menu to all schools, the program allows each school or district to pick its own meals. This allows schools to provide menus based off what is liked in their area and adjust their menu based on what students at that school tend to like. This flexibility makes the program applicable to many more students around the country. The program is highly ethical because it is available to all students regardless of income. All students can be provided with a lower cost healthy meal and there are no highly persuasive incentives to join the program. For these reasons I see the NSLP as being highly