School Meal Programs: The Double-Edged Effect

Introduction

Food programs in public schools have gained considerable attention in the last few years following increasing concerns from parents, caregivers, among other authorities regarding their sufficiency in promoting health among students. For instance, there is a potential causal relationship between incidences of obesity and food programs in public schools across the country. As such, the central concern is the extent to which food served in public schools promotes health in students. This particular problem could demonstrate a lack of nutritional knowledge for those who recommend school meals or on the other hand, the lack of funding in public institutions to provide healthy meals. Regardless of what the source of the issue in question could be, it is evident that school meal programs in public schools do not embody expected nutritional standards. Consequently, since meals in public learning institutions do not satisfy nutritional requirements, this warrants changing of already existing regulations for meals served in public schools.

History and Status of Issue

In an article, "Schools struggle to feed kids healthy food", Jen Christensen (2010), addressed the issue of school meal programs and their appeal to healthy living among students. According to Christensen (2010), "The No. 1 meal served to children in U.S. schools is chicken fingers and French fries," (para. 6). The main concern has been that such meals do not promote health in children, leading to an increase in the at-risk population likely to suffer obesity, among other health conditions related to poor nutrition. In a most recent article, "Why Is It So Hard to Serve Healthy Food in Schools?.” Katie Arnold (2016) addressed the same issue as Christensen (2010). She noted that, "The typical weekly school offerings, however, read like artery-clogging fast food items: chicken nuggets, cheese pizza, pork riblets, beef nachos supreme, cheese-stuffed breadsticks, and (our daughters’ weekly   cause for celebration, a New Mexican specialty) Frito Pie," (Arnold, 2016, para. 3). While the cost of school meals is cheap, the main concern is their appeal to health (Arnold, 2016). Notably, both articles address the same issue, which appears to persist year after year demanding urgent intervention.

Incidences of Obesity

Millimet, Tchernis, and Husain (2009) conducted a study focused on identifying the relationship between the incidence of obesity and school meal programs. The authors found that there was positive correlation between school breakfast programs (SBP) participation in kindergarten and a child's weight in third grade. Additionally, this also focused on the weight gain on children participating in SBP between kindergarten and third grade (Milliment, Tchernis, & Husain, 2009). This could be due to the composition of menus for school meal programs. Baidal and Taveras (2014) reviewed information from a research under the authorship of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in which they noted that, "Almost 80% of children consumed more saturated fat than was recommended, and sodium intake was excessive in all age groups. Children ate more than 500 excess calories from solid fats and added sugars per day," (p. 1862). This demonstrates that school meal programs are not as healthy as parents and other concerned parties would want them to be.

Hunger Complaints

While there are concerns about the incidences of obesity due to school meal programs being below standards when it comes to nutrition, another issue that sprouts is that most children complain of hunger not long after having their school meals. Following increase pressure to switch and implement changes in school menus, some schools did just that. The new adopted meal requirements emphasize on more fruits and vegetables, but with less sugar and sodium (Lopez, 2012). In an interview, Jessica Donze Black, the director of Kid's Safe and Healthful Foods Project Pew Charitable Trust, stated that the new meal standards for school seek to promote foods that are low in fat as well as no-fat dairy products, which children need most (). However, Black also noted that the meals " have to have at least a certain number of calories so kids don't go hungry," (NPR, 2012). This reveals that reduced calories in healthier meal plans have led to increased incidences of children feeling hungry after school. 

Limited Meal Variety Leading to Wastage

Shifting to healthier meals at schools has not been without its fair share of problems. On one hand, healthier foods help prevent obesity among other nutrition-related health conditions. However, on the other hand, there are concerns that students are finding a hard time adjusting to these meal changes leading to food wastage. Murphy (2015) noted that " American kids, whether pressed for time or just grossed out, leave much of their meals untouched; particularly neglected are the fruits and vegetables, which they are now forced to put on their trays before they can exit the cafeteria line," (para. 7). This reveals that despite changes to make meals at schools healthier, students have different preferences, the outcome of which is untouched meals. Baidal and Taveras (2014) noted that some schools experienced a decrease in student participation in meal programs. As an example, between 2007 and 2008, there was a 5% decline in the number of students paying full price for school lunch (Baidal & Taveras, 2014). 

Solution and Advantages

The paradigm shift in the last decade in our understanding of the role of health and nutrition among students has fundamental effects for the design of comprehensive programs. Therefore, the solution to improving the health and nutrition among students can be through school-based programs. There are substantial economic advantages of improved school attendance due to health promotion among students in public schools. School health intervention is likely to increase adult productivity through advanced levels of cognitive ability as well as through their effect on school participation including years of school attained. Thus, healthier students are more likely to attend, while improvements in examination can be linked to continuation of schooling. 

The economic benefits of improved health and nutrition programs are far much wide spread. Thus, the educational advantages from school health and nutrition programs must be implemented in the context of alternative educational input including the improvement of teacher salary and qualification, class size reduction, school facility infrastructure improvement as well as provision of instructional materials. 

Consumption of Diets that Meet Dietary Guidelines and Achieving Recommended Daily Physical Activity

More students are overweight in public schools today because the prevention efforts of obesity do not start early to focus on children and their families including their environments such as home and later school ( Kann, 2016 ). Therefore, it is recommended that schools create environments which are conducive for healthy eating alongside physical activity. Thus, according to CDC, there are some helpful policies and practices to intervene student obesity such as tackling physical activity as well as nutrition through school health program coordination. Besides, the school should designate its health coordinator while maintaining an active council of school health. The school should evaluate its health policies and programs as well as develop a plan for advancement. 

Furthermore, the school should strengthen its policies on nutrition and physical activity and provide a high quality program of health promotion for its staff. The school should also provide a course of high quality on health education and increase opportunities for its students to participate in physical education. Last but not least, the schools should provide quality meals program that ensure students have appealing and healthy choices in foods alongside beverages provided outside the school meals programs ( Kann, 2016 ). 

Schools to Collaborate with Policymakers, Parents, Communities and Advocates

Schools should come together to work with advocates, parents, policymakers and the community to create an environment in which students can eat healthy foods, become fit physically and advance sustainable habits that lead to wellness and prevention of obesity. Policy decisions are important in influencing school environments and can be formulated at any level such as local school board policy, state board of education policy, state law as well as other state regulatory and licensing necessities. Policy alongside initiatives at the state, local and national levels are important in developing and supporting healthy food and physical activity behaviors that is likely to enhance energy balance and healthy body weight ( Reisch and Gwozdz, 2016 ). The state should therefore develop policies that lengthen duration spent in physical education while improving the quality of physical education. Nonetheless, nutrition standards require strong policies for all available types of foods during school day. Thus, the school breakfast and lunch should be the major source of nutrition at school; therefore, chances for competitive foods should be restricted. However, if they the foods are available, they should be nutritious foods. There is also the need for stronger federal policies to be established and enforced by the USDA for all the foods and beverages that are supplied in schools that take part in the National School Lunch Program. Foods that are unhealthy should have no place in schools. Thus, programs, policies and the services will be objective in reducing student obesity ( Reisch and Gwozdz, 2016 ).

Measurements of Students’ Body Mass Index 

Schools are recommended to take measurements of weights and heights and calculate the BMI and the results reported to their respective parents as a way to prevent obesity. Thus, the schools should use either surveillance or a combination of screening and surveillance to take the BMI measurements. BMI surveillance collects information on weight status among students and has the capacity to identify the number of students with weight disorders. On the other hand, surveillance tracks trends in patterns of growth and obesity throughout the time to assist in the planning as well as delivery of the services to establish whether the intervention programs manifest any desirable effect (NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, 2016).  

BMI screening identifies the students who are mostly at risk and provide the parents with confidential information on the weight condition of their child. BMI screening and reporting helps increase public awareness and professional understanding of the students’ weight disorders. Thus, the measurements and reporting to parents pertains to possible safety concerns and unpremeditated negative outcomes, including parents putting students on restrictive diets as well as stigmatizing them (NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, 2016) . 

Conclusion

Since existing programs in schools are not effective in terms of keeping students to adopt a healthy eating strategy, changes to healthier diets have been countered with minimal participation which leads to wastage. On the contrary, schools that uphold earlier menus only increase the risk of students developing overweight condition. Thus, there is the need of research funding to develop and assess innovative obesity prevention interventions in schools through environmental, behavioral as well as policy change approaches. Though, schools have been making advancements there is the need for coordinated and systematic blueprint alongside the political will to introduce a priority on students’ health and well-being. 

References

Arnold, K. (2016).Why Is It So Hard to Serve Healthy Food in Schools? Outside . Retrieved from https://www.outsideonline.com/2057151/why-it-so-hard-serve-healthy-food-schools

Baidal, J. & Taveras, E. (2014). Protecting Progress against Childhood Obesity — The National School Lunch Program. The New England Journal of Medicine, 371 : 1862-1865. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1409353

Christensen, J. (2010). Schools struggle to feed kids healthy food. CNN . Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/29/school.food.investigation/

Kann, L. (2016). Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 2015.  MMWR. Surveillance Summaries ,  65 .

Lopez, L. (2012)."We're Still Hungry!" Student Lunches Leave Stomachs Rumbling. NBC . Retrieved from http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Los-Angeles-Unified-School-District-LAUSD-Nutrition-School-Lunch-No-Kid-Hungry-171439851.html

Millimet, D., Tchernis, R., & Husain, M. (2008). School nutrition programs and the incidence of childhood obesity. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp3664.pdf

Murphy, K. (2015). Why Students Hate School Lunches. New York Times . Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/sunday-review/why-students-hate-school-lunches.html?_r=0

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. (2016). Trends in adult body-mass index in 200 countries from 1975 to 2014: a pooled analysis of 1698 population-based measurement studies with 19· 2 million participants.  The Lancet ,  387 (10026), 1377-1396.

NPR. (2012). Healthier School Lunches May Leave Kids Hungry. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2012/09/27/161894994/healthier-school-lunches-may-leave-kids-hungry

Reisch, L., & Gwozdz, W. (2016). Healthy Diets as a Global Sustainable Development Issue: Reasons, Relationships and a Recommendation.