Bronx School lunches: Time to feed the Future a healthy food
Public School lunch meals served to children in low income areas like the South Bronx district 15th need to be changed for fresh meals. We all admire that food is life and it plays a major role in the function of our body system, and in order to maintain our body healthy we need to consume wholesome fresh food. But, we tend to assume that Public school meals served in the Bronx is wholesome, while in reality school meals is unwholesome meals because it caused harm on children’s health. This point out that children from low-income and racial and ethnic minority are likely the most classified obese in the U.S. because they don’t have access to adequate fresh meals except to the artificial foods that are made available to them in schools. By analyzing this issue, we observe that the majority of minority children today are highly affected by obesity compared to the white people’s children who are less affected. Which make me think that all schools should provide a healthier presentable meals to all children because whatever the schools provide them as lunch will turn to influence their lifelong eating habits and their academic achievement. Although organic food is expensive, its positive benefit on children’s development make it necessary to include it in school lunches at a low income districts.
Organic food tends to cost more than conventional foods. Hirsh reported that “ Another reason organic food costs more is because the production process is more expensive. More labor is required to maintain organic farms than conventional farms, since organic agricultural practices are often more complicated (and take longer) than using pesticides to manage crops, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)” ( Hirsh, Sophie). This evidence explain that organic food is more expensive than conventional foods because the ingredients used to process the production cost a lot and it demands a lot of time and strength. Also, it request more workers in the field to help take care of the organic farms rather than the conventional farms. This evidence resonate to my claim because organic does cost a lot of money because it made naturally without the use of synthetic or chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Even though some people think that buying organic food is a waste of money or it is not better than conventional food, they are wrong because it is better to spend money on good food rather than spend the money in hospital. While, on the other hand I understand that not everybody can afford to buy organic food because it consumes a lot of money and can make people run out of budget. I also understand the fact that school can’t provide organic food every day for lunch but anyhow the government can reinforces the system by incorporating organic food to public school. Although organic food’s price is high, it is recommended as the healthiest food to intake into the body in order to balance our metabolism and keep them in good healthy position.
Although organic food cost a lot of money, there are others ways to improve the school lunch system without doubt. According to Thomas, “ An Elite Chef Is Trying to Engineera Better School Lunch.”
This image illustrated the new technique coined by “Dan Giusti” to better the schools lunches system. As you can see in the picture Dan Giusti, trying to resolve school lunch problem in the Bronx by visiting school cafeteria to help transform scratch food to a wholesome. Mr. Giusti collaborated with many schools to project a better way of making school lunch great and more appealing for kids even though kids might not adjust to the new habits and taste rather way. He devoted to determine the next steps by improving public school meals system in the community and worldwide by showing them how to set up their own kitchen rooms, handle food safely by balancing budget and with an excellent cooking skills. So, he thought about the idea of putting professional chef in all public school cafeteria to improve prefab school meals to a healthy cooking meals and raise awareness on improving school meals by incorporating cooking meals in all public school cafeteria in the Bronx. I truly support his actions, about making school lunches more presentable and appealing because it is the main key way to guarantee a standard health for us all. Doing this will help better the Nutrition service system because it will help enhance the well-being of the kids.
Children at low income schools need access to fresh and healthy food for lunches because it will help them learn better when they’re well nourished. Oder talks about Stephen Ritz, author of the Power of a plant who says “We believe that the art and science of growing vegetables align to common core and content area instruction that has helped the students, helped the schools and has helped the communities as evidenced by test scores, eating habits and school performance. We grow vegetables, but my vegetables grow students and healthy communities” ( Spaen). From this evidence, Stephen Ritz have changed the life of the children through growing vegetables as indoor curriculum to reinforce the living conditions of all poor children from low income residents. He teaches his students how to plant seeds and how those seeds turn to produce healthy foods which therefore help increase students academic performance in test scores, learning potential and attendance. I really support the hard work Stephen Ritz put to change the South Bronx by creating a green classroom to better the community and the lunches served to the children at the school cafeteria.Teaching kids how to plant seeds and the benefit of healthy foods will help them grow into healthy adults and good eating habits. I found this program very useful because it empowered children who never speak out, to raise their voice and advocate for themselves. Children have gained a lot of experience throughout the process about how to grow and cook which is pretty amazing because all this helps adopting a new culture to American.
Moreover, school can prevent obesity by implementing healthy food to motivate kids to get adapt on making good food choices. According to HHS Public Access, “All school districts that participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) school meal programs (i.e., National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program) are required to have a local school wellness policy that addresses health goals for nutrition education and promotion, PA, and nutrition standards for all foods available on school campuses”( Nihiser, Allison, Caitlin Merlo, and Sarah Lee).This evidence explain that every school needs to have a policy on food, incorporated physical activity and educate kids of the importance of healthy food so that it would help limit the rate of obesity. Although it might take time for kids to get adapt to it, it will be better to introduce it to them at an early age so that they feel confident to make a good healthy choice. This idea of incorporating physical activity, offering more fresh vegetables to children will promote an active environment for kids to get moving and help reduce the rate of obesity at low income residents in the South Bronx.
School representative and principal can also help prevent obesity by making a good meals decision for kids because according to Rubin, “ The video portrait the difference between the school lunches in the U.S. compared to other country”. This video describes how bad America’s school meals look because the lunches served others country such as Chile, Greece, South Korea, Brazil, Finland, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, and France are more presentable and contain less calories compared to the meals served in the U.S. America should do more to better school menus because given kids an excess amount of calories will affect their overall health and their learning potential.
Overall, the importance of improving school lunches to a healthy foods is to prevent chronic diseases such as obesity from rising. Kids need to eat a variety of fresh food to maintain a healthier growth and development. Also, to keep children on track on their future goals. Some people might go against the fact that school should not provide organic foods to all public school because the government will raise taxes on food items, while others suggest that school lunches should be healthy so that kids could have energy to do work and be able to make a good healthy choice as eating habits. The duties of school is to train kids on how to make the right food choices.
Work Cited:
1-Hirsh, Sophie. “Why Is Organic Food More Expensive Than Conventional Food?” Green Matters, Green Matters, 31 July 2019, https://www.greenmatters.com/p/why-is-organic-food-more-expensive.
3- Spaen, Brian. “Teacher From The Bronx Builds A Green Classroom To Improve School Performance.” Green Matters. Green Matters, 14 Sept. 2017. Web. 4 Dec. 2019.
4- Nihiser, Allison, Caitlin Merlo, and Sarah Lee. “Preventing Obesity through Schools.” The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2019.
5- YouTube video
The Rubin Report “These Photos Show Just How Bad School Lunches Really Are in the U.S.” Online video clip. YouTube, Feb 23, 2015. Web. 15 November, 2019.
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