Lack of nutrition in school lunches

It is apparent that schools sometimes have a hard time getting the tools they need to educate these young students. When they can’t afford to buy supplies, books, or even pay salaries, budgets decrease and the quality of the provided product decreases with it. When I was a kid, school lunches consisted of soda, chips, cheesy bread, nachos, and pizza. Obviously those food options are not healthy in the slightest bit, and most likely extremely processed. The food that you eat has an extremely large impact on your body, mind, and well being. Children are even more susceptible to eating unhealthy meals because their still growing and developing and are not getting the proper nutrition.

A lot of times families cannot afford to feed their children substantial meals and parents rely on school's breakfast, lunch and after school programs to feel their children substantial meals. Tax payers dollars are going to these school and they are buying whatever they can get for the best price. Over the years the situation has improved I'm sure, healthier options are available, soda has been eliminated. We may not be able to feel our children 100% organic foods, but I think we can do a lot better than velvita cheese and greasy pizza.

"Research has shown that nutrition is important for cognitive and brain development; therefore, making healthy food choices becomes vital to a student’s academic performance. Nutrients provide the energy needed to complete simple and complex tasks. Even a moderate lack of nutrients can have lasting effects on children’s cognitive development and school performance, based on the 1994 Nutrition-Cognition Initiative (Center on Hunger, Poverty and nutrition).

Read more at Suite101: Link Between Nutrition and Academic Performance | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/link-between-nutrition-and-academic-performance-a278743#ixzz1x9aRAcV5"

Children who are not getting the proper nutritional values are not getting the tools they need to learn and retain information in school. Not only are they not getting the nutrition they need at school, but it is also likely that they are not getting what they need at home, either. The YouTube video below explains how school's who focus on healthy lifestyles produce students who care a lot about their health and tend to exercise more, resulting in better academic performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBfkS4mn_yc

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