On any usual day, most teenagers will plod in to the cafeteria at lunch, flinging their backpacks in to chairs as they half walk, half run to the lunch line. Today's lunch features a choice between pizza, nachos, spaghetti, French fries, tater tots, and barbeque sandwiches. That's not exactly health food. The point is that most school lunches lack any nutritional value.
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Most students, however, when confronted with the problem of unhealthy food being served in their cafeterias, seem indifferent. Many of them would even say that they prefer the greasy, high-calorie choices of current cafeteria menus.
"(The cafeteria food) is tasty, especially the pizza, said Deer Creek High School student Kelley Parker.
Dulcie Ward, a staff nutritionist for Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, said this is a major problem.
"Kids are served junk, and that's what they're used to and they develop a taste for those foods and enjoy those foods, Ward said.
The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes preventive medicine and encourages research. The Healthy School Lunch Campaign is based on improving the nutritional quality of the foods served at schools during lunch by educating everyone from parents to school officials.
Ward said the current state of food being served by most schools is sub par and there's room for improvement.
"A lot of changes need to happen to meet and exceed requirements and serve healthier food to children, Ward said.
Too much saturated fat and processed foods is a major problem, "It's all very unhealthy and it's contributing to childhood obesity, Ward said.
Some students say that they would prefer to eat healthy alternatives, but that they simply lack the funds to do so. Deer Creek High School senior Kara Carlson says she would buy the salad bar every day, but that she usually buys French fries instead, as they are about $2 cheaper.
"I just don't have enough money to spend $2.75 every day for lunch, she said.
Schools have said they would prefer to serve healthier options for students, but that it would simply cost too much. However, the USDA and the United States Department of Defense have teamed up and created the Department of Defense Fruit and Vegetable Program. This program makes available 874 different products, from salad mix to fresh fruits and vegetables. At least 43 states take part in this program.
For the fruits and vegetables, the school uses group A entitlement money to purchase as much or as little fruits and vegetables as it would like. This is a small but important step in the right direction for school lunches.
But it's not just the cafeterias that are serving this food. Some schools go as far as to serve unhealthy foods and pass it off as education. On March 20, 2006 the New York Agriculture in the Classroom program, sponsored by Cornell University, hosted New York Agricultural Literacy Day.
At first, it sounds like a good idea. Educating children about their home state's agriculture and telling them to read. However, they put a very unhealthy spin on it. In virtually every New York cafeteria on this day, enormous amounts of pizza was served to thousands of children.
Schools have a profound impact on the daily behavior of this nation's children, and they ought to set a good example.
For the most part, the food in cafeterias might be unhealthy, but many schools still offer healthy alternatives. Deer Creek has a salad bar and the variety of foods served on it has increased tenfold since it was first introduced.
But this is not enough for some of the students who choose their meals based on taste or price. Communities and schools have the power to positively impact the health of children and teens by offering a general food selection with increased nutritional value at a comparable cost.
