I'll Have Whatever Has the Most Calories

John Dorschner (2013), a reporter for the Miami Herald, notes, “the percentage of kids aged 6-11 who are obese has more than doubled in the past three decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obese adolescents aged 12-19 have more than tripled.” This staggering statistic more than causes concern for the future health of our children, and awareness of the issue has risen across the nation. With high importance of education being placed on our children, and the booming enjoyment of computers, phones, and video games all contributing to the sedentary lifestyles of kids, action is being focused towards their diets.

Lunch Time!

Bringing a home-packed lunch to school to control what is eaten is a good way to control the caloric intake of our youth.  However, this may not be possible for all children.  Financial situations are tight, and many parents rely on schools to feed their children during the day. The federal government launched a new campaign in 2010 to strengthen the nutritional requirements for school lunches in an effort to help all kids who rely on, or simply purchase, food from school cafeterias eat healthier. This bill, dubbed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, went into near-full effect in many schools in September, 2013 (it's implementation has been ongoing since 2010). This act 

“required schools to limit lunches to no more than 650 calories for elementary kids, 700 for middle schoolers, and 850 for high schoolers. Students must be offered a vegetable, a fruit, a low-fat or non-fat milk, a protein, and a grain. They must pick at least three, one of which must be a vegetable or a fruit. A student also could satisfy the fruit or veggie requirement by choosing a juice without added sugar" (Dorschner, 2013). 

Eat Healthier at school

The requirements are strict, but they put a maximum on how much children can eat. It is a hope to cut down on the daily caloric intake of our youth in hopes of eventually contributing to weight loss. Moreover, the act hopes to improve the dietary behaviors of children. The students have a model of what they should be eating, and how much they should be eating with the strict guidelines on what they are served.  This hopes to create health-conscientious children who would rather eat healthier meals.

Nanci Hellmich (2012) of the USA Today writes, “nationally, about a third (31.8%) of kids and adolescents, ages 2 to 19, are obese or overweight, government statistics show. About 17% of them—about 12.5 million kids—are obese.” Nutritional improvements in what our children eat, be it a brown-bag lunch or food purchased from the school cafeteria, could help reverse the nation's obesity epidemic amongst our children. Parents and schools need to team together to model and promote healthy eating habits for the kids. The future health of our children is at stake.