The public school lunch program must be reformed.

Resolution: The public school lunch program must be reformed. School lunch programs are a vital part of our public school system. Students often count on these lunch programs to provide them with the nutrition needed to live a healthy life. School lunches has been known in the past to provide students with nutritional food needed for there growth; however, it seems that this concept has transformed itself in terms of food quality. We now see schools serving foods that rather than providing these students nutritional foods, it takes away from there health. "Many school lunch programs offer food that is too high in fat, sodium, and sugar and may be contributing to the problem with childhood obesity in America. " {1} Contention One: Fat Free lunches within the public school systems has helped countless amount of students who are financially challenge; however these free/ reduced lunches includes fried/ grilled substances which in most cases are high in fat. Sub point 1: Combination The types of food served in our local schools are not only unhealthy but are revolting. Students are giving foods with high amount of fats, served with other foods with higher levels of fat. These combination only increases the amount of fat intakes as well as increase the toll these fat has on the student's health and performance. In many schools we find foods such as sausage with Belgian waffle sticks and syrup, Pizza, Mozzarella sticks, Hamburgers, French fries, and Fish sticks. These combination not only poses a threat to the students health but it also lead to other issues such as obesity and agility. "A 2003 study by University of California-San Diego researchers found that middle school students were taking in too much fat at school. The researchers estimated that the average student was consuming 26 total grams of fat at school -- although a healthy figure would be more like 20 grams. Some of this extra fat came from snack items sold in vending machines and student-run stores. But the study also found that the average cafeteria-cooked lunch had 31 grams of fat, compared with only 21 grams found in lunches students brought from home. A May 2004 study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that vending machines in public schools are stocked mostly with high-fat snacks and sugary drinks and may be undercutting federal efforts to improve the nutritional quality of school meals. The researchers looked at more than 1,400 school vending machines. They found that 75% of beverages offered in the machines were high-sugar sodas and imitation fruit juices, and 80% of the available snack foods were candies, chips, or sweet baked goods. A March 2004 study by Baylor College of Medicine researchers found that when children moved up to middle school from elementary school, they started consuming less fruit, milk, and vegetables, and more sweetened drinks and high-fat vegetables (like French fries). The snack bars often found in middle schools might be part of the reason, the researchers say" {2} Sub point two: agility and performance Every thing in this world has a cause and an effect. Serving kids unhealthy foods is a cause and the effect to this cause is the reduction of the students performance. As we all know, an excessive intake of fat can substantially lower a persons performance. In the case of students, we find that there grades start to drop and there behavior is significantly affected. Not only is there present performance affected, but there future performance are also affected. "concern stemmed from a 2010 report which states that more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. The retired military officers went on to state that the high calorie, fatty foods that schools serve at lunch time is making our kids too fat to meet military weight requirements. If these trends continue our national security could be at stake by 2030 because a quarter of our nation's young adults will be too obese to enter military combat. " {3} Contention two: obesity finally we must talk about the health issue associated with the unhealthy food served in our public schools. The amount of fat included in these foods, affect the health of these students as it courses obesity which in turn lead to cardiovascular diseases and death. In a time where obesity is a problem in schools, feeding students with fat infested food is the wrong way o go. If we are to decrease the amount of obesity and cardiovascular disease, it is essential that we start by getting kids use to eating healthy. "With the rise of obesity in children and young adults becoming an epidemic, we question where this all starts, and who continues to drag kids along this path of destruction. Currently, 80% of schools serve lunches with more than the recommended amount of saturated fat; 42% don't offer daily fresh fruits and vegetables. " {4} "More than one in three middle school students who regularly eat school lunches are obese or overweight. They're also more likely to have high LDL "bad" cholesterol levels than kids who bring lunch from home" {5} "School Lunch vs. Lunch From Home Compared with kids who brought lunch from home, those who ate school lunches: Were more likely to be overweight or obese (38.2% vs. 24.7%) Were more likely to eat two or more servings of fatty meats like fried chicken or hot dogs daily (6.2% vs. 1.6%) Were more likely to have two or more sugary drinks a day (19% vs. 6.8%) Were less likely to eat at least two servings of fruits a day (32.6% vs. 49.4%) Were less likely to eat at least two servings of vegetables a day (39.9% vs. 50.3%) Had higher levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol" {5} {1} . http://www.educationbug.org... {2} . http://www.webmd.com... {3} . http://nyteachers.wordpress.com... [4} . http://nyteachers.wordpress.com... {5} . http://children.webmd.com... {6} . http://www.youtube.com... in conclusion, we must think of our kids and the effect that these school lunches have on there health.