Over the past decade, school lunch nutrition has changed in a massive way. In 2010, Michele Obama passed the Healthy, Hungry Free Kids Act increasing nutrition within most public school lunches. Rather than foods high in sodium or trans fat, her program requires schools to serve more fruits, vegetables, low-fat or fat free milk, and whole grains regularly.
New research done by the School Nutrition Association shows that children are starting to get their healthiest meals of the day at schools rather than their home meals. By offering free or lower-priced school meals, it can reduce levels of obesity, poor health, and food insecurity according to frac.com. School meal programs are playing a significant role in obesity prevention, combating child hunger, improving academic achievements, and the overall health of students. Furthermore, the new school lunch nutrition plan has had an extremely beneficial impact on food selection and consumption across the United States; particularly during the pandemic when school lunches were free.During the pandemic, lower income families had trouble providing nutrients to their kids, especially with the growing expense of nutritious meals. In March of 2020, federal pandemic regulatory waivers allowed students to be offered free meals by schools without any application. It also provided schools with higher per-meal reimbursements to help with covering pandemic costs.
When the pandemic caused schools to switch to virtual learning, shut down schools, school nutrition professionals created a program that would allow students to still get their school meals. The program provided grab-and-go meals for students at drive-by pickup sites, on bus routes, or delivered straight to the student’s doorstep.
Research done by the CDC shows that school lunches are far more nutritious than expected. Students who participate in school meal programs tend to eat more whole grains, milk, fruits, and vegetables and posses a better diet quality than nonparticipants.
So what should teens be eating in a day to keep a healthy and balanced diet? Well, according to Johnmurihealth.com, teens should maintain a diet consisting of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low/no-fat milk products, beans, eggs, fish, nuts, and lean meats. Teenagers should be eating around two cups of fruits and two and a half cups of vegetables a day, 1,300 milligrams of calcium (which can be found in dairy products, beans, spinach, fish, etc.), and five and a half ounces of protein to help with muscle and organ growth. Six ounces of whole grains to provide energy andiron rich foods for blood health are also necessary in a teenager’s diet. Boys should be eating around 2800 calories a day, girls should be eating around 2200 calories a day, and teens should be limiting fat intake to about 25-36%of their total calorie intake of the day.
With academics and social lives shifting back to normal, prices are returning to school lunches. Now, school lunches are $2.50 for Pre-K students, $2.75 for K-8 students, and $3.00 for 9-12 students. CMS is committed to providing students with quality and nutritious meals to support their academic success. To ensure students know their carbohydrate intake and what kind of allergies lunch foods may contain, Myers Park High School includes a nutritional chart in the cafeteria along with the scheduled lunch meals for the month. We appreciate the hard work CMS and Myers Park’s hard working cooking staff has done to make lunches accessible and healthy for all students.