Modernization of School Food System - Case Study Example

Literature Review Essay by Food lunch reform is a necessary step for school system which is aimed to make children`s nutrition healthier. The problem of children`s and teenagers` obesity has finally attracted attention of society, and that is why the government and schools directed their efforts in lunches modification. Media, educational institutions, and authorities have supported the reform which was required long before as the quality of school lunches was far from satisfactory. Thus, there are no more disputes on whether to make the reform or not, it is urgently needed. The problem is how to make the implementations which would be more visible and would affect each child significantly. The battle with French fries and hamburgers was initiated by the first lady of the state who helped to increase public awareness in this question. The message of all the printed articles is that children`s food is not only a problem of schools and government, society has to be a driving force of reforms, and every parent and a teacher should pay attention to what the child is eating on breakfast in order to make some substantial positive changes. Moreover, food industry representatives have to find their own solution to help implementing important measures into practice. Thus, modernization of school food system is complicated and urgent and the disputes arise on how to make it more effective. From the article of Kristen Hinman “The School Lunch Wars” it becomes clear that the history of food sold in school is long and controversial. Beginning from the 1920 and in the times of Great Depression the main problem of schools was a lack of food and inability to provide all the students with food of high quality. In order to decline malnutrition the government directed funds into school lunches` modification. These measures were also aimed o teach children and their parents the basis of healthy eating in the times when healthy life style was simply inaccessible and unaffordable (Hinman, 2011). The article also explores further modification of school lunch system, concluding that nowadays the problem is paradoxically different – food in school lunches is rich in calories and fats and poor in essential vitamins and elements that is why children consume food of bad quality. Most schools do not meet Dietary Guidelines for Americans and one of the main reasons to that is that the food system in the USA is broken. As a result one third of all the young graduates in America are not able to serve in the military forces due to obesity problems as well. But it is not possible to put all the blame of overweight problems on eating habits. Low physical activity, long hours in front of computers and television play important role in young people`s health problems (2011). The authors underline that the agriculture business became monopolized and the products of local farmers do not come to the tables of school canteens. However, the example of St. Louise superintendent that conducted a reform in her school and brought the products of local farmers on the tables of lunchroom proves that changes are possible. The whole initiative cost money but had positive results on students` health. Moreover, planting a little garden by Michelle on the lawn of the White House had a symbolic meaning of serious and urgent changes required by the society. In such a way Ms. Obama leveled a challenge on the American food industries main players pointing that it is their responsibility to take actions as well which called numerous disputes in financial circles. The article, thus, admits, that costly changes are available if they are supported on the local level. In the article by Cluss and the colleagues “Effect of Food Service Nutrition Improvements on Elementary School Cafeteria Lunch Purchase Patterns” the main accent is made on the data proving enormous degree of obesity among children. It is alarming, that the generation of overweight children has lower chances to live as long as their own parents and has subsequently worse health indicators. Among the major factors influencing overweight in children are unhealthy diet and low physical activity Cluss et al, 2014). Moreover, advertising campaigns additionally promote fast food and beverages rich in sugar and calories in order to earn maximum money on easily influenced children. This leads to the distortion of eating habits in children and subsequent health problems. Excessive amount of total fat, saturated fat and trans fat in school lunches is marked by the researches as one of the major reasons of overweight problems. Michelle Obama as the first lady and the mother of two daughters got concerned with the problem and raised it on the national level in 2010. The blame of distorted unhealthy culture which promotes junk food with high level of fats, such as pizza, fries, and candies was put on the whole society including food producers, teachers, and parents (Cluss et al., 2014). The article describes n implementation of a special program aimed to enhance food quality. The initiative called We Can! (Ways to Enhance of Children`s Activity and Nutrition) was implemented by Pennsylvania county in order to reduce striking quantity of obese children in elementary schools. The program presupposed division of the whole food sold in the school cafeteria into three categories: Whoa, Slow, and Fast categories and consisted of meat, baked vegetables, fruits, whole grain bread snacks and nuts (Cluss et al., 2014). From the 2005-2006 through 2011-2012 school years, the district’s food service department made improvements to the school lunch program with the support of school administration to reduce the amount of total fat, saturated fat, and trans fat delivered via lunch menu offerings. In 2006, for example, deep fryers were removed from all kitchens so that now tater tots, French fries, potato wedges, chicken nuggets, chicken strips, and cheese sticks are baked instead of fried. Since 2008, only whole-wheat bread and pasta products have been offered. After the policy implementation it was revealed that if school lunches offered healthier alternatives children purchased them eagerly. There was no significant decline in children consuming General eating habits were also improved if school administrations made substantial changes to the traditional food system (Cluss et al., 2014). Thus, it was proved that implementation of the program with healthier products appeal to the students who consciously choose more nutritious and adequate food. Such initiatives are highly needed and recommended in the USA. Krisberg in his article “Renewal of US child`s nutrition bill a chance for better health” makes accent on the exceptional efforts of Obama`s government to invest in the school lunch reform. The authorities seem to be worried by the level of obesity and the quality of food for children. US Department of Agriculture Secretary marked that the aim of innovations is to substitute useless and potentially harmful products with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and fat-free diet products (Krisberg, 2010). However, it is also crucial to teach children choose the food which will be beneficial to their health that is why the whole problem is much more complicated. The whole innovation received a positive feedback from American society which cannot ignore the problem of obesity any more. However, the problem turned out to be not as easy as it seemed despite an incredible amount of money announced for this modernization and efforts of the first lady together with President`s administration. Barack Obama proposed $10 billion invested in 2010-2020 in school food system reorganization which looks like an impressive and challenging decision. The sum of money is persuasive and the President`s request seems completely reasonable; however, some experts claim that it can be a single step of reauthorization which will require further investments. Moreover, it is politically difficult to get such a big amount of money taking into account global economy state (Krisberg, 2010). Additionally major players in the food industry most often have their “friends” in the Congress lobbying their interests and will not agree to change their policies that easily. This makes situation with funding a bit complicated, and some financial experts doubt that it will bring fruitful results taking into account instability in the economy. Thus the article suggests that the innovations and modifications are crucially needed, and it is a tough task for the government to implement them in life. Huber in his article “Michelle Moves” outlines the main initiatives and challenges with which the first lady had to face with her outstanding initiative. The author also points that one of the most serious problems of children`s health is obesity and overweight. It is estimated that its spread tripled in the recent 20 years in the USA with a high pace and the further progress is expected if some measures are not taken. Doctors claim that such trends influenced the diseases picture change in society significantly. Heart attacks and diabetes which were considered typically adult problems have changed their age group recently, and now even teenagers are reported to suffer from them (Huber, 2012). That is why changing the whole lifestyle turned out to be a necessary step for the whole country in order to preserve future generation. Michelle Obama underlined that the responsibility for the products choice lies on public, and in such way she made the public change their attitude towards children nutrition. The bill was passed to the government due to predominately Obama`s efforts and was named “historic” for the educational system because the Department of Agriculture for the first time received an opportunity to control what is consumed in school cafeterias (Huber, 2011). This was not the only initiative of Michelle Obama. Ms. Obama has also launched a program that could change the perception of physical activity for families. Let`s Move Campaign announced by the first lady in 2010 was aimed to roll back children`s obesity to the level of 1976. This program paid special attention to promoting regular physical activity. Parents were taught to make healthier choices for their kids and provided with additional access to healthy food (Huber, 2011). This programs also affected school administrations which were instructed to include additional physical education lessons and improve the quality of the products in school cafeterias. There are discussions regarding whether it is possible to control food producers in the same way the government controls tobacco and alcohol companies. With tobacco and alcohol there are no controversial issues as they are proclaimed harmful for the health of the people whereas food industry is controlled by Food and Drug Administration which promotes free choice standards in food consumption predominately. One of the first partnerships agreements was announced in 2010 and included such giants as PepsiCo, Nestle, and Coca-Cola which agreed to reduce calories in their products in 1.5 trillion. This does not solve the problem of obesity but it least it draws large food companies to the responsibility and can be the first step in general tradition. Experts argue whether food giants have to be perceived as partners in the war against children`s obesity or it is needless to expect them give up their interests and accept them as rivals. Nevertheless, three years later after the announcements experts marked no distinctive shifts in this sphere explaining it by the fact that obesity problem requires more bold actions that Ms. Obama hinted in her speech. After close study of the four articles it is possible to conclude that the authors agree on the fact that American society has finally realized that changes in the school food system are needed urgently due to enormous health risk for children. Nowadays kids have the highest level of obesity over the last 30 years in the USA, and the quantity of children with this disease grows in geometrical progression. Thus, concern over national future is reasonable since most of the overweight children will have subsequent health problems in future such diabetes or heart related diseases. All the specialists agree on the causes of this situation: wrong eating habits, bad quality of food with excessive amount of sugar and fats are proclaimed to be the reasons. Krieg even mentions the products which must substitute French fries, hamburgers, and chocolate: vegetables, whole grain products, and fruits (2010). As a symbol of striving for changes two of four articles write about Michelle Obama`s example of planting vegetables on the White House lawn. I would regard this event as a call to all the parents of the country to revise dietary preferences of their families. It can also be interpreted as the necessity to act on the local level first of all not waiting for big alternations made with the help of government only. ). Cluss et all describe the initiative called We Can! (Ways to Enhance of Children`s Activity and Nutrition) introduced in Pennsylvania. The program presupposed division of the whole food sold in the school cafeteria into three categories: Whoa, Slow, and Fast categories and consisted of meat, baked vegetables, fruits, whole grain bread snacks and nuts (Cluss et al., 2014) However, o the national level Ms. Obama as a President`s wife took responsibility of leading the company which includes a campaign Let`s Move, additional funding of the school lunches for the next 10 years, and public and corporate responsibility awareness increase. The whole company received a positive feedback from the society and there are seem to be no doubts in the necessity of such big changes. There are also no problems in making children buy healthier food instead of habitual unhealthy snacks as was revealed in one of the most interesting articles on this topic (Huber, 2011 Nevertheless, the whole initiative still lacks financial support, and food industry corporations turn out to be not easy rivals and attracting them to responsibility raises other financial disputes within the government. The question is whether to make food companies responsible for wrong eating habits imposing or fight with them arises logically. Kriesberg claims that food giants should be attracted to cooperation (2011). With tobacco and alcohol there are no controversial issues as they are proclaimed harmful for the health of the people whereas food industry is controlled by Food and Drug Administration which promotes free choice standards in food consumption predominately. Thus, the authors of the articles express common opinion regarding the fact that changes are waited on the local level however the support of government is crucial. People on the places cannot overcome the corporations and change eating habits of the whole generation without governmental actions. References Hinman, K. (2011). He School Lunch Wars, Wilson Quarterly, 4-7. Cluss, P., Fee, L., Cylba, R., Bhat, K., Kayowen, K. (2014). Effect of Food Service Nutrition Improvements on Elementary School Cafeteria Lunch Purchase Patterns, School Health, 84 (6), 14-19. Krisberg, K. (2010). Renewal of US child`s nutrition bill a chance for better health. The Nation`s Health, 11-12. Huber, B. (2012). Michelle Moves. The Nation, 4-7. Read More