School Lunches Impact Student Health
Arrowhead High School offers a variety of lunch choices. Students eat lunch either 5th or 6th hour, which is around 10:30am-11:30am. They gather in the cafeteria and line up in the kitchen area to select their choice of food. Pizza, salads, fruits, vegetables, and nachos are among the food served daily. There is a range of drinks from water to juice and also coffee from the school coffee shop.
Students can either eat what’s available for lunch in the cafeteria, or they can bring their own lunch from home.
Out of 20 Arrowhead students surveyed, 14 of them said they prefered to bring their own lunch to school. That’s on average 70% of the students would prefer to not eat the lunch school provides.
Leah Stapleton, a senior at Arrowhead High School says, “I bring my own lunch to school. I think the school lunches are gross. I don’t like not knowing what stores all the food was bought at and how it’s prepared. I know they have different options everyday, but I like to make my own lunch so I can eat what I want.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 52.7%of students were employed as of 2015. That means more than half of the students have more of their free time taken up, which could be used to make healthy food choices.
According to American Academy of Pediatrics, on average, girls eat 25% fewer calories than boys. This can cause lack of vitamins and nutrients the body requires.
Phelan Purnell, a senior at Arrowhead says, “School lunches are gross. I try to eat healthy and all of the fruits and vegetables in the school lunches don’t seem fresh. And their pizza doesn’t seem very good for you either. I just like to have my own lunch with fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy food that I like.”
Diya Ramanathan, a senior at Arrowhead says, “I usually eat hot lunch. I’m too lazy to make my own lunch and there’s never anything good to eat at my house. I wouldn’t want to eat school lunch for every meal, but once a day during the week isn’t bad. I really like the nachos they have. My favorite part of the lunches arrowhead offers is that there is many different foods to choose from and I never have to finish the school day hungry.”
According to www.hopkinsmedicine.org, “Healthy eating during adolescence is important as body changes during this time affect an individual’s nutrition and dietary needs. Many adolescents experience a growth spurt and an increase in appetite and need healthy foods to meet their growth needs.” Some food they included were fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains, and proteins.
All of these options are offered at Arrowhead High School. Apples, carrots, salads, whole grain bread, milk, and meat are many of the healthy choices available to the students.