Munch on Better Lunch

Students across the United States of America have complained for years about the contents and sizes of their school lunches. Since 2010, meals within public and private schools have been declining in both quality and quantity. This is because in 2010, Barack Obama passed the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,” created by Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln. The HHFKA puts heavy restrictions and guidelines on school food. The bill was passed due to Barack and Michelle Obama feeling as if American youth was too unhealthy and the overall physique of Americans was declining.

The HHFKA states that school lunches have a minimum amount of fruit, vegetables, and grain, but a maximum of sugar as well. Not only are there new guidelines for specific amounts of different types of food, there was also an order for decreased portion sizes. This was enforced for a multitude of reasons: saving money and resources on food so it can be spread throughout the public, decrease in waste, and making sure our youth is not overfed are just some of them. The limits on what different meals contain caught the attention of the public, but the true backlash came from the decreased portion sizes.

For smaller children, this works well. They get just enough nutrients to not only make them stronger, but to energize them to finish the day. However, for Middle and High School students, complaints and cries for help make it seem as if they are not getting enough food. The decreased portion sizes are hardly beneficial for most students, but it also fails to complete the other tasks the law was meant to accomplish. A study performed by the Harvard School of Public Health shows that 60% of vegetables handed out at schools are thrown away due to distaste, as well as 40% of the fruit that is included in school lunches. After the HHFKA was passed, there was a drastic 56% increase in food disposal.

The public started a variety of protests against the law after a YouTube video was posted by a U.S. student complaining about the limitations. Many people followed in his tracks to post more videos and Tweets on the subject, and still do. Over the years, the amount of people protesting the HHFKA has decreased by 4%. Since 2010, the attention to the issue has continued to rise. Recently, there have been much less posts online. Comparing today to when the cause was at its highest, there is a visible difference in the amount of activists. but the cause still stands. Many public outcries have quieted after Sonny Perdue, President Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, has started to loosen up on some restrictions, and the law is still being worked on. Both parents and students everywhere wait to see what happens next, and all eyes are on both Trump and Perdue.